Donations

The new lighting is now installed in the woodshop. Please be aware these new programmed rapid start ballasts don't instantly turn on. Give them a second after you flip the switch. I've put three spare ballasts in the basement.

Also the tubes will always start dim and brighten up after a minute or two. If you still need more light, every light has a pair of pullchain switches. Each switch turns on an extra pair of bulbs.

Now be aware that we do not want to run all of the bulbs all the time. With the old ceiling lights the room consumed 640w of energy and these new lights consume 1320w with all the bulbs lit. Very expensive.

The energy savings is that with the old lights, each lamp with four bulbs consumed 160w of power. (40w per bulb) with the new lights you only need two bulbs (at 55w each) for the same light output. With only one pair of bulbs lit in each light you only use 110w, saving 50w per lamp and 200w across the room.

Thanks John. That's very considerate of you. I will be back in town in a couple of weeks. We can look at it then.

I have not been able to source more working LED lighting to complete retrofitting the building over however I have been able to secure another seven replacement fluorescent ceiling fixtures.

They are modern High Output boxes that fit in the drop ceilings without modification. They can take two, four or six bulbs each. The lamps and the box of bulbs are currently in the back of the fab shop. I was looking to replace the lighting in the wood shop once things cool down a bit more and then we will have a few leftover either for elsewhere or to recycle for spare parts.

Grant, you and I were talking about my surplus of LED panels that all work but have bad LED drivers. There are two panels for you to evaluate in the fab shop as well.

I also found four more outdoor lamp sockets and 24 feet of plastic conduit so we can add more lighting to the exterior of the building to better light the parking lot as this has been on the TO-DO list for a while. I can supply most of the hardware and LED floodlights, but not the wiring.