Lighting

Moral of story is that you also need to do an inventory of your present circuit design along with choosing your new fixtures to determine what you can install as is and what new circuits are needed. Everything will have to be in some type of conduit.

A 20 amp circuit breaker with # 12 wire will technically take 2400 watts but with a safety factor built in you have a working load of 1800 watts per circuit/breaker.

A 15 amp circuit breaker with # 14 wire will take 1800 watts but with a safety factor you will have a working load of 1500 watts per circuit/breaker.

You cannot put 20 amp breakers on #14 wire.

High mounting (15 feet or more) will require consideration of the use of specific high-bay fixtures, or some sort of hanging mount for the lights. Conversely, low ceilings (12 feet or less) pretty much rule out the use of point sources like metal halide fixtures.

Fluorescent tubes are named by their diameter in eighths of an inch. T12 tubes are 1.5 inches in diameter. They are your traditional old technology for the last 40+ years but are considered obsolete energy wasters now. One interesting choice is the 8 foot "high output" fixtures. These can be bought at big box stores, will strike reliably down to -20(f), and put out a LOT of light per dollar spent. They also have an obnoxious 60 Hz hum, and are probably unacceptable for a retail environment. The absolute worst choice in this technology is the $8.95 two tube China-made "shop light". Yeah, they are cheap, but they won't light below 50 degrees, hum like crazy, and aren't very efficient.

The current mainstream technology in fluorescent are T8 tubes. These are one inch in diameter. The tubes and fixtures can be bought at big box stores, electrical wholesalers, and many other places.

You see these in use every day in office buildings (usually in troffer fixtures mounted suspended ceilings) and in grocery stores (as open lamps hung in long rows). With electronic ballasts, they no longer have the 60 Hz hum. Most (not all) electronic ballasts resut in a completely silent fixture. Most (not all) electronic ballasts offer striking down to about 0 degrees (F). T8 solutions offer roughtly 20 to 50 percent more light per watt than the old-tech T12 fixtures.

The most economical fixture in this technology is the eight foot tandem channels. These use 4 F32T8 tubes, each 4 feet long. You can buy these at big box stores. Electronic supply places offer ones with slightly better ballasts at similar prices. But you'll need to do the typical "wholesale only" dance to get around the ridiculous street prices these places charge to walk-ins (if they'll sell to you at all).

The "new kid on the block" is the T5. These are 5/8 inch in diameter, even more energy efficient than the T8, and there are specialty "high bay" fixtures available. This technology is gradually displacing the "High bay" metal halide lighting typically found in high-ceiling retail establishments, because it offers more lumens per watt and less lumen degradation over time than metal halide. The fixtures are more expensive than T8's and T12's and are typically not available at retail stores.

Most retail stores seem to use relatively "cold" lighting, and a lot of it. My estimate is that typical T8 tubes in retail are running a color temp of 4100K (typical of the old "cool white") to 5000K ("daylight") Tubes are available with a broad spectrum output offering very good color rendition (CRI of 80 plus).

I personally like the 5000K tubes for basement and shop lighting, because my aging eyes can see things better than with cooler color temperatures. "Warm white" tubes of around 3000K are yellowish in color and closer to the old traditional incandescent lights. These might be appropriate for a restaraunt or "farm store" desiring a "cozy" atmosphere, but personally I just don't see as well under this lighting, even with the same net lumens. I think many retailers may be choosing whiter light for the same reason.

Lithonia's website is fairly informative about all this stuff. You can even download their lighting design software for a "30 day free trial".

Color temperature is based upon the spectrum of a black body radiator. A "black body" heated to 3100 degrees Kelvin gives off a yellowish looking light, ironically termed "warm white". A black body heated to 4100 Kelvin (technically a HOTTER temperature) is more of a blue spectrum and is named "cool white". One that is heated to 5000 K is hotter yet, but is sometimes deprecated as "doctor's office institutional cold blue-white".

Grocery stores and big retail places like Target and Kmart seem to use color temps of 4100 to 5000, in my own personal observation.

If you are designing lighting for your own store, head into the stores in town, look up, and get the flavor of what those guys are doing.

CFL ballasts are made to be thrown away when the tube burns out (they are built into the tube for screw-type sockets). This means that the design has had every last penny of cost wrung out of it. Sometimes this is taken to the point that it results in lost efficiency or unreliability, or less than rated operating lifetime, or in the worst case the ballast catches fire, etc.

2700K color temp is a going to result in yellow-ish light very similar to an incandescent. For some first-time users this may be less objectionable (more cozy) than the whiter light typically associated with fluorescents. I feel that the 2700K tubes do not provide quite as much USEABLE light as a 4000K tube, even with the same net lumens. This is because of the differences in sensitivity of the human eye to different ranges of the light spectrum. So I personally prefer the white light, but I may be in the minority.

The "watt equivalents" you are quoting seem on the low side. For example, normally a 20W CFL is considered the same light as a 75W incandescent, not a 100W. Sounds like behavior similar to the "1200 pound" Chinese engine stands that struggle to hold 800 pound engines.

If I were in your shoes I'd ask for the actual lumens, the spectral distribution of the light output, and the color rendition index, and not trust their assessment of watt equivalence.

Another thing to look at carefully is the shape of the tube and the ballast compartment. Most CFLs are larger than the "equivalent" incandescent, and thus can have problems fitting into the same fixtures.

A similar issue is warm-up time. Many CFL's take up to a minute or two from being switched on to reaching full output. Not as bad as metal halide, and really not a problem in practice, but this may be objectionable to some potential die-hard incandescent users.

The "T3" and "T4" moniker refers to a 3/8 or 1/2 inch fluorescent tube. This is twisted or bent into shape and combined with ballast electronics and packaged with a screw-in base. Here, the T3 and T4 doesn't really matter much to you -- pretty much all CFLs are made with one of these sizes.

I have been assured the CFLs are both UL and Energy Star certified. The samples they supplied seem to compare to some GE and Sylvania bulbs I bought locally. I placed two lamps side by side and installed one of the samples (13w) in one lamp and a GE (13w) in the other. Both started instantly (room temperature) and seemed to have same light output and color (soft white-yellowish). Then I switched bulbs in the lamps with the same results. Neither flickered and both were cool to the touch after being on a short period of time. I assume for room area lighting most people would prefer the soft white because that is what they are accustomed to with incadescent. For task lighting - I agree with you on the white light - works better for me and my ageing eyes.

Is there a way for me to check the quality, performance, etc. of the ballasts? As I mentioned all the bulbs I tried were instant start with no flickering. Don't know what else to look for or how to test quality of the ballast.

Is there a simple way to verify the lumens output and the wattage consumption of an individual bulb? The GE and Sylvania bulbs I have are promoted to be 13w = 60w, and 26w=100w, both 2700K. The GEs are rated 825 lumens/8,000hrs and the Sylvanias at 800 lumens/10,000hrs for the 13w=60w. My potential supplier has said a "general" rule of wattage comparison is a ratio of about 4.5-5.0 to one (five times CFL wattage equals approximate incadescent wattage). They may be a little optimistic.

To obtain a buying price that would allow me to recover cost of product, expenses, and hopefully a small profit I will have to purchase a full container (about 54-55,000 bulbs). I can ill afford to make a huge mistake and wind up with junk. Do you have any guidelines you could share that might help me avoid a big mistake? Have you imported anything and learned what not to do?

This project might be pie in the sky but I think the effort is worth it if I can make it work without taking a financial bath.

Any suggestion, help or advice you may offer will be appreciated. Thanks again!!! bob Farrell

I guess I will just leave this to the big boys.

Seems LEDs may be the wave of the future in a short time anyway. Thanks again!! bob farrell