The Lamp Room

So, as part of the re-lighting of a local company, I've been installing shitty Aurora 24w circular LED 'things' to replace the 2x 18w downlights (that's what they wanted - I'd have left the fluorescents personally). Some of these original fittings contained emergency inverters, so the new fittings obviously had to have the same. The wholesalers orderd in the lights and conversion packs for them and I go and install. Job done, well, you'd think, right?

So, back to the wholesalers I go today. The next batch of fittings I have to replace there are cut into a plastered ceiling, rather than through suspended ceiling tiles, so I opted to go with a smaller diameter fitting that would fit into the existing holes, to save the hassle of making them bigger. I told the guy I needed emergency packs for these as well. Oh he said, well, the ones you've ordered here are for 6-14w panels, you need a bigger conversion pack for the 18w fittings. I pointed out that they'd ordered me the packs he had on the counter for the 24w fittings I've already started installing. His reply - 'oh'

I asked him to go back through the stuff booked out on the account to see if the previous batch they'd supplied were correct or not, turns out they're not. They are all now installed and I'll have to go rip them all out again. There is nothing on the box to indicate what wattage LED panels these things work with, just a part number. There's also very little information on the conversion pack itself, as it's wrapped in some stupid black plastic 'net' type thing. The incorrect packs do run the fittings in emergency mode, but I'd guess they won't last the 3hr duration they're sposed to. I'd have had a nasty surprise when I run the full 3hr test once the work is completed. It's a pain in the arse tho, as this will now cost my time to go and sort out.

What's the biggest mistake a wholesalers has ever made when you've used them then?

Nope, still trying to even get them to agree to change them over to the correct ones for me!

Going to relight one of my school sports halls in 2012 ripped out THORLUX 8' that were really noisy and completely fucked they had quick start ballasts and some would blow the tubes within a week.
My weapon of choice for the replacements were crompaks 2X70W SS With angle trough reflectors and wire guards for angle reflectors the lot turned up but the guards were for normal reflectors not angle. Had to delay the job until the next end of term!

TBH, it's usually Senate (or Rexel as they now are) who fuck orders up. It's more unusual for them to actually get it right in my local branch, which is why I don't use them much. Plus, it's all Newlec crap in there now anyway.

Best one from the Electric Center was when I ordered my box of 18watt SOX, he wrote it all down, `1 box of 18watt SOX, cash sale`, two weeks later 3 x 35watt turned up........?

Can you measure the forward voltage of the 18W panels ? If it is within the same range as the "..16W" pack is specified for, then the pack would light them fine, for the correct time, just at lower current

Over here, in most conversions i seen one of 3 treatments to the EM issue :

- Leave the EM fittings alone (PL in a row of LED panels)

- No emergency lighting at all (permanent Phase left disconnected, no EM capable luminaires installed)

- Emergency lighting provided by new EM-only lanterns (small LEDs the size of a MR16 or smaller)



There is one wholesaler i go to who doesn't play tricks. When i do jobs i insist to let me purchase the materials myself from him

Peeps here try to get bargains all the time (you do the work, i'll get the materials). In the past i would let them do that. But when they did, they would bring sorta what i asked for but often a "replacement" e.g. cheap Chinese knockoff of the thing i specified (even when i specify exactly what brand i want !), cables that really feel fake once you try to strip them, LED tube T5 lantern instead of FL T5HO lantern, and so on

The biggest screwups with lamps i seen, and thats not in my orders but in things the shops keep in stock normally :

- 125W Mercs sold instead of 160W MBFT's. (The shop owner ordered by picture from a catalog, then the customers with lamps with scratched phosphor and pieces of Quartz rattling inside started coming)

- 12000K lamps ordered instead of ordinary 765's, and sold as 765's. (The 12000K's are Osram and the writing on the sleeves is in Turkish and Arabic, so there is good chance they were shipped to somewhere like Jordan, and then made their way here through the West Bank and the "Triangle")