HVAC/ UV-light question

My UV-C light went out and when they came to replace the bulb, told me the system was shot and needed to be replaced.

They offered me two options; one for $595 and one for $1495. Both sounded ridiculously high for a glorified backlight to me (I know, I know).

So I started googling and found one of them for sale online for $200. It looks ridiculously easy to "install," especially since I already have one in there.

Questions:

1) Is it? (ridiculously easy to install, so that even I wouldn't screw it up?)

2) If I got one (Fresh-Aire UV TUB-BTER2-OS or TUV-BTST2-OS), which one would I get? One says it is low voltage power supply (the first one); the other, high voltage power supply. The existing one simply plugs into a normal 110 outlet mounted next to the HVAC return.

Found the manual for the existing one. Not sure if any of these things answer my question about whether low voltage or high voltage is the right one, but this one is....

120 volts
0.5 amps
60 Hz
30 Watts

Does that tell me if it is low voltage or high voltage?

Heck, I can just replace the existing one for about $160. Man...

Have you answered all your questions yet???


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Well, I think so. I'm pretty sure it's low voltage (but somebody stop me if I'm wrong).

The only other question (for now) that I have, I also think I know the answer to. One of the UV-C lights comes where you wire it into your electrical system. But couldn't I just put a plug on it instead, and plug it into the adjacent AC outlet? That would be more convenient (and for me, a lot safer).

**Nevermind--all questions answered now.**

I'm just replacing it with one I found online, with a little more power, but everything else exactly the same. Assuming I don't screw up taking the existing screws out and plugging it in, I just saved about $430. Yay!

Nice talking to you, glad I could help.

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Originally Posted by blueboss

Nice talking to you, glad I could help.

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Lol. I had you at the ready when needed.

It just made sense to me to replace what I had with what I previously used, since we were happy with it before. Eliminated any real questions. And I went down and looked at it, and it looked easy to replace, even if I did it from scratch.

Low voltages are, for example, 24 volt circuits, high voltage will are 110 volt or 277 volt (you aren't going to have 277V). Both units you are going to choose from probably use 110V to the power supplies. I don't see how a unit can be shot. Ballasts, starters and bulbs are all replaceable, there is little beyond those things to the system.

A lot of these are fairly straightforward to install. The slide into a hole in a duct. The advantage to a direct replacement with an identical unit is that it would be kind of like plug and play.

You guys will be proud.

I ordered a replacement, except with the bigger 18" bulb instead of 12".

Opened it tonight. Same box size.

No drilling, no cutting. Same hole.

5 minutes to take the old one out. 5 minutes to open the new screws, new bracket, and wipe the bulb with the isopropyl alcohol.

5 minutes to put the new one in, except I used the preferred angle bracket, rather than the straight one, to get more exposure.

Savings? $595 quoted (that was the cheap option, they had a $1495 one, too), $159 spent (I think. Wasn't much more, after an online code). Bigger bulb, better angle. Maybe it's not as good as the one they were going to install, but we were very pleased with the old one and thought it worked great.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KeithKSR

Low voltages are, for example, 24 volt circuits, high voltage will are 110 volt or 277 volt (you aren't going to have 277V). Both units you are going to choose from probably use 110V to the power supplies. I don't see how a unit can be shot. Ballasts, starters and bulbs are all replaceable, there is little beyond those things to the system.

A lot of these are fairly straightforward to install. The slide into a hole in a duct. The advantage to a direct replacement with an identical unit is that it would be kind of like plug and play.

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Keith, I think they were trying to just upsell (rip me off). I looked at replacing the ballast, which would have been fine and worked great. But it would've been $60 or so, IIRC, and I still needed a bulb. By the time I added both together, it was almost the same as upgrading to the bigger one, and really just as easy to replace. Had I stuck with the smaller one of I would've just replaced the ballast and bulb. But you were dead right, replacing it with the same one was pretty much plug and play.

Heck, part of me wanted to just try out a new bulb. Ballast might've been fine.