Utilitech - Lowes - 6500K LED T8 replacements

[Falcon67]

Found those in the store on sale, 4 bulbs for $17.98. Probably a close out, but still carry a 3 yr warranty. I bought 3 boxes to try. I tried to get some kind of picture that would show the difference but it's just not working. Suffice to say they are a bit brighter to the eye and the light is more even through the tube than the Phillips T8 6500K bulbs in the other fixtures. Good enough that I'll go back and get two more boxes and do the whole workroom. I'll save maybe half the old bulbs if that, several are showing end burn.

 

[Platonic Solid]

$4.50 ea. is darn cheap for any LED bulb. I see they have the 16 pack @ $56 = $3.50 ea. (link)

 

[Strouty]

Do you need to mess with the ballasts too or are they direct really pavement bulbs? I have a ton of the Phillips 6500k and there are all getting dull and uneven color wise.

 

[Platonic Solid]

These bulbs require the fluorescent ballast.

 

[Strouty]

It is weird, the reviews say they can be wired without them. I may have to stop in and pick up a couple. I would think that running the ballast defeats the energy savings.

 

[Falcon67]

These are indeed drop in and not direct wire. May have to put a meter on one T8 and one LED and just see what the draw really is.

 

[cybrdyke]

I would think that running the ballast defeats the energy savings.

The ballast uses about 3w per tube.

 

[skipnay]

These are indeed drop in and not direct wire. May have to put a meter on one T8 and one LED and just see what the draw really is.

Like to see the difference

 

[Bert_]

You can't really compare brightness by looking at the lamp. You could shine the lights at similar surfaces from the same distance away, that would allow you to see any difference.

Otherwise it's easy for your eyes to be tricked if the light is emitted by a smaller point or other things.

 

[s14kev]

Says 1600 lumens. Is this correct? If so isn't that roughly half of what a typical 6500K T8 produces?

 

[cybrdyke]

These are indeed drop in and not direct wire. May have to put a meter on one T8 and one LED and just see what the draw really is.

The high frequency operation of the ballast usually skews the figures on a meter.
But why bother? The figures are commonly known.
A 2 lamp T8 fixture uses 59 watts. Two of these 14w LED tubes, plus 3w per tube for the ballast (17 total) consumes 34 watts.
CD

 

[cybrdyke]

Says 1600 lumens. Is this correct? If so isn't that roughly half of what a typical 6500K T8 produces?

Standard T8 tube is 2850 in a laboratory.
You can expect to get around 1700 of those delivered onto the target.
The LED delivers almost all of it's lumens to the target.
CD

 

[Falcon67]

All mine are 4 bulb 8', so I'm knocking off around 40% less power per fixture. That'll make the accounting dept. happy for sure. Figure 375 hr/fixture payback. Not a bad deal.