High Bay Fluorescent for Arena

horsinaround · Sep 5, 2011

I am looking for input for those that have been down the road before me.

I am building an indoor arena.... for riding horses in it.

I am about to pull the trigger on the lights. I will put in T8 High Bay fluorescent fixtures. Should I get a lense to keep the dust out of them? The pro's of the lens are that it will keep the dust off the bulbs and reflectors and only be one thing to clean. The con's are that i suspect they will fill with bugs, unless of course the fixtre is really tight. It also adds to the price.

Any input on what is the "best" fixture. There is a huge range in cost. For a six bulb T8 one can pay $110 per fixture, or $220 per fixture... so i am in the process of "what ballast, what bulb, etc." is included in the quote.

Let me know your thoughts. Lense/no lense? Also, if you have a reco for a specific light let me know, and why you recommend it.
Thanks.

ducks13 · Sep 5, 2011

How high is your ceiling, how high are you mounting the fixtures, what are the important factor for you to consider the lighting successful? I think dust may be as big a problem as bugs. Why are you choosing T5's (you do mean T5's don't you, I've never heard of a T8 high bay) over metal halide? For your use I'd think a metal halide fixture might serve you better, easier to seal up tight without the heat management issues that T5's have for less money. One disadvantages of the metal halide is the power cost, how many hours per year do you plan to run these? Is your arena going to be heated? What part of the country are you in? A lighting designer needs more information, no, I haven't run an arena but I do design a lot of lighting.

horsinaround · Sep 5, 2011

ducks13 said:
How high is your ceiling, how high are you mounting the fixtures, what are the important factor for you to consider the lighting successful? I think dust may be as big a problem as bugs. Why are you choosing T5's (you do mean T5's don't you, I've never heard of a T8 high bay) over metal halide? For your use I'd think a metal halide fixture might serve you better, easier to seal up tight without the heat management issues that T5's have for less money. One disadvantages of the metal halide is the power cost, how many hours per year do you plan to run these? Is your arena going to be heated? What part of the country are you in? A lighting designer needs more information, no, I haven't run an arena but I do design a lot of lighting.

I am not putting in T5's... It's T8's. They aren't as expensive as T5's, stay cooler, and use half the energy of Metal Halide or HPS. T8's are also instant on and you don't have to wait for tehm to cool for a relight if you turn them off. It is 18 feet to the trusses.

I have Metal halide in my existing barn and am not too happy with them.

forgeblast · Sep 5, 2011

I think farmtek has some indoor lights like your talking about.

ducks13 · Sep 5, 2011

This is what I think you might want to consider

http://www.acuitybrandslighting.com/library/LL/documents/SpecSheets/Enclosed Industrials.pdf

advantages are it will be dust and bug tight, disadvantages are it only holds two lamps and it will distribute the light rather widely compared to a high bay design.

I am not aware of any bug/dust tight fluorescent high bays. Won't dust be a problem sticking to lamps, reflectors and piling up on the top of the lamp reducing your light levels tremendously?

What fixture(s) are you considering and why?

swinewerks · Sep 5, 2011

Orion lighting makes a T8 4 and 6 lamp highbay wet location fixture. It costs more than a standard florescent highbay but you will never have to worry about dust or bugs collecting in the fixture.

http://www.barnliter.com/products/WTAG611W_04SEP08.pdf

ducks13 · Sep 5, 2011

Nice fixture, I'm sure it would serve him well. Thanks for teaching me a little bit more about agricultural lighting.

horsinaround · Sep 6, 2011

swinewerks said:
Orion lighting makes a T8 4 and 6 lamp highbay wet location fixture. It costs more than a standard florescent highbay but you will never have to worry about dust or bugs collecting in the fixture.

http://www.barnliter.com/products/WTAG611W_04SEP08.pdf

Orion is one of the lights I am looking at. Their rep is very knowledgable about ag. applications. Not sure if I need the fully sealed one, or one of the the other ones that they offer. They aren't cheap, but they sure seem like a good light.

Do you have personal experience with them?
Are they quiet? no buzz?
Are they well put together? or junky...
They also offer lots of options. Seems like I might be paying for options I wouldn't use.

grsthegreat · Sep 6, 2011

i have also designed and installed alot of these in the past, and the t5 lights that others have suggested actually work out better in the long run...cause you don't need as many lights. Have your rep do a lumen's per SF comparison. They should have the software to run that for you.
I have software called "Visual" put out by lithonia. I just ran a trial plan 60 x 120 arena 18 foot open ceilings. to get a 30 foot candle result your looking at using 36 - 6 lamp t8 fixtures OR 21 of the 6 lamp t5. The t8 fixtures would cost you 6,912 watts per hour (calculated at 1.15 watt per sq foot) while the t5 fixtures will run you 8,804 watts (or 1.06 watt per sq foot) for the same illumination. I don't know the cost difference between fixtures will be. I do know that the t5's will operate at a lower temp than the t8's. We use the t5 fixtures in unheated buildings here in north Idaho to replace the old 8 foot high output fixtures.

Anyways, just my input. You also have to consider the cost of additional labor to install more lights in the equation.

sailfast · Sep 6, 2011

You will regret going with florescent over a sealed metal halide light in the future.

We had Florescent in our indoor for about 10 years before we replaced them all with metal halide.

16 years with the Metal Halide and our maintenance consists of 1 replacement unit and cleaning the lenses every fall whether they need it or not. Can't remember replacing a bulb in over a year and our arena is in use 6 days a week year around, lights mostly off during the summer but on over 12 hours a day 3 seasons.

1) Bulb changes, too many to replace, too frequently, at too much height

2) bad ballasts
The ballasts would go bad from moisture, dust, and heat
When we were on the 3rd ballast for some of the fixtures we knew they finally had to go.

3) Poor lighting
The color, quantity, and flicker of the lighting was annoying to us

4) Annoyed horses
They knew about a bad ballast before we did....
Don't know if they could see the flicker or hear the ballast but some of the horses were annoyed and some spooky when a ballast was going bad.

5) replacing stuff at 18 feet in the air
We figured out the the best way to get something around in the sand to reach the height was to drive the RV in and climb on the roof. Otherwise we would need to rent a "off road" man lift on nearly a monthly basis.

Just say NO to florescent in your indoor.