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LED replacement

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Tired of dealing with balky fluorescent tubes and old magnetic ballasts ($$$) in my basement, I bit the bullet and bought 2 LED 4-footers, removed the dead ballast and turned on the lights. Dim bulbs. Apparently there are 3 kinds of LED tubes. Mine needed a T8 electric ballast. $16.95 later from my local electrical supply house, about 10 minutes labor and voila - let there be light. And there was. Instantly. I can recommend the change and you can do it yourself. Remember to turn off the breaker as there may be some current left in the wires even with the switch off. Don't ask me how I know. Total cost - less than $40.00.
 
IMO its better to get the tubes that will work without a ballast. Those old magnetic ballasts still waste power if they are in the circuit.

I forget the name/model offhand, but I bought a box of 10 on Amazon for about $10/tube, and they've worked out quite well. Its never below freezing at my house, but my brother in law said the ones I gave him work great even below zero..
 
These take an electric (not magnetic) ballast. You can hardly buy the magnetic ballasts anymore. No one around here stocks them. They have to be special ordered and cost $$$.
 
Sorry, I missed that you bought a new ballast. I think you're right, they quit making the magnetic ones, but there were still some on the shelf last time I looked.

But I would still buy the tubes that don't need it!

The tubes I got were actually supposed to work either way, but they didn't like the existing ballasts, so I just took them out. IIRC two were magnetic, the other two electronic. YMMV
 
I have found that the LED 4' fixture without the diffuser is REALLY bright if you look up. It gives good light but you have to be careful where you look. The type with a diffuser fitted are good and the replacement LED tubes also work well.
Trying to decide which type to go with. As I have a box of T8 tubes I may go with T8 fixtures and replace the tubes with LED tubes as they burn out.

David
 
I had not considered how the LED tubes would work in the cold. That is the biggest complaint I have with my shop's current lighting. Depending on the cost I might just put them on my Christmas wish list. Thanks for the idea.
 
Replacing all incandescent/fluorescent bulbs with LED's as they expire. About half way through the exercise now. Got 'dimmable' LED's for the bathroom a few months ago and find they are really sensitive to the dimmer setting, there seems to be a low end 'threshold' where they go off completely. A bit of an inconvenience but the electric bill has shown the merit of the changes.
 
You might want to replace the dimmer, with one rated for LED/CFL service. The ones I have actually have an adjustment for lower threshold (located under the cover plate), so the full range of the normal control remains usable.
 
Yeah, Randall, I thought of that. The dimmer control is a "Leviton" meant for standard bulbs. It's not so much of an inconvenience as an annoyance just now.
 
I'm planning on going LED for the new shop once I get around to doing the lighting. Need to do the house eventually as well.
 
:blue:I did a major remodel of the home in 2000. Added lots of lighting for older eyes, much of it on dimmers. Now as we gradually change over to LEDs I'm having the same problem as Doc. May have to change those dimmers for some more compatible.:sorrow:
 
I installed LED floods in one room of our house. The Leviton "standard" dimmer did not work well so I bought an LED rated one from the home center. That was better but after a while the lamps started to flicker on settings less than "full" brightness.

If I make a change in the future I will check both the LED lamp and dimmer companies' websites to confirm I have a compatible combination of dimmer and lamp.
 
When I remodeled the kitchen I replaced the over-sink light with an LED. Probably going to do the Utility room too.
 
How do you find the quality of light in the house? So far it seems like any LED lights I have seen in houses tend to make the space look like an interogation room.
 
The quality of light depends a great deal on the color temperature of the bulbs you buy. I like mine, but I'm careful to buy "warm" bulbs (lower color temperature) for most areas. I don't mind the bluer light in the garage. As someone mentioned before, using some sort of diffuser helps a lot too. Otherwise the LEDs throw much sharper shadows than other bulbs (which adds to the interrogation effect).
 
With the outdoor floods and garage, the LED's are great. No need for dimming those. I built an enclosure for the main kitchen lighting using a four-tube ballasted fluorescent fixture, may look into converting it to the LED tubes, as one of the transformers is getting fickle.
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