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RE: Florescent lights again

To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Florescent lights again
From: "Randall Young" <ryoung@navcomtech.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 22:37:49 -0800
> I've got two twin tube 8 foot florescent lights in my wife's
> mostly unheated
> bird room (attached two car garage). These lights are on all day
> every day.
> Even so they seem to go through an alarming number of bulbs.

What kind of bulbs are they ?  T8 (1" diameter), T12 (1.5" diameter), rapid
start, instant start, etc. ?
And, what is an alarming number of bulbs ?  Typical rated lifetime is around
10000 hours, which at 16 hours/day is almost 2 years.  Replacing 4 bulbs at
random, that should be about a bulb every 6 months (although it seems to me
that having one bulb of a pair fail damages the other bulb, so I now replace
mine in pairs).

Philips is offering a high performance, slimline F96T8 (8' long, 1"
diameter) bulb rated at 30000 hours, which would give you some 5 years at 16
hours/day.

> How about going to two, 4 tube, 4 foot fixtures? Are 4 foot bulbs
> that much
> cheaper?

A little Googling turned up 34 watt 4' GE bulbs, 20,000 hour rated life,
$1.39 each (case qty)
http://www.retrofitdesignlighting.com/34_40_watt.htm
compared to 60 watt 8' GE bulbs, 12,000 hour rated life, $3.99 each (case
qty).
http://www.retrofitdesignlighting.com/60-70-90-110_watt.htm

Seems to me there's some savings there.  (NFI, just something I found)

> What about another type of lighting besides
> fluorescents? It has got
> to be bright though.

Fluorescents are the longest lived lights I know of, except for LEDs (and it
would sure take a truckload of LEDs to light your garage <g>)

Have you thought of using light pipes ?

Randall

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