A Tip: Changing Fluorsecent Starters

Are you using electronic starters? I have nothing like the number of fittings as you (who has? lol) but I can't recall the last time I have am E-starter fail.

Bob

Bob, they are all conventional ones, but only now are they starting to fail, having been installed about 9 year ago, so that's not too bad lifespan. I'd love to replace them with LED floods as the running cost would be much less, but at the moment the capital cost would be enormous. I'm putting up a new tractor shed later in the year, and that will have LED floods up in the gods.

Andrew

You could replace them with LED tubes.

For about 2 grand, that's about 4,000 hours of "on" time, and I guess they're not all on, all the time?

I'm assuming these are business premises. Is £2,000 a large sum in the scheme of things? Month's wages for one employee maybe? Improved ambience for years to come.

Difficult to believe that you have been there 9 years (+) but then again I've been retired 8 years soon and that has flown by!

LED lighting still seems to be a gamble not so much from the point of view of the leds themselves but ultra marginal design in the switch mode supplies and price does not seem to be much of a discriminant to help choose long lasting ones. I've been running fluorescent tubes with high frequency ballasts in my woodwork shop for over 10 years now and they have been 100% reliable and IIRC about £6 each for a double 5' ballast retrofitted into old choke ballast fittings scrounged from work. I'm nearing the end of a box of 25 tubes (that has lasted 10 years plus) and wondering if switching to LEDS or just buying another box of tubes is the best option. I only have 10 tubes in that shop and just 2 in an other so running cost is not a serious factor. Bob

Given the high costs of LEDs, you wouldn't need many early failures to wipe out any energy savings. Given those energy savings aren't going to be big over decent florries. And is the light quality as good? Could be very important in some types of workshop.

LED are not significantly more efficient than linear fluorescent, about 20%. Their "greater reliability" figures don't appear to exist in real life and the colour rendering index of tri-phosphor fluorescent is much better than LED's.

Rather what I suspected, Peter.

The big loss is in the choke/inductor. This is where the electronic one win out.

Will it? how many lumen per watt are your tubes and the LEDs you would fit?

Wrong ! and I've already said the capital cost is too high for me AN NON COMMERCIAL HOBBY WORKSHOP !!!!!!

Andrew

is it not going to be cost effective with that lot to go LED? Brian

I have looked again at your two postings and can find no mention of non commercial hobby workshop. You claimed the cost was 'enormous' which seems a bit of an exaggeration in the context of a three room workshop.

Might depend on how long the OP is expecting to live, given the reputed lifespan of LEDs.

Andrew

They are about £17 inc VAT at other places (including one I shop at).

It's still a bit steep but at least it is not vertical!

With discount I suspect if you were buying 72 of them.