T-8 lamps

[BullsnPyrs]

you can also change to a ballast with a higher ballast factor to increase the actual lumen output of your lamps. Just be sure to have adequate circuit ampacity for the higher power consumption.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I find T5s to be less reliable, both lamps and ballasts. On top of that they are more expensive.

I also find that customers have a hard time knowing if the fixture needs a HO or regular lamp.

And I find ballast life on the T-8 are shorter then the magnet ballasts .

 

[svh19044]

I find T5s to be less reliable, both lamps and ballasts.

From what I gather, it's mainly do to heat in a poorly designed fixture. T5ho's have a very high output in what are usually small fixtures, so I would say that a correlation could be drawn. I haven't seen many T5 failures other than cheap ballast failures. The bulbs themselves also have a high output in a small fixture, so heat again is a problem to consider, though I haven't seen many T5 bulb/lamp failures to warrant concern.

And as for electronic ballasts having a shorter life expectancy than a magnetic ballast, it goes against the design of the ballast. Theoretically, an electronic ballast should have a far superior life. But as we know with electronics these days, manufacturing quality isn't quite up to par. There are far more failure points in an electronic ballast as compared to a magnetic ballast. The pathetic amount of "new" T8 ballasts failures that I have seen is unparalleled by 30 year old magnetic ballasts. Again, I say poor manufacturing quality/standards.

(just my opinion)

 

[hurk27]

From what I gather, it's mainly do to heat in a poorly designed fixture. T5ho's have a very high output in what are usually small fixtures, so I would say that a correlation could be drawn. I haven't seen many T5 failures other than cheap ballast failures. The bulbs themselves also have a high output in a small fixture, so heat again is a problem to consider, though I haven't seen many T5 bulb/lamp failures to warrant concern.

And as for electronic ballasts having a shorter life expectancy than a magnetic ballast, it goes against the design of the ballast. Theoretically, an electronic ballast should have a far superior life. But as we know with electronics these days, manufacturing quality isn't quite up to par. There are far more failure points in an electronic ballast as compared to a magnetic ballast. The pathetic amount of "new" T8 ballasts failures that I have seen is unparalleled by 30 year old magnetic ballasts. Again, I say poor manufacturing quality/standards.

(just my opinion)

I agree also as I have had very good results with the t-5 fixtures also, along with t-8s, with the electronic ballast you really have to keep heat in mind when selecting a fixture as electronics and heat don't mix very well, most of my fixtures I use are from RUUD and have a 5 year warranty and they don't even squabble to sending replacement parts and sometimes will send extras just to keep me happy as I sell allot of their lighting, at one time I had ordered 26 of their 6x T-5 HO high bay fixtures but because of poor way they installed all the lamps in the fixtures from the factory with out any center support for the lamp about 12 lamps was broken in shipment as T-5 lamps are only 5/8" and doesn't take much for them to break in shipping, well they sent me a whole case of new lamps (40) to replace the ones broken and I had ordered two cases in the original order for the fixtures so the customer would have replacements for a while, so he wound up with even more extra lamps, I did have about 6 ballast fail because one of the truck mechanics didn't know of the replacement lamps and went and purchased 28 watt T-5 non HO lamps and installed them in in the fixtures where the lamps was broken by CB antennas on the trucks these lamps cause about 6 ballast failures, and when I went to order the ballast expecting to pay for them and even told them that it wasn't the ballast or their fault they sent me 10 replacement ballast free of charge, this and other things is one of the reasons I do tend to push RUUD lighting, I wish all manufactures had this level of support and care for their customers.

That trucking company has been in their new plant for about 7 years now and as far as I know they have only had a couple lamps that they needed to change, I wish I had done the design for their office lighting as it has been very problematic as the wrong fixtures were spec'd by a lighting designer and should have never been located in an insulated ceiling where the heat was just killing the electronic ballast, Sylvania only offered a 45? C rated ballast at the time of installation for two 42 watt 4 pin lamps in each can later they came out with a 60? C rated ballast which also had a high failure rat but not as bad as the first ones, but then I stumbled upon a 90? C rated ballast that Universal came out with and changed out all the ballast about 6 months ago and so far they have not had one go out (keeping my fingers crossed)

I also have the same problem with a theater I service that has these hanging cans with one 42 watt lamp each, the poor design of the can put the ballast in the back of the can above the lamp which traps the heat we went to the 60? C ballast which did increase the ballast time, but I cant wait to try these 90? ballast but they wait till they have over 10 ballast fail before they call me so time will tell. oh and Goodrich Theaters spec'd the fixtures for their theaters so the fixtures were their choice not ours.

Last January (2011) I changed and relocated about 18 8' strip strip lights at a utility shop for a very large housing sub division from the 18' high ceiling to the walls about 12' up using T-5 HO lamps at the time I was having a hard time finding a manufacture who made and T-5 strips as Lithoina was about the only one who did but only put them into production when they had enough to make it worth while which they gave me a 10 week lead time, one of my suppliers who works very well with me got another manufacture to make them for me in 2 weeks and the fact they never produce a T-5 HO strip light before I replaced each 8' fixture with a 4' 2-lamp strip the operators of this shop liked the lights so well that they had me also replace all the other strip lights in the offices and other areas including a filtration plant at their waste treatment plant to all T-5 HO type fixtures again I haven't had one failure as of yet for lamps or ballast, about the only thing I could say common to each of these installations was none of these places had a high ambient temperature, which is why I say you need to look at this when picking a fixture out for a given location.

 

[T.M.Haja Sahib]

Can T5 HO fittings replace high bay fittings?Thanks.

 

[hurk27]

Can T5 HO fittings replace high bay fittings?Thanks.

Generally if replacing Metal Halide or HPS high bay fixtures they will be hung from a hook with a twist lock cord and plug if wired to the commonly used method done here in the states, It allows a fast method of changing out a defective fixtures, it also makes it easier to upgrade the fixture to the new T-5 high bays by just installing the hooks to hold the light up and plugging it in.

If you asking if the T-5 will fit into a HID type fixture? nope, two totally different types of fixtures.

A 6 lamp T-5 fixture with mirrored reflectors will produce 33000 lumen's of light for about 360 watts of energy, compared to a pulse start metal halide 400 watt which will give you about 26000 lumen's of light for about 480 watts of energy, the other benefits is the T-5 are instant on, no waiting for striking or re strike if power fails for a second, and with parallel wired T-5 ballast if one lamp goes out then only that lamp will fail to light and you hardly notice the loss of the one lamp, where loosing one of the 400 watt MH will darken a whole area, also the T-5 fixtures produce a much more even distributed light less shadows,

 

[hillbilly1]

When they first started to get widespread usage, we found the 480 volt T5's didn't like generators. They would either quit working in large numbers, or flash rapidly when they were transfered back to utility. Disconnecting the power, then reconnecting would reset them.

 

[T.M.Haja Sahib]

Generally if replacing Metal Halide or HPS high bay fixtures they will be hung from a hook with a twist lock cord and plug if wired to the commonly used method done here in the states, It allows a fast method of changing out a defective fixtures, it also makes it easier to upgrade the fixture to the new T-5 high bays by just installing the hooks to hold the light up and plugging it in.

In Philips lighting design manual (old edition),it was stated that ordinary fluorescent fittings are not suitable as high bay fittings.

 

[BullsnPyrs]

In Philips lighting design manual (old edition),it was stated that ordinary fluorescent fittings are not suitable as high bay fittings.

It might be time to work from a current reference.

 

[hurk27]

In Philips lighting design manual (old edition),it was stated that ordinary fluorescent fittings are not suitable as high bay fittings.

Times have changed and I been installing these new T-5 high bays for over 10 years, if you are going to keep up with new technology your going to need to keep your reference books up to date or your going to fall behind.

Here are just a few linear fluorescents high bay fixtures just from one manufacture

Click HERE

And there are tons more also offered in T-8 versions and they use a universal ballest in two flavors 120-277 volt and 347-480 which means they will adapt to all voltages inbetween the 120-277 volt will run on 120, 200, 208, 220, 240, and 277, while the 347-480 will run on anything between 347-480, only slash voltage rated ballest are either or, such as a 120/277 will only run on either 120 or 277 50/60hz

 

[stevenje]

Is the higher the kelvin # the brighter the light?

The kelvin is often used in the measure of the color temperature of light sources. Different light sources have different color temperatures.

A few examples would be:
Candle flame ≈ 1850? kelvin
Household tungsten bulbs ≈ 2900? kelvin
Quartz lights ≈ 3500? kelvin
Fluorescent lights lights ≈ 3200? to 7500? kelvin
Daylight ≈ 6500? kelvin
Party Cloudy Sky ≈ 9000? kelvin

For all practical purposes the kelvin rating has little to do with the light source brightness.
An example of this would be a 150 watt tungsten bulb is brighter than a 25 watt tungsten bulb but both have the same kelvin temperature.

 

[T.M.Haja Sahib]

An example of this would be a 150 watt tungsten bulb is brighter than a 25 watt tungsten bulb but both have the same kelvin temperature.

Here the problem is if two light sources, having the same wattage,will have same light output i.e brightness,if their Kelvin temperatures are different.

 

[BullsnPyrs]

Here the problem is if two light sources, having the same wattage,will have same light output i.e brightness,if their Kelvin temperatures are different.

Generally the higher the temperature the more percieved light. The measured lumens will be the same within a series of lamps. Phillips 7xx series = 2600 lumens, 8xx series = 2850 initial lumens.