We are planning a major lighting retrofit, HIDs being replaced with fluorescents. Our contractor is advocating 32w tubes as opposed to 28w. His reasoning is that the 28s are more expensive and have a significantly shorter life. Has anyone had experience to either confirm or dispute this opinion?
32w vs 28w
- Thread starter Don S.
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MarkyMarkNC
Senior Member
- Location
- Raleigh NC
If by 28W lamps you mean the T5 28W lamps, as opposed to the T8 32W lamps, then I would at least partially agree. I have payed around four times more per lamp for the T5 lamps. Ballasts and tombstones are much more expensive and not always readily available.
As far as having a significantly shorter life, the T5's actually have a longer rated life than T8's do. It has been my experience, however, that T5's have a MUCH higher initial failure rate. That is....lamps that fail within the first month or so of installation. I think it may have to do with the fact that they are smaller, and much more susceptible to damage or abuse in shipping or installation.
As far as having a significantly shorter life, the T5's actually have a longer rated life than T8's do. It has been my experience, however, that T5's have a MUCH higher initial failure rate. That is....lamps that fail within the first month or so of installation. I think it may have to do with the fact that they are smaller, and much more susceptible to damage or abuse in shipping or installation.
Chenley
Member
- Location
- Western KY
If it's T8F32's are being replaced, I hadn't heard of 28W ones, but we installed about 600 T8F25's in a department store cost about 1.71/EA.
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