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Post by determined1 on Oct 8, 2016 17:16:27 GMT
You can just swap out the bulbs with LEDs. That's what we did. As long as you can replace a bulb you're set. Buy 1 or 2 first and make sure they're compatible. Like I've posted before, you can find them at Home Depot, Lowes and Costco.
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Post by yankedchain on May 6, 2017 16:48:25 GMT
greenergrass, what you listed is mostly true although if you use motion sensing for your club lights like all the clubs used to do (not sure anymore) that's a different story. The worst thing for electronic devices is typically the inrush of current which means turning them on..off..on..off and can shorten the bulb life by quite a bit. With the cheaper LED bulbs available, I would replace them all in a heart beat. In my club not one bulb has gone bad after installation and it has been over a year now. I do leave my gym main area lights on all the time. I recommend this very much so. Amy, I order through dhgate.com. There are many sellers on this site. I have ordered bulbs from different sellers and it's usually free shipping to your front door. Shop around. I have ordered commercial building LED lights as well for my landlord and replaced them for him. You can email the sellers and ask questions and they are always looking for good reviews and will replace one that may not work in the batch, but for $6 for that bulb I wouldn't sweat it. That's pretty cheap and you'll have extras in the lot you order. I have the standard 4 bulb t8 fluorescent fixture in my club. With a little simple rewire, throwing out the ballast and the 4 bulbs, I inserted (2) 28W LED bulbs per fixture trying to get away with as little power consumption as I could. I think that would be the minimum I would do honestly. Never had a complaint. You can always add an extra bulb if you want for light. Since I was using ceiling light panels, I ordered the clear glass not frosted. Make sure you include notes with your order like: 28W cold white 110vac clear lens etc...if option was not selected already. When you receive them, you probably won't believe you are getting these bulbs for $6 per. Snaplongtimer - can you give me the name of the seller and what you ordered on DHGate? Thanks
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Post by snaplongtimer on May 8, 2017 21:03:44 GMT
Here is the link to my last order. www.dhgate.com/product/led-t8-tube-4ft-25w-28w-36w-2800lm-smd2835/381022863.html I bought these as spares. I've had a few bulbs go out over time, but I also get power outages more than I care to see in my area. Right now I'm trying to check for rebates on doing another club. Will have to get back to you as soon as I find out more. My electric company has come out with updated rebates especially for businesses that keep lights on 24/7 like me.
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Post by snaplongtimer on May 9, 2017 19:21:24 GMT
So my electrician called me today saying he can replace my other club totally free. I would look into that for your clubs if you haven't converted yet. He submitted info to my electric company and they apparently approved it. The electric co will visit my facility and verify the need I am told and ok it before he can proceed. Save yourselves some money and look into it. Once again, they are looking for something like 40% savings I was told. Also, I would include you keeping the lights on 24/7. Oh...5 year warranty on bulbs. Nothings better than free with a warranty.
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Post by Disillusioned on May 11, 2017 1:48:37 GMT
Here is the link to my last order. www.dhgate.com/product/led-t8-tube-4ft-25w-28w-36w-2800lm-smd2835/381022863.html I bought these as spares. I've had a few bulbs go out over time, but I also get power outages more than I care to see in my area. Right now I'm trying to check for rebates on doing another club. Will have to get back to you as soon as I find out more. My electric company has come out with updated rebates especially for businesses that keep lights on 24/7 like me. Thanks! I will take a look at them.
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Post by firecrackergirl on Jun 1, 2017 6:16:21 GMT
ComEd is doing an incentive for this. Our cost was around $1500 and it brought the electric bill down by about $250 per month. ComED paid 64% of the cost so that was the remainder.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Jun 1, 2017 15:43:08 GMT
It was a $4200 job? Do you have a huge facility? How long ago they do this?
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Post by firecrackergirl on Jun 1, 2017 20:39:28 GMT
No its a small facility but they said they had to replace entire fixtures since the old ones were bad. We are around 2900 sq ft. They came in 2 weeks ago
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Post by firecrackergirl on Jun 1, 2017 20:39:57 GMT
We have approx 30 fixtures and the fixtures alone are $120 ish each.
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Post by fishstyxx on Jun 2, 2017 16:05:39 GMT
We pulled out our 4' bulbs, left the T8 ballasts in place and replaced them all with LED 4' bulbs at a cost of $10 each. We needed about 100 bulbs and are seeing a savings of about 40%. Our ROI was just under 3 months and we did it all ourselves, since it was just swapping out bulbs.
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Post by firecrackergirl on Jun 2, 2017 16:54:20 GMT
I would've done that but wasn't aware that you could put LED bulbs into T8 ballasts...
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Post by fishstyxx on Jun 2, 2017 16:58:47 GMT
Yes, there are LED bulbs specifically for standard ballasts. You just want to read the package to make sure it's the right bulb. I also saw that the cost has now dropped to about $8/bulb (available at Costco, Home Depot and Lowes). Oh well, I shouldn't have to replace any bulbs for 5 years if what the package claims is correct.
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Post by snaplongtimer on Jun 2, 2017 17:01:24 GMT
Well firecrackergirl it sounds like your savings are on it's way considering they installed the lighting already. I am not sure about multiple fixtures being bad unless they weren't lighting prior to the changeover. Sorry, I have a hard time trusting contractors.
It sucks to hear your club is having the trouble it is. Wish I could help out some way for I know how it feels. There are some things I would consider additionally as cost cutting measures. Maybe others can help out here and share their experiences. Here goes a few...
1) If you can get away with pulling out any bulbs that were just installed, I would do that. How much lighting is enough? Does your gym have to be super bright?
2) Do you have showers? If not, I would probably turn off the water heater. It's probably electric. If anything turn down the temperature on your water heater to minimum. I have showers and a 50 gallon tank which completely sucks. I turned down the temp setting to the minimum. Nobody needs scalding hot water in their tank. Plus, it's 40 feet away from the showers. So I am wrapping the pipe too. Honestly, I believe when people wash their hands they don't wait for hot water to come through the pipes. They pull hot water into the pipes, wash and get out without using most of it, if any.
3) Presently, I open both my doors for air probably like many of us do. Turn the fans up. All day yesterday, my club was sitting at 77 with a handful of people in it and nobody cared. When I leave I turn air on.
4) Do you use paper towel or rags and disinfectant. I use rags. Nobody cares and the landfill thanks me. I have had other snap owners comment they wish they went my direction from the beginning. They bitch about the trash and the cost of buying paper.
Anyway, maybe something in all this would help as little savings as it may be it's still savings. Wish I could offer more.
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Post by Lonely Stranger on Jun 13, 2017 19:54:16 GMT
I've been a franchisee for 10 years. I take the good with the bad. One bad is getting bad advice. If you've waited to convert to LED tubes to replace your florescent tubes, you're in luck. DO NOT buy the products sold by the Big Box warehouse stores -- you'll pay way too much and you won't be saving as much on energy as you think. They sell tubes that "work with your current ballast" -- DON'T do this! You still have to power the ballast, which is a huge waste because the ballast takes more energy than the tubes. There are awesome LED tubes available that bypass the ballast. And they don't cost $9 or $10 per tube -- I just bought 200 18W tubes for $900 on eBay ($450 for 2 quantities of 100 tubes) and I just checked and the price has gone down to $399 per 100 from the same supplier. Your florescent fixtures will need to be rewired to bypass the ballast, but it's not a difficult job. My manager and I replaced ours in several days. It was worth it. My club looks fantastic. The light is very clean and complements our colors (updated colors) really well. With average temp 2 degrees higher this year and a 10% increase in membership, plus having activated 11 fixtures with 3 tubes each that we kept shut off in the past (about 20% of our total lights), we've decreased our electrical usage by about 5%. It doesn't sound like much of a savings, but with AC kicking in more this May than last, it is significant. Here's a link to the tubes on eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/301807855952?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
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Post by determined1 on Jun 14, 2017 1:56:04 GMT
We kept the T8 ballasts and saw our electric bill drop from a range of $800 to $1200 per month to a range of $400 to $650 per month. We have just over 100 lamps in our club. If I waited until I had time to switch out 100 ballasts I'd probably still be waiting. Also, I'm not an electrician, but if I swap a bulb that draws 36W for one that draws 18W isn't that a savings of approximately 50%? I don't see how the ballast would cause it to continue to draw 36W. I guess I'll have to google just what a ballast does. Also I noticed the other day that the price of the replacement bulns has dropped further.
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