Eight-foot fluorescent fixtures have been one of the most popular lighting products for warehouses, commercial spaces, and industrial manufacturers for years. While the solid state lighting revolution has transformed a great deal of our indoor and outdoor spaces, the 8-foot fluorescent fixture remains one of the last of the major linear fluorescent fixtures to go LED.
Users often struggle with the decision of when to upgrade these fixtures because they have a stock of the fluorescent tubes that their maintenance teams are comfortable with installing. More importantly, many of the LED upgrade options are either expensive or don’t solve their problems. However, one of the biggest barriers has been the lack of LED options available for upgrades.
That’s all changing! New and innovative LED solutions for 8-foot fixtures are hitting the market, and they’re providing solutions to many of the issues 8-foot fluorescent users have voiced for years.
Let’s take a look at why now is the right time to finally replace your 8-foot fluorescent tubes.
- New 2-piece LED replacement tubes make shipping easier and greatly reduce breakage risks: One of the biggest complaints about 8-foot fluorescent tubes is the breakage that results from shipping these long packages across the country. As a result, many manufacturers have chosen to not produce 8-foot fluorescent tubes or their LED replacements. Lately LED tube makers have begun introducing 4-foot LED tubes and strip fixtures that lock and link together. These 4-foot options allow for much easier and safer packing and shipping.
- Shipping costs are reduced because most, if not all, of the solutions are much smaller (shorter) products that don’t require special shipping: And because these shorter boxes do not require special shipping methods or packaging requirements, the overhead costs associated with shipping 8-foot tubes is significantly reduced.
- No recycling headaches like with fluorescent tubes: By switching to the new LED options, users don’t have to deal with the cost and headaches associated with finding lamp recycling companies that will accept 8-foot tubes for recycling.
- Easier storage: Users of 8-foot fluorescent tubes historically have had to create storage areas for their reserve supply of replacement tubes. Not only are the LED upgrade options longer life, which means fewer replacements are necessary, but by upgrading, especially to the 4-foot linkable tubes, storage areas can be much smaller.
- Eliminates the ballast buzz and flickering: Anyone who has worked with fluorescent tubes knows that eventually the ballasts that operate them fail, and as they fail, they often buzz and cause the lamps to flicker. By upgrading to LEDs, there’s no ballast buzz, and the lights won’t flicker.
- Energy Efficiency: Simply put, it’s time to start benefiting from the energy efficiency of solid state LED upgrades. You could be saving 20-50% on your energy costs.
If you’re currently using 8-foot fluorescent lamps in your facility, there’s no time like the present to finally take the easy steps to upgrade from 8-foot fluorescent lamps to contemporary LED alternatives.
