[AT] was Quiet list/now energy efficiency

[John Slavin]

John:

I did the same thing at my office.  My secretary’s boyfriend said the plant he works at did the same thing (and that he had done the rewiring) and he volunteered to do the rewiring for my office. He said they started out just replacing the bulbs where the fluorescent bulbs quit working, but were so happy with the LEDs that they went ahead and replaced the bulbs in the whole plant. It requires a bit of rewiring to bypass the ballast which you can then remove.  My fixtures were 4 foot, 4 bulb units.  You also don’t have to install them in pairs like the old fluorescent bulbs.  We found that we only needed two and in some instances one of the LED bulbs, due to the fact that the LEDs are so much brighter.  We got the bulbs from Home Depot.  They are Toggled brand, T8/T12 Direct Wire Ballast Bypass, 16 watt, if anyone is interested.  As John indicated, you just need to make sure to get the ballast bypass bulbs, as not all do that, and half the upgrade is getting rid of those old ballasts!  I believe the ballast bypass bulbs are a bit more expensive than those that use the ballasts, but in my opinion they are well worth it.

I was also having trouble with the old programable thermostat holding the programming.  I thought it was perhaps the batteries, so I replaced them, but that didn’t help.  I replaced the old 1990 era thermostat with an Ecobee 4 smart thermostat that was in a 1 day Amazon sale for around $140.00 (regularly close to $200.00).  It wasn’t a simple drop in, as the old thermostat didn’t have a power wire from the furnace to the thermostat, but with a little rewiring, it wasn’t too bad, and I easily  did it myself with the included instructions (if you consider me on my belly in the basement next to the furnace to do the rewiring where the thermostat wires connect to the furnace control board easy). It’s very easy to use and also controllable with my iPhone.  It includes a sensor that reads the temperature and senses bodies which you can put anywhere, that I put at my secretary’s desk and when it senses she’s present, it averages the main thermostat and her desk temperature readings, which makes it a bit more comfortable for her.  The thermostat is in a hallway and her desk runs a bit cooler, so say the main thermostat says it’s 70 degrees, but her desk may read 67, so this ramps the heat up a bit when she’s present.  I like it a lot.  FYI, this model says it works with Alexa, Amazon’s lady in a tube.  I’m still a bit resistant to adding a device that listens to everything, particularly in my law office, but you have to enable Alexa, which I did not do.  It also works with Apple's HomeKit (and I assume whatever Android uses), which means I can control it anywhere my phone can connect to the internet).  So, for example, I set a vacation override when I was in SoCal during the week of Christmas. With the override, the temp was set for 60 degrees 24/7, rather than the 55 nighttime 70 daytime weekday settings.  I planned on returning to the office on the Friday after Christmas and had ended the vacation override early Friday morning so the office would be warm when I came in.  My flight back from SoCal to KC was delayed and I didn’t get in until the wee hours of Friday morning and decided to stay in KC with my sister.  Since I wasn’t going to get back home until late in the day Friday, I decided to stay over the weekend in KC.  I simply went into the app and change the vacation override to end on Monday morning.  A few instances like that will quickly pay for the thermostat.

So I’m feeling totally energy efficient now!

John S.


> Made the mistake of switching the farm shop to LED bulbs, now I can 
> actually see what a mess the place was/is so I'm spending a little time 
> trying to get it clean before I dive into a big project.
> 
> FWIW, I installed 8' LED bulbs in the original fluorescent fixtures, 
> used the kind that do not need the ballast (that was the problem with 
> most of those 40 year old lights). Put in 36 or 38 bulbs--its as bright 
> as sunshine, maybe brighter.
> 
> John Hall
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