I know they exist. But when you buy them and take them home, is it just a fluorescent-tube shaped LED-based device that goes in to the same receptable that a real fluorescent tube would go into, or does it require adapters and things? I know very little about fluorescent bulb technology (have heard references to things like “ballast” and whatnot as part of people’s attempts to diagnose their friends’ and neighbors’ problems with the damn things when they don’t seem specific to a worn-out bulb).
We have several of these (the conventional tubes, I mean, not the spiral incandescent-bulb replacements or the circles) in this house, and I hate them. They don’t come on reliably, especially in the summer. Or they flicker when they do. They’re prone to losing their electrical connectivity and you have to twist them back and forth in their sockets sometimes. They’re fragile and prone to breaking and making a mess, and they’re full of substances that make them hard to dispose of. Only thing they’ve got going for them is being cheaper to operate than incandescents. I’d much rather have LEDs.
You can buy LED replacement tubes (not “bulbs”) that plug right into en existing fixture, without needing to bypass the ballast. The LED replacements that require a ballast bypass (easy to do, but requires some skill and the power to be turned off) are cheaper and more efficient.
And whichever type you get, they’re absolutely 100% an upgrade. My mom used to always have problems with the fluorescents in her kitchen. But since she switched to LEDs a few years ago, they’ve Just Worked. And they produce brighter light, of at least the same quality, for less power.
In my home I had several “cloud fixtures” that each had 4 four foot T12 tubes. After several years I replaced the tubes with LED units. At the time plug n’ play was not on the market. I had to remove the ballasts and replace the tombstones (sockets) as these tubes required power from both ends. The LED tubes were a vast improvement so it was worth it. Instant on and no noise from the ballasts.
As noted in the linked article, which was a good read, the plug and play are not quite as efficient and they don’t eliminate possible future ballast problems. But if you’re not comfortable doing electrical work it’s the way to go.
I redid all the bulbs in my store with ballast bypass LED tubes. 200-300 bulbs IIRC.
While rewiring them is easy, but it’s not for someone that’s never done something like this before.
Rewiring a fixture with more than a single bulb is going to take a working knowledge of electrical circuits. It’s not difficult (a fixture with four bulbs took me about 10 minutes).
Also, and this is super duper important. If you’re using ballast bypass bulbs, you have to have unshunted bulb holders. Some florescent tubes take one wire at each end and in those cases each individual tube holder has both sides electrically connected. If you rewire that holder with a hot and neutral wire, you’ll create a dead short and blow the breaker the instant you turn it on.
Having said that, I think all the replacement tubes you can get at the big box stores are meant to be dropped in and work with the existing ballast.
If replacing the entire fixture is an option, they (the big box stores) also sell fixtures that look like florescent light fixtures, but have LEDs built into them.
Some years ago I replaced my fluorescent tubes with LED Tubes. The LED tubes came with a “starter” that replaced the fluorescent starter and that was it.
Don’t know if things have moved along and a replacement “starter” is not needed anymore.
The LED’s while originally brighter then the fluorescents they replaced have over the years got dimmer and are not as bright as when first fitted.
Hopefully newer tubes will keep their brightness longer.
Interesting question, funny you asked it, I just came across this video yesterday in my YouTube feed. In this video he walks through his replacement of fluorescent bulbs with LED’s, his decision process what was involved in rewiring and the results. I think he basically answers all your questions.
The channel is called Project Farm and he does a lot of head-to-head product comparison tests (everything from home repairs, woodworking for automotive products). The channel originally popped up on my feed last week as I was looking for some information on various wood glue’s. I’ve only watched a few videos so far but it’s quite interesting and well done if you like that sort of stuff.
Also nice is you don’t have to run them in pairs. I replaced my kitchen ones,2 lights each with 2 ‘bulbs’ (really tubes), so 4 ‘bulbs’ total. Though it was too bright, so I took one out and three is still slightly brighter then the old 4 fluorescent. I could get away with 2, which would perhaps be slightly darker but still enough, but that double one is over the kitchen work space.
His channel is really good, though as I’m sure you found out with the glue, they can sometimes get a bit tedious. If you like his general format, the ones that involve comparing various small engine additives are usually a bit more entertaining. (and if you want even more exciting engine stuff, try Life OD’s channel for adding all kinds of stuff to gas tanks and oil sumps and than driving the cars around to see how long it takes them to seize)
Yes, it was quite easy. The new [direct-wired LED] tubes came with their own “tombstones,” the sockets into which they plug at each end. I wired the four of them in a daisy chain, which was very simple, just requiring me to insert a bared wire end into a clamped slot, then connected the wires of the end socket to the mains. The old tombstones slipped out of the fixture and the new ones slipped in easily. The whole job was done in 10-15 minutes.
I had already removed the ballast, which was now superfluous.
However, as I mentioned right after that, be careful with the color temperature of our new tubes. I found the 4000K of these new tubes to be too harsh in comparison with the 3000K of all the other light sources in the room, and ended up buying a sheet of cinema gel (clear colored plastic) to match them.
That didn’t work for me on my 4’ troffers. The LED boxes listed which ballasts they work with but my 30 year old ballasts do not use the same terminology. The LEDs did not work so I took them back. However, on my U-Line troffers they replaced perfectly and are terrific.
Glad to see there are LEDs that bypass the ballasts and I’ll get some. I was planning on removing the troffers, drywall the opening and then installing LED fixtures but that is a lot of work.
I had to replace a fluorescent tube in my closet a few weeks ago, and all they had at the hardware store were LED tubes, so I got one. It’s just plug and play and works better than fluorescent.
I should have been clearer. What I meant was that they [the tubes you can buy at Home Depot/Lowes] are meant to work with A ballast as opposed to requiring mains voltage.
It’s an easy job if you’re comfortable rewiring a light fixture, just make sure you have (or get) the correct lamp holders. And, actually, with that, if you do have to replace the lamp holders, you only have to replace them (at least with the bulbs that I have) on one side. The two pins on one end of he bulb are Hot/Neutral. The other end just has two dummy pins to hold it into the socket, you don’t even run wires to that side.
Came home from Home Depot with a box of Plug 'n Play simple LED replacements, after having measured one of the five fluorescents that form a line over the back of the couch and over the doorway to the garage.
a) The first one out of the box went in and works fine, a more yellow-tinged and also brighter light than the fluorescent was making; but
b) Goddammit, I did this to myself… I blindly assumed that whoever had installed five consecutive fluorescents had of course installed five fixtures of the same size. So I just measured the one. Dammit. Umm, nope, this one is a four foot and the other four of them are SMALLER.
We’ll see if Home Depot will take the others back.
I’ve only watched four or five of his videos so far and I do find his videos very well done and entertaining, but you’re correct they can be tedious. I skip ahead in through some sections of them, I don’t really need to see each wiper blade going through each and every test. At a certain point you kind of just think “cut to the chase” and tell me who’s best.
I did watch this LED one because I was wondering the same thing especially regarding re-wiring lights and what’s involved.
@ahunter3 -
I’d reiterate what @commasense says, for future reference in case you’re switching bulbs or doing other rooms later, take note the actual brightness in K’s, not just whether they are “warm, daylight, white” etc.
I was replacing halogen bulbs with LED’s and I learned the hard way that each manufacturer has their own definitions. What one manufactures considers “daylight”, another may consider “warm”. I did one room a couple tears ago and when I did a second room this fall, Home Depot had switched suppliers. Not the end of the world, just a pain in the ass.
So, there’s generally four options, from easiest to hardest and not one that’s clearly the best in every situation.
Direct replacement tubes. These you simply replace the existing tubes with, no further action taken. Advantages: Easy, Easy, Easy. Disadvantages: leaves the old ballast as a potential failure point, less efficient. Note that these are generally only for electronic T8 ballasts. If plugged into a T12 magnetic ballast they will be overdriven, and one literally caught fire at my church when someone did that.
Ballast Bypass tubes: These you rewire the fixture to bypass the ballast and direct the mains voltage directly to the lamp. Advantages: more efficient, eliminates ballast as failure point, Disadvantages: requires rewiring, has mains voltage on lamp pins (which may be partially exposed depending on fixture design
Tube plus driver combination: These you replace the ballast with a separate driver and buy tubes with LEDs only specific to that driver. Advantages: better heat management, which is bad and often lethal for electronics in general and especially LEDs. You did read the instruction not to use in enclosed fixtures with that $1 screw-in lamp didn’t you? That’s why. Cons: Requires rewiring, requires specific tubes, not available at the orange, blue, and green stores.
Replace the entire fixture: Pros: The most efficient, you get fixture designed specifically to use the optics of LEDs and manage the heat. Cons: you have to replace the fixture, and if the LEDs fail you’ll be replacing the fixture again.
That’s what I did last year. Garage and workshop lights. I found the best option at the time was a two pack of 4ft LED fixtures that they sold at Costco Canada for about $70 CDN ($53 USD). In my case I just didn’t feel like screwing around with the old fixtures and re-wiring dealing with the ballast etc. But that’s just me.
At my Costco store here in Canada they’re currently selling a similar 4 ft LED fixture for $30 something. This one has a remote control that dims, changes colour temperature etc.
