8FT fluorescent light retrofit to LED

[Donald]

One of the 8' fluorescent lights in my garage went half out. Time to convert to LED.

I see two types of retrofit fits. One kit used T8 sockets and 4' LED bulbs. The other uses 4' magnetic LED light strips.

I want to gut what is there but not replace the shell

3 fixtures, so a total of 6 8FT bulbs

Any experience with one easier or better than another?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I thought about the retrofit kits, but with how cheap new fixtures are I just went that route.

In two garages now.

 

[mrsilv04]

There's so much out there now that is so much better. Do it for yourself and upgrade the entire fixture.

 

[jhellwig]

No experience with any recent LED 8' retrofits. I am sure they have gotten better than they used to be. All the 4' ones I have put in and been around are excellent. LEDs work best in a fixture engineered for them.

I chose to replace the lamps in my 8' T12 fixtures last year. Nothing beats the light from those old T12 HO lamps in an open fixture in places like a garage.

 

[atikovi]

Don't know what you mean by retrofit. Just remove and bypass the ballast. Simple wiring instruction online. Takes 5 minutes. Then replace the florescents with LEDs. No need to hassle with replacing the whole fixtures. Just did that to the far fixture in the photo and will do the same for the near one as soon as the tubes go bad.

 

[aba4430]

I replaced two double 8 ft fluorescent fixtures (~130watt each for 4 tubes) with these Sylvania 34 watt direct wire 8 ft LED tubes in our attached garage after moving into our new home last year. No need to remove the ballast also; I just removed them. The 8 ft LEDs I used came in two sections that are plugged into each other; a center magnetic support clamp was included for the two sections for each 8 ft lamp assembly. Wiring is quite straightforward; there is a video included in the link as well. Benefits are longer lamp life, lower total power consumption of 136 watts for four lamps vs. 520 watts for the fluorescent lamps, instant on feature and impressive lighting with respect to color and intensity.

Edit: Just checked the Sylvania fluorescent tubes I removed. They are 110 watts each and not 130 watts as stated above. So 136 watts vs. 440 watts.

 

[atikovi]

No need to remove the ballast also; I just removed them.

What does that mean? First you say there is no need to remove the ballast, then you say you removed them???

 

[aba4430]

I just chose to remove them. You can leave them in as non-functional appendages if you choose. The ballasts are bypassed for the type of lamps I linked.

 

[Donald]

Don't know what you mean by retrofit. Just remove and bypass the ballast. Simple wiring instruction online. Takes 5 minutes. Then replace the florescents with LEDs. No need to hassle with replacing the whole fixtures. Just did that to the far fixture in the photo and will do the same for the near one as soon as the tubes go bad.

View attachment 222105

I have the sockets that are 20 years old. Not T8. Before that. Largee diameter florescent tubes. I don't think I can get LED bulbs that will fit in the sockets I have.

 

[billt460]

I redid my kitchen fluorescent lights last year. I first tried new bulbs, and it worked.... But within a couple of months they were flickering again. So I got fed up and just replaced everything.

They were 2, double 4' fluorescent fixtures. One on each side. I replaced them with LED's of the same length. It was easier than trying to piece everything together. What made it a pain was they were behind textured "built in" Polycarbonate "lenses".

So I had to struggle a bit getting the old fixtures out, and the new ones in. I ended up having to drill new mounting holes through the back of the new fixtures, to line up with the existing holes in the drywall for the old fixtures, for the butterfly bolts.

It all went OK, and the new LED's are much brighter, and use less juice. I then replaced the ceiling fan with a new one that had a triple light fixture. (The old fan had bad bearings and no light).

I put in 3, 1600 Lumen Daylight LED bulbs. Now when I turn on everything you almost need a welders helmet it's so bright. The wife loves it when she's cooking, and that's all that matters. The new bulbs are supposed to last for 30,000 hours. And that is a lot of cooking!

 

[atikovi]

I have the sockets that are 20 years old. Not T8. Before that. Largee diameter florescent tubes. I don't think I can get LED bulbs that will fit in the sockets I have.

T12? I used these on my old fixture.

Feit Electric 40-Watt 8 ft. T12 FA8 Single Pin Type A Plug and Play Linear LED Tube Light Bulb, Daylight Deluxe 6500K (2-Pack) T1296/865/A/LEDG2/2 - The Home Depot

Feit Electric's 40-watt (60/75-watt Equivalent) Direct Replacement (Type A) Non-Dimmable Linear LED Tubes replace F96T12 or T12 fluorescent and LED tubes. They work with most existing ballasts for quick

www.homedepot.com

 

[GMBoy]

I replaced my H8's to LED and removed the ballast on about 18 of my lights - not hard and I would say I achieved about a 20% increase in lighting. I had added 6 new LED fixtures and the upgraded lights looked the same as the new ones. The biggest benefits are brighter and whiter lighting and they come on quickly while saving energy. The key when upgrading the H8's are to remove the ballast or else you won't get the energy savings.

 

[tmorris1]

I have the sockets that are 20 years old. Not T8. Before that. Largee diameter florescent tubes. I don't think I can get LED bulbs that will fit in the sockets I have.

I think you can get direct wire T12 LED tubes. You just bypass the ballast and wire directly to 120VAC.
I believe that you can replace the tombstones on the end with T8 ones too, but it may be just as easy to replace the whole fixture with a T8 fixture. You can then either use LED bulbs that need the ballast or bypass/remove the ballast and use direct wire LED bulbs that take 120VAC directly.
I bought 8 foot Livonia fixtures from Lowes that held 4-4ft T8 tubes and removed the ballast and installed direct wire T8 LED bulbs and they are great.

 

[y_p_w]

Don't know what you mean by retrofit. Just remove and bypass the ballast. Simple wiring instruction online. Takes 5 minutes. Then replace the florescents with LEDs. No need to hassle with replacing the whole fixtures. Just did that to the far fixture in the photo and will do the same for the near one as soon as the tubes go bad.

Replacing the tubes and rewiring to provide AC directly to the tombstones would be considered retrofitting. I believe it also requires that some sort of label be displayed that describes how it's set up.

I'm not sure how it works for LED tubes that work with ballasts.

 

[JMJNet]

I will get the LED without ballast otherwise it beats the purpose of saving electricity.

Yes, it is easy. There are 2 types for the bulb where the two cables are connected on one side or both sides after cutting the ballast out, just need to read the direction based on LED tube you bought.

As usual, I went to YT school of hard knocks.

 

[sloinker]

I bought an LED retrofit for replacing one T-12 tube that I broke in my garage. 96". It was two pieces that attached together in the center and they have a magnetic attachment in the middle to attach to the fixture. It was on closeout at Menards for 10 bucks. Mine was plug and play and the other existing tube in the fixture works fine. You can also bypass the ballast and just use line voltage if you want. We will see how long it lasts and how it behaves with the other standard fluorescent tube in the same fixture.

 

[oil pan 4]

One of the 8' fluorescent lights in my garage went half out. Time to convert to LED.

I see two types of retrofit fits. One kit used T8 sockets and 4' LED bulbs. The other uses 4' magnetic LED light strips.

I want to gut what is there but not replace the shell

3 fixtures, so a total of 6 8FT bulbs

Any experience with one easier or better than another?

Use ones that run straight 120v power and don't run off ballast power. Straight 120v is more efficient and reliable.

 

[y_p_w]

I will get the LED without ballast otherwise it beats the purpose of saving electricity.

Yes, it is easy. There are 2 types for the bulb where the two cables are connected on one side or both sides after cutting the ballast out, just need to read the direction based on LED tube you bought.

As usual, I went to YT school of hard knocks.

The direct drop-ins that require a ballast also have to deal with the chances of the ballast failing.

I will say that I had a direct AC wired LED tube fail on me. I think it was electrically sound, but the issue seemed to be that the pins weren't stable. They started splaying out and even rotated around where they weren't making consistent contact with the tombstone contacts. Sometimes it would be stable and at other times it might flicker or stop working altogether. I sent a video of it to the manufacturer and I got a replacement in a week without needing to return the bad one. I then took it apart and found that internally it was just an LED strip light going down the length of the tube.

The ones I've used only have power on one side. Made it a bit easier to wire as I could keep the amount of wire needed fairly short. At least the first time I couldn't find 18 AWG wire so I used 14 even though it wasn't recommended. When I did it again I might have rewired a couple of time, but I was able to salvage some black and white 18 AWG wire from the ballast. There was one where I couldn't figure out how to pull out the tombstones so I just kept everything in place after cutting the wires. The wires are still red and blue but connected to white and black.

 

[y_p_w]

Use ones that run straight 120v power and don't run off ballast power. Straight 120v is more efficient and reliable.

I've got some of those, but they're typically dimmable. I believe dimmable needs a reference voltage to work.

I also have some that are rated for 100-270V AC. The LEDs are low voltage DC, and the AC coming in is just feeding a switching power supply to generate DC.

 

[oil pan 4]

I've got some of those, but they're typically dimmable. I believe dimmable needs a reference voltage to work.

I also have some that are rated for 100-270V AC. The LEDs are low voltage DC, and the AC coming in is just feeding a switching power supply to generate DC.

Yeah the good ones are 100-277vac.