Anyone converted their fluorescent lights to LED?

[Erik88]

My house is 15 years old and it seems all the ballasts are starting to go at the same time.. Has anyone gone to LED? I know they are more efficient and easier to maintain.  Is it worth the hassle? Apparently picking the right LED bulb can also be tricky. 

[mhmd]

Tried two different led bulbs. Then just bit the bullet and put up new fixtures. More money but much less frustration. 

Mark

[Grand Torino]

1 minute ago, mhmd said:

Tried two different led bulbs. Then just bit the bullet and put up new fixtures. More money but much less frustration. 

Mark

I went that route as well. And man do I like the LED's.....

[Erik88]

2 minutes ago, mhmd said:

Tried two different led bulbs. Then just bit the bullet and put up new fixtures. More money but much less frustration. 

Mark

Are you saying you tried 2 different bulbs but neither worked?

[Garufa]

Haven’t replaced any true fluorescent fixtures with LED like the kitchen lights, but when those ballasts go then so do the lights.  I have been replacing CFL bulbs with LED and am all for it.

Edited July 2, 2018 by Garufa

[mhmd]

Tried two different brands. One was used with ballast in place. Second pulled the ballast and wired straight to the plastic clips. Neither worked or looked worth crap.   Total of 28 fixtures so I really wanted it to work. 

[TripleGGG]

Swapped out fixtures as well. Haven't found a replacement bulb yet that would work well. 

[gjohnsoniv]

Swapped out every bulb in the house with LED bulbs and have yet to have any issues. The early ones sucked but I think they worked out the issues at this point. 

[TGO David]

I removed the ballast units from two 4-foot dual tube fixtures in our master closet and used LED tubes in them.  Works perfectly.  ZERO problems.  Essentially the same thing as buying LED fixtures since all you're using the existing structure for is to get 110VAC to the LED tubes, and to hold the diffusers in place.

These are what I used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SSNPGSC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[MacGyver]

I did it in my garage with T-8 bulbs.  Totally worth it. 

[gary_boom]

I went with LEDs in my woodworking shop. I had 2 bulbs go bad but really like the light.

[Jeb48]

Yep house and shop are about 80-90% switched to LED. When I started the conversion 3 years ago I looked into direct bulb replacement for my 4 foot florescence and at that time fixture replacement was cheaper. I ended up putting about 3 times as much light in the work area of the shop and moved most of the displaced florescence to the storage area of the shop. As they go bad I will replace them with new LED fixtures. The fixtures I used were lower profile than the florescence fixtures and had the added feature of plugging end to end so one power run could power a whole long strip.

Most of the of the house bulbs were just tungsten floods and lamp bulb replacement. I replaced the ones I used the most first, the rest are being replaced as they burn out or I fall in to great deals.

Just pick the right color temperature for where they are being used. 

[macville]

4 hours ago, Erik88 said:

My house is 15 years old and it seems all the ballasts are starting to go at the same time.. Has anyone gone to LED? I know they are more efficient and easier to maintain.  Is it worth the hassle? Apparently picking the right LED bulb can also be tricky. 

What kind of fixtures are you looking to put LEDs in?

[Capbyrd]

I think I already told you that we are converting our warehouse as the ballasts blow. 

 

[Erik88]

9 hours ago, macville said:

What kind of fixtures are you looking to put LEDs in?

Well, I thought I would just convert the existing fixtures but based on the responses it sounds easier to replace the entire fixture. I'll probably go that route. 

[macville]

11 hours ago, Erik88 said:

Well, I thought I would just convert the existing fixtures but based on the responses it sounds easier to replace the entire fixture. I'll probably go that route. 

I've converted plenty of fixtures and it's super easy. All you have to do is bypass the ballast and direct connect the power to the led tubes and you are done. Can be done in 10 mins or less and much cheaper.

[analog_kidd]

When you convert the 2 bulb T12 fixture, do you find that you need to replace both bulbs, or is one sufficient? Since the LEDs are more one-directional, I was wondering if one bulb put off enough light. 

Just ordered the one's @TGO David said he got, and was thinking about pre-wiring some fixtures before they arrive. Wondering if I should wire two fixtures or 4 with the 4-pack of bulbs.

[TGO David]

48 minutes ago, analog_kidd said:

When you convert the 2 bulb T12 fixture, do you find that you need to replace both bulbs, or is one sufficient? Since the LEDs are more one-directional, I was wondering if one bulb put off enough light. 

Just ordered the one's @TGO David said he got, and was thinking about pre-wiring some fixtures before they arrive. Wondering if I should wire two fixtures or 4 with the 4-pack of bulbs.

I replaced both bulbs.  No complaints; it gave us a lot of really good light in the master closet.

 

[macville]

8 hours ago, analog_kidd said:

When you convert the 2 bulb T12 fixture, do you find that you need to replace both bulbs, or is one sufficient? Since the LEDs are more one-directional, I was wondering if one bulb put off enough light. 

Just ordered the one's @TGO David said he got, and was thinking about pre-wiring some fixtures before they arrive. Wondering if I should wire two fixtures or 4 with the 4-pack of bulbs.

I have found that with the tubes I replaced with LED tubes that 1 LED tube is equal to about 3 of the old tubes. If you have a two tube light, I'd replaced both and enjoy the brighter light. If you have a 4 tube fixture I would do just two. 4 LED tubes together will be crazy bright.

[Erik88]

On 7/3/2018 at 8:41 PM, macville said:

I've converted plenty of fixtures and it's super easy. All you have to do is bypass the ballast and direct connect the power to the led tubes and you are done. Can be done in 10 mins or less and much cheaper.

So the LED bulbs can use the existing fluorescent lamp holders? If that's the case, that does sound incredibly easy. I'll track down a simplified installation video. I found one where the guy swore it was easy but the video was 13 minutes long. 

 

[MacGyver]

I replaced two flickering two-bulb fixtures in my garage with two four-bulb fixtures that were on sale when I went to get parts. 

My garage is now roughly as bright as a paint booth.  I love it. 

[jgradyc]

How do I tell if a ballast is going bad? I have six ceiling fixtures that use two of the 4-ft bulbs. The ballasts are OLD... probably 30 years old. Should I replace the existing bulbs with LED bulbs or should I bypass the ballast and use the direct wired bulbs from Amazon?

Two of the six fixtures are dead. No light. The remaining four are a lot dimmer than when I changed out the bulbs maybe four years ago. One flickers a little when I turn it on, but it stops after a half minute.

Even when all the bulbs are working and new, it's still a little too dark in the basement.

Edited July 5, 2018 by jgradyc

[Erik88]

19 minutes ago, jgradyc said:

How do I tell if a ballast is going bad?

In my case, the light in my kitchen started struggling to come on when I flipped the switch. It kept getting slower and slower and then quit all together. Having no experience with this I assumed the bulbs burned out but it was actually the ballast. Now the lights in my master closet are doing the same thing. I'm guessing you have the same problem if they are 30 years old. I've been reading about this all morning and watching videos. It seems you have two options when converting to LED.

Option 1) plug-n-play-this uses the existing ballast and no wiring is required but it requires more energy. 

Option 2) retrofit. This is what @macville mentioned and will involve removing the old ballast and will require wiring work. In your case, it sounds like you're going to have to wire something in regardless so if I were you, I would skip buying any new ballasts. The LED bulbs are expensive upfront but should cost less when on and will provide better light.

The video below helped me. 

 

 

[macville]

Just fyi, if you are getting lamps that work with ballasts (which I don't suggest) your ballast has to be electronic and not magnetic. Fixtures that are 30 years old will be magnetic for sure unless they have been replaced with electronic at some point.
You don't have to actually recover the old ballast. Just clip the hot and neutral wires and then connect them to the leads off the holders the lamps hook into. The nice thing is that T12 and T8 lamps use the same size holder so it's an easy switch.

 

[mhmd]

“Just fyi, if you are getting lamps that work with ballasts (which I don't suggest) your ballast has to be electronic and not magnetic. “

Now maybe that is why they wouldn’t work for me. There are a lot of smart people on this forum.