I am looking at specifying recessed fixtures for a church. I was looking at the Halo brand that are IC rated and Air-tite. Would this be sufficient? Also, can anyone recommend thair favorite commercial fixture. I heard of Rudd, Juno, etc. I only have experience with Halo. How about the the cost and ease of installation?
Thanks and Merry CHRISTmas. Mark
mvr,
What are you trying to accomplish with these lights? I've seen some really fancy stuff in churches. Are looking at dimming panels, or just general lighting?
Amen!
Doc
I can't remeber the name, I'll have to see if I can find it. But this one type of commercial type recessed lite we used in an auditorium was junk. We were running against the clock, the chairs will soon be in place and were using lifts to get up. Half the lites internal thermal protection devices weren't even wired properly from the manufacturer. I had tested all the lite via a temp outlet on each group before they would be permanently wired into the dimming panel and fixed them just b4 the chairs arrived.
These will primarily be wired without a dimming panel but possibly they will have one installed in the future. The worship space is approx. 70'X 108'. They are looking at a combination of chandeliers and recessed cans. The ceiling will be 5/8" drywall under scisors truss. 18' at the peak in the center and tapered to 12'. For the most part I've used Halo but I have had some problems with them although few. Thanks for your thoughts.
Merry CHRISTmas. Mark
Used to be that the scourge of recessed, strip and troffer fixtures was a process called: "sheared after painting," where the sheet-metal bulk “coil stock” was purchased by the fixture manufacturer as already painted—prior to being stamped out into various shapes to be formed into fixture parts. Don’t know it that's still the case—but that stuff was nasty and could cut you to ribbons if you weren't careful.
Are you bidding a job? If so fixtures should be spec'ed out in prints by architect.
Is this your customer and they are coming to you for advise and recommendations?
There are several manfufacturers for your applications. Depends of course on budget and what the customer wants. Churches tend to have very fancy lighting and expensive! Yoy have Cresent/Stonco, Hubbell, Tech Lighting, Juno,
Halo ect. May also depend on what your supplier carries. Hope this helps
MVRandavo:
RUUD recessed are good fixtures, comparable with Halo H-7...they also have HID and fluorescent recess.
They have an application engineering dept that will do or assist you wityh a layout.
THey have a website
WWW.RUUDLighting.com Availability is usually "in stock" and shipped as fast as UPS or a truck can get to you.
John
MVR,
Almost any fixture line will have high quality all the way down to poor quality fixtures. Halo is made by Cooper, and they may be trashy fixtures, but Cooper has other higher quality fixture lines. Lithonia, and Lightolier have good lines of fixtures.
I've never used RUUD before, but one idea I like about them is, you can buy factory direct. That could be good or bad. I have a feeling that Hotline has used them, and likes them. As Hotline mentioned, use their engineering dept. They can help you get the lighting that you need. Most "reps" for quality fixture lines that I've worked with in the past will do the same thing for you.
Call a supply house in your area, and ask for some help. They'll usually do it.
Regards,
Doc
The manufacturer is not that important. The layout is. If you are going to specify Light Fixtures, you need to know what they will look like when it is all done.
Find a supplier that will help you do the photometrics and a proper layout. Chances are that you will end up with less quantity and better quality.
Lighting is permanent and is the most important part of any Job. ( Unless you don't care what the place looks like )
A good electric supply house will have a lighting specialist that will gladly help you.
A word about the factory direct thing:
Unless you live next door to the factory and you are friends with people that work there, you are cutting the throat of your local supplier.
If you want " factory direct " Pricing... ask your supplier for garbage at low prices.
They usually know where to get it, if you really want it.
They will even let you pay up front if you insist....
Remember you get what you pay for.
Doc's right! I have used about all of Coopers lights. If you buy the "cheaper" lights, the quality will be less. All Manu. of lights carry a full line of different quality lights. I personally like Lithonia. They have served me well! But you look around and see what is available, and which style the church wants. Good luck!
Another word about the "factory direct thing".
Having bought hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lighting through one of the country's largest supply houses, getting bad service all the way (after calling numerous times, finding that the 2 week late shipment of fixtures is sitting in a warehouse somewhere 1500 miles away), the factory direct thing doesn't seem so "cutthroat". The more fingers in the pie, the more chances for problems, and the longer it takes to get results. "Local" suppliers generally have even less clout.
Ruud is a good company. They provide good quality products on a timely schedule.
Yes, you must pay up front, but in a 70'x108' setting, it's not that much.
Who said anything about cheap pricing?