A conundrum on florescent tub lighting for the Jury.

[JasperFrank]

Have a 35 X 30 garage. Built in 2002. It has nine florescent tube units. Mostly 8 footers. These are the ballast types, old school, tubes and ballasts. Florescent , eight footers are not made anymore.
I have one shop light that the ballast has failed, its in a corner and not very important for lighting. But it bugs me that it doesn't work. I can source a ballast to match all the others, and then just use the LED direct replaceables. Or I could direct wire this single one, as a ******* out of the other nine. Does it make any sense to replace this one ballast, so a future user knows its all the same? And can use these straight out LED replacements? Or just let everything burn out over time, and do the straight wire conversion on all of them at once? Eventually, I know the ballasts, will not be available.
But how would the jury make that decision point?

 

[drssg]

I eliminated the ballasts in my fluorescent fixtures and switched to LED tubes. IMO, everything is better. They use less electricity, the lighting is better, and they are more reliable.

I don't think it makes sense to use the LEDs that are compatible with the ballast. That means that the ballast still has to work for the light to work, and the ballast makes the fixture less efficient.

 

[CalG]

Have a 35 X 30 garage. Built in 2002. It has nine florescent tube units. Mostly 8 footers. These are the ballast types, old school, tubes and ballasts. Florescent , eight footers are not made anymore.
I have one shop light that the ballast has failed, its in a corner and not very important for lighting. But it bugs me that it doesn't work. I can source a ballast to match all the others, and then just use the LED direct replaceables. Or I could direct wire this single one, as a ******* out of the other nine. Does it make any sense to replace this one ballast, so a future user knows its all the same? And can use these straight out LED replacements? Or just let everything burn out over time, and do the straight wire conversion on all of them at once? Eventually, I know the ballasts, will not be available.
But how would the jury make that decision point?

You can have the ballast I just took out of the 8 foot single pin fixture over my work bench.
I've gone with the LEDs for the past two failures. (even the bulbs are outlawed in this socialist state)

I went "direct", keep it simple.

 

[BravoXray]

I had a mix or single pin and square end tube 8 foot fixtures in my shop and decided to convert to LEDs. I got LED tubes that fit the fixtures, removed the ballasts and rewired them to apply power to each end. That saved buying new fixtures, as the fixtures themselves were in good condition other than being dirty after hanging in the shop for 30+ years.

 

[Topzide]

Another on getting the direct wire LED tubes and eliminate the ballasts.

 

[CalG]

Just a note,

The 8 foot LED lamps I was supplied came as a pair of four footers with a joining sleeve.

Different than last time...

 

[ponytug]

I just ripped the tandem 8' fluorescent bulbs and fixtures out of the garage and replaced them with some LED "flower" shaped floods, that fold out so they can be directed around to improve the light uniformity. Big improvement.

The high point was getting the bulbs down, and off the property to be recycled without breaking any of them.

@JasperFrank I wouldn't try to reuse any part of what you have. The ballasts are on borrowed time at best. I put up with a dead fixture for a long while getting organized to replace them all, but I wasn't happy about the low light during the waiting period.

All the best, Peter

 

[cj7]

Are they T12 or T8 lamps?

 

[Spike56]

Have a 35 X 30 garage. Built in 2002. It has nine florescent tube units. Mostly 8 footers. These are the ballast types, old school, tubes and ballasts. Florescent , eight footers are not made anymore.
I have one shop light that the ballast has failed, its in a corner and not very important for lighting. But it bugs me that it doesn't work. I can source a ballast to match all the others, and then just use the LED direct replaceables. Or I could direct wire this single one, as a ******* out of the other nine. Does it make any sense to replace this one ballast, so a future user knows its all the same? And can use these straight out LED replacements? Or just let everything burn out over time, and do the straight wire conversion on all of them at once? Eventually, I know the ballasts, will not be available.
But how would the jury make that decision point?

Replace all my shop and house fluorescents with LED. IMHO, that is the way to go. AS USUAL these days there is a decision to make on the "type" of LED bulbs. I am not an expert AT ALL, but there are Type A,B, AB and C (maybe more). I personally picked the bulbs that are stocked where you live (although, with LED, you should not need many replacements).
Took all the ballasts out of the light fixture, a quick re-wiring job (easy), new bulbs (done).

 

[JohnP3616]

I pulled all of my fluorescent fixtures and gave them to Goodwill. Maybe someone else can use them. I absolutely love my new LEDs. So much brighter, so much cooler, and you don’t have to wait forever for them to warm up in cold weather. Mine are strings of LEDs you daisy chain together. Tons of YouTube videos about them. Easy peasy to install.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I have two rows of 8' fluorescents lighting my shop, with four fixtures in each row.
When I started having trouble last year, I also had difficulty finding replacement tubes & ballast.
Rather than convert to LED tubes, I replaced an entire row with new LED fixtures.
I now use the good salvaged parts from the first row to keep the second row working.
When they're used up, I'll replace the second row with LED's and be done with the fluorescents completely.

 

[JJT]

I swapped all of my T8/T12's out for led years ago. Very happy. I kept the 4 T5 high bays in the detached shop. They are 20 years old and still going strong.

 

[EddieWalker]

In my opinion and experience, LED's work best when they are part of the fixture. The LED bulbs don't last any longer than regular bulbs, if you can find them. And the LED tubes don't last very long either.

I had 8-foot fluorescent lights in my shop, and it was a never-ending job to replace a bulb or deal with one flashing every year. A couple years ago I took them out and ran the Construction String. I'm currently working on converting the shop into a large living room, so I wanted something temporary that provided a lot of light.

Amazon.com

The amount of light I get from this is a lot more than I ever got from the fluorescent lights. I just hung it from the rafters and created an outlet where I cut the line for the fluorescent lights so my 3-way light switches will work.

Before I could work on my shop I had to build a new garage. It's 30 x42 with three 10 foot garage doors. For lighting I went with this LED 12 pack from Amazon.

Amazon.com

I installed 2 outlets at the top of the wall that is controlled by the light switch and plugged the first LED light into each one. Then I installed each light to the other in a row across the ceiling. They are 4 feet each and the cord that comes with them is 4 feet long. Two rows of these lights makes it like daylight in there!!!!

 

[JTKub]

In my opinion and experience, LED's work best when they are part of the fixture. The LED bulbs don't last any longer than regular bulbs, if you can find them. And the LED tubes don't last very long either.

It's very hit/miss. We have some RAB lighting retrofit 8ft LED ballast bypass tubes that were fitted into a bunch of 8ft T12 fluorescent fixtures in various buildings at work. Nearly all of them left on 24/7/365. 5-6yrs later, we haven't lost a single one of them. A lot of other retrofits and full replacement fixtures are absolute junk and can fail randomly and quickly. It's getting worse as time goes on as the electronics that drive these fixtures are built cheaper and cheaper. It's the same fate our fluorescent fixtures suffered. Bulbs were total junk beyond the early 1990s or so. Same with ballasts, etc.

 

[aba4430]

I replaced two 8ft T12 2-lamp units in our attached garage with these from Menards in late 2023. Compared to 440 watts (4 x 110 watts) usage we are down to 168 watts (4 X 42 watts) now. Instant on-off performance and light quality is superior. Now looking at vapor tight options for our new barn.

 

[JasperFrank]

It would be about $450 to replace the bulbs with type A (direct replacement)if I did it all at once. I found a replacement ballast for the bad fixture that would cost $44. . My thinking is, all the other fixtures are still working fine. And there is zero noise. To me it seems like a waste to toss out the perfectly good old tubes. And a better strategy to replace with type As, as the older tubes fail. Oddly, there isn't any price difference between the Type As and the non ballast direct wire Type Bs. But the bulbs are not compatible with each other. I already bought 4 of the 8' T12 Type As as replacements for $70. They work but they also stand out with a different Temp rating in the bay. I can swap those for the bench run and then pay attention to the light ratings. None of the local hardware stores had 8' T12 Bypass Type Bs. They only had T8s.
The big x-factor, is am I painting my self into a corner here believing that I can always find replacement ballasts?
An as an aside, the garage has skylights. And the lights are on two switches. There is a smaller bench lighting run, and then there is the bay lighting. I rarely use the bay lighting unless I'm on a project at night. I don't think energy use, in my case is a deciding factor.

 

[not2old]

I stupidly bought six or eight 8' dual lamp fixtures before I moved here from the coast because I got a real deal on them, about 1/2 price. I've been putting a cord and pull chain switch on them and putting them on a chain in areas where they only see use for a short period of time. I've been putting 4' LED fixtures where they see more use.