fluorescent house lighting advice

[RickR]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

You missed the last part of my post. There are no FULLY dimmable LED lamps out there. Just to clarify in order to build up the amount of resistance to be compatible with standard dimming, those units are made with LEDs wired in series. Thus at some point the power supplied is insufficient to power the lamp and the LEDs shut off. Usually at the 20% threshold (there are some that will make it to 15% though). Also the dimming curves on these lamps are just awful.

Right now if you are going to use LED house lights the only options are fully enclosed fixtures. We have done several specs with these units, but the energy savings was such that it would take 10-15 years before the client sees a ROI. They did find that an acceptable ROI.

I am familiar with probably 99% of LED products out there.

Mike

I see two key points Mike that I think need clarification.

I believe "compatible with standard dimming" means retrofit lamps to put in existing fixtures. I routinely see excellent dimming in LED whole fixtures. Frankly only one passes my test for house light uses because it has over 10,000 lumens. We should also keep in mind that incandescent dimming has a significant bump on at 5-10%.

Many churches are primarily concerned with maintenance costs rather than power costs. Vibrations, ladder/lift difficulty and others make an enormous ROI impact. For a huge section of churches the sanctuary isn't used enough hours in the week to really merit energy retrofits. Most calculations are done with a business schedule of 12 hours 5 days a week. Not that we can't help in small ways.

[Esoteric]

Yes, of course. The lamp you linked was a lamp to retrofit into a current fixture. There are none of those that are fully dimmable at this time and their dimming curves even better 20-100% are terrible. Which was my original point.

But I have 5-6 different fixtures that I use in a wide variety of brightness for house lighting. All have excellent dimming curves. BUT they are ENTIRE fixtures and must be installed as such.

In other words I would avoid LED replacement lamps at all costs. It is either install new fixtures or nothing. Also I think a bit of confusion comes from old roadies calling lighting fixtures "lamps". I used to be on the road with these guys all the time. And it irritated me to no end. A "lamp" is the filament, bulb, and connector that power flows through to create the visible light. A "fixture" represents the entire lighting fixture (including the lamp). Thus what you linked is a lamp. What I am talking about is a fixture. It is like people calling "lamps" "bulbs" when in fact the bulb is only the glass enclosure around the filament.

Yeah, I have attempted to sell packages based on maintenance costs. On older churches with pews this is a little easier sell than modern churches with movable chairs and lifts.

Just no one taking the splash yet. A very wait and see attitude. But I am there and ready with a wide variety of options when they do.

Mike