Anyone else prefer induction lighting over modern LED?

I remember installing a bunch of those Philips QL sets back in 2012 for a municipal parking garage. They definitely had a reputation for lasting forever because there’s no filament to burn out, but in my experience, the ballasts are what actually kill the system. Once that internal circuitry fries, finding a replacement for a 150-watt induction driver is a nightmare compared to grabbing a standard LED driver.

I've moved most of my clients over to frosted LED high bays now. While the induction light was definitely softer and had decent CRI, modern chips have caught up. The energy savings isn't even the biggest selling point for me—it's the instant-on capability and the fact that I don't have to carry four different proprietary ballasts on the truck. Once they start flickering or the tube goes dim, we just bypass the whole mess and put in a fresh fixture. It’s hard to justify the cost of maintaining a niche technology when the parts are getting rarer every year.

I acutally disagree that we shold just scrap these for parts the moment a ballast acts up. The main reason I still keep a stash of old Everlast drivers is becasue of the S/P ratio. In a high-bay warehouse, induction puts out a spectrum that's way closer to how the human eye actually processes light at lower levels compared to the sharp blue peak you get with many budget 5000K LED chips. The glare from a compact COB LED array can be brutal when you're looking up at a crane, whereas those rectangular induction tubes have a much larger surface area that diffuses the light naturally. In my own shop, the crew specifically asked me not to switch the main bay over to LEDs. They claim they get significantly less eye fatigue during 10-hour shifts under the induction lamps. Even if the raw lumens per watt look better on paper for the LED retrofits, the visual clarity under induction is hard to match. It’s about the quality of the work enviroment, not just the energy bill. I've found that if you keep the heat away from the ballast housing, those systems can easily hit 80,000 hours without a single flicker.

If that rectangular unit was a Saturn or an Everlast fixture, you were likely looking at a low-frequency system operating around 250 kHz, wich is quite a diferent beast from the 2.65 MHz high-frequency QL units Philips produced. While everyone focuses on the lack of electrodes, I’ve found that the real failure point in those specific rectangular enclosures often stems from the localized heat buildup around the internal ferrite cores which, over the course of 60,000 hours, tends to degrade the thermal interface material between the ballast housing and the fixture body. I'd be curious to know if you noticed any significant RFI noise on the job site before you pulled it, as the shielding on those older magnetic induction systems was notoriously hit-or-miss.

Honestly, biggest headache I had with those was the RF interference. I remember a shop where the induction lamps totally killed thier radio reception and messed with their wireless scanners. LED's aren't perfect but they don't usually act like a rogue radio station. It’s a cool tech but it’s just too much of a hassle. I'd just swap it for a nice UFO high bay and call it a day. Way less weight on the rafters too.

I’m still pretty new to this, so I didn’t even think about the disposal side. Since it’s basically a tube filled with gas, does it have mercury in it like a standard fluorescent? I'd hate to think I just dumped something toxic in the bin without realizing. Also, I keep seeing people talk about the S/P ratio—could someone explain that like I’m five? I’m trying to figure out if that’s why the light looked so diferent from the harsh blue LEDs we usually install.