The T8 LED I just (literally yesterday) installed is compatible with both ballast and ballast-less..... removing the ballast installation is just as easy as snip the wires and connect the Hot-Neutral to one end and the other doesn't matter which end is hot or neutral. (on my version of the T8, it is double end powered) . A lot of the reviews on Amazon where others compare the power consumption of the LEDs installed with ballast and ballast-less, the ballast-less ones use less energy than the same tube setup with a ballast. I went for ballast-less setup because my ballast was bad from start.... installation is simple , just basic electricity knowledge. If you gather everything in advance, the installation from start to finish is about 15-20 minutes each fixture.
One thing though.... if this is inside home use, I would suggest the 4000k ones more yellow and less harsh to the eye. the 5000k and 6000k ones are good for shops..... yea too late for me.
But you have to keep track of what type of LED tubes up buy..... Make sure if you ever get a replacement, get the right one.... that is...
Single end ones that have hot and neutral on one end of the LED tube and you'll have to use those Non Shunted sockets on one end and a dummy socket on the other.
or
Dual-end (double-end) ones that use hot wire on one end and neutral on the other end of the other socket.....
This is one of the Reviews...
I was surprised to find out that this Hyperikon LED tube consumes 42 watts/hour, as measured by Kill-A-Watt. Then I rewired and was relief to find the power went down to 18W as claimed. So even though the bulb works with the existing ballast in the flourescent light fixture, there's no power saving unless rewired. The light output is the same in both cases. Somebody please double check my finding.
There's a label on the tube that says it will work even if the ballast stops working. That's not true for me neither. My ballast is having trouble and it shutts off randomly sometimes. It shuts the LED tube down with it.
About wiring instruction, I got wrong one like many people reported, where the before and after diagrams are the same. I got it to work following Karin's photo, and I also made a small change to it as shown with red lines on my picture. The reason for the change is because my the light fixture has 2 wires coming out from each end. It's safe to combine them as they are connected internally anyways. If you rather not combine them, then remember to put a wire nut to cap off unused wire to prevent shock.
The LED tube will allow reverse polarity, meaning you can flip the tube left to right or right to left after rewiring, without damaging it. Just DON'T wire both hot and neutral to the same end of the tube.
