LIGHTING UPGRADES

As part of our green electrical contracting services, Arc Blue Electric, recently completed a lighting upgrade for a commercial office and warehouse on Wall Ave, in Ogden, Utah. All the lights in the building were fluorescent T-12’s and the exterior lights were metal-halide. Arc Blue Electric worked closely with Rocky Mountain Power’s Energy Efficiency department and found T-12 to T-8 upgrade kits in all the fluorescent fixtures and LED conversion kits for all the exterior metal-halide fixtures. Rocky Mountain Power’s rebate covered nearly 35% of the upfront cost and with the energy and cost savings from the more energy efficient lighting, the customer’s payback period for the upgrade will be less than 3.6 years!

The entire lighting upgrade only took 4 days. In the office areas we managed to do the installation without disrupting regular business. The new T-8 kits in the office areas are brighter with fewer lamps. These new kits allowed us replace 4 of the old T-12 lamps with only 2 of the new T-8’s and yet the light output in the room was significantly higher (see pictures below).

 

Old T-12 lampsOld T-12 w/ magnetic ballast'sOld fixture ready for conversionOold fixture with new electronic ballastOld fixture with 2 new T-8 lampsT-12's on the left and T-8's on the right

In the warehouse areas we upgraded one old 8 foot T-12 with 2 new T-8’s. This lighting conversion was more cost effective than installing 8 foot T-8’s and also simplified ordering new lamps as they were able to order just one size of lamp rather than multiple sizes (see the photos below).

8 foot T-12 New T-8's

Eliminating the old magnetic ballasts from the T-12’s and replacing them with electronic ballast came with yet another benefit. The new electronic ballast produce less heat which makes cooling the building easier, saving even more energy.  Rocky Mountain Power also has incentives to install wall-switch motion sensors in building restrooms that automatically turn off lights and fans when the room is left vacant. In an existing building with old T-12 fixtures it really makes sense to replace with T-8’s!

Keep in mind that when you take out old fluorescent fixtures you need to recycle and/or dispose of them properly. Only the lamps with green end caps can be disposed of in the garbage/landfill. The regular silver end caps require that you collect them and ship them to a fluorescent lamp recycling facility. Platt Electric Supply, carries prepaid packages that allows you to place the old lamps in engineered packaging for shipment them to the nearest recycling facility. With nearly 400 lamps left over from this project (see below) we had to ship 6 boxes full of the mercury laden lamps but we wanted to dispose of them properly. At Arc Blue Electric we do our part to keep the world BLUE!!!

Lamps and ballasts ready for recycling!