8' T8 retrofit

[dspiffy]

The last time I dealt with an 8' T12 to T8 conversion, the technology was still relatively new. We swapped the ballasts and bulbs and left the fixtures intact. Those ballasts lasted a year or two before the vast majority of them failed. As they failed, we ended up putting the old T12 bulbs and ballasts back.


Since then, I've seen a great many 8' T12 ugrades where they modify the fixture to accept two rows of 4' T8's instead of 8' lamps. I always assumed this was because the 8' T8 technology was so terrible (based on my experience) but never had to deal with this myself.


Now I've got a building once again that has a great many 8' T12 fixtures they want to upgrade to T8. Is there any reason to do anything other than a bulb/ballast swap, to 8' T8s and electronic ballasts? T8 technology in general has come a LONG way since my last conversion.

 

[yuandrew]

They did the same conversion at my Uncle's shop a few years ago through an incentive by the city's public utility ( https://www.anaheim.net/article.asp?id=4144 )

Used GE UltraMax ballasts and F96T8 SPX50 lamps over the bays in the shop area. Only one ballast failed approximately a year after the retrofit was done but it was replaced under warranty and the electrician left us a few extra ballasts.

 

[dspiffy]

Yes, the state is paying for this as well!

Glad to know you the 8's worked well for you.