# Northwest Lighting Retrofit Kits



## NolaTigaBait (Oct 19, 2008)

Anyone use those retrofit kits for the 8 ' 2 lamp strips that converts to (4) 4' lamps?...I installed about 30 of em so far...They are kinda crappy, but faster and cheaper than changing the whole strip. I got the ballast and the brackets with new shunted sockets for 26 a piece.


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## Innovative (Jan 26, 2010)

I have used those kits before..... they seem to work well, with most fixtures. We have had a problem with some brands of older fixtures tho. The price you are paying for them seems a little bit high. I charge 30.33 per kit, so that tells me I pay 19.70 per kit ( 19.70 x 1.54 ) I sell these kits when people dont want to spring for a new fixture at 68.00 each. The labor works out about the same, but the material is close to 1/2.


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## NolaTigaBait (Oct 19, 2008)

Innovative said:


> I have used those kits before..... they seem to work well, with most fixtures. We have had a problem with some brands of older fixtures tho. The price you are paying for them seems a little bit high. I charge 30.33 per kit, so that tells me I pay 19.70 per kit ( 19.70 x 1.54 ) I sell these kits when people dont want to spring for a new fixture at 68.00 each. The labor works out about the same, but the material is close to 1/2.


It seemed like I had to rig every one up...The holes didn't line p for the belly plates and on the older ones, they didn;t fit well at all....


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

NolaTigaBait said:


> It seemed like I had to rig every one up...The holes didn't line p for the belly plates and on the older ones, they didn;t fit well at all....


Belly plate? Is that a regional term or is that what that part is really called? I've never really heard that before. I usually just call it "the cover".


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## Buck Parrish (May 7, 2009)

We call it belly plate in NC, too.


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## NolaTigaBait (Oct 19, 2008)

MDShunk said:


> Belly plate? Is that a regional term or is that what that part is really called? I've never really heard that before. I usually just call it "the cover".


I guess...sometimes I just call it a cover also.


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## Innovative (Jan 26, 2010)

Depending on the design of the existing fixture, we have had to use some tek screws to mount some of the pieces. They claim it is universal, but there are some many different types of 8' dbl strips from over the years there is no way their kit can fit them all. They do fit perfectly in some of the newer 8' fixtures we retrofitted.


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

NolaTigaBait said:


> Anyone use those retrofit kits for the 8 ' 2 lamp strips that converts to (4) 4' lamps?...I installed about 30 of em so far...They are kinda crappy, but faster and cheaper than changing the whole strip. I got the *ballast and* the brackets with new shunted sockets for 26 a piece.


Does it specify what ballast you get or do you get whatever lowest bid ballast it can get from its supplier? Getting a generic ballast like ordering a boat or a car with a generic engine.


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## NolaTigaBait (Oct 19, 2008)

Electric_Light said:


> Does it specify what ballast you get or do you get whatever lowest bid ballast it can get from its supplier? Getting a generic ballast like ordering a boat or a car with a generic engine.


It was the American Ballast brand...None have been bad so far:jester:...

Innovative: I had to tek screw every bracket kit to the old strips...They were older fixtures, but they claim to be universal and they really aren't.


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## Innovative (Jan 26, 2010)

Alot of the fixtures we retofitted were newer (5 or 6 years old) those fit perfectly. The older fixtures, not so much.
The ballasts are generic, but have had 0 failures and have installed about 200 of them.
The onlt T8 electronic ballasts I have seen mass failures with have been Sylvannia's dimming ballasts, when they first came out. Since then the failure rate seems to be less then 2% after 5 years. This is based on a sample size of over 10,000 ballasts.
We normally use GE ballasts when we supply them.


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## Lighting Retro (Aug 1, 2009)

these guys have some good retrofit kits

www.fleco.com

The 8' strips will typically come in 4.25" wide or 5" wide. We mostly 4.25" kits, but stock some universals for the older style "wide" body ones if we are not replacing them. You can have the option of new belly pan or reflectors with each. When they don't line up, it can be a major pain. 

Ideally they should be able to be installed with just quarter turns once the brackets are tek screwed to the strip bodies.


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