ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area REBUILDING DISCHARGE LIGHTING FIXTURES

Does anyone rebuild industrial discharge lighting fixtures or do you just replace them. We just take them down and replace them with new fixtures. I know it is not realistic to rebuild one or two fixtures but it looks like it would be cost effective to save 20 or 30 and rebuild them as fill in work. What do you think . THANKS HYPRESS

hypress:

I think it could fly if there is a market in your area for used fixtures. To rebuild them in volume is a better idea than one-off, but you would need to figure the total labor/costs involved, namely:
-Removing the bad fixture;
-Determining the problem and what needs to be replaced;
-Time to disassemble, clean and re-assemble the fixture;
-Allow for testing and burn-in to make sure it works;
-Warehousing the repaired fixtures until someone buys them.

Or perhaps if you have customers with a large number of fixtures, work out a repair/exchange program where you charge a calculated rate for fixtures where the old one is exchanged for a rebuilt or a second price for just rebuilt fixtures without exchange.

So yeah, it could turn into a nice sideline if the market is there.

Tony

We re-lamp and re-ballast them in many places on an as-needed-basis.

Customers often don't want to go the full nine yards for all new fixtures. Just want those 3-4 back on, and still want all of the fixures to match. (Grocery stores, offices and the like.)

Pull them down, gut them and put them back. (Sometimes we'll whipe the dust off)

Replace all but the lamp-holder, and frame.

Some places we have done all of them for less than new fixures, all depends on the ballast, bulb and labor cost .

I have to go along with E57...we make the old ones work, unless the fixture body/lens is in bad shape.

Yes, sometimes it is cheaper to replace the fixture, but the ultimate decission is the clients.

BTW< I have a few 'spares' in the shop.....just in case we need 'something' in a big rush.

It's getting easier (inventory wise) with the new ballasts 120-480 volt in one unit. Now the bulbs should follow......compact 400 & 1000 MH, pulse start, pos. oriented, dual arc tube 1000 watt HPS, and on & on.

John

In our school system we constantly replace the "core & coil" on MH, HPS & MV lights. Some we do in the bucket and some we take down. We all carry the core & coil kits for everything from 50w to 400w (we've stopped using the 1k watt). The kit comes with ballast, capacitor and ignitor (if applicable) and is about $65.

A footnote here, read the 2005 code on use of the MH fixtures and the use of S bulbs, E bulbs, and PAR.

Look under 2005 code thread, Bjarney posted some NEMA links there.

I learned something new......

(haven't figured out how to post that link)