LED/Fluorescent Replacement Wiring Standard

[justsam]

I am speaking of direct wire replacement, no ballast. I have seen tubes internally wired to be single end power, hot on one pin and neutral on 3 pins, and two pins shunted with power applied to each end.

I just did a replacement with Hyperikon tubes that used the latter case above. Clearly there can be issues with shunted and non shunted sockets, especially in the single ended case.

Is there an emerging standard, or does one manufacturer have a big enough market share to drive a pseudo standard? My case was T8 with G13 ends. What about T12, T5, Cold Start, High Output, single pin tubes, etc?

 

[cybrdyke]

The free market will make the decision. Single end bypass tubes are practically non-existent at this point. Too much confusion with installations and too many safety issues. Installers who regularly do lighting upgrades have gravitated to double end bypass tubes.
No single manufacturer has established themselves as dominant, but many many have dropped off the face of the earth.
As for the others that you asked about:
T12's are being bypassed using the same tubes as T8's.
T5HO bypass tubes are not common, although they exist, they aren't popular. Most T5HO's are being upgraded with ballast compatible LED tubes.
Cold starting is not an issue with LED.
High Output (assuming T12) is not normally being retrofitted with LED tubes, but with some other kind of retrofit kit.
Single pin tubes are available in LED but also are not popular. Most single pin fixtures get upgraded with some other kind of retrofit kit.
Incidentally, ballast compatible tubes sell more units nationally than bypass tubes.
CD

 

[justsam]

Cybrdyke,
Thanks for your thorough and concise answers. It is interesting to me that the ballast compatible still dominate. I would think most would be trying to rid themselves of potential points of failure when upgrading.

Will a standards body or association such as NEMA engage in the standards or will it be dominate player as you suggest?

 

[cybrdyke]

Yeah, the notion that ballasts are the devil isn't actually accurate. But for those who want to believe that, there's a ton of bypass products out there...and they're not always LED tubes. There's so many ways to retrofit a strip fixture or a troffer it's crazy. Bypass tubes are just the low hanging fruit.

NEMA will allow them all. No reason to discourage any of it. The market will sort it out.
There's actually 3 systems for LED tubes that UL has categorized:
Type A is the ballast compatible system
Type B is the ballast bypass system, subdivided into single-end and double-end power.
Type C is a ballast replacement system. An external LED driver is added into the system.

Type C is also very popular. When you have an external driver, you can optimize the tubes for max energy savings and also you can add in controllability. I often imagine that those folks who advocate for bypass tubes will have their heads explode when they see a Type C product...."OMG..you took a ballast out and put another one IN???

CD

 

[kkluska]

We hardly sell any ballast compatible lamps. Most of our guys are doing single end wiring. Our GLL tube can be wired single end or opposing ends and is also ballast compatible.

 

[Bert_]

Judging from the replies this obviously varies by region. In my area ballast compatible and single ended bypass tubes are common, double ended can be had but need to be special ordered.

Type C, from what I have read, looks like a really nice product. A proper driver that doesn't have to be built into the confines of the tube should last longer and as said be better able to tie into lighting controls.

Unfortunately any time I have asked about them I get a blank stare and the pricing was not competitive.



Not exactly on topic but I wonder if anyone has some input,

I am a bit curious about how exactly the ballast compatible type work and what type of load the put on the ballast? I have seen a few cases where the tubes were installed a quite a few ballasts failed a year or so after they were installed. Most were 6-10 years old so it's hard to make any real conclusions there. I have seen a few NEW fixtures with ballast compatible tubes installed from day one that have had a high amount of ballast failure. So it makes me wonder.

We know that a ballast is a constant current device, standard T8's are around 200mA I think. No matter what tube you put in it will get about the same current. With energy saving fluorescent tubes they have a lower arc voltage and that lowers the overall wattage also. Do led tubes operate in a similar way?

In the days of magnetic ballasts I noted that energy saving tubes with their lower arc voltage would make ballasts run hotter than normal and often die early. I am not sure if that affects electronic ballasts as much.