I can see again!

[f350ca]

Apart from the energy savings it was the amount of light these things give. I bought a flood light a while back, looks like the typical quartz ones but has a 1 inch square block of elements. Its scary bright, I use it on a tripod stand for painting or working under vehicles, if you glance at it your half blind. Worked the numbers on it for say a commercial stairwell where it would be on 24/7. Replacing a 300 watt flood after depreciating the cost of the light it would save $94 a year.

[DaveH]

One thing about "plug in" LED's for mains use is that the PF is around 0.5

If your meter reads kWh - not a problem - if like the new meters that read kVAh means you will pay twice as much.

eg. if the box says 10watts and the PF is 0.5 then it is 20VA (equivalent to 20 watts)

Confusing is it  
 
DaveH

[f350ca]

This particular one doesn't give a number but says high power factor. We now have the smart meters here so they might be recording KWAh. Thanks
Was looking tonight at LED tubes to replace the florescence in the shop. To upgrade to T8 I need to replace the blasts at about $25 then buy two tubes at about $4 each so about $33 per fixture, I can get the led tubes for $22.5 each or $45 per fixture, only $12 more, but will now have to check the power factor.

[stevec]

Greg, I've not heard about LED tubes. Do they just replace the fluorescent T8s?

[f350ca]

Steve there's a couple of types. One is a direct replacement for the T8 tubes, you simply put it in with the solid-state ballast intact. The other requires no blast and are apparently more efficient, just remove the blast and wire power to the tube.

[Hawkeye]

Last week, I upgraded the lighting in a shop that works with granite and other stone slabs. (And yes, I did score a few nice pieces out of their dumpster.) I installed their T5 fixtures with 6500K tubes. The results were so good, the owner told me he had scheduled a guy to come in over Christmas to paint the walls. I guess they hadn't seen them before.

I've decided that the lighting in my new shop will feature 6500 K tubes in T8 fixtures. The enhanced visibility is great. Makes 5000K look yellow.

[stevec]

Greg, where did you source the led tubes?

Mike, was the T5 reference in your post a typo?

[f350ca]

Steve the site is canadalite.com. After some more research it turns out the T8 florescent give more luminous than these. Mind these would be better than the dim T12's I have now, but probably not worth the cost. Im certainly not that green.