Do you have a broken or outdated glass shade you are looking to replace? Changing the glass shades on your fixtures may seem fairly straight-forward, however, there are a few important details to consider; shade dimensions and holder type.
 
How do I determine the size of my glass shade?
There are three measurements you should gather to find the correct glass shade for your fixture: fitter size, width and height.
 
First, measure the fitter size. What’s the fitter, you may ask? It is the lip which is inserted into the fixture’s shade holder to keep it in place. To get this dimension, measure the inner diameter of the shade holder. This number will be slightly smaller than the fitter size so it can sit inside the shade holder. The most common diameters for shade holders are 2 1/4", 3 1/4", 4", 6", 10" and 12".
 
Next, measure the width across the widest part of the shade, which may be the top, middle or bottom – depending on the shade type and style.
 
Last, measure the height from the base of the fitter lip to the bottom of the shade.

​What type of holder do I have?
Now that you’ve determined the dimensions of your glass shade, you’ll have to figure out if your shade holder is a fixture, also known as lip type, or straight type.

​Washtenaw County Road Commission recently worked with Lighting Supply to upgrade their intersection lighting to LED and the project results were exceptional.  The new LEDs save more than 60% of energy costs which is a utilities savings of about $10,500 per year. Including maintenance and product costs, this translates to $75,000 per year or about $480,000 over the life of the bulbs. That’s about a half a million dollars that can be reallocated to other road projects!
 
“Lighting Supply worked with us on trying to find the best product for our solution and provided the data that us engineers really thrive on and those numbers and charts really helped us understand how much better of a product we would get,” commented Jeff Young, a Washtenaw County Signal Operations Engineer.
 
Washtenaw County will not only save on energy, but they will also see dramatic savings in maintenance costs. The new LEDs will last about 11 years, compared to 2-3 years with the old technology – that’s over 1,900 bulb changes eliminated!
 
“If you’re thinking about holding off on a project because you don’t have current funding, my recommendation would be to get with Lighting Supply. They’ll run through the numbers, specifications, and different manufacturers and really narrow it down on your return on investment. That really brought a lot of light to me and this project,” Young added.
 
Interested in how a lighting upgrade can work for you? Check out the video below to hear more about this case study. For further information or to speak with a representative about upgrading your current lighting, give us a call at 877.231.2852 or email us here.