In my view, T5 adaptors are generally speaking ‘miss sold’. In the push to get a quick sale, the adaptor is often described as being ‘plug and play’. The suggestion being that anyone can install an adaptor and that it’s as simple as changing the fluorescent tube and installing a replacement starter.
As a result of this perception, I had a fairly heated discussion with a client that I have a huge amount of respect for. The client in question wanted an installation price for a large building. In total more than 5,000 of our T5 adaptors will be required.
We gave the client a guideline price per unit and advised that the price could only be confirmed after a site survey by the installation company that we were recommending. In this case the company that we were recommending for the job was EMS Ltd – who have just won ‘Electrical contractor of the year’ for the second year in succession.
The client wasn’t happy – he explained in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t consider paying that much ‘for a tube change’.
Somewhat aggrieved, we pointed out that it wasn’t ‘tube change’, but a complete overhaul of the light fitting, removing the power factor correction capacitor, renewing wiring and replacing the lamp holders were necessary, as well as installing the T5 adaptor, new T5 tube and starter and cleaning the diffuser before refitting it.
His reply cut straight to the point – as usual! “You didn’t tell me the quote was to refurbish the fitting – that makes more sense – still too bloody expensive though!”
We still don’t know whether or not this particular job will go ahead. But that’s not really the point.
When installed professionally, the light fitting is effectively ‘refurbished’. The end result is a light fitting that should go on to provide years of maintenance free life.
There is no reason why a fitting that has been properly refurbished shouldn’t last 30 – 35,000 hours before a tube change is required. That’s between 6 and 7 years if the lights are used for 14 hours a day every day of the year.
We monitor the failure rate of our T5 adaptors. At the moment the national failure rate is less than 1%. We think that this is a pretty good percentage – but we are constantly looking for ways to reduce it even further.
So, having had the discussion with the client about the benefits of ‘refurbishment’, we had a look to see if we could find any hard evidence to support our view that this was the better and ultimately more cost effective option.
The starting point was our failure log. What we have found is that the failure rate is at its lowest when the T5 conversion was carried out by a good installation company or a competent electrician who has been briefed properly.
In many cases the failure rate is zero.
The evidence we have is encouraging – but we can’t suggest that it is conclusive. We now need to look at the failures to see if there is a correlation between the failure rate and how the T5 adaptors were fitted.
Whilst we look into this, if you are looking for an excellent electrical installation company in the greater London area, I can highly recommend EMS Ltd – Chris Allum is the managing Director, ably assisted by Crispian Lorford and the rest of the team.
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