At many facilities, when a lamp burns out, all the following steps are taken as part of spot relamping. A technician determines the lamp type, possibly by a visit to the site, gets a lamp, carries a ladder to the site, opens the fixture, replaces the lamps and then arranges for disposal.
“Replacing one lamp takes time for a worker to get up there, and depending on where the lamp is located, it could also require special equipment,” explains Chris Baird, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for manufacturer HyLite LED, LLC. “In some situations, building owners may have to rent a lift to relamp certain areas, and they especially would want to relamp in large groups so that they only have to rent a lift at that one point in time vs. every time a few lamps fail.”
Replacement Options
One option is spot relamping — setting up routes throughout facilities and assign a technician to replace burned out bulbs at regular intervals so light levels don’t drop before the end of lamp life. Among the problems with this process is it involves a great deal of travel time and can be very costly, since no one knows exactly when a lamp will burn out.
Second option is planned group relamping — replacing all lamps in an area when the average lamp reaches 70 percent of its performance life. While perhaps a bit counterintuitive, doing so greatly reduces labor wasted on spot relamping, reduces workplace disruption and better controls lamp disposal. Lamps are replaced (usually during off hours) as they approach about 60 to 70 percent of their rated lives, which is when roughly 10 percent may have burned out and before failure rates begin to climb.
Group relamping offers significant saving in time and labor costs over spot replacing failed lamps. Regularly scheduled maintenance based on projected lamp life and lumen depreciation keeps a lighting system functioning at its maximum by replacing all lamps at their economic life. Since workers change all lamps in an area at one time, they can clean and, if needed, re-ballast during lamp replacement, saving a great deal of time setting up, bringing materials to and from the job, and handling ladders and scaffolding.
Benefits of Group Relamping
Group relamping lets building owners take advantage of economies of scale by ordering more lamps at once and allowing crews to set up for one large project instead of multiple small ones. Replacing lamps before they fail may seem wasteful, but the lamps that still have some life left may come in handy. Hold back a few of the lamps that have some life still in them so that if any of the new lamps have premature failure, you have a used lamp that you can put in.
Group relamping offers other advantages besides lower labor costs. Lamp-storage costs also are lower because lamps are not part of the in-house inventory. Managers know in advance when an area will be relamped and can order lamps to arrive just in time, reducing inventory costs.
This method also keeps lighting levels closer to required levels, which promotes higher productivity and lowers fatigue due to stress.
Another benefit of group relamping is managers can schedule it for off-hours, when the activity is least likely to disrupt normal facility operations.
Relamping Time Interval
One of the major reasons for early relamping was that fluorescent lamp lumen output dropped significantly over time . Because such a drop in output could affect productivity, sales and safety (each of which is worth a lot more than lamps), it always makes sense to maintain light levels.
While lamp lives vary, group relamping cycles for linear fluorescent lamps are often spaced about 4 to 5 years apart. That calculation is based on a typical 20,000-hour-lamp lifetime which is when (by definition) 50 percent of lamps will have burned out. At 70 percent of that time, for example, and 3,000 annual burn hours, a cycle of 4.7 years can be derived. LEDs boast even better lumen maintenance and exceptionally long life, as claimed theoretical lifespan could be last 12 to 15 years but practical average lifespan is only 5 years due to driver’s weakness.
When considering a group relamping contract or internal project, a facility’s mix of lamp types and their characteristics are important parameters for calculating the right relamping cycle period. Many lighting maintenance contractors will, in their proposals, provide an economic analysis to compare existing spot relamping efforts with group relamping in order to show dollar savings on labor and disposal. When making such comparisons, it pays to look closely at the numbers.
The Duties of Relamper
Relamping is a special category of electrical work, often used as a starting point for on-the-job training of electrician apprentices or those seeking an apprentice training program as a career path. Depending on the size of the facility and complexity of the lighting system, the position might be full-time for one or more relampers.
Technicians must gain a basic understanding of electricity before actually working on power-distribution systems. Relampers must know the different lamps and their applications, and they must be able to keep track of lamp inventory and use rates. They also prepare requisitions to replace lamp supplies for approval by supervisors. They also need to keep lamp carts full of the necessary assortment of lamps and tools for building and outside area lamping.
Relamping in large groups, like a whole floor or even the whole building, one or two workers using a lift may spend a great deal of time / cost changing lamps in high overhead fixtures. Technicians also are required to lift heavy fixtures, climb ladders and work on scaffolds and structural steel when required. To improve working efficiency of group Re-lamping, ballast / driver should functioned auto Re-lamping in order to restart lamps without resetting power.
