subject: Saving Energy With T5 Conversion Kits for Fluorescent Lights [print this page] Author: Art Icklewright Author: Art Icklewright
Larger buildings such as office, schools etc often rely upon large number of Fluorescent lights / fluorescent tube lighting. The older T8 and T12 fluorescent fittings and tubes often produce a flickering effect, and arent particularly energy efficient. Energy Saving T5Retrofit Conversion Kits There are now conversion kits available that allow you to retain the existing fittings, but use energy saving T5 tubes instead on the T8s and T12s. By doing so you could make energy savings of up to 50%, have better lighting the T5 tubes are 85% close to natural sun light, benefit the environment through reduced CO2 production and less mercury, and save on maintenance and replacements. For example, T5 tubes can last 20,000 hours and the built in ballast can last 50,000 hours. There are 2 main types of conversion kit: The tube end kits these have their own starter, and two pieces that fit over the end of the T5 tube so that it slots into your existing fittings. The baton type - this is a one piece kit that slots into the light fitting, and then the tube is inserted into the one piece adapter. How Energy is Saved The magnetic ballast in old T8 and T12 fluorescent lights add a large additional power loss to the already relatively high wattage required by those tubes. The conversion kit incorporates an electric ballast with a pre-heat function on it that works in combination with the existing magnetic ballast. This different use of ballast has a much lower power loss only 13% compared to 20% / 25%. In addition to this, the smaller T5 tubes require lower wattages anyway. There may be situations where using the conversion kits isnt the best option. For example, if all of the fluorescent light fittings in a building are more than 10 years old, its probably a better option just to renew the light fittings. Also, if some fittings are particularly difficult to reach / inaccessible / obstructed in some way, it may not be worthwhile trying to fit a conversion kit in that particular place. One small trade off for using the energy saving T5 tubes and conversion kits is slightly lower lux levels. This may mean that in certain areas of a building you may require a mix of standard and high energy tubes although the overall saving throughout the building will still be very significant. Compliance and Conformity The fluorescent light retrofit conversion kits and T5 tubes have been certification tested in the UK, have an EC Declaration of Conformity, and comply with a large number of BS standards and other measures / regulations.About the Author:
