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6 months ago or so, I replaced 2 4' fluorescent tubes with led ones. i like the light output. They were the ones where you bypass the ballast. Can't see why anyone would want to still have ballasts to go bad.
Anyhow, the tubes are on sale for $9.99 with free shipping. Free shipping may be for just this weekend.
1800 Lumins 4000k color
https://www.earthled.com/products/luceco...3929188100
I long for the days when Coke was a soft drink, and Black and Decker was a quality tool.
Happiness is a snipe free planer
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I bought 4' LEDs from EarthLED for my shop. I converted it to the straight wire from the ballast type. I had one bulb die recently. I confirmed it was the bulb and not the fixture. Anyway, I contacted EarthLED for a replacement but have not heard back.
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Prices have been coming down on these very quickly as the number of brands and sellers has increased. $10 looks about average now. In another year they will be $5. In 2 years, you won't be able find fluorescent tubes.
I replaced most of mine with LED tubes and helped some friends do the same. Love'm
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Menards has a fixture that does about 1800 lumens and looks to be a single tube on sale this weekend for something like $12 after rebate.
I recently purchased a 4200-lumen fixture at Menards for $24 that doesn't use a tube, it is a replacement fixture. I don't like the way the switch comes out the side though. When it goes, I'll likely replace it with a toggle or maybe even a cheap motion detection switch.
I do like the fixture otherwise, though. It has a very small profile so easy to mount most anywhere.
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I just bought 10 LED 8' tubes from somebody in San Jose on eBay for $82 shipped. On top of that my utility company gave me $3.50 ea for replacing the neon ones that were there.
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(09-05-2016, 01:15 PM)nicobie Wrote: I just bought 10 LED 8' tubes from somebody in San Jose on eBay for $82 shipped. On top of that my utility company gave me $3.50 ea for replacing the neon ones that were there.
That's a CA thing. Here the only way we get a discount from the Elec company is to use more electricity. In fact I have increased usage in the summer at times to get us into the next tier. If I didn't it would have cost more for less electricity...
The t8 replacement leds have come a long way. I remember phillips was selling some about 5 years ago at around $250 each and the performance was so bad that they pulled them from the market. None of the 4' bulbs were any good at the time as they were all putting out less lumens per watt than fluorescent. But it's totally different now.
Sam's has been selling two packs of bulbs for $20 while costco was around $30 for a similar product. Costco finally dropped their price to compete and is now at $18 a pair. Both are good but both still require the ballast.
It'll be a while before led bulbs that don't use the ballast hit the retail shelves because the typical customer is nnot very intelligent. They will just pick up any bulbulb that looks like it'll fit and they will put it in. Then they will complain that the bulb doesn't work because they didn't read the directions.
However there are bulbs that will work with or without a ballast now. They run about $10 online while the ballast only ones are $5 to $8(higher for some colors). Those will be the ones hitting the shelves as they don't require a customer to read think and comprehend instructions.
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since I'm all electronic ballast, I have been using the non-bypass bulbs from HD. Path of least resistance. I still don't understand why the bypass ones are twice as much at HD, but they are probably hating the quickly-changing light market right now. I guess people are still buying non-led lights, but I'm sure there are a lot of people that refuse to do that now. I certainly am not going to buy anything that isn't led. Maybe if I can get it cheap and replace the bulbs.
I haven't looked at lights at Lowes recently, but a few months ago I was in there looking at lights and they had signs up promoting LED, but almost no LED lights. Maybe that has changed in the interim.
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How does this all work? When I built my shop I put in 4'-4 light T12 fluorescents. Eventually the bulbs and/or ballasts (a pain to determine which) started going bad. I started to replace them with T8s but after doing one discovered that they had two ballasts instead of one (two lights on each). This doubles the costs, so I got to thinking I was better off just putting in LEDs. I bought a 4' -2 strip LED shop light at Sams for around $35 and strung it up. Plenty of light but I think I'd like them better with a diffuser. I've seen T8 LEDs advertised but assumed that they were called that because they used the T8 ballast. That didn't appeal to me since I wanted to get away from ballasts. Do I take it from this post that they make 4' LED tubes that don't used ballasts that I could just plug into my existing fixtures (which have diffusers). This would be great. Two LED tubes for $20 bucks beats two ballasts for $30 and I would finally be free of fluorescents. If I misunderstand or have said something stupid here, don't hesitate to straighten me out. This lighting issue is changing rapidly and I just want to make the right decision.
Papa Jim
I had a good day. I used every tool I own!
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(09-06-2016, 11:00 AM)Papa Jim Wrote: How does this all work?
Do I take it from this post that they make 4' LED tubes that don't used ballasts that I could just plug into my existing fixtures (which have diffusers). This would be great.
Papa Jim
Yes, the 2 power wires just need to go to the 2 pins on one end of the tube. cut the ballast wires, and wire power direct to 1 end of tube. Leave ballast in place or remove.
I long for the days when Coke was a soft drink, and Black and Decker was a quality tool.
Happiness is a snipe free planer
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09-06-2016, 07:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2016, 07:41 PM by sniper.)
That's expensive. I've ordered from here:
http://greenlightdepot.com/collections/l...trim_clear
twice this year and have been very happy. They have 18W bulbs for $6.99 plus shipping ($11.01 first 12, $5.?? for every 12 after) and 22W bulbs for $7.88. I use the 22W in the shop and 18W in my garage.
Wiring for these is simple: remove the ballast, connect tombstone wires from one end to neutral (white wire, I connect the yellow wires) and the other end to power (black wire to red and blue tombstone end). Takes about 5 minutes per fixture.
