donbeezy
New member
my brother in law bought some cheap LED bulbs online. he took out the ballast and just put the led bulbs right in. i have not tried them for detailing yet though.
so yes. old housings would work
LED Shop Lighting
- Thread starter ShawnF350
- Start date
my brother in law bought some cheap LED bulbs online. he took out the ballast and just put the led bulbs right in. i have not tried them for detailing yet though.
so yes. old housings would work
tom p.
Active member
Don, thanks. It seems like my 8` length tubes might be dinosaurs...
XxBoostinxX
New member
I would say yes, LED`s will be taking over. The price of LED`s are dropping fast and they are more efficient.
Are those 8` tubes single pins? I just started to retro-fit the T12 fixtures I have in my warehouse with single pin 8` LED`s. I think they were around $35 a bulb at the time. All you have to do is remove the ballast and make one side hot and the other side negative.
Ancient_1
Member
In my single car I have 4 70w 5000k 6500 lumen lights and is almost too bright with everything painted gloss white.
Civicclutch
New member
In my single car I have 4 70w 5000k 6500 lumen lights and is almost too bright with everything painted gloss white.
You`re not supposed to paint your walls with auto paint then clear coat it cause then you`ll only buff and polish it then follow that up with Wolfgang coating
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dschribs
New member
These are four foot. I `d check w customer service to see if they have 8 footers if that`s indeed what you want to stay with.
https://www.prolighting.com/zy-t8-1...ZGbHQCos0ut1n4fGrPl39oEpbW-3IshElgaAiVV8P8HAQ
These bulbs can be used in existing fluorescent fixtures and you don`t have to remove the ballast. However, you won`t get the benefit of reduced wattage that LED`s provide if you stay w the ballast fixture.
I have 8 of these bulbs in my garage. They are awesome. Incredibly bright and have the ideal color spectrum (5000K). I highly recommend them.
If you wanted to go w new fixtures - here`s what I used.
4 Ft LED Ready Double Strip Light
No ballast (so the wattage is greatly reduced) and the above bulbs are "plug and play".
Thanks to Rasky on the forums here for hooking me up w this information....
top189h
New member
Does anyone know of an led fixture you can hard wire in? Apparently reworking old ballasts isn`t up to code in my area.
tom p.
Active member
My lighting is coming up on 20yrs. old. I guess the bulbs are called T12. (I know little to nothing about lighting jargon.)
I`m not against getting a new panel and having it installed to see how I like it before I re-do everything. I`m moving away from the mentality of patching things up that are old and probably not worth fixing when presented with vastly superior new technology.
This is what the end looks like:
I`m not against getting a new panel and having it installed to see how I like it before I re-do everything. I`m moving away from the mentality of patching things up that are old and probably not worth fixing when presented with vastly superior new technology.
This is what the end looks like:
Attachments
tom p.
Active member
I`ve got high ceilings, probably 14`, and I`m not certain I could perform the swap over.
tom p.
Active member
Dan, thanks for those references. When you say "no ballast and the wattage is greatly reduced", is that good or bad??
dschribs
New member
Good.
- The fixtures in the link I sent are basically a metal "shell" w two wires in them. They don`t have a ballast to go bad on you. You don`t need one w LED bulbs.
- No ballast means no issues w cold start up of fluorescent bulbs or buzzing noises from the ballast.
- Reduced wattage is always good. You`re using less energy to power LED bulbs. The LED`s are much brighter than the fluorescents and use less watts (electricity) per bulb. A "win win"!
One thing I neglected to mention is that LED`s last WAY longer than fluorescent bulbs. Another benefit to going that route.
tom p.
Active member
OK, now I understand. Thanks again. When you say "wattage greatly reduced", you just mean the power consumption is much lower. I was thinking in terms of light output.
Are the bulbs e-z to find? Can I just walk into any Lowes or Home Depot, for example?
Are the bulbs e-z to find? Can I just walk into any Lowes or Home Depot, for example?
dschribs
New member
I`m sure standard LED bulbs (bulbs that work in LED fixtures) are available at HD or Lowes but the one`s I bought are compatible w Fluorescent fixtures and I only found those on the particular web site I referenced.
RaskyR1
Rasky's Auto Detailing
You can find them at HD/Lowes but I`m not sure they will be as good/bright as the ones online. The link I provided in post #10 is like the "garage lighting bible" and has a spreadsheet in it that breaks down the best "bang for the buck" in terms of the amount of light, life of bulb, and cost.
I ordered 26 fixtures from Bees Lighting along with 5000k frosted lens bulbs. They are super easy to wire up and install. I wired mine with some 3 way switches and 2 circuits. One runs 20 fixtures and the other runs the 6 fixtures going in the other direction.
A lot brighter then the picture makes them appear.
tom p.
Active member
Rasky, thanks!
I checked my old unit this morning and I suspect the ballast is fried...I`m not going to fool around with it and Home Depot no longer sells the bulb I use. I ordered a 4-bulb T5 unit from Amazon that people really seem to like. I also ordered a 6-pk of 56W HO bulbs. We`ll start there and see how it works. I still have two more old units that can be replaced when I decide. Everything in my setting is hard-wired. The swap should be easy, I hope
I checked my old unit this morning and I suspect the ballast is fried...I`m not going to fool around with it and Home Depot no longer sells the bulb I use. I ordered a 4-bulb T5 unit from Amazon that people really seem to like. I also ordered a 6-pk of 56W HO bulbs. We`ll start there and see how it works. I still have two more old units that can be replaced when I decide. Everything in my setting is hard-wired. The swap should be easy, I hope
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dschribs
New member
Rasky, thanks!
I checked my old unit this morning and I suspect the ballast is fried...I`m not going to fool around with it and Home Depot no longer sells the bulb I use. I ordered a 4-bulb T5 unit from Amazon that people really seem to like. I also ordered a 6-pk of 56W LED bulbs. We`ll start there and see how it works. I still have two more old units that can be replaced when I decide. Everything in my setting is hard-wired. The swap should be easy, I hope
I`m certainly not an electrician but if the T5 fixture is a fluorescent fixture I`m not sure you will not be able to use "standard" LED bulbs without bypassing (removing) the ballast.
Changing Fluorescent Tubes to LEDs | Home Power Magazine
tom p.
Active member
Dan, that`s my error. The bulbs I bought are not LED, just T5 HO. My mistake and much confusion with the terminology.
ShakingHorizons
New member
Tom P. - be careful with T5 HO. They lose their lumen output considerably within the first 3 months (average) of use and run VERY hot.
tom p.
Active member
Thanks, I`ll keep an eye on it.