High Bay Fluorescent for Arena

[horsinaround]

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.

Thanks for the input and I appreciate it... So you have had Metal Halide for 16 years? Does that mean that your fluorescent experience was prior to that? My understanding is that technology has come a long way in the past 10 years. If I understand your comments, you are talking fluorescent technology at least 20 years old. Ballasts are now electronic and "buzz free". Bulbs are rated for 20,000 hours. Believe me, I don't want to make the wrong choice. That is why I solicit input. Did you go with a budget fluorecent and a commercial MH? or commercial with both? I have bought the budget fluorescent lights and not been pleased. The key is to get the best ballast money can buy. The same is true of the MH.

 

[grsthegreat]

New electronic florescent ballast are pretty much trouble free. I have installed LOTS of them end have had little problems. Electronic ballast dont hum. The olf hi bay t12 high output buzzed like a chain saw.

I have metal halide 1000 w and 250 watt on my outdoor arena and they have also been trouble free. One thing to note is metal halide lights will degrade in output over time.....down to less than 50% of their output over time. Florescent does not. Just for kick and giggles i ran the same senerio with my software with 400 watt metal halide lights and 30 foot candles overall lighting. Youll need 21 fixtures and will use 1.31 watts per sq foot power with basic open glass reflector high bays. If you upgrade to a reflector high bay you can cut it down to 15 fixtures and 0.95 watt per sq foot, but the price per fixture goes up alot. Good thing is you can find alot of these around on ebay and such USED from all the home depots and lowes throughout the country that have dumped these for florescent high bays. Ive sold alot of them myself over the years.

 

[swinewerks]

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.

I'm an electrical contractor and we primarily use Orion fixtures for retrofits. The new electronic ballasts have little to no hum. Their sealed fixtures are some of the best built in the industry. Contact a factory rep for your specific application, you most likely will need to go with one if their low bay fixtures for your 18' ceiling height.

 

[horsinaround]

I'm an electrical contractor and we primarily use Orion fixtures for retrofits. The new electronic ballasts have little to no hum. Their sealed fixtures are some of the best built in the industry. Contact a factory rep for your specific application, you most likely will need to go with one if their low bay fixtures for your 18' ceiling height.

I have been working with one of their reps. He recommended the EP series high bay fixture, with the slide in cover, not the ones with the hinged cover. The hinged cover ones are about $35 more per light. Seems like Orion are about the most expensive out their. I am trying to see if there is a reason.

 

[swinewerks]

I know they have a pretty good warranty on ballasts. They also have a patented reflector that really gets the light to the ground. We did a comparison in our shop area and the Orion fixtures put about 30% more lumens to the ground vs a competitors 4 lamp model. Geez I'm sounding like a salesman

 

[5030]

The electronic ballasted T8's are turnkey. My employer just upgraded from Metal Halide's to 6 tube polished reflector T8's and the lighting inside the building is a spectacular difference. I like them so much I upgraded my personal shop as well. I'm impressed and much less costly to run compared to MH. I had low bays in my personal shop and the ballast hum drove me bonkers.

Arena dust might be a problem on naked arrays. Don't have any idea. My employer's are naked (open) and mine are lensed with diffusers

 

[ducks13]

I'm curious, what is the price for the Oiion fixture?

 

[horsinaround]

I'm curious, what is the price for the Oiion fixture?

The price is really dependent on what you get... cover/no cover, number of ballasts, type of tube, wiring options, hanging options. It is really hard to get to an apples to apples comparison between mfg's just looking at pictures on the internet and whatever cut sheets they will send. What I am looking at with 6 good tubes and a cover in a 4 foot fixture is just about $200. You can get a 6 tube fluorescent for ~110. They are not the same.

 

[wolfe1]

I would encourage you to look at 4" LED's - last 4 times as long, no ballast required, no flicker, instant on, and half the power consumption. Depending on the number of bulbs the ROI can be less than a year. They have come a long way in color and temp -

 

[drssg]

I will put in T8 High Bay fluorescent fixtures. Should I get a lense to keep the dust out of them?

We don't have covers on ours, and they have been fine. About the only time I think about it is when we occasionally have the family's kids over. If it's raining outside, they end up playing ball and running around in the indoor arena. I have to remind them to watch out for the lights, because I don't want shattered glass.

FWIW, we have fixtures with two tubes, I believe they are 8' long, and each bulb is 90 watts. They work fine, but I believe there are more energy-efficient options these days.