The LED retrofit guide
Everything a lighting salesman would rather explain over the phone, written down where you can check it
No pitch in this one. This is the teaching page. If you read it and then hire somebody else, you will at least know which questions to ask them. Dmitry Naboka, Master Electrician #13824, 14 years in the trade.
Chapter 1
Where the watts actually go
A four lamp T8 troffer, today
- Four T8 tubesthe part you can see
- Electronic ballastits cut, plus heat
- Total at the panel110 W to 132 W
- T12 on magnetic144 W to 192 W
The same opening, after
- LED tubes on the old ballastabout 70 W
- LED tubes, ballast removedabout 60 W
- New LED panel40 W to 55 W
- Light aimed down, not aroundmore of it lands on the floor
The three conversion paths on one four lamp opening
Leave the ballast in, tube swap
70 W a fixture
Fastest. The ballast is still drawing and still going to fail.
Pull the ballast, wire the sockets direct
60 W a fixture
One more hour a fixture. Nothing left in there to fail.
New fixture, one for one
40 to 55 W a fixture
Best light and best optics. Highest price.
From 110 to 132 W. Your ballast factor decides which end you are on.
T12 on magnetics to a new LED fixture
71 to 79%
less power a fixture
From 144 to 192 W down to 40 to 55 W. The widest honest gap in commercial lighting, and the reason T12 buildings are the easiest ones to quote.
| Existing tech | Efficient end | Least efficient end | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| T12, magnetic ballast | 36 W a lamp, 144 W on a four lamp | 48 W a lamp, 192 W on a four lamp | Sourced at four lampGreat Lakes Energy lighting wattage guideUSDA Forest Service fluorescent retrofit study |
| T8, electronic ballast | 27.5 W a lamp, 110 W on a four lamp | 33 W a lamp, 132 W at high ballast factor | Sourced at four lampGreat Lakes Energy lighting wattage guide |
| T5HO | 60 W a lamp | 65 W a lamp | I have not verified this one and I flag it in the calculator |
| Metal halide, 400 W lamp | about 458 W system | up to 465 W system | Lamp catalogueHalco HID lamp catalogHalco EMHID ballast catalog |
| High pressure sodium, 400 W lamp | about 465 W system | about 480 W system | Lamp catalogueHalco HID lamp catalog |
Six and eight lamp fixtures are a proportional estimate. Here is exactly how the calculator handles what it does not know.
No primary table found, so it is labelled an estimate
Not quietly scaled and passed off as sourced
Not sure what you have? It uses the T8 worst case, 132 W
Under promise, never over.
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Chapter 2
A tube throws light in a circle. Your floor is not a circle.
This is the single most useful thing to understand, because it is why a lower wattage fixture can put more light on the ground and why comparing tube lumens to tube lumens misleads you.
Fluorescent radiates 360 degrees
A share of the output fires up into the inside of the fixture, bounces off a reflector that is now thirty years old and dusty, and a chunk of it never leaves. What you paid for and what reaches the floor are two different numbers.
Green Light Connexions effective lumens paperLED is directional from the start
The boards face down. Less of the output is spent lighting the inside of your fixture. That is why a 50 W panel can beat a 110 W troffer on delivered light instead of just matching it.
So ask for foot candles on the floor, not lumens on a box
Any honest lighting proposal tells you the target light level for the task and how it will be measured. IES publishes recommended levels by space type. I meter the before number on every job so the after number means something.
IES recommended light levels compilationChapter 3
What a ballast is, and why you are paying either to keep it or remove it
It regulates current to the lamps
A fluorescent tube on its own would draw current until it destroyed itself. The ballast limits it. That is the whole job. It also runs warm, and warm electronics age.
It is the part that fails, not the tube
Call it 60,000 hours. On a shop at 3,650 hours a year that is a service call on the calendar whether you planned it or not. Add the lamps at roughly 24,000 hours each and you can price out your own maintenance without me.
USDA Forest Service fluorescent retrofit studyWhich is why the cheap retrofit is a decision, not a discount
Type A leaves the ballast in. You save less power and you keep the part that was going to break. That is a legitimate choice on a building you are selling in two years. It is a bad choice on one you are keeping. I will install either, I just will not call them the same product.
And on 347 V it may not be your choice at all
On 347 V it may not be your choice at all.
Over 150 V to ground
Disconnect and reconnect it and STANDATA 24-ECB-030 calls it a new luminaire
New luminaire means disconnecting means required
The bulletin extends that to energy conservation retrofits
Most commercial buildings here are 347 V.
And the fixture has to be relabelled either way
Field modifying a certified luminaire voids its certification. That is a code based argument for replacement, not a preference.
CSA C22.2 No. 250.1Alberta STANDATA 24-ECB-002Chapter 4
Life, fade, and the number that is actually on the spec sheet
| Term | What it means | Why you care |
|---|---|---|
| L70 | 70 percent of original output remaining | The honest way to state LED life. A curve, not a death date. |
| 50,000 hours | The hour count that L70 is quoted at on most commercial product | At 3,650 hours a year that is about 13 years before you are at 70 percent. |
| Lumen depreciation on fluorescent | The same fade, rarely published | Your eyes track down with the room, so nobody notices until somebody meters it. |
| Mean lumens on HID | Average output across the lamp life, not the initial rating | Probe start metal halide holds about 64 percent of its initial rating and pulse start about 77. Sizing an LED against the initial number oversizes it.Green Light Connexions effective lumens paperHalco HID lamp catalog |
A 400 W metal halide, initial rating against what the room gets
Initial rating on the box
36,000 lm probe start, 42,000 lm pulse start
What a quote uses when nobody is checking which one you have.
Probe start, in service
about 64 percent of its own rating, near 23,000 lm
What the room is really getting a year or two in.
Pulse start, in service
about 77 percent of its own rating, near 32,000 lm
These mean figures are what I size the LED against.
Size on the initial rating and you buy an LED that is too big and costs too much.
This is why I meter the room before I quote it. If your warehouse was designed for 30 foot candles and it is sitting at 12, the fair comparison is not old watts against new watts. It is what you are actually getting against what you are actually paying for.
Dmitry Naboka, Master Electrician #13824, 14 years in the tradeChapter 5
Cold, flicker, hum, and the reasons that never show up on a bill
Cold kills fluorescent output
Lighting Research Center 2x4 thermal studyInstant on, no strobe, no buzz
No warm up. No flicker under a spinning chuck, which is a genuine safety point in a machine shop, not a marketing one. No hum over a quiet office. This is the part people comment on after the job and it is not on the savings calculation anywhere.
Colour temperature, pick it once
4000 K for offices, hallways and retail. 5000 K for warehouses, shops and yards. Showrooms want high colour rendering so paint reads true, which is a different spec entirely. HPS sits around CRI 20 to 24, which is why everything in an old lot looks orange.
IES recommended light levels compilationChapter 6
Controls, where the extra savings actually hide
And the rule that keeps this honest. Control savings apply to the load that is left after the fixtures are changed, never on top of it. Adding the two percentages together is how a lighting quote ends up promising more savings than the building uses.
Occupancy sensors in low traffic aisles
Back racking, mezzanines, storage rooms, parkades, stairwells. Anywhere the lights are on because nobody wants to walk in the dark, not because work is happening.
Daylight harvesting near skylights and glazing
A row of fixtures under a skylight running at full output at noon in June is money burning. This is the cheapest control win in most Alberta warehouses.
Zone switching, which is often just wiring
Sometimes the fix is not a sensor at all, it is that the whole shop is on two switches. Splitting the zones costs less than sensors and gets used every day.
Chapter 7
What happens to the old stuff, and why it is legally your problem
Your old ballasts might be hazardous waste and they are legally yours
Magnetic ballasts made before 1980 are PCB waste, Class 9 UN2315, and the building owner is legally responsible for them. I count them, photograph the labels, manifest them, and route them through Aevitas in Edmonton under EPEA approval 134-05-00.
The Certificate of Recycling goes in your turnover package. Tubes are mercury, and the commercial Eco Station fee is $1.00 a tube. The Eco Station will not take PCB ballasts from a business at all.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, PCB rules for electrical contractorsAlberta PCB checklistAevitas Edmonton, EPEA approval 134-05-00Edmonton Eco Station accepted items and feesTubes are mercury
They go to the Eco Station on the commercial fee schedule, a dollar a tube. Box them as they come down, do not stack them behind the building.
Edmonton Eco Station accepted items and feesAsk for the paperwork, from anybody
Whoever does your retrofit, ask what happens to the ballasts and ask for the manifest. If the answer is vague, that material is going somewhere you do not want your building name attached to. I put the Certificate of Recycling in the turnover package as a matter of course.
Aevitas Edmonton, EPEA approval 134-05-00Straight answers
Six questions from the guide
How much power does a four lamp fluorescent troffer actually use?
On a normal ballast factor electronic ballast
110
W
And up to, on a high ballast factor one
132
W
Same fixture, same four tubes, 20 percent apart.
Older T12 on a magnetic ballast
is 144 W on the energy saving version and 192 W on a standard one
The tubes are only part of it. The ballast takes its cut and throws the rest off as heat.
What does L70 at 50,000 hours mean?
It means the fixture is expected to still deliver 70 percent of its original light output after 50,000 hours of use. It is a published depreciation curve, not a failure point. Fluorescent has the same fade and nobody publishes it, which is why a shop can be at half its design light level and everyone has stopped noticing.
Type A, Type B or Type C. Which LED tube should I use?
Type A runs on your existing ballast, so it is the fastest and the cheapest, and the ballast stays in there drawing power and waiting to fail. Type B removes the ballast and rewires the sockets, which is more labour and leaves nothing behind to break. Type C uses a remote driver, which is the most labour for the least gain over Type B on a retrofit. On 347 V, STANDATA 24-ECB-030 pushes you toward a complete new fixture instead of any of the three.
Do LED tubes work with occupancy sensors?
Usually, but compatibility depends on the specific tube and the specific sensor, and the manufacturers publish that. I check the product data before I order rather than after the sensor starts chattering.
Is 4000 K or 5000 K better?
4000 K where people sit and work, so offices, hallways and retail. 5000 K where you want contrast and alertness, so warehouses, shops, yards and parkades. Showrooms are a separate conversation because you are buying colour rendering, not colour temperature.
Why does cold matter in Edmonton?
Open fluorescent fixtures lose a large share of their output at low temperature. Loading docks, unheated shops, cold storage, parkades. If your dock has been getting dimmer every winter that is not the tubes wearing out, that is physics. LED runs slightly more efficiently cold.
Next step
Now put your own building in
The calculator uses every table on this page. It gives you a range instead of a number, and it shows you every assumption with the source beside it.
I do the walkdown myself. I meter a fixture, count what is actually up there, read your municipal lighting bylaw before I show up, and hand you a written scope with the option prices side by side. No pressure, and no rebate that does not exist.
Dmitry Naboka, Master Electrician #13824, 14 years in the tradeNext step
Book the walkdown
Free. About an hour.You get a written scope with the option prices side by side.
What I measure while I am there
- 1
I count the fixtures
- 2
I meter one
- 3
I read your municipal lighting bylaw before I show up
- 4
I confirm your supply voltage
- 5
I hand you a written scope with the option prices side by side
Every table on this page came from doing exactly this on real buildings.
Booked. I have your number.
I will call you within 24 hours to set the time. If you want it sooner, call or text me at (780) 904-3462.