Rebuilding T8 Fixtures

[btlegacy]

I received some T8 Fixtures from a friend. They are Lithonia 4 feet long and have 4 bulbs. The ballasts are gone from most of them but they appear to have spots for two ballasts. The wiring is all there but am unsure of what the best way to approach to complete these.

I see some ballasts that can run 4 bulbs. Can I get one of these for each housing and run bulbs from them or do I need two ballasts per housing like it originally had?

 

[rice rocket]

Just wire them direct for LED T8s, and skip the ballasts. They're brighter, last forever, and don't hum.

 

[pattenp]

T8 LED lamps are not as bright as a comparable sized T8 Linear Fluorescent Tube and cost 10X or more per lamp. Unless you have a ton of money to spend, stick with the ballast and fluorescent lamps. If you use two ballast per fixture you can split the 4 lamps between 2 switches.

 

[btlegacy]

I looked into LED but it is way too much money at this time.

I am fine with running all 4 lamps on 1 switch in each fixture.

 

[pattenp]

I forgot to answer that you can use 1 four lamp ballast per fixture.

 

[btlegacy]

Would one of these guys be a good fit?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CYVGX2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You will most certainly encounter a few bad tombstones (bulb sockets) during your refurbishment of them. There are several different types but they are generally available at Home Depot or Lowes or an electric supply house. You will find them cracked or broken or the bulb or wire contacts burned or bent. It takes something like a small jewelers screwdriver pressed thru a hole in the tombstones to flex the wire contacts to get the old wire out of them. New ballasts wire different than the old magnetic ones, so pay attention to the diagram on the new ballast.

Would one of these guys be a good fit?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CYVGX2/?tag=atomicindus08-20

One of those would work nicely, they will mount in the same tabs/screw holes as one of the original ballasts.

Charles

 

[markdtn]

I have done this several times. There are lots of places that are upgrading those 4' fixtures and you can get them free. I throw away the old balasts and replace with a single from Lowes. It's like $20 for a good balast.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

8 ft tandem T-8 fixtures new at Lowes are $39.95. How much time are you going to have in it and the running around? Just a thought.

 

[btlegacy]

Do you have an items number for those fixtures?

 

[TheEquineFencer]

http://http://www.lowes.com/pd_163723-337-8TSNF-232-UNV-EB81-U_4294856999__?productId=3181905&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1%26page%3D1&facetInfo=

I used these myself and I bought the 6500K rated bulbs. A buddy of mine used the same fixtures and bought 4100K by accident, he didn't listen to me. Then when he saw the difference, he went back and got the 6500K bulbs.

 

[joeysh03]

I replace 4ft 4 lamp t8 ballast all the time at work. Ballast today are usually multi volt 120\277 just wire them in with like colors together. You do not need 2 ballast just one per fixture as long as it is for 4 lamps. Pretty simple. If you have to replace the socket ends or tombstones those are easy to just put the new one in as the old one came out. The old ones have a jumper wire to supply power to both sides the new one dont , wire only goes in one side. Again pretty simple

 

[btlegacy]

I went through the ballasts that came with the fixtures and looks like 6 of the 2 lamp ballasts work work. I set up a fixture on tested them all, so in the end I will only need to buy 3 of the 4 lamp ballasts. Thanks guys

I have also started working on mounting the fixtures:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256574