Vintage shop lighting retrofit help

[mark kosse]

Howdy all,

I have a bunch of 1960 vintage 8' American made porcelain enameled massive reflector shop lights I'd like to install in the shop. They came from my old school shop and many had the original 277V ballast dated nov, 1960, the month my wife was born, when they were taken out of service about 5 years ago and replaced with chiwanese fixtures with T8's in them.

I'm dazed and confused looking into options to replace the lights and more searching only makes it worse. I can easily go with 120V T8 ballasts and bulbs but is there anything cost effective and better out there? Is this an application for led strips?

thanks for any help and suggestions.

[Mike Wilkins]

Check with a local lighting supply house that supplies contractors and home builders with their products. If they cannot find it, maybe they can point you in the right direction. Or a local electrical supply business. Good luck and watch those fingers.

[Charles Lent]

If you go with ballast replacement go with electronic ballasts. They produce less audible noise, less electronic interference, and less heat than the old transformer type. Most are also multi voltage, meaning they can be connected to any common supply voltage, and they will work well over a larger ambient temperature range. You should be able to use the same bulbs, sockets, and sheet metal if it is all still serviceable, by just replacing the ballast and the fixture wiring with new.

More efficient lighting is available and new more efficient fixtures might be the better choice for very little more money, but that's your choice to make. Just compare costs before getting too deep into this project.

Charley

[Bill Adamsen]

My linear florescent lights are at about 10' height, so a risked going with T5HO ... and that has worked well for me. If doing it today I would likely look very seriously at LED .. and I'll be following this thread to see what people recommend. I suspect a lot has changed in the past two years in lighting. Definitely look at the sticky notes on lighting.

[mark kosse]

From what I can find I can get 8' 59W t8's for about 7.00 and 8' 45w LEDs for about 17.00 each but in quantity of 25. I'm not sure the 14W difference is worth the extra money, even over the life of the bulb. The LEDs are supposed to last but will the electronics that turn them on. I do have to buy ballast for the fluorescents and I'm still unsure about the LEDs needing anything extra. I have 21 2 bulb fixtures so LEDs will be about 800.00.

[Tom Deutsch]

Those old enameled fixtures are so cool. They go well with old ww machinery, too
I don't think you'll have any trouble if you put in new ballasts and sockets to match whatever bulbs you pick. Might have to do some gutting and fabricating on the socket ends, but it'll be worth it. Nice find.

[mark kosse]

Tom, I'm a school shop teacher. These were in my shop and the district was updating the school. They told me my lights were going to be replaced. I asked them to just upgrade the ballast and leave the fixtures. They told me no, too much trouble so I said I want the old ones. 168' of linear lighting for the cost of updating. The reflectors on these are 14" across and 5" deep. I'm lucky!

[Charles R Johnson]

If the fixtures are in good shape I would replace the lamps with LED tubes. No ballasts needed just direct wire with 110V. Great efficiency. I've started retrofitting my florescent fixtures as the lamps fail.

[Dan Rude]

The LED's are very good. You will find if they fail it will be within the warranty period most of the time. I would buy one and test it first, because they usually are directional. in that they are pointed in one direction. So you might try pointing them up in the high quality reflector and see what the light is like first. I have replaced 2 of my old T12 4' shop lights with them and use about 1/2 the power of the T12's and No Ballast. I have replaced most of my home lights with them and think the ones that fail are due to the Power Supply and not the LED. The cost of Bulbs was close to the cost of Ballast and T8 bulbs. Dan

[mark kosse]

I have replaced 2 of my old T12 4' shop lights with them and use about 1/2 the power of the T12's and No Ballast. The cost of Bulbs was close to the cost of Ballast and T8 bulbs. Dan

Thanks Dan, that's good to know. I was wondering about ballast. Where did you get your tubes? When looking online it looks like I'll have to buy a minimum of 25@17.00 per tube. I have single prong bulbs so rotation will be easy. I'd like to buy just 2 and try it out first.

[Charles R Johnson]

I got my Led Lamps online from Greentek energy systems. they have multiple configurations for 4' and 8' lamps. Simple install -- much less wiring than balasts just need to get the correct tombstones. CJ