gunrunnerjohn posted:The cheapest bulbs I've found are the direct connect where you remove the ballast. I did a recent search and they were $8/ea, when I bought them a few months ago, I got them for $7/ea. So far, my "bargain" bulbs are working just fine, and are vastly superior to the tubes they replaced. New fixtures will be far more expensive than just replacing the bulbs at $8/ea I would imagine!
Ditto that John;
In my case several of the fixtures over the layout would be very challenging to change over to LED fixtures, or even to remove the ballasts, because they are difficult to get to. So in my case the direct replacement LED tubes looks like the way to go, even if they cost a little more. Again, cost is not really a big deal since hopefully this will only happen once.
For anyone considering this approach it might be a good idea to pick up a pair of LED tubes and try them in the various fixtures just to make sure they will work without modifications.
Rod
