Fluorescent Lighting in a new shop

[Guest]

I have signed the deal to get my new insulated pole barn built. The contractor is doing the shell, insulation and concrete, and I am doing utilities and site prep.

I found a craigslist ad for fluorescent fixtures with each having (4) F34 bulbs in them. They look like they come from a suspended ceiling installation. (Track Mounted)

Is there any problem drilling holes in them, if needed and convert them to chain hung? Even if they where in the suspended ceiling track, they would have needed additional support, would they not?

Any chance that there is something uncommon about them like being 277V? Do I need to open one up to tell if its 120/240, will the ballast say?

Thanks

[cndamm]

Will you be able to get bulbs in the future? I just got rid of all my fluorescents and replaced them with LEDs. I couldn't buy 8' T12s anymore.

[EatenByLimestone]

I'd go led too.

[MsNomer]

LED. Don't even consider fluorescent even if they're free.

[Guest]

All good points I hadn't thought through. Was looking for cheap solution to near future problem.

Wisdom of all accepted.
Thank you

[Robert Adams]

Yup like mentioned pass on them. At a minimum go with 4' t8 quick start fixtures. They will last forever as they are industry standard. You can put led bulbs straight into them as is or gut the ballast and run bulbs that run off of 110v. There are some 4' led replacements available now that will run off of anything you feed them. (Ballast or 110 up to 277)

[EricU]

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to go led without spending too much in my basement re-do. Right now I have a dropped ceiling, but that makes the ceiling very low. So I'm going with drywall. The Borgs still have mostly fluorescent, I guess old habits die hard

at work, our fixtures are running off of 3 phase, but they are 120v. Of course, they just cleverly paid a contractor big bucks to put in new fluorescent lights. Less light to save energy. You would think that a large research university would have a staff that understood tech trends, but you would be wrong.

I imagine that most of the old fixtures are going direct to scrap metal places now

[EatenByLimestone]

Sam's club, Costco, etc have shop fixture 4ft LEDs fo cheap.

[Robert Adams]

EatenByLimestone said:

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Sam's club, Costco, etc have shop fixture 4ft LEDs fo cheap.

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Yup however they are disposable units. If the leds die etc you replace the whole fixture. Still they are good for the price.

However you can buy T8 replacements at sams for $10 a bulb. They are drop in replacements and use the ballast for power. Costco has them as well but they are about 50% higher in price.
These in any cheap t8 fixture make for a cheap combo. If you have menards or somewhere that has cheap fixtures you can do them cheaper than the disposable units and be able to upgrade and replace bulbs in the future.

[jteneyck]

The 4 ft LED tubes that are direct replacements for fluorescent tubes work ONLY with electronic ballasts, not the old style I had in my fixtures. I tried one and it was a no go. At that point, I tore them down and replaced them with LED fixtures from Sam's club at something like $35 for a 2 bulb fixture.

John