Yesterday I had the opportunity to evaluate the retrofit of traditional T8 fixtures with T8 LED lamps as part of a customer’s facility wide evaluation of lighting upgrades. Multiple similar locations were retrofit using products from multiple suppliers and 2 different technologies, one where T8 LED lamps (15-18W each) with integral driver replace existing lamps and another where each fixture is retrofit with lighting kit and separate LED driver. Fixtures being upgraded in the evaluation included traditional 3-lamp T8 acrylic lensed fixtures in a cleanroom application and the new technologies were selected after a preliminary cost evaluation was completed using simple payback. All of the technologies performed very well by reducing output power by roughly half while providing very good light output in our test cases (between 50 and 80 foot-candles). Some of the benefits of the replacement LED lamps in addition to the energy savings are the relatively low labor cost and long lamp life. Each installation is different (energy cost, light requirements, lighting controls, etc.). But, I would certainly recommend the evaluation of these technologies for anyone looking to upgrade current lighting technologies especially those with 24/7 operations. Lamps run between $22 and $25 each. Retrofit fixture kit costs vary.
Volta 