Philips LEDtube T8 LED replacements

[FlyingSquirrelCycles]

Anyone try these yet?

http://www.lighting.philips.com/main/led/assets/MASTER_LEDtube_Value_Instantfit_brochure.pdf

They are $25 each at Home Depot.


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[ElectroLight]

They look pretty cool, I have 8 tubes in my garage so that would set me back a bit more than I'm looking to spend. I'll wait till costco has um for half that price.

 

[FlyingSquirrelCycles]

Funny you should mention costco. Look what they have....

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[4xdog]

There's another ongoing thread on the Costco lights here:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252300

I haven't seen those Philips tubes yet but I've been looking for them. My experience with Philips LED bulbs has been excellent.

 

[Mustang51js]

I don't remember the brand but I had a customer that got led bulbs from supply house, after I hooked them up they weren't much different than the t8 as far as light output and color

 

[Chris130]

I recently installed replaced the 2 flo T8s in my laundry room fixture with 2 of these guys from Cree - these ones from Cree are unique in that you don't have to remove the fixture's ballast first - just swap in the LED bulbs - easy-peasy...

I love them - they work great, and are brighter/crisper than the flo T8s. Plus, no more random buzzing/flickering. Even at $30 per bulb, I condider them a good purchase, and I'm sure prices will start dropping more soon.

Cheers, Chris

ETA: I didn't realize the OP's Philips bulb was also no-ballast removal - that's cool Philips is doing that now too. Both Philips and Cree make awesome LEDs - I'm sure the Philips bulb is great too

 

[grifter679]

we have an energy division at my facility and we have been doing a lot of retrofit projects where t8 fixtures are being replaced with LED equivalent. I spoke with our electrical engineer and he said after all of his research the LED tube replacement isnot financially feasible, the operation hours stay the same between a fluoresenct or LED tube. the only way to make it economical is to do a complete fixture replacement with an LED driver and LED strip rather than the tubes.

 

[F357]

Can they be run off straight 120v without the ballast? That seems really wasteful just to not spend a few minutes moving some wires...

 

[walrus]

I can't imagine there is enough energy savings to make it worthwhile. I saw one lit up at Wesco yesterday, nice looking light, very bright and really white. if they were 5 bucks a tube I might go for it

 

[F357]

I can't imagine there is enough energy savings to make it worthwhile.

What's "worthwhile"? It would literally take me 2 minutes from start to finish to move the 120v wire from the ballast directly to the bulb socket. No parts needed. Probably nothing more than a flat head screwdriver.

It's one thing if you have an electronic ballast, but if you have magnetic ballasts it would be ridiculous to leave them in place.

 

[walrus]

What's "worthwhile"? It would literally take me 2 minutes from start to finish to move the 120v wire from the ballast directly to the bulb socket. No parts needed. Probably nothing more than a flat head screwdriver.

It's one thing if you have an electronic ballast, but if you have magnetic ballasts it would be ridiculous to leave them in place.

I doubt you'd need a screwdriver but what does a t8 fixture draw compared to the LED fixture. I already have the T8 so that money is gone so the energy saving from switching would have to be significant to replace the 60 or so tubes in my shop. lets see 25 times 60 is 1500 bucks. The amount lights are on in my shop, I'll bet it would never pay out but maybe your lights are on 24/7?

 

[F357]

Isn't the entire point to save energy? If you have electronic ballast T8 lights there is nothing wrong with the T8 tubes you are already using. Quality tubes are like $1.50 and last damn near forever. Flicker is nearly gone with electronic ballasts. So why switch to LED but to save power? And if you're spending all that money to save power, why not spend an extra few minutes and get rid of the ballast? That's like putting mud tires on a Prius.

They claim the tubes are 14.5 watts, that's less than half of a normal T8. I don't know if that number they quote includes what the ballast is wasting or not, probably not. They make a lot of heat, that is a lot of watts wasted.

 

[walrus]

Isn't the entire point to save energy? If you have electronic ballast T8 lights there is nothing wrong with the T8 tubes you are already using. Quality tubes are like $1.50 and last damn near forever. Flicker is nearly gone with electronic ballasts. So why switch to LED but to save power? And if you're spending all that money to save power, why not spend an extra few minutes and get rid of the ballast? That's like putting mud tires on a Prius.

They claim the tubes are 14.5 watts, that's less than half of a normal T8. I don't know if that number they quote includes what the ballast is wasting or not, probably not. They make a lot of heat, that is a lot of watts wasted.

I've swapped out many HID fixtures for customers putting in LEDs. I've also swapped out t12s for t8, magnetic and electronic ballast.

At the price point of 25 bucks I won't be swapping any of these LEDs in any time soon. I don't care about the ballasts, its the cost of the tubes vs the energy savings. I expect at some point the prices of these will come down and then it might be worth it.

 

[F357]

At less than half the wattage of T8s the pay back would be pretty fast if you use your lights a lot. I have 9x 2 tube T8 fixtures in part of my shop. At my local power rate I would save $0.42 per 12 hours if I switched. If I ran them every day like that, it would add up real quick.

That is assuming these put out as much light as a T8. A normal T8 is rated at over 2800 lumens, these are only 1600, but probably aimed more efficiently than a T8.

I agree though, they will probably drop in price shortly. When Home Depot first started selling the Cree 60 watt replacements they cost around $14, then they dropped to $7ish, then $5. I would expect these to do something similar...