# Lighting retrofit



## BT Electric (Feb 7, 2014)

Question for you lighting guys
I am putting together an estimate for a small art gallery in a very old building, gallery area is 16 feet wide X 48 feet deep with 12 foot grid ceiling. It currently has 7 T12 troffers with cool white lamps. 
Owner is looking for more light with better color rendition for the paintings but budget is limited. 
Not my usual work so any suggestion would be helpful.


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## Black Dog (Oct 16, 2011)

BT Electric said:


> Question for you lighting guys
> I am putting together an estimate for a small art gallery in a very old building, gallery area is 16 feet wide X 48 feet deep with 12 foot grid ceiling. It currently has 7 T12 troffers with cool white lamps.
> Owner is looking for more light with better color rendition for the paintings but budget is limited.
> Not my usual work so any suggestion would be helpful.


T-5 troffers with 3500 k lamps.


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## V-Dough (Jul 22, 2014)

T-5 3500K is good, but do not neglect CRI. It is one of the most important factors in lighting. I would consider 90 a minimum for any residential or retail application. 95 and above is great. As far as color temperature goes try to match it to a setting. For more modern architecture / public places you can go higher towards daylight. For a warm, welcoming atmosphere stick with 3000 - 3500. 
Troffer lighting is a killer for a gallery. You want highlights on objects/paintings not uniform light distribution throughout the space. But if that's the only way you can go, focus on color quality = CRI.
I hope I was of some help. I love lighting design. If you have any more questions shoot


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## gmihok (Apr 29, 2013)

*Lighting Retrofit*

Swap out the lamps and ballast with new T8 800 series and 4-lamp T8 electronic ballast. 

Parts $ 18.00 ballast
T8 lamps $ 2.5eax4 $ 20.00

85 CRI
around 11,000 lumens


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## JBrzoz00 (Nov 17, 2013)

From what i've seen done florescent light isn't good at lighting art. But if you must, focus on High CRI like V-Dough said. I think a good track with quality MR16s would be perfect, plus it gives the gallery the option to change the track heads around and use different beam spread lamps as they change the art. Artwork is expensive, if the gallery is serious about selling the artwork, they will understand it needs to be lit correctly. Correctly lighted artwork will look completely different when highlighted with the right light.


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## Lighting Retro (Aug 1, 2009)

Curious what you decided to do here. After working on several national accounts like Starbucks, I can see why they decide to use track lighting to light art. Most restaurants do as well. 

I would have probably decided to kit the existing troffers to two lamps with reflector and gone with low wattage T8/835 lamps, and would have liked to have added track for the art. If the troffers were still too much, I would have removed every other one depending on the feel of the space, and the type of art you were presenting.


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## Walkman (Aug 16, 2014)

*If I needed to go cheap I'd think about using 3 rows of 4 lamp T8's (you'd probably have to add several more to get a good coverage) and go with 841 lamps. 

Maybe even switching only 2 lamps at a time in each fixture. (2 ballasts per fixture) Materials would be cheap, just hafta work fast to keep labor reasonable. *


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## BT Electric (Feb 7, 2014)

Customers budget was limited so we went with new 5000K T12 lamps with a CRI of 90+. Customer was satisfied with the result for the cost. It definitely was an improvement over the old cool white lamps!
I showed them some examples of track lighting setups and they were very interested if the business continues to grow as it has been lately. Might get more work there yet!


"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." -Sam Ewing


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## cad99 (Feb 19, 2012)

Nice call on the 5000k's my favorite sorry to hear sticking with the 12's plenty of work down the road


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

BT Electric said:


> Customers budget was limited so we went with new 5000K T12 lamps with a CRI of 90+. Customer was satisfied with the result for the cost. It definitely was an improvement over the old cool white lamps!
> I showed them some examples of track lighting setups and they were very interested if the business continues to grow as it has been lately. Might get more work there yet!
> 
> 
> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." -Sam Ewing


I would be embarrassed. I have not installed a T12 in 10 years or so. You did this customer no favors.


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## Walkman (Aug 16, 2014)

sbrn33 said:


> I would be embarrassed. I have not installed a T12 in 10 years or so. You did this customer no favors.


*They were satisfied for what they paid. That's gotta be worth something doesn't it? *


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

BT Electric said:


> Question for you lighting guys
> I am putting together an estimate for a small art gallery in a very old building, gallery area is 16 feet wide X 48 feet deep with 12 foot grid ceiling. It currently has 7 T12 troffers with cool white lamps.
> Owner is looking for more light with better color rendition for the paintings but budget is limited.
> Not my usual work so any suggestion would be helpful.


I would stay out of the lighting design. Tell them to go and pick out the fixtures and you will install.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Walkman said:


> *If I needed to go cheap I'd think about using 3 rows of 4 lamp T8's (you'd probably have to add several more to get a good coverage) and go with 841 lamps.
> 
> Maybe even switching only 2 lamps at a time in each fixture. (2 ballasts per fixture) Materials would be cheap, just hafta work fast to keep labor reasonable. *



*Cool story, bro.*
:no::no::no:


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## AllWIRES (Apr 10, 2014)

MTW said:


> Cool story, bro. :no::no::no:


:laughing:


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