High Bay T5's or LED

[Boneheads Garage]

I am getting ready to install lighting in one of my bays. The finished ceiling height is 16'. The bay is 24' wide and 70' long. I was going to install the 8' T8 lights (4-4' bulbs per light) but due to the ceiling height I think it will be best to go T5. Now I'm wondering if I should go LED. If anybody has either of these set ups I'd like to hear any pros and cons.

 

[matt_i]

Multi-gang T5s are really really bright. With the penalty of having 54W per tube.

For that reason I have also some standard CFLs to provide "house lights" which is enough to walk around and carry things in and out and not worry about breaking my teeth.

The T5HOs are for task lighting over benches and machines, and I fire those up when needed.

 

[cybrdyke]

From 16' , any of those sources can give you what you want. A 6-lamp T8 fixture is pretty similar in lumens, watts and cost to a 4 lamp T5HO fixture. You can easily find LED fixtures with equivalent lumens. The LED fixture will have higher cost but will use less energy. If you will have lots of "ON" time, this could make sense.
T8 lamps and ballasts are cheaper and easier to source than T5HO. LED will have less maintenance than fluorescent.
Rather than beating your brain up over which lamp type to use, get someone to do a fixture layout for you using all 3 sources. That will tell you how many you need, how to space them and thus....how much it will cost you. A local electrical supply house will do that for you.
Good luck
CD

 

[matt_i]

Just another thought. The LEDs seem to be the wave of the future to me, but the reliability and price are still sort of "in development", trying to find the sweet spots in manufacturing and design.

That said, I'm still waiting for the LED technology to develop further. I think in 5 years it will be more stable, and there may be a driver to switch. But for right now I'm hanging with the T5s and T8s and CFLs.

 

[Norcal]

Read in the paper that GE is phasing out CFL production, stating that LED is the future, while I agree with that, LED has a long way to go. No link as was in a newspaper, not online.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Thanks for the input...

I think I'll take CD's suggestion and hit up Graybar or another electrical wholesaler for layouts and comparisons. And the idea of installing "night lights" is a great idea. I could just run a few in strategic areas for times when I don't need to light the place up.

KC

 

[BillK]

bh,
I am in the middle of making decisions for my shop. It is 30x60 15-16 ft roof with six old 8ft 2 bulb T12 fixtures.

The guy two units down from me in the building put up T-5s so I went down to see how they were. I really did not like the light at all. It was plenty bright but almost too bright for me. I would almost say it was like some "glare" He uses that unit more as a warehouse and maybe for that use it would be ok, but personally I did not like it for working in all day. It might have had something to do with which bulbs he used too but i think he told me he bought the fixtures complete with bulbs.

I have been looking at some 6 bulb T-8 fixtures at HD and I think I am going to go buy one tonight and just hang it temporarily with an extension cord and see how the light is. For me the jury is still out on LED's.

This is the fixture I am looking at. Thinking about 8 of them.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...ging-Fluorescent-Fixture-IB-632-MVH/202193185

My main point here is that it might be a good idea if at all possible to see the fixture you are thinking of in an actual installation and see if you are ok with the light.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Your post is ironic! I went to Wabash Electric and had their lighting expert help me determine the lighting. He did not recommend T5 and indicated it may even leave some shadowing if laid out the same as a T8 configuration. They recommended (8) 6 light 4' T8 housings, 32W bulbs and to lay them out North to South. (My area is 22x60) I got a price of $92.00 each, including bulbs. It's almost the same price as Menards if I get them now during Menard 11% off sale.

 

[BillK]

to lay them out North to South.

When they said North to South, does that mean the bulbs in line with the 60 ft length or perpendicular ?

 

[MFortie]

I just finished up installing T5's in my 40'x60' steel building (16' walls). I had our lighting designer at work lay them out for 100 fc. I have (18) 4 lamp T5 fixtures (5000k lamps), but I did A/B switch them so I don't need to turn them all on at once. I also wired (3) separate circuits (one for each bay) and switched them accordingly. So I can turn on one bay and half the lamps in that bay, etc.

It's plenty bright! (I've been accused of overkill on occasion too...)

I looked at LEDs (Big A**) and they were too expensive -- and that was with our engineering firm 'discount'.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Run them down the 60' length and space accordingly.

 

[Crazy68Dart]

LEDs have not met the crossover point for me either. I must be looking in the wrong places, but I cannot find comparable lumen output of LEDs as compared to T8? Therefore, (again unless I am missing something) you will need more LEDs to compensate.

I will start buying them in a few years when they work all the bugs out and their real reliability approach their marketing material.

I am going with T8s, using some basic math to lay things out calculating lumens for my sq footage, etc. In my case, lucky, they are tossing T8 fixtures at work, with a new ballast and bulbs, both very affordable, makes for very affordable (and reliable) lighting.

 

[frankush]

If you want a nice even light distribution, go with the T8 fixtures you had planned on. 3 rows of 8 fixtures end to end. The T5's are very bright and will do the job, but will create a lot of hot spots. While you would need fewer T5 fixtures, the initial cost would be about the same. If you can suspend the T8's down a couple of feet, the result will be even better. Whatever you decide on, post some pics of the completed install, so people here can see how it all works out.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

I just received my second design from people who do this for a living and the second layout was identical to the first. I'll attach the drawings they gave me for both T5 and T8. The T5 fixtures are 4 bulb and the T8 fixture is 6 bulb. 8 fixtures whether I go T5 or T8.

Here is the T5 spec/layout....

 

[Boneheads Garage]

And the T8...

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Sorry, the pics are blurry. I'll try to get clearer ones.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

The t5 has an AVG illuminate of 74tc while the T8 is 69tc. Reflectance is identical on both. Not sure what lighting power density is but they are both 1.3W/Ft. (I assume that's what hits the ground). 2x4 fixtures, 2 rows of 4 spaced 11' center to center between the 2' length of the fixture and 15' center to center between the 4' length of the fixture. Outer part of fixtures are 5.5 feet from each side wall and 7.5' from each end wall.

They are showing that both must be mounted 1.5' from ceiling, however I know that the T8's can be mounted directly to the ceiling since I just installed 4 of them in another room and directions gave me both choices.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Decided on the T8's. I've heard a few people mention the hot spots to me when using the T5 so I spent the extra $40 to go with the T8. I thought the T5's would be much higher than the T8 but they weren't. I just ordered (8) of the 6 lamp high bay Howard brand for $626.00 delivered to my door, including bulbs, no taxes. (BADW Lighting)

 

[BillK]

bh,
Basically the same layout that I was thinking. My current T12's are run that way but only three down each side. I will just have to do some conduit cutting and it should be easy to swap them out and make it four or the T8's down each side.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Bill,
I see you are looking at HD to purchase the lights. Check the website I got mine from...bulbs included , free shipping and no sales tax. They have a promo right now for the free shipping and 10% off. Not sure how long that promo runs.

 

[BillK]

Check the website I got mine from...bulbs included , free shipping and no sales tax..

b,
I prefer to buy local. The guy next door in my building is an electrical contractor, I will see if he can get me a little better deal at the wholesale place which is almost across the street. I think he told me the T-5 fixtures he has that I looked at were about $80 with bulbs.

no sales tax..

As a local business owner this is a big gripe of mine. Do you realize that when you buy things online and don't pay tax, you are actually supposed to pay it yourself when you file your State tax returns ? As far as I know this is law in every state that has a sales tax. Nobody does it but ........ just saying.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

I buy almost everything from Menards, but the price difference was enough for me to buy online. Hopefully I'll have them installed next week!



I know what you are saying about the sales tax. I sell products online and on the road all over the country and I'm required to collect sales tax at every event regardless where I am. I would have more of an issue if I didn't collect the tax than I would by not paying it. I don't typically buy online and don't get charged sales tax.

 

[BillK]

bh,
Yeah, the sales tax thing is a big gripe of mine because I lose a lot of big sales because of it. I can usually sell stuff for the same price as Summit and the other big online places but lets say on a $2000 engine block, the 6% sales tax kills the deal. I personally wish they would enforce it.

 

[Boneheads Garage]

Definitely a deterent! Would make a great Thread!!

On another ote, would you installyour T8 directly to the ceiling or hang them?
I'm going for direct to ceiling, unless I find that there is a serviceable "door" on the top part of the housing