LED replacement bulb fires

[Joes Electrical]

I have been told not to replace fluorescent bulbs with LED replacement bulbs do to the fire hazard. Has anyone experienced an electrical fire due to the replacement of florescent bulbs with LED ones. Could this be due to miss wiring? Some leave the ballast and some bypass the ballast, what is the best practice? I feel that replacement of the fixture is best. Your thoughts?

 

[ptonsparky]

We do some for a local lumber yard that we just replace the lamps and leave the ballasts in. They supply the lamps. We supply lamps for other places and remove the ballasts. No fires yet, but the installation instructions are something that should be read.

 

[James L]

I've heard that the tombstones aren't rated for direct wire 120v but I've never seen or heard of any fires.

 

[LarryFine]

I've heard that the tombstones aren't rated for direct wire 120v but I've never seen or heard of any fires.

Fluorescent ballasts have open-circuit output voltages over 500v.

 

[tom baker]

the most efficient is to get a new LED luminaire with a LED driver. Leaving the ballast in is additional loss. the danger of bypassing the ballast is in someone - janitor - replacing an LED lamp with florescent.
In WA we are required to label the luminare with that the ballast has been by passed

 

[James L]

Fluorescent ballasts have open-circuit output voltages over 500v.

Yeah I know. It's never made sense to me.
I couls understand if it was said to be an issue of amperage

 

[Flicker Index]

Fluorescent ballasts have open-circuit output voltages over 500v.

and? static electricity has OCOV in 10s of kV.

 

[grich]

Had to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with the staff of one radio station client. Previous GM bought a case of Sylvania bypass tubes and converted several fixtures, using the provided warning stickers and telling the staff not to put regular T8 tubes into the bypassed fixtures. New GM comes on board and shoves an LED tube in an unconverted fixture. No one reported to me the smell of burning plastic...I found this on my own a few days later during a regular site visit. I could smell it the moment I walked into the building. The staff now knows to look for the stickers and which bulbs to put where.

No problems with bypassed fixtures or LED tubes. They are working well. The fixtures are fancy, so replacing then with new LED troffers would be hard. At another site with plain-Jane troffers, we're installing new LED troffers.

 

[James L]

I don't think I would convert only some, then leave it in the hands of a maintenance man to figure out which kind of tubes to put in.

 

[gadfly56]

I don't think I would convert only some, then leave it in the hands of a maintenance man to figure out which kind of tubes to put in.

^^^^That right there. It's not a question of if someone puts the wrong lamp in a fixture, just when.

 

[grich]

^^^^That right there. It's not a question of if someone puts the wrong lamp in a fixture, just when.

They don't have maintenance men. It's the GM or me. GM is worried of an issue, so he consults me before proceeding.

I'd prefer getting rid of the tombstones.

On a theoretical note, what would happen if 120VAC were applied to a T8 FL bulb? Our bypass bulbs have one end L, other end N. Will 120V be enough to strike the arc on a 4-foot tube? I expect if it does strike, bad things will happen because of the lack of the ballast to limit the current.

 

[Flicker Index]

They don't have maintenance men. It's the GM or me. GM is worried of an issue, so he consults me before proceeding.

I'd prefer getting rid of the tombstones.

On a theoretical note, what would happen if 120VAC were applied to a T8 FL bulb? Our bypass bulbs have one end L, other end N. Will 120V be enough to strike the arc on a 4-foot tube? I expect if it does strike, bad things will happen because of the lack of the ballast to limit the current.

Absolutely nothing. Even if you use an igniter to initiate an arc, 120v is below the steady state operating voltage of the lamp.

 

[Flicker Index]

It's a design issue consisting of lack of uniform standards and physical lockout to prevent interchange between incompatible components. I'd like to think that they learned a thing or two from how common it was for history of people putting T12 lamps in T8 luminaires.

pin based CFLs of different wattage had the same socket with lockout keys to lockout wrong wattage lamps and it had a further lockout option with neck clearance so the oversized hexagonal base on the PL-T can not go into PL-C socket.

 

[Clayton79]

4pin can light LED
Multi volt, supposed to have been compatible with ballast and bypassed,

Found best solution was bypassed on
277v. System


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