A conundrum on florescent tub lighting for the Jury.

[JasperFrank]

Have a 35 X 30 garage. Built in 2002. It has nine florescent tube units. Mostly 8 footers. These are the ballast types, old school, tubes and ballasts. Florescent , eight footers are not made anymore.
I have one shop light that the ballast has failed, its in a corner and not very important for lighting. But it bugs me that it doesn't work. I can source a ballast to match all the others, and then just use the LED direct replaceables. Or I could direct wire this single one, as a ******* out of the other nine. Does it make any sense to replace this one ballast, so a future user knows its all the same? And can use these straight out LED replacements? Or just let everything burn out over time, and do the straight wire conversion on all of them at once? Eventually, I know the ballasts, will not be available.
But how would the jury make that decision point?

 

[drssg]

I eliminated the ballasts in my fluorescent fixtures and switched to LED tubes. IMO, everything is better. They use less electricity, the lighting is better, and they are more reliable.

I don't think it makes sense to use the LEDs that are compatible with the ballast. That means that the ballast still has to work for the light to work, and the ballast makes the fixture less efficient.

 

[CalG]

Have a 35 X 30 garage. Built in 2002. It has nine florescent tube units. Mostly 8 footers. These are the ballast types, old school, tubes and ballasts. Florescent , eight footers are not made anymore.
I have one shop light that the ballast has failed, its in a corner and not very important for lighting. But it bugs me that it doesn't work. I can source a ballast to match all the others, and then just use the LED direct replaceables. Or I could direct wire this single one, as a ******* out of the other nine. Does it make any sense to replace this one ballast, so a future user knows its all the same? And can use these straight out LED replacements? Or just let everything burn out over time, and do the straight wire conversion on all of them at once? Eventually, I know the ballasts, will not be available.
But how would the jury make that decision point?

You can have the ballast I just took out of the 8 foot single pin fixture over my work bench.
I've gone with the LEDs for the past two failures. (even the bulbs are outlawed in this socialist state)

I went "direct", keep it simple.

 

[BravoXray]

I had a mix or single pin and square end tube 8 foot fixtures in my shop and decided to convert to LEDs. I got LED tubes that fit the fixtures, removed the ballasts and rewired them to apply power to each end. That saved buying new fixtures, as the fixtures themselves were in good condition other than being dirty after hanging in the shop for 30+ years.

 

[Topzide]

Another on getting the direct wire LED tubes and eliminate the ballasts.

 

[CalG]

Just a note,

The 8 foot LED lamps I was supplied came as a pair of four footers with a joining sleeve.

Different than last time...

 

[ponytug]

I just ripped the tandem 8' fluorescent bulbs and fixtures out of the garage and replaced them with some LED "flower" shaped floods, that fold out so they can be directed around to improve the light uniformity. Big improvement.

The high point was getting the bulbs down, and off the property to be recycled without breaking any of them.

@JasperFrank I wouldn't try to reuse any part of what you have. The ballasts are on borrowed time at best. I put up with a dead fixture for a long while getting organized to replace them all, but I wasn't happy about the low light during the waiting period.

All the best, Peter

 

[cj7]

Are they T12 or T8 lamps?

 

[Spike56]

Have a 35 X 30 garage. Built in 2002. It has nine florescent tube units. Mostly 8 footers. These are the ballast types, old school, tubes and ballasts. Florescent , eight footers are not made anymore.
I have one shop light that the ballast has failed, its in a corner and not very important for lighting. But it bugs me that it doesn't work. I can source a ballast to match all the others, and then just use the LED direct replaceables. Or I could direct wire this single one, as a ******* out of the other nine. Does it make any sense to replace this one ballast, so a future user knows its all the same? And can use these straight out LED replacements? Or just let everything burn out over time, and do the straight wire conversion on all of them at once? Eventually, I know the ballasts, will not be available.
But how would the jury make that decision point?

Replace all my shop and house fluorescents with LED. IMHO, that is the way to go. AS USUAL these days there is a decision to make on the "type" of LED bulbs. I am not an expert AT ALL, but there are Type A,B, AB and C (maybe more). I personally picked the bulbs that are stocked where you live (although, with LED, you should not need many replacements).
Took all the ballasts out of the light fixture, a quick re-wiring job (easy), new bulbs (done).

 

[JohnP3616]

I pulled all of my fluorescent fixtures and gave them to Goodwill. Maybe someone else can use them. I absolutely love my new LEDs. So much brighter, so much cooler, and you don’t have to wait forever for them to warm up in cold weather. Mine are strings of LEDs you daisy chain together. Tons of YouTube videos about them. Easy peasy to install.