The picture below shows that the light is cast downward at the back of the display, but it would be more useful if it were to be toward the front of the display.
The next 2 pictures were taken after I changed the ballast and lamps to use T-8 lamps (1" diameter).
I then mounted the fixture on a board that cast the light downward, instead of forward.
This change raised the lighting level to 145 Foot Candles, a 140% increase.
The picture below, shows that I bent a piece of aluminum and placed it over the board that
holds the fixture. This helps cast the light downward, and not upward, or sideways.
This brightened the display to 227 Foot Candles, a 57% increase. The combination of ballast change,
relamping, and shielding, yielded a total improvement of 278%.
Conclusion: Shielded fixtures are about twice as effective as unshielded ones. T-8 fixtures are
about twice as bright as T-12's. A shielded T-8 fixture is about 4 times as effective as an unshielded T-12.
Another example: The Picture below shows a display with 2 separate unshielded T-8 fixtures.
The fixture on the left only had 1 working lamp. Much of the light was cast upward on the walls.
The working fixture had a 122 Foot Candle reading at the top of the displayed materials.
Adding the shield, raised the reading to 171 Foot Candles, a 41% improvement.
The picture below shows the display with the fixture relamped, and a crude aluminum shield placed over the fixture.
The light is now cast downward on the display, and not upward on the wall.
I wanted to see if a 23 Watt Fluorescent floodlight was as bright as a 120 Watt incandescent Floodlight (as advertised).
The recessed light fixture is 12 feet above the floor. I used a light meter to obtain the Foot Candle readings shown.
The first picture shows the reading of the incandescent Floodlight. The second picture shows the reading of the
Fluorescent floodlight. The Fluorescent flood lacks the intensity to highlight products.
I purchased a $45 "Ecosmart" 18 Watt single LED floodlight. The light meter reading was 10 Foot Candles, less than 1/2
of the Fluorescent floodlight. The lack of light output renders it unsuitable to highlight any
product displayed, when this type of lamp is mounted any distance from its intended target.
The 2 pictures below, show a display with 2 separate fluorescent fixtures.
Both fixtures have shields to cast the light downward to highlight the displayed materials. Both
fixtures had T-12 ballasts and lamps. The fixture on the left had a bad ballast, and I changed it
to a T-8 ballast and lamps. The fixture on the right kept its T-12 ballast and lamps.
The fixture on the left with the T-8 ballast has a lighting level of 305 Foot Candles
at the top of the display, with the right T-12 fixture level at 160 Foot Candles.
Lighting an unlit display
The following pictures show a window blind display. I suspended a 4 Foot 2 lamp T-8 fluorescent fixture behind
each display. The lamps are approximately 12 inches behind the opaque back. The first picture shows the display unlit.
The The next 3 show the display with the blinds open and closed. The last picture shows the mounting of the lights.
Replacing an incandescent Flood
