I just built a 28 x 44 x 12 garage at my home.

I want lots of light for working on projects.

Has anyone installed or use 96" T-8 HO fixtures and lamps ? The place where we buy our fixtures, does not like making or selling them .. they say the lamps break very easy... Can anyone think of a reason other then that issue not to use them ?? With a 12' ceiling I cant use a low-bay or that would be my first choice.

Any other suggestions ?

In my opinion 8' HOs are a thing of the past.

In place of the 2 lamp 8' HO fixture use a 8' fixture with four 4' T-8 Lamps.

They cold start down to at 20 F or lower and provide more light than the HOs.

I suggest you bin that idea ... and consider the newer T-5 fixtures instead. I have used them as a replacement for 400 watt MH fixtures, and they have performed extremely well.

Not that T-8 and T-5 are bad, but i have used the HO fixtures many times with out any problem. and they will provide good amount of light.

Edward

I can't see the advantage to using HOs. They're none too efficient and the lamps are expensive. The ballasts aren't cheap either.

They will start at low temps but so will T-8's, and T-8 fixtures are light, cheap, efficient and readily available.

I would abandon the T8 all together. We just install some T5 HO fixtures in a samll garage and they far out light any T8 fixture.

I've seen T-5 fixtures, but have never installed one. They seem to rely heavily on very shiny reflectors to make them work.

I may sound like a Lighting Luddite, but I'm reserving judgement for another couple of years. I remember installing acres of very shiny reflectors as fluorescent retrofits, most of which had to be replaced as the shine wore off. Trying to clean the reflectors only made the problem worse.

Has anyone had a problem with T-5 fixtures and the shine staying on 'em?

Steve,
Were the reflector you used polished aluminum, or some sort of coating or paint? A lot of fixures use shiny reflectors now, most of them MIRO (See: http://www.alanod.com/opencms/sites/alanod.de/en/miro/Was_ist_MIROx/index.html) which is a coating of aluminum on a base material. I know that you can get it in several thicknesses, perhaps you used the thineest one? I'd be interested in knowing the details of the problems you were having, as I try to use reflectored lamps, even with the cost premium, but will refrain from it if you have seen maintenance problems.

FWIW, a 28W T5 is about the equivialnt to a 32W T8. All T5's have the 80 series phospher (830, 835, 841, etc). They also, as a rule, are run with programmed start ballasts, which should give longer lamp life in frequently switched applications. The reason they are used with reflectors is that the smaller diameter requires a much smaller reflector than a T8 lamp. This makes it economical to use a reflector in the fixure. The T5HO's, while not as efficient, are a grat lamp if you need a lot of punch in a small package. Be careful with these, as different lengths have different lumens per foot. In other words, if you're washing a wall with a bunch of 4' fixures, and put a 3' fixure to finish the row, the brightness of that fixure will be different than the 4' fixures. (note, this is for the HO version only!)

They looked just like this (from the Alanod website) and were some sort of coated/treated metal:




Maybe the technology has improved (this was 6-8 years ago), but the ones we installed were the pits. The coating dulled and discolored over time, especially if you happened to have touched it during installation. They also got dusty - very noticeable in fixtures with parabolic lenses. If you tried to wipe the dust off, the coating came with it. The new fixtures no doubt use a much more robust finish, but I'm still keeping my eye on them.

I really like the idea of Metal Halides with electronic ballasts - I'll be looking in to those for an upcoming project. The maintenance factor on the enclosed MH (lo-bay) versions is very low, and the dog-dish lenses do a good job of spreading out the light. If the electronic ballasts solve the noise problem and the cost is right, they sound like a winner.

[This message has been edited by stevecheyenne (edited 01-12-2007).]

[This message has been edited by stevecheyenne (edited 01-12-2007).]

The T-5 fixtures I installed last spring were Holophane and had the gold Mirro reflective finish on the reflectors. They have been really successful in replacing the MH high bays on this particular job. It will be 12 months in March since we installed them and it looks like the energy savings over the MH fixtures is going to be around 40%. Part of the reduced usage will be attributed to the use of occupancy sensors on the T-5 fixtures. T-5s are great in the right application. This was a warehouse/distribution center that was climate controlled at 73º year around. I don't think T-5s are recommended where the temp will exceed 85º. They do run hot.

T-5s are good, they are also still fairly expensive to buy lamps and ballasts for.

I also see a much higher failure rate with T-5s.

I am sure the technology will improve and the price will drop,

With that in mind I would light a typical garage with T-8's they work well, are inexpensive and durable.

JMO, Bob

I agree they did work fine, I have installed many. My own garage and part of my basement have 8' HOs.

But you will see all T-12 size lamps being phased out. I am not sure the reasons but they are going away.

Not sure of the reason??? Think energy efficiency and government environmental mandates.

Although this is not about the task lighting you are talking about here, i might suggest another incandecent light on a motion/occupancy sensor. That way you are never wandering around out there in the dark. It helps when your arms are full.

[This message has been edited by gfretwell (edited 01-12-2007).]

Do you guys have an fixture recommendations for T-8 installations? I am particularly interested surface mount fixtures that are suitable for frequent switching, eg. with 'programmed start' ballasts.

-Jon

Lithonia offers programmed start ballasts as an option across their full line of T-8 fixtures. Not sure how much extra they cost, or how many you have to buy, but they will supply them.

I suspect that other manufacturers are the same. The big question will be the term to payback of the increase in initial cost.

Rather then going with the 96" T-8 HO fixtures. I ordered the 96" channels with four T-5 54 watt HO lamps.

I will be needing sunglasses in the garage if I have them all on at once.

Thanks for you your comments

I see many of you have stated that T8's light in very cold weather and to discard HO T96's.
I put T8 in my personal garage ands when it gets in to the 40's F One of them wont start till it has been on for a while. Colder it gets the worse it is.

Well that is not 'normal' you may have a weak ballast.

In general the T-8s will light right away but will take a few minutes to come to full intensity.

Same as any of the CFLs that have become so popular.

When you replace a typical 2 lamp 8' HO with a typical 4 lamp 8' T-8 you will have greater light output and the power consumption is less than 1/2 of the HOs.

A typical F96-T12/HO 2 lamp 120 ballast uses 237 watts and has a min start temp of -20F

2 lamp 8'Ballast


A typical F32-T8 4 lamp 120 ballast uses 112 watts and has a min start temp of 0 F

4 lamp 4' ballast

I have changed some new old stock 2 lamp T-8 ballasts that were in vapor tite fixtures. That were not 0 degree start. They were 50 degree. Since we were putting them in walk-in coolers.. the 50 degree ballasts had to go.

I recently spent about 8 hours in a gym lit with 80+ 8' T-12 fixtures, and boy was the lighting dismal, the light just looked awful, and began to wear on you after a while, I hope the T-5's give off better light if they're going to become common