Premier Lighting Case Study: Fluorescent Highbay to Type C LED Tube Retrofit

LED retrofit for packaging company

Customer Profile:

Central Package and Display has been a leading designer and manufacturer of stock and custom packaging fulfillment solutions and supplies for over 50 years. With all of their capabilities and expertise, Central Package and Display is an all-in-one supplier for all your packaging needs.

Goal:

Like many facilities in the early 2000’s, Central Package and Display retrofitted their inefficient metal halide highbay fixtures to T8 fluorescent fixtures. By doing this they improved their light and saved enough energy to have paid for the fluorescent upgrade multiple times over. There comes a time when aging catches up with the upgrade however. In this case and in many similar facilities that did this upgrade, bulbs and ballasts are starting to burn out. That leads to a lot of maintenance costs and often times changes from what was originally installed. Central Package and Display had several ballasts burned out, many lamps out, and quite a few new fluorescent lamps that didn’t match the color of the initial lamps.

Retrofitting fluorescent highbay to LED tubes

Before: Fluorescent Highbays

Solution:

Given that the fixtures were in good shape but the components were going bad, it made sense for Central Package to upgrade to LED tubes. In examining the LED tube options, it was determined that GE Type C LED tubes with external drivers were the best solution. GE’s Type C tube provided the most lumens while giving piece of mind that the driver controlling the tube is meant specifically for the lamp. In addition to the highbay fixtures, all of the remaining fluorescent fixtures in the facility were retrofitted to Type C LED tubes and the outdoor fixtures were upgraded to new LED fixtures.

Type C LED Retrofit on highbays

After: Type C LED T8 tubes

new outdoor LED fixtures replacing HID

After: New Outdoor LED Fixtures

 

Results:

 

Every light fixture inside and outside of the facility was upgraded to LED and as a result, the energy consumption for Central Package and Display will reduce by 57% and the light levels improved an average of 20% throughout.

Summary:

  • Reduced Energy Usage
  • Increased Light Quality
  • Increased Light Levels
  • Improved Quality Control
  • Longer Lasting Products = Reduced Maintenance Costs
  • Light Level and Color Uniformity
  • Consolidated Product
  • Enhanced Image
  • Reduced Environmental Impact
  • Leveraged Rebates

Premier Lighting:

Our mission at Premier Lighting is to provide our customers with the optimal and practical lighting system. No matter what the industry – hospitality, health care, educational, retail, industrial – we can deliver solutions to every vertical market. We understand the needs of your organization and have served others like you in the past. If you are interested in the optimal lighting solution for your facility, complete this form and we will promptly reply.

Tags: , , , , ,

2 Responses to “Premier Lighting Case Study: Fluorescent Highbay to Type C LED Tube Retrofit”

  1. Steven GrundeiJuly 21, 2017 at 7:12 am #

    We have normally been called on by Erin (and John is always willing and able to answer my other questions) so this could easily be addressed to them but since you have this nice box for questions I will use it. Question is, can the Type C LED 4′ replacement for fluorescent bulbs convert both T8 and T12 ballasts/fixtures? Is the external driver a replacement for the ballast inside those fixtures and if it isn’t, does it require room of its own w/i the fixture to be installed? Also does this conversion usually require a electrician?

    • PremierJuly 24, 2017 at 12:06 pm #

      Hi Steven,

      Thanks for the comment! Yes you can convert both T8 and T12 fluorescents set-ups to Type C LED T8s. You are correct that the Type C remote LED drivers essentially act as a ballast, as they power the LED T8 lamps and also allow for 0-10V dimming functionality if needed. In terms of the case size of the driver, it should be about equal to the existing fluorescent ballast you have. Since you are modifying the fixture it is still best to rely on an electrician for install.

      Any other questions just let us know – thanks!

      Pat

Leave a Reply to Steven Grundei Click here to cancel reply.