News Tagged ‘t12’

Prior to the late 1970′s, ballast manufacturers used a group of compounds called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, to insulate and cool the inner components in certain electrical products. One common application was to cool the internal capacitor of fluorescent lamp ballasts. These components contained a small amount of PCB oil and most of it is typically absorbed by several layers of paper within the device. Since these compounds were found to be health hazards and were linked to the development of certain cancers, they were prohibited by the US Congress in 1979. The risk of PCB leakage is quite low, however anyone considering a lighting retrofit project, or involved in these types of projects routinely, must understand how to determine if a ballast contains PCBs and what to do if it does. Read the rest of this entry »

Efficiency Vermont, Vermont’s statewide provider of energy efficiency services, has announced a new program promoting the replacement of T12 and HID High-Bay lighting with more efficient technology.  The newLIGHT program is being made available from April 1st to December 31st, 2010, and is offering businesses significantly enhanced rebates for upgrading their old T12 fluorescent and HID high-bay lighting systems to more efficient equipment.  This comes as the Department of Energy has passed new regulations that will ban the manufacture of T12 fluorescent lamps for sale in the US after July 14, 2012.

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The vast majority of existing warehouse space in the US is lit with inefficient high intensity discharge or magnetically ballasted T12 fluorescent light fixtures.  Unfortunately, lighting is one of the few areas that is often overlooked when investigating cost reduction opportunities.  Owners and managers blindly budget tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for utility bills without realizing that switching to more energy efficient warehouse lighting can provide a tremendous opportunity to reduce energy demand and therefore cut utility costs.  Many believe that the only option to lowering the electric bill is to shut off all the lights in the facility which results in an unsafe work environment.  We have had major advances in lighting technology that allow for warehouses lighting systems to be optimized for bulk storage and rack aisle applications.

This application guide outlines warehouse lighting requirements and best practices and gives practical examples you can use as a basis for your warehouse lighting retrofit project.  As with our gymnasium lighting application guide, we will use examples to illustrate these guidelines that are based on typical warehouse layouts.  If you have any questions or need any clarifications, don’t hesitate to contact us.

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T5 and T5HO fluorescent high bay fixtures and other T5-based specialty lights are built around a linear fluorescent tube lamp.  Like other types of lamps, the number in the name of the lamp reflects its size.  The “T5” name reflects the diameter of the tube in eighths of an inch.  A T5 lamp is five-eighths of an inch (5/8”).  Similarly, a T8 lamp is eight-eighths (or one inch) in diameter and a T12 is 12 eighths (or 1-1/2 inches) in diameter.  One of the features that make a T5 bulb and T5-based high bay light fixtures more efficient is the fact that the lamp is 37% narrower tube than a T8 and over 55% narrower than a T12 lamp.

This article describes the background and technical specs of the T5 and T5HO lamps as well as some considerations you should keep in mind when relighting your facility with these types of lamps.

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