Does anyone have any idea what the life of the T8 and T5 bulb and fixtures have?
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Does anyone have any idea what the life of the T8 and T5 bulb and fixtures have?
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The bulbs themselves have a 30000 hour life, so more that that I assume.
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No, but I can Google it for you if you want.Originally Posted by Jim Andrew
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From a "real world" standpoint, I've run T8 fixtures in my shop on average for 12 hours per day, 6 days per week, for four years and have not had to replace any bulbs yet.
Have also run T5 HO high bay fixtures for 2 years (they were used) with the original bulbs w/o any replacements. Probably average 8 hours per day, 5 day week on the T5's.
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I have Nickel Metal Hydrides and am going to switch to T5 HO lights. I was in a shop, same size, with them and it had better light at half the watts. And no buzz......
Larry
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Try living with sodium vapor lamps in your shop. Nice orange glow. Messes up every color in the shop. And the most horrible thing about them is they are super efficient. I put a 6 lamp hibay with T5HO's up and it's not equivalent. I needed to scatter smaller lamps around the work areas to make the lighting the same. Man that orange color sucked.
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I wonder if life span has to do with how often fluorescents are turned on and off. I've had to replace a couple T8s after less than a year. The lights in this area may be turned off and on 3-4 times a day though. I could also have gotten a 'weak' batch. I've read where the longest lived fluorescents are seldom or never turned off, such as in a hospital or 24/7 business. LEDs to my knowledge are not affected by on-off cycles .
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If color output means anything to you, the answer to this will be much shorter than expected. I used to keep salt water fish tanks and read a lot about fluorescent lighting for the reef tank. At the time, the consensus seemed to be you should replace your fluorescent lamps every 6 months to ensure they are continually producing the correct color temperature and lumens. When I ran my reef tanks, fluorescent fixtures were typically on for around 12 hours per day. So that means they begin to noticeably loose their color output and brightness (lumens) at around 2,000 hours.
We can't see the changes in lamp output because it's day-to-day. But do a side-by-side comparison and you'll see a lamp burned for 2-3,000 hours is not as bright as a new lamp. The brightness will drop off about 20-30% after 3,000 hours. At around 10,000 hours, the brightness will fall 50% or more. Over time you may think your shop needs more light or your eyes are going bad, when all that's really needed is to replace the fluorescent lamps.
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Lamp life is basically the same for T8's and T5's. 24,000 - 25,000 hours if the average start time is 3 hours. Fluorescent lamp life is affected by turning on and off frequently. In a typical commercial application where burn time can be 12 hours a day, the T8 lamp life jumps to 30,000 hours, and T5's average is 35,000 hours.
This info is from a Phillips lamp catalog, using the data from the most basic, "low end" T8's and T5's. Lamp manufacturer's offer several grades of quality in both lamp life and color rendition. There are Programmed Start ballasts which help increase the lamp life in cases where frequent lamp starts are common, they are usually specified in areas that are controlled with occupancy sensors where the lamps will be switched on and off frequently. In a non-commercial shop, either lamp type should burn for a long time.
http://www.usa.lighting.philips.com/...luorescent.pdf
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Very interesting about the lamp degradation. I have 60 T5 HO bulbs in my shop(s) which have never been replaced. I suspect at some time they will need to be. What does one do with 60 used bulbs - I'm assuming they contain mercury and require special recycling? All the EPA and State environmental web-sites seem to point to a source http://www.earth911.com/recycling-gu...ining-mercury/ but I can't get the search form to work. Not that I'm ready to pull out the 60 bulbs ...
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This is a bit of a irritant to me. I did a fair bit of research and could find no practical way to 'responsibly' dispose of fluorescent tubes. CFLs? sure no problem there but tubes our trash hauler/recycling company said to just put 'em in the trash. There was nothing helpful on the County web site that I could find. Some fluorescent lamps have green ends. Those I believe are intended to be disposed of in normal trash. Those that don't have green ends? Well, that's kinda awkward it seems.
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Curt: Thanks for raising that as an issue. I guess I was thinking along the same lines. Putting them in the trash would be unacceptable to me. Hopefully someone here has gone down this path and can advise the best alternatives.
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About 10-12 years ago I saw my first bulb eater on the jobsite. According to the manufacturer, the bulb eater captures all the gasses, and the mercury, from fluorescent lamps as it chops them up into small shards. It would take any kind of fluorescent lamp.
I know Batteries Plus has a recycling program here. I don't know if they are nationwide or not. Home Depot says they recycle compact fluorescent lamps. Maybe they do other types too. Ace, IKEA and Lowes are all supposed to have recycling too.
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I bought both the 2 bulb and 4 bulb HD high bay T5 for samples. T5's are TOO BRIGHT for an 8' ceiling unless you work on the floor. Mounted at about 10' high they are still bright but likeable. But the quality of the fixture is cheap as expected and bulbs are extra and HD only stocks 1 temperature bulb.
Setting up a workshop, from standing tree to bookshelves
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Our HD stocks them in three temps (2700, 4100 and 6500K I think). I used the 2700 deg bulbs in my shop and am very happy. Got the fixtures with a diffuser which makes them nicer to look at than the bare bulb fixtures. Even when the shop is cold (eg 35 deg) at the beginning of the day the fixtures warm up very quickly inside the diffuser and come to full brightness within a minute.
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