4' Fluorescent Tube to LED Conversion

[hawkeye08]

Well, you talked me into it. I ordered a 4 pack for kitchen light that I need to replace ballast on. I have the replacement ballast, but this is better. I will have my wife return the ones from Costco that use a ballast.

 

[JRobyn]

FOUR? In one kitchen? Either you have a large kitchen, really like things BRIGHTLY lit, or will leave 2 out of the 4 switched off most of the time! Good thing they each have a pull-chain switch.

 

[MIkeWard]

Someone on another forum posted about these 4ft replacement LED "bulbs"
I saved all my old burnt out fluorescent fixtures.
Stripped out the ballasts and rewired them
A hot and ground on one end of the LED bulb
THEY WORK GREAT
Started with a 10 pack and needed to order another 10 pack to finish up.
Did fixtures at my house and my 90 yr old Moms.
Great for sheds and garage in cold temps

1/25 Pack 22W UL 4Ft LED Day White 6K LED T8 Fluorescent Tube Light lamp UL | eBay

 

[Oaktree]

Just got 4 single ended Hyperikon LED tubes from Amazon a few days ago. They come with the proper tombstones. Real easy to install and so far, so good. I believe they have 4 temperature variations depending on what type of light you want. Took out (you can just bypass) the ballast of the T8 shop lights and the rewiring was very easy. The tombstones were a bit wider than the old ones, so I had to do some surgery on the fixtures, but they are just fine.
Edit - Forgot to add - you just push the wire into the tombstones. Has a lock. Be sure to use solid wire.

I converted a bunch of office fixtures at work a few months ago. As you noted, the new tombstones didn't fit some of the older fixtures very well, but with a little persuasion they'll do the job.
Make sure you use 18 ga solid wire. Anything larger doesn't grab in the tombstones very well and becomes intermittent.

$45 four pack of 4' LED bulbs that'll drop into the existing fluorescent fixture without rewiring. I've used those in my garage and they're much brighter than the fluorescent bulbs they replaced.:2cents:

And as someone else mentioned work much better in colder temperatures. Even the "low temperature" flourescent fixtures kind of poop out around 20°.

 

[Shaneard]

We have 20 8' fluorescent lights here at work that are getting ready to be converted to LED and I can't wait! We are constantly changing ballast.

 

[Dougryan]

Project Done!

I bought two 4' units from LEDMYPLACE.com. I did look around locally, but stores either didn't carry them or they were the hybrid type that could be used with or without a ballast. I wanted the direct wire type. Anyway, the price was fair and the shipping was free. They are 4' units with two rows of LEDs, 3000 Lumens, 5000K.

I had to wait to receive them to be sure how to rewire the tombstones. They are 'double ended' tubes, so one end of my fixture is hot and the other end is neutral.

Step 1 - Clean up the old fixture. and remove the ballasts, wiring, and tombstones (two of the 4 were broken).

Step 2 - Install the new tombstones and wire them. Got them at Home Depot for about $4.50 per pair. These are non-shunted units and I could have shunted them and probably just used a jumper to connect at each end, but I decided to run a wire to each pin contact. The wire is 18 AWG solid. It is sold as 18-3 thermostat wire and I got it for $0.25 / Ft.
18 AWG seems really light when you think about 120v... but it's really the amps that matter. The bulbs are 22 watts... so 22 / 120 = 0.18 amps. 18 AWG is rated at 2.3 amps. So the safety margin is significant.

Step 3 - Wire nut everything together and zip tie the wires to keep everything neat.

Step 4 - Install the bulbs and plug it in.

Summary - Great upgrade. Very bright, crisp, white light that should last for many years.
Bulbs = $10 x 2 = $20
Tombstones = $4.50 x 2 = $9
Wire = $0.25 x 5' = $1.25
Total = $30.25

Thanks for all of the advice and discussion on this thread. I hope other find this useful too.

Doug

 

[GaryM]

I replaced the 4' tubes in four fixtures with single ended Hyperikon LED tubes from Amazon about 2 years ago. At that time they did not come with un-shunted tombstones. They were a little hard to find at the time. I removed the ballasts and rewired are needed. I also put a label on each fixture saying that they could not use standard florescent tubes. I'm seventy and the LED units might last the rest of my life.

I do notice that the LEDs do not light instantly. There's about a one second delay. I'm thinking there may be a circuit to reduce inrush current. It's not an issue, but noticeable.

On the Feit unit's from COSTCO, great product. I've got several in my garage as well as in my pole barn. I need some more, but they are out of stock at the moment. I'd given my old florescent units to a neighbor, but after the LED replacement tubes became available I wish I'd not done so.

 

[Old Red]

I use the hyperkeron (spelling) from amazon. I have replaced both 4 and 8 foot bulbs with them. I prefer the double ended bulbs. Hot one end, neutral to the other...very simple. With single ended bulbs you need to determine if your tombstones are shunted or un shunted.

 

[Dougryan]

Hi,
Check out my YouTube Video with more pictures and notes about the process.

LED Tubes - YouTube

Thanks,
Doug