altereddezignz
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2011
- Messages
- 134
Hey guys. I chimed in on a post a while about about changing over to some new bulbs. So i would like to ask the question a little differently since i was told that i put to much info out for people to decipher. I am looking to change up the lighting to get rid of shadows and if i can cut electrical cost a little.
My shop is split up into 3 sections so lets just use this one section as reference.
The area is 50 wide and 35 deep. From floor to the bottom of my truss is 13ft. I have exposed trusses that are flat and have no incline on the bottom. The ceiling has white roll on insulation so it is white. Walls are white and floor is concrete.
Right now i am running 4- 400 watt metal halid fixtures without the reflectors with the top of the bulb at the bottom of my truss. so the bottom of the bulb is about 12 feet off the ground. The metal halids are 460 watts total with ballast. They are positioned on the middle of the 37 ft span and run longways back and forth on the 50 ft run. Now the bulbs are very old in the area of about 10 years or so so i know they have lost alot of them light output. The light output is fine it is very bright but i have shadows EVERYWHERE. Right now my electric bill is about 75-85$ a month and $16.50 of that is a service change and about 5$ in taxes so my electric is about 53-63. My electric rate per KWH is about .0885 so lets say 9 cents per KWH.
To remove shadows with the halids i would have to add 4 more and split them up but this would double the cost of my electric bill just for my side. Not really wanting to do that and i do not think that 4 metal halids spread out would be enough light to get rid of shadows and also be bright enough.
I do not want to spend a fortune on high bays and if i was to replace them with all new florescent it would be a crazy cost also. I have been looking again at the 105 watt 5500k 6500 luman CFL bulbs. I thought i could make 4 runs of 5 lights longways and put them on 2 separate switches to be able to run 2 rows of 5 at a time if i wanted to. This would pretty much cure my shadows. I have a kinda low ceiling so the cfl would work on i think.
What are you guys ideas on doing this. I used these cfl bulbs on a base from lows that i screwed to the ceiling and have about 40 of them left. I would need to run one more run of 12-2 to my side of the shop and put 10 bulbs on each run. that would be about 9 amps per run. I could probably get away with running them on the one run of 12-2 i have now b/c it would only be 17.5 amps but i have always used the 80% rule. Only use 80% of your breaker. 12-2 wire- 20 amp breaker so 16 amps usable.
The CFL bulbs are about 10 each when i buy them by the pair. I already have the wire if i need it and i have the sockets too.
I have about 15 more halid fixtures that are not in use and the bulbs i can get for 9$ each.
I am going to insert some math here to simulate the cost of changing the bulbs out but you do not have to look at this if you do not want to.
My shop is split up into 3 sections so lets just use this one section as reference.
The area is 50 wide and 35 deep. From floor to the bottom of my truss is 13ft. I have exposed trusses that are flat and have no incline on the bottom. The ceiling has white roll on insulation so it is white. Walls are white and floor is concrete.
Right now i am running 4- 400 watt metal halid fixtures without the reflectors with the top of the bulb at the bottom of my truss. so the bottom of the bulb is about 12 feet off the ground. The metal halids are 460 watts total with ballast. They are positioned on the middle of the 37 ft span and run longways back and forth on the 50 ft run. Now the bulbs are very old in the area of about 10 years or so so i know they have lost alot of them light output. The light output is fine it is very bright but i have shadows EVERYWHERE. Right now my electric bill is about 75-85$ a month and $16.50 of that is a service change and about 5$ in taxes so my electric is about 53-63. My electric rate per KWH is about .0885 so lets say 9 cents per KWH.
To remove shadows with the halids i would have to add 4 more and split them up but this would double the cost of my electric bill just for my side. Not really wanting to do that and i do not think that 4 metal halids spread out would be enough light to get rid of shadows and also be bright enough.
I do not want to spend a fortune on high bays and if i was to replace them with all new florescent it would be a crazy cost also. I have been looking again at the 105 watt 5500k 6500 luman CFL bulbs. I thought i could make 4 runs of 5 lights longways and put them on 2 separate switches to be able to run 2 rows of 5 at a time if i wanted to. This would pretty much cure my shadows. I have a kinda low ceiling so the cfl would work on i think.
What are you guys ideas on doing this. I used these cfl bulbs on a base from lows that i screwed to the ceiling and have about 40 of them left. I would need to run one more run of 12-2 to my side of the shop and put 10 bulbs on each run. that would be about 9 amps per run. I could probably get away with running them on the one run of 12-2 i have now b/c it would only be 17.5 amps but i have always used the 80% rule. Only use 80% of your breaker. 12-2 wire- 20 amp breaker so 16 amps usable.
The CFL bulbs are about 10 each when i buy them by the pair. I already have the wire if i need it and i have the sockets too.
I have about 15 more halid fixtures that are not in use and the bulbs i can get for 9$ each.
I am going to insert some math here to simulate the cost of changing the bulbs out but you do not have to look at this if you do not want to.
