LED Florescent Bulbs

[HOrnbrod]

Never knew there was such a thing until today. The wife has been hounding me to get the florescent fixtures in the garage and kitchen working for a couple of months so decided to do it today. They were all 4' and 6' multiple bulb fixtures, and only about half worked fully. I had plenty of spare ballasts, but had to pick up some new 4'-32W bulbs in town.  I thought they were a little more expensive as compared to what I used to pay, but bought them anyway. When I opened the box I saw they looked a bit strange and discovered they were LED replacements for the florescent tubes. Also my ballasts were listed as compatible with the new LEDs, so I lucked out there. Stuck them in and replaced all the bad ballasts I had and everything's working again. These LEDs are supposed to last twice as long and use 25% the energy of the old florescent tubes. Anyone use these things before? 

[DirtyComanche]

They're pretty common now.  My previous employer used a lot of them in their older hangars.  They seem to work good, but some of them actually don't make as much light as the T8 or T12 they replaced (at least compared with a new bulb).

 

Some of them don't need ballasts and you just pull the ballast, bodge the wiring, and throw them in.

[Keyav8r]

We sell LED retrofit kits for the old 96” flourescent fixtures for which you can’t get replacement flourescent tubes.  The kits bypass the ballast and put out a lot more light at about 1/4 to 1/3 the wattage.  They come with four 4 foot long LED tubes, new end and center caps and the wiring to convert the old fixture.  Also have LED replacements for 4 tube 2’ x 4’ drop-in flourescent fixtures for suspended ceilings.  They put out way more light and some brands are dimmable like incandescents.  A lot of industrial and commercial customers are converting for the better light, longer life (less maintenance) and lower operating cost.  The LED manufacturers are also making high bay fixtures for warehouses, hangars, etc.  The cost is better than the mercury and sodium vapor and the halide lights and they don’t turn off t

when they get hot.

I’m waiting for the price to come down on the 2 tube shop light fixtures so that I can replace all those in my basement garage and shop.

[HOrnbrod]

Cool. The kitchen fixtures have 4 x F32T8 bulbs and I have the LEDs and old florescent bulbs playing next to each other off the same ballast now.  The garage has eight ancient 6' two-bulb fixtures that use T10 florescents and 220VAC for the ballasts. Got those from a Navy yard dump for free years ago. Good news they make LED replacements for the two mercury vapors I have out in the backyard too.

[whowey]

We are switching all the 8 foot fluorescent lights out in the plant as they burn out. The high bay lights come with a special reflector to direct more light down and the LED lights work a $#!& ton better with the smart light system than the lights they are replacing.


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[Gene]

Hi everyone,

I believe that, if you really want energy savings, the LEDs have to be wired directly, eliminating the old ballast.

The ballast, if left connected, still consumes quite a bit of energy.

It seems like one of the local "scams" is to promise significant savings with an LED update, but then just install LED tubes in the fixtures, without touching the ballasts or wiring. It's quick, but really doesn't do much in terms of energy efficiency.

Gene

[HOrnbrod]

5 minutes ago, Gene said:

Hi everyone,

I believe that, if you really want energy savings, the LEDs have to be wired directly, eliminating the old ballast.

The ballast, if left connected, still consumes quite a bit of energy.

It seems like one of the local "scams" is to promise significant savings with an LED update, but then just install LED tubes in the fixtures, without touching the ballasts or wiring. It's quick, but really doesn't do much in terms of energy efficiency.

Gene

 

You're most likely correct, but I didn't know that going in. I've been replacing florescent ballasts for fifty years or so and have a good stash.      From now on as the ballasts die, I'll be converting to ballast-free LED fixtures.

[Gene]

Hi Don,

You actually don't have to change the fixtures, the ballast can be eliminated. In the second link, click the "general instructions guidelines" link.

Of course, the more fixtures there are, and the longer they are on, the more important this becomes.

Gene

 

https://insights.regencylighting.com/plug-and-play-or-ballast-bypass-linear-led

 

https://www.earthled.com/collections/t8-t12-led-fluorescent-replacement-tube-lights-that-bypass-ballast-rewire/products/luceco-led-fluorescent-replacement-tube-4-ft-18-watt-ballast-bypass-direct-wire?variant=2174807620

[HOrnbrod]

20 minutes ago, Gene said:

Hi Don,

You actually don't have to change the fixtures, the ballast can be eliminated. In the second link, click the "general instructions guidelines" link.

Of course, the more fixtures there are, and the longer they are on, the more important this becomes.

Gene

 

Understand. And since the EarthLED ballast-less bulbs operate on a 120-277V supply my existing 220V garage fixtures don't have to be modded. Very cool.  Glad I started this thread - learned a lot. 

[carnuck]

They also make led grow lights as well


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[DirtyComanche]

1 hour ago, carnuck said:

They also make led grow lights as well

 

Yes, one keeps my tropical plants alive during the annual 6 months of darkness.

[saveevryjp1998]

On this led topic with fixtures, does anyone know about how this effects can lights? After stumbling upon this, it made me ponder. I have slowly gutted, reframed, plumbed, wired my entire house in the past 9 years. In fact the only thing original is about 20% of the exterior framing and 80% of the roof. I just put can lights in the kitchen about 4 years ago I think. It was right before they stopped making older bulbs. They were new style insulated and dimmable cans with dimmable switches back then. The first generation of the long lasting new flourescents would not last. In fact I went through them at times faster than fresh underwear. I also had issues with lights flickering. This was common for awhile for years here and is still due to weak infrastructure. When the 1st generation leds came out I switched again. Now the only bulbs I seamed to go through or had a little flickering were the newer style can lights in kitchen. I still have many 1st generation florescent bulbs in my front room can lights, 1st generation leds in all my dinning room lights, and now on to 2nd generation leds in the kitchen with 0 bulbs changed or issues after about 2 years now. Could this be from the can housing itself in this newest and latest of great last can fixtures sold/made before led transition? Those 4 in my kitchen are the only in the house like that made in that time frame. All the others were on same setup bulbs, wiring, breaker, and switch. All 3 rooms have same 4 cans on one switch with room to spare. This has stumped me and I wonder if there is something built into those housings.

[Eagle]

Those LED replacements look like what I need. In my garage, the 4-foot fluorescent work lights are basically useless in the winter, because it gets so cold they don't put out any light. Are the LEDs immune to that problem?

[DirtyComanche]

2 hours ago, Eagle said:

Those LED replacements look like what I need. In my garage, the 4-foot fluorescent work lights are basically useless in the winter, because it gets so cold they don't put out any light. Are the LEDs immune to that problem?

 

Yup, they aren't affected by the cold at all, which is nice.

 

The only thing I've noticed as a downside is that they do tend to have a very prominent 60Hz flicker, or at least screw in socket type ones do, it plays hell with my camera shooting at 60FPS.