ballast bypass led bulbs

[signcrafter]

After my last post asking about reballasting some fluorescent lights someone mentioned ballast bypass tubes. Is this a decent option vs just getting new led fixtures? I have probably 60 flourescent bulbs total right now so wouldn't be able to do all at once but could do maybe a third of them at a time. If this is a good way to go what are some good ones to look at getting?

Just for reference my shop has 8' tall ceilings in most of it and main part is roughly 50x30. Have a mix of older fluorescent fixtures screwed to the ceiling. Some have bad ballasts and some have burnt out bulbs. I'm looking to get some better lighting in there without spending a fortune.

 

[CJ7VFR]

You can get ballast bypass LED tube bulbs cheaper if you buy them in bulk. You can find them in boxes of 10 or more at most big box places. Most of the boxes of 10 LED ballast bypass 4 foot long tubes are about $75.00, or about $7.50 per bulb. They can be cheaper if you buy them in boxes of 20.

I recently did an LED ballast bypass on 5 of my old fluorescent 4 foot long "shop" type lights in my garage. I purchased a box of 10 Halco brand 5000K LED tubes from Home Depot for $75.00 and rewired the 5 light fixtures.

There is a lot more light coming from the new LED bulbs versus the old fluorescent bulbs, but the best part is that they are instant on, instant bright, and use 50 percent less electricity than the old bulbs.

Win-win for me. This means that each of my old light fixtures cost about $15.00 to upgrade. Now, you can buy 4 foot "shop' type LED light fixtures with non-replaceable "tubes" in them for less than that, and they will work. But you can't replace the bulbs, and most of those fixtures do not have frosted lenses over the LED's, so they are quite a pain in the *** on your eyes if you look directly into them.

I also went with the ballast bypass tubes in my old fixtures because of the size and shape of the old fixtures deflectors. They are larger and shaped better than most of the cheap LED tube fixtures that are sold today. I like how the older deflectors bounce more of the light downward instead of wasting it higher up on the walls, or even up on the ceiling like the new cheap ones do.

Jim

 

[theoldwizard1]

If the existing fixtures are for 4' and surface mounted, just replace the whole fixture. It will be quicker. The cheap shop lights you buy at places like Costco come with a pigtail. Replace one of your existing fixtures with an octagon box receptacle cover (with duplex receptacle) and plug in. The fixtures are set up to be daisy chained.

 

[signcrafter]

You can get ballast bypass LED tube bulbs cheaper if you buy them in bulk. You can find them in boxes of 10 or more at most big box places. Most of the boxes of 10 LED ballast bypass 4 foot long tubes are about $75.00, or about $7.50 per bulb. They can be cheaper if you buy them in boxes of 20.

I recently did an LED ballast bypass on 5 of my old fluorescent 4 foot long "shop" type lights in my garage. I purchased a box of 10 Halco brand 5000K LED tubes from Home Depot for $75.00 and rewired the 5 light fixtures.

There is a lot more light coming from the new LED bulbs versus the old fluorescent bulbs, but the best part is that they are instant on, instant bright, and use 50 percent less electricity than the old bulbs.

Win-win for me. This means that each of my old light fixtures cost about $15.00 to upgrade. Now, you can buy 4 foot "shop' type LED light fixtures with non-replaceable "tubes" in them for less than that, and they will work. But you can't replace the bulbs, and most of those fixtures do not have frosted lenses over the LED's, so they are quite a pain in the *** on your eyes if you look directly into them.

I also went with the ballast bypass tubes in my old fixtures because of the size and shape of the old fixtures deflectors. They are larger and shaped better than most of the cheap LED tube fixtures that are sold today. I like how the older deflectors bounce more of the light downward instead of wasting it higher up on the walls, or even up on the ceiling like the new cheap ones do.

Jim

My current fluorescents don't have diffusers on them. So with that in mind would you go with ballast bypass tubes or just get new cheap fixtures? I've gone back and forth on this and other options and just trying to figure out what my best option is without spending a fortune on lights.

 

[CJ7VFR]

My current fluorescents don't have diffusers on them. So with that in mind would you go with ballast bypass tubes or just get new cheap fixtures? I've gone back and forth on this and other options and just trying to figure out what my best option is without spending a fortune on lights.

Are your ceiling and walls painted white, or some other light color?

You said your ceiling is 8 feet high, so that is not so bad if your old fixtures do not have deflectors.

The ceiling in my garage is higher than 8 feet, and it is made up of exposed rafters and joists, so there is no real ceiling there to speak of. So if my light fixtures didn't have the large deflectors on them I bet I would lose about 40 percent of the light up in the rafters.

In your case that would be a tough call as to whether you should replace the old fixtures or just re-wire them. Maybe you can try re-wiring just one of two of them to see what it would look like before you spend more money new fixtures.

It doesn't cost you anything to re-wire one light. Your cost would be for the two LED bulbs. If you find that you don't like how it looks, take the bulbs back right away and then buy new fixtures. If you like how it looks, then you can always go back and buy the LED tubes in the 10 or 20 bulk pack box and do the rest.

Whether you re-wire your old fixtures, or buy new ones, you will be absolutely amazed at how much more light you will have with the new LED bulbs versus the old fluorescent ones. Especially if the old bulbs are more than a few years old.

Jim

 

[Bert_]

A frosted led tube is a much better option then the garbage led shop lights that the box stores sell.

2 led tubes will cost $15-20. An led fixture of with any sort of quality it be 3x that.

 

[brandonsmash]

I just installed a bunch of ballast-bypass 120V LED lamps in a friend's shop. They've only been in for a month or six weeks, but I can attest that the initial response was great. They're MUCH brighter than the fluorescents they replaced, and not having to deal with ballasts is a huge benefit.

 

[GeddyT]

Look for sales online. I bought a 50-pack and an 8-pack from Superbright LEDs on a New Years sale. Something like 30% off. I see they're having a Labor Day sale now that would bring the price down to about $6 per tube if you buy by the 50.

Those tubes are ballast bypass and quite bright at 2300 lumens each. I have 55 in my 28x40, and it's plenty bright.

1000bulbs.com is another popular online seller for fluorescent replacements, and they're having a 40% off sale on select items right now.

For me, it was just looking around and shopping lumens per dollar.

Where I struggled more was in finding affordable fixtures. My fixtures cost double what the tubes cost, and they were the cheapest I can find and no longer available anywhere.
If you already have fixtures hung, it's a lot cheaper to just bypass the ballasts by replacing the tombstones. Have a look at the tombstones in your fixtures, see what they look like/how they're attached, and replace them on the cheap. LED tube lights come in many forms (single/double end, ballast/bypass/both), so make sure you're getting the right tombstones. For the common single-ended/ballast bypass tubes, you'll want wired non-shunted tombstones at one end and matching unwired tombstones at the other end. These things can be acquired for pennies each.

 

[macwhiz]

I would not reballast any fixture now. Converting to ballast-bypass LED is better in every way.

Instant on. Instant full brightness, even in the cold. No flicker. No hum. No need to replace the ballast when it wears out again. Substantially lower energy usage. Brighter. Less prone to damage. Won't release hazardous gasses if broken.

I replaced 8-foot T12s with LEDs. After doing the first few in my shop, it was clear that the rest of the T12s had to go, too.

Two things I learned:

Make sure you have spare tombstones (the sockets the lights snap into). They get brittle from the heat and UV of the old tubes... and the spring ones love to spring apart when you take the old bulb out. Figure you'll need to replace at least 10% of them, probably more.

If you're doing 8-foot fixtures, you're best off with LEDs that come with a clip to install in the middle of the span. You'll need some short self-tapping machine screws and a drill for this. It's worth the extra few minutes. The LEDs sag without the midspan clip, and this can cause reliability issues.

The Hyperikon tubes I used came with tombstones and midspan clips.

 

[spudley]

I bought a four pack at CostCo for about $40. Feit brand so anyones guess how long they'll last but I've been using them for nearly three years trouble free. Twice the light I had...

 

[sparky 1971]

Ballast bypass is the way to go, not only in financial savings, but the time factor as well. I have installed well over 1000 tubes in the last four years and have only had three failures that I know of. (two were bad out of the box). With 8' ceilings, I would suggest using the frosted lens instead of clear. As stated in post #9, if using 8', the tubes sag in the middle. For this reason, I won't use them. I get a conversion kit to turn the fixture into one that takes four 4' tubes. It is an added expense, (about $25 per fixture) but the time saved over changing the fixture is worth it. It takes about 15 minutes to strip the fixture down to the shell and install the kit once you get the hang of it.

The tubes I use can be installed with the ballast or ballast bypass. I have never used the ballast, that is just stupid. When going ballast bypass, they can be installed single or double ended. I use double ended for a 4' fixture and single ended for the 8' kits, the kits come with the wire and there is just enough supplied to go this route.

 

[bad_idea]

I installed a mess of these: Amazon link to bulbs in my 30x40x12 in October of last year. I have been very happy with them. They were only $150 for the case when I bought them. Mine was a new install, so I bought fixtures already direct wired with no ballasts.

 

[tonyciambrone]

When you have good enough fixtures in place, ballast bypass is the way to go. I got tombstones off Amazon from Jackyled, tubes from 1000bulbs. If you are buying two cases, get in touch with a rep and ask for a discount.

For me it was always enough to cover either taxes or shipping.

 

[signcrafter]

Went to 1000bulbs and was going to order 50 led tubes and went to checkout and shipping was 93 dollars. It's only a 4' bulb. Went to superbrightleds and they are sold out of most of the higher lumen bulbs. Guess I'll have to do some more digging.

What about this 20 pack for 96 bucks? 2200 lumens and 5000K. Probably not the best quality but should do the trick for now and I can always upgrade to better ones if needed.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SNXR1CY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[cybrdyke]

Went to 1000bulbs and was going to order 50 led tubes and went to checkout and shipping was 93 dollars. It's only a 4' bulb. Went to superbrightleds and they are sold out of most of the higher lumen bulbs. Guess I'll have to do some more digging.

What about this 20 pack for 96 bucks? 2200 lumens and 5000K. Probably not the best quality but should do the trick for now and I can always upgrade to better ones if needed.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SNXR1CY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Try Prolighting.com. Ask for GJ discount of 7%. Dont get clear lenses, get frosted. 2200 lumens should be 14 or 15 watts, not 18. 18w should be 2500 lumens or more.
Good luck,
CD

 

[CJ7VFR]

...What about this 20 pack for 96 bucks? 2200 lumens and 5000K. Probably not the best quality but should do the trick for now and I can always upgrade to better ones if needed.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SNXR1CY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

The LED tubes you have shown in the Amazon link are for clear lens tubes, which means all the tiny LED's are exposed and can be seen.

Installing these in a space with an 8 foot ceiling can be harsh on your eyes! It would be better to go with frosted lenses in order to cut down on both the harshness, as well as the odd shadows and bright and dark spots that clear lens LED tubes can make.

I have 10 LED "shop lights" that I bought from Sams Club last year that I used to replace some of the old fluorescent 4 foot, two bulb lights that were in my garage. These lights from Sams Club have the "tubes" built into them, and they are clear lenses.

While they do put out much more light than the old fluorescents, and they are instant on, and they use less electricity, they do cause "spots" in your eyes if you look directly into them, and they do create some odd shadows and lines on surfaces that are not directly under the lights. For me it is not too bad because the ceiling in the garage is higher.

But because of this, I went with the ballast bypass frosted tubes in the remaining 5 lights in the garage because of it. Those lights are in areas where I do work on benches, and I didn't want the harsh spots and weird shadows from the clear lenses.

Just some food for thought. I didn't know about ballast bypass tubes back when I bought the Sams Club lights. If I did, I would have done my entire garage in frosted ballast bypass tubes.

Jim

 

[pancho400cid]

Dumb question and I don't mean to hi-jack but along the same lines....

I have 8 fixtures, each with dual T12, F40, 48", 2900 lumen fluorescent tubes - 16 tubes total. There are two banks of four fixtures (2 x 4 = 8), each bank on a separate switch (4 fixtures daisy-chained off each switch).

One fixture is dead, and it's not burned out tubes. I assume the ballast is bad. Can I switch that one fixture to ballast-bypass LED's without issues?

Eventually I would replace them all assuming I like the new bulbs, but I'd kinda like to see how it works.

...

 

[Innovate1]

Dumb question and I don't mean to hi-jack but along the same lines....

I have 8 fixtures, each with dual T12, F40, 48", 2900 lumen fluorescent tubes - 16 tubes total. There are two banks of four fixtures (2 x 4 = 8), each bank on a separate switch (4 fixtures daisy-chained off each switch).

One fixture is dead, and it's not burned out tubes. I assume the ballast is bad. Can I switch that one fixture to ballast-bypass LED's without issues?

Eventually I would replace them all assuming I like the new bulbs, but I'd kinda like to see how it works.

...

Yes, if the ballast is bad you can switch to ballast bypass LED tubes. For those the ballast is completely removed from the circuit. T8 LED tubes will fit fine in the T12 tombstones (the end connectors).

 

[pancho400cid]

T8 LED tubes will fit fine in the T12 tombstones (the end connectors).

OK good.... because I wasn't finding T12 sized LED's. Thanks!

 

[rquackenbush]

Thanks for the tip @macwhiz. I didn't think about the 8ft LED replacements sagging.

 

[sz0k30]

I have 8, 2 tube, 8 foot fluorescent T12 fixtures in my 12 foot high pole barn. Have had them for years. Never saw any indication that they were sagging. Is it just the long LED's that have a tendency to sag?

 

[Onator]

I just did a bunch of 4 and 8ft using the ballast bypass method. I debated it forever, wondering if I should replace the entire fixture or just go with the bypass method. I found an industrial lighting supplier (Minneapolis) and the guy was great. He suggested Sylvania Bulbs and they look/work great. I went Warm Glow 4100K and it was a great choice. No more humming, each fixture took about 10-minutes and there is zero sagging on the 8ft’ers. Much improved lighting and instant start here in COLD Minnesota.

 

[Meursault74]

I've installed some 8ft a few months ago. They are plastic, but the back seems to be an aluminum sleeve with some slight ribbing along the way to stiffen them up. I haven't noticed them sagging. Obviously not as stiff as glass. If they do sag, I'll put a zip tie in the center to hold them up.

 

[sparky 1971]

I have 8, 2 tube, 8 foot fluorescent T12 fixtures in my 12 foot high pole barn. Have had them for years. Never saw any indication that they were sagging. Is it just the long LED's that have a tendency to sag?

It's the 8' led lamps that sag, not the florescents.

 

[Innovate1]

If you have decent fixtures I would definitely do ballast bypass bulbs. Yes, maybe you can buy cheap fixtures with LEDs for less but how long are they going to last? And when they die you have to replace the whole fixture again. For my new garage I went with new tube fixtures with LED bulbs. I hope they last a long time. But when they go out it will be simple to just change the bulbs. Seems like most others here have the same opinion at least for the retrofit.

 

[Milton Shaw]

I replaced all the long bulbs in my house with ballast bypass LED's. Left all the ballasts in place as they are hard to get dispose of as trash refuses them and so does recycling places. I got them all from Amazon at about $6 for 4 foot and $14 for 8 footers. I love the amount of light they give out and instant on without ever flickering. I did get the frosted bulbs as they are easier on the eyes. Takes about 10 minutes or so a fixture to cut and splice the wires for either single end power like the 4 footers take of double end power like the 8 footers take. Hardest part was moving enough stuff in my shop to get to both ends and the middle of the 8 footers. I did order and use the optional center brackets for the 8 footers in the shop. Some have been in almost a year now and no failures to need the extra's I bought.

 

[Meursault74]

I replaced all the long bulbs in my house with ballast bypass LED's. Left all the ballasts in place as they are hard to get dispose of as trash refuses them and so does recycling places. I got them all from Amazon at about $6 for 4 foot and $14 for 8 footers. I love the amount of light they give out and instant on without ever flickering. I did get the frosted bulbs as they are easier on the eyes. Takes about 10 minutes or so a fixture to cut and splice the wires for either single end power like the 4 footers take of double end power like the 8 footers take. Hardest part was moving enough stuff in my shop to get to both ends and the middle of the 8 footers. I did order and use the optional center brackets for the 8 footers in the shop. Some have been in almost a year now and no failures to need the extra's I bought.

I guess I'm lucky. In my city we have household hazardous waste pick up. I put each ballast in it's own plastic bag and taped up the used 8ft bulbs. Filled out a webform and it was all picked up along with my used engine oil. This is separate from trash/recycling. I think I had 8 ballasts and 15 tubes to dispose off, the last 8 ft fluorescent tubes I'll ever dispose off

Before this service and before I knew better I used to put a used ballast in the trash and smash up the used tubes so they would fit in the trash. Not OK, but I didn't know better back then. This service makes it easy to dispose of waste easier and properly for residents.

 

[jimindm]

Those must have been very old fixtures. I built my garage in 1991 and put in used 4 foot, four tube fixtures. I converted them to the ballast bypass in the last year.

I completely removed my ballasts, but only one of all of them I removed did not say No PCB.

 

[Bert_]

Mid 70's and earlier most likely have pcb oil in the capacitor. Later stuff will say "No PCB's" right on the label.

If it says "No PCB's" then it's no different than a motor or regular transformer.

 

[AP514]

The Best Light Fixture Ever!

Are people not looking at the Sticky at the top of this forum ?

 

[dubdoc]

You can get ballast bypass LED tube bulbs cheaper if you buy them in bulk. You can find them in boxes of 10 or more at most big box places. Most of the boxes of 10 LED ballast bypass 4 foot long tubes are about $75.00, or about $7.50 per bulb. They can be cheaper if you buy them in boxes of 20.

I recently did an LED ballast bypass on 5 of my old fluorescent 4 foot long "shop" type lights in my garage. I purchased a box of 10 Halco brand 5000K LED tubes from Home Depot for $75.00 and rewired the 5 light fixtures.

There is a lot more light coming from the new LED bulbs versus the old fluorescent bulbs, but the best part is that they are instant on, instant bright, and use 50 percent less electricity than the old bulbs.

Win-win for me. This means that each of my old light fixtures cost about $15.00 to upgrade. Now, you can buy 4 foot "shop' type LED light fixtures with non-replaceable "tubes" in them for less than that, and they will work. But you can't replace the bulbs, and most of those fixtures do not have frosted lenses over the LED's, so they are quite a pain in the *** on your eyes if you look directly into them.

I also went with the ballast bypass tubes in my old fixtures because of the size and shape of the old fixtures deflectors. They are larger and shaped better than most of the cheap LED tube fixtures that are sold today. I like how the older deflectors bounce more of the light downward instead of wasting it higher up on the walls, or even up on the ceiling like the new cheap ones do.

Jim

Just wondering how to actually bypass the ballast? Do you just remove the ballast and hook the bulb "sockets" directly to 120V switched line voltage?

 

[Nick Danger]

Just wondering how to actually bypass the ballast? Do you just remove the ballast and hook the bulb "sockets" directly to 120V switched line voltage?

That's how I did mine in the kitchen. The bulbs even came with replacement tombstones. I stripped the fixture to the sheet metal and started over.