Replacing flourescent tubes with LEDs

[Jethro_uk]

,,,

is it as simple as removing the old tube and putting the new one in place with starter and ballast becoming just straight links ?

[T i m]

Yes, it can be (see 'Ejecting the ballast' thread). ;-)

If it's a std ballasted fitment you can either simply replace the fluorescent for the LED and the starter for a straight link (in my case they were 250mA fuses) but if they are HF fittings I believe you have to bypass the HF electronics.

Basically (on the tubes I have anyway) the 'mains' just sits across one end (marked 'Input' on mine) of the fitting / tube.

Cheers, T i m

[Scott]

The one I bought (Philips) came with a replacement 'starter' (which I think was a placebo).

[Andy Burns]

More or less, some tubes say the ballast can remain, I think I'd cut it out, and they often supply a dummy starter.

[charles]

It might be. I had tocarry out a mini bit of re-wiring in one fitting. Not so easy workingb above my head.

[Fredxx]

I simply linked the ballast out, by making both wires enter the same terminal on the ballast.

[Martin Brown]

Though you might still find it cheaper to replace the whole unit. That way you get a luminaire designed for LEDs and their PSU to stay alive.

Fitting LEDs into older fixtures can be interesting.

[Fredxx]

I generally disagree.

If you have a single luminaire then I might agree, but the beauty of changing just the tubes in a matched set of luminaires is when one fails in a couple of years time, you don't have to replace the lot to match. Plus repaint the ceiling because the new luminaires are a slightly different shape.

YMMV

[T i m]

I opened one of the (4) replacement 'starters' and it just contained a

20mm wire ended, glass, slow blow 250mA fuse.

If you are going to short out the starter you might as well use something that provides a bit of protection.

Cheers, T i m

[Jethro_uk]

Thanks for all replies.

Having a new job, and money being less of a worry than of late I thought "sod it" and bought the last two from Toolstation @ £9 each.

All fitted and lit up :) could not have been easier.

That looks like all the tubes being replaced then.

[T i m]

I was even luckier that I was given 4 x 6' 30W LED tubes by a mate who wanted something brighter (in his shop) and had bought dedicated LED fittings (except his mate measured and got them and got shorter ones). ;-(

Yup. Except that I now hear the mains hum from the ballasts that no longer needs to be in there so I'm just going to bypass those when I get round to it.

I'm guessing they have dropped in price since they first went 'mass' as at £9 each they aren't that much more than you can pay for straight fluorescent tubes?

Cheers, T i m

[Tricky Dicky]

Just uprated the garage/workshop lighting. I have fitted 4 1200 x 600 LED panels @ 60W and a further 2, 1200 X 300 panels @30W over my work benches down one side, absolutely brilliant everything can be seen, no dark corners no shadows when working on jobs wish I had done it sooner. When I divide the man cave off from the rest of the garage I am looking to use two more 1200 X 300 to illuminate it.

Richard

[T i m]

They sound like something I might be able to use if / when I put a ceiling in my workshop, even if only at the far end (where my bench and lathe are) but anything wider than a single fluorescent would get in the way re accessing the roof space over the rest of it.

Maybe I could fit them on hinges on one long side then could drop them vertical when accessing the 'loft'? ;-)

Oh, on one side I'd have to rebuild the folding boat out of transparent plastic. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[SH]

can you give a supplier for these please?

I'm thinking of having the 300 mm wide units under the wall cupboards to light up the bench worktops.....

S.

[Tricky Dicky]

Wholesale LED lights were the supplier;

Just a word of warning if you are mounting under cupboards. The panels are not entirely flat in that they have a 30mm bulge on the back. These are meant to be dropped into suspended ceilings where the bulge does not matter. You can get a surface mounting kit which I used for one I installed in the kitchen but these can be expensive in comparison to the panel. In my garage I did not need the aesthetics so did not use a mounting kit, instead I fixed some 2X1 battens to the roof trusses at the same width as the panels and used some small L brackets screwed to the battens to hold them. I will try to post some pictures later.

Richard

[Tricky Dicky]

As promised some pictures of the panels installed in the garage

This side view shows the 2 X 1 battens fixed to the roof trusses and you can see the L brackets I used to secure the panels.

This end view shows the panel thickness, the edge frame is about 8mm thick but the centre portion forming the bulge means the total panel thickness is 30mm.

As I said before you can get frames for surface mounting that do look more aesthetic we used one in the kitchen but if I remember correctly the frame cost about half the price of the panel as it was the garage and I had plenty 2 x 1 available I opted for the method shown.

Richard

[SH]

Thats a very impressive person cave..... :-)

I have a floor above my garage ceiling joists so I could actually screw some metal strips perpendicular to the joists and recess the lights so that they are flush with the joist bottom faces.....

[Theo]

I've been fitting a load of these in the loft:

They're dirt cheap, the light is perfectly decent (it's a loft, not an art gallery), and they're daisy-chainable which means I can just run a cable out the end of one into the next. They are individually switched which doesn't affect the lights downstream. They come in different lengths/wattages and both 3000K and 4000K (I have both, the former is a bit dingy IMHO).

They're essentially just LED tape in an enclosure, but they seem to run cool so I'm not so worried about lifetimes. (and it's a loft, so matching isn't a worry). Fitting is two clips with a screw each, so couldn't be simpler - they're lightweight so don't need more than that.

The only downside so far is the daisy-chain cable is only about 15cm long, so I have to splice in another length with a junction box to space them out further. I noticed Enlite have an almost identical range at 3x the price which does have longer link cables available, but frustratingly the shroud on the plug is slightly too long so they don't fit. At least with the JB I can cut the cable to exactly the right length to make a neat job.

Theo

[Tricky Dicky]

I had thought of doing that myself but the truss spacing varies a bit and each panel would need a separate solution beside having gone for rectangular panels it made sense to arrange them lengthwise down the garage. I suppose I could have used 600 X 600 panels but that meant more wiring.

Richard

[SH]

Or perhaps an annular rectangle cut out of sheets of plywood screwed to joists and the light fitting slotting into the rectangular hole?

The plywood could be painted white to act as a reflector too?