LED tubes with electronic ballast

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nizak

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With all the innovations in LED lighting I see that there are now T8 tubes available that are direct replacement for Florescent. No need to change ballast.

Has anyone been going this route or is it better to just get fixtures that are true LED.

In pricing out a current job, I can go with the conventional t8 fixture and put in the LED tubes and save about $400 overall.

Looking for any feedback on using the tubes with electronic ballasts.

Thanks
 
nizak said:
With all the innovations in LED lighting I see that there are now T8 tubes available that are direct replacement for Florescent. No need to change ballast.

Has anyone been going this route or is it better to just get fixtures that are true LED.

In pricing out a current job, I can go with the conventional t8 fixture and put in the LED tubes and save about $400 overall.

Looking for any feedback on using the tubes with electronic ballasts.

Thanks
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I've only used the tubes that require you to bypass the ballast. I like them and they give off good light.


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nizak said:
With all the innovations in LED lighting I see that there are now T8 tubes available that are direct replacement for Florescent. No need to change ballast.
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I think it is a gimmick and a waste of time.

You still have a ballast that will fail and waste power.
 
iwire said:
I think it is a gimmick and a waste of time.

You still have a ballast that will fail and waste power.
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Totally agree.

This is one time I think I would agree with Electric-Light. It would be better to just keep the T8 lamps.

One of the great benefits of LED is that the light can be directed as needed. You don't need to use reflectors to redirect the light that comes from a round lamp or a point source. But that advantage is completely lost when you try to design LED lamps to be a direct replacement for T8 lamps.
 
The purpose of an LED driver circuit is to maintain roughly constant current through the LEDs despite changes in supply voltage or LED threshold voltage. The purpose of an fluorescent ballast is to maintain roughly constant current through the tube despite the negative resistance characteristic of an arc. It is _possible_ that by selecting just the right LEDs, you could use a fluorescent lamp ballast as the required LED driver circuit. If this is how the LED replacement tubes operate, then I suspect it is a fine approach.

It is also possible that the LED replacement tubes have a driver circuit designed to interface between the output of the ballast and the requirements of the LEDs. In this case you have two driver circuits in series, meaning an extra point of failure and power loss for the convenience of not having to bypass the ballast.

I don't know which method the actual hardware uses.

-Jon
 
I've put lots of them in and they are fantastic. But....................... I didn't buy any of them, my customers did so, when they fail- I'm clear about it upfront- it's on them.



Coming up though I have a project to change 56 lay in 2x4 4 lamp fixtures to these and I will be supplying the tubes, and I am nervous about that.
 
macmikeman said:
I've put lots of them in and they are fantastic. But....................... I didn't buy any of them, my customers did so, when they fail- I'm clear about it upfront- it's on them.



Coming up though I have a project to change 56 lay in 2x4 4 lamp fixtures to these and I will be supplying the tubes, and I am nervous about that.
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Mike change the fixtures much better results
 
There is a myriad of topics here of people having problems with fluorescent ballasts running LED tubes. You have to know the ballast mfg and part number and cross reference it with the LED mfg compatibility chart. If the ballast isnt listed, they either didnt test it (pot luck if your tubes work correctly), or did test it and found it unacceptable.

The higher or harder to get to the light fixtures are, the more I would push using LED fixtures or bypass the ballast.
 
nizak said:
With all the innovations in LED lighting I see that there are now T8 tubes available that are direct replacement for Florescent. No need to change ballast.

Has anyone been going this route or is it better to just get fixtures that are true LED.

In pricing out a current job, I can go with the conventional t8 fixture and put in the LED tubes and save about $400 overall.

Looking for any feedback on using the tubes with electronic ballasts.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Weather or not they are better depends entirely on your angle.
If you are out to save money by using less electricity then LED tubes will help.
but bear in mind in many instances LED tubes put out less light than the latest high output floro's.
So if you need high output, LED's are not the way to go.

So whats your angle/main concern ?
 
nizak said:
With all the innovations in LED lighting I see that there are now T8 tubes available that are direct replacement for Florescent. No need to change ballast.

Has anyone been going this route or is it better to just get fixtures that are true LED.

In pricing out a current job, I can go with the conventional t8 fixture and put in the LED tubes and save about $400 overall.

Looking for any feedback on using the tubes with electronic ballasts.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It might help if you tell us the general type of fixture you have in mind for installing/replacing. The ballast shape and the lamp type compatibility is quite rigid as far as industry standard. You know that good enough, compliant drop in replacement components are stock items everywhere.

LED ballasts and fluorescent ballasts are essentially the same thing with different specific parameters.

Fluorescent fixtures are built around commonly available lamp and ballast sizes. There are odd length lamps for signs and appliances which cost a bunch and they're not always on stock items.

With non-standard and incompatible LED modules and ballast they're like modern appliances that require replacement by the exact factory part # or the fixture model & serial #, Is that company still in business 3 years later? How expensive is factory parts? How does repair cost get handled for non-stock parts requiring several visits? Does it offer such a unique benefit to warrant such difficulty?
 
How would 4' LED tubes vs. fluorescents hold up in applications where there is some vibration present, like a mechanical room or elevator cab?
 
mtfallsmikey said:
How would 4' LED tubes vs. fluorescents hold up in applications where there is some vibration present, like a mechanical room or elevator cab?
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I don't know. The electrodes can break or dislodge when fluorescent lamps are dropped or subject to shock even if it doesn't break the bulb.

4' plastic tube LED tubes don't have the stiffness of a glass lamp and flop around with vibration and there are hundreds of solder joints inside the lamp. Glass LED lamps have the stiffness of a fluorescent lamp but the LEDs are still glued along the entire length and could still suffer from microfractures. A fluorescent lamp is just a glass tube except for the electrodes.
 
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