How About Replacing Overhead Fluorescent Tubes with LED tubes?

@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!

I recently was reminded of this thread and need to agree with John, several years later all my LED replacement's are working great, no humming from defective ballasts and none have dimmed. The other bonus is now so many incandescent bulbs on the layout replaced with LEDs. Much reduced load on transformers.

Ray

I just bought these for my train room.   Will let you know & see the results. 

https://www.amazon.com/Bbounde...pY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

My new trainroom was already finished when I bought the house.  That being the case, I started out with the lighting that was in place, a bunch of recessed floodlights.  Sadly, the lighting was pretty dim, and when I replaced them with brighter lights, they didn't have enough light dispersal to supply even lighting.

That all changed when I found these on Amazon!  Sunco Lighting 2800 Lumens Outdoor Led Flood Light Waterproof PAR38 LED Bulb, Dimmable, 20W=250W, 3000K Warm White

It's like a sunny day on the layout when I turn these up full intensity, and the 90° beam angle covers a wide space.  I was thinking about either track lighting or adding ceiling spots, but these solved the problem with much less problem and expense!

@Rod Stewart posted:

I recently switched some standard fluorescent 48" tube fixtures over to LED tubes in my workshop and garage, and couldn't be happier with them.

Rod

Happy Birthday on your six year old post Rod!

Are the LED Tubes still hanging in there?

Before beginning the build of my new layout, a friend and I replaced all the fluorescent tubes in the ceiling fixtures with LED. The back upstairs section of my barn, where the layout is being built, is 32x63 and had been illuminated with 8’ fluorescent double tube fixtures in most of the area since the mid 80’s (one section has 48” fixtures that we also converted). We did the ballast bypass and installed 8’ LED tubes, two per fixture. Superior illumination and the brightness has not diminished at all since the installation and no more hot ballasts giving off heat. At the time of purchase, 8’ lengths in LED’s were fairly new, so they weren’t inexpensive, but we bought a large quantity and we were able to get an attractive price from the manufacturer through my electrical supply house. Very happy with the decision. We ended up doing the downstairs fixtures while we were at it. Noticeable reduction in the electric utility bill, too. With the fluorescents, it seemed as though I was regularly replacing one or more tubes- that’s a thing of the past, now- hopefully it stays that way. Be sure to check your Kelvin choice as there are choices available depending on how you like your flavor of color.

@Mike CT posted:

Most recent commercial jobs, I have worked, have LED fixtures.  A couple of notes.

Heat is not a problem so the metal fixture, you are familiar with, are now plastic.  The LED's are internal on PC boards.  They don't seem to be user friendly related to repair, more of a pitch the fixture and get a new one. 

Last job, a few months ago, we needed an additional fixture and was told it was obsolete.  I checked accounting and the fixture package wasn't completely paid for.  Obsolete before the fixtures were installed.   Note that lighting is a quickly changing market.

Most of the fixtures we installed, were two stage, with a Hi/Lo/Off control. Wiring was different, also required motion sensor(s)/no one in the room/off mood.  This  is standard energy efficient practice, Pennsylvania UCC (Universal Construction Code).

Some say that current LED technology will be quickly replaced with more efficient fixtures.

All the fixtures came with a plastic cover, that was to be installed with the fixture and removed after final cleaning of the building was done. Dust and dirt with the new plastic fixtures appears to be a problem.  We were cautioned about using cleaning agents on the plastic fixtures. 

One of the big changes is in the recessed metal can light market. You can purchase an LED fixture that , (with some work), will fit a standard octagonal box. Again heat is not an issue,  looks very much like a semi-recessed can light fixture.  These fixtures are relatively inexpensive, compared to the metal cans, standard practice for the last 30 years.

Quickly changing world. Most likely you will be removing old light fixtures and replacing them with new LED fixtures.  Screw in LED lamps are available.  IMO

Mike CT.

If you have plastic covers, wipe off the dust with a dry soft towel or vacuum them off with a shop vac, then if they're still dirty use a damp soft towel with warm water and some Dawn Detergent, wring out excess water, wipe the cover clean, and dry with another soft towel. How we cleaned light covers at the school I worked as a cleaner and head custodian for 23 years before being permanently disabled because of a life threatening infection.

I also advise changing the wiring and removing the old ballast when switching to LED'S, the ballasts are usually old, so get rid of them, one less thing to go wrong later and one less time you need to get up on a ladder or your layout, you'll wish you had done it before when you changed the bulbs!

@Gary P posted:

I also advise changing the wiring and removing the old ballast when switching to LED'S, the ballasts are usually old, so get rid of them, one less thing to go wrong later and one less time you need to get up on a ladder or your layout, you'll wish you had done it before when you changed the bulbs!

Make sure you buy the LED bulbs that don't require a ballast, some are made compatible with the ballast and you need it for them to function correctly.  It's more work for the initial installation, but worth it in the long run.  In my old house, many florescent lamps were starting to die and I went with LED's.  I had to remove the ballast and for some of the fixtures, swap out the tombstones for non-shunted ones.  The replacement lamps were single-ended LED tubes.

TIMELY! posting, almost, as I not long ago replaced basement and garage T10/HO bulbs, after some effort to locate them, as two competing big box stores had none.  Seems like consumer magazines would have addressed this, unless l missed. More valuable info from OGR .

I just put up 18 of the inexpensive LED  shop lights in my basement. They were on sale at Lowes a while back. They replace about 8, old 75 watt light bulbs. I used the "bright outdoor" ones, that have a sort of fluorescent look to the light. Really like the brightness, and can easily add more if the new layout is not lighted enough in areas.

Jeffthe

You should be careful with the temperature (Color) you pick; it will affect your scenery and colors. Going with anything in the higher numbers will start to wash out the colors and make anything woodgrain look lousy. going below 3k will do so also. The most common range is 35K (use to be called warm white) to 41K (use to be called cool white) which has a better effect on colors. The next time you're in one of the big box stores and they have a display set up with the range of lamp temperatures grab a couple of paint swatches from the paint department and see the effected change the lamp temperatures have on it.

@GaryFG posted:

You should be careful with the temperature (Color) you pick; it will affect your scenery and colors. Going with anything in the higher numbers will start to wash out the colors and make anything woodgrain look lousy. going below 3k will do so also. The most common range is 35K (use to be called warm white) to 41K (use to be called cool white) which has a better effect on colors. The next time you're in one of the big box stores and they have a display set up with the range of lamp temperatures grab a couple of paint swatches from the paint department and see the effected change the lamp temperatures have on it.

Yes, I have heard about how the colors can look different. Mine are all of the "Cool white" type. I think these look brighter than the "warm white". I am getting the basement walls painted a slightly off white next week. After that, I think I will have a pretty good idea of how the lights illuminate the space. Then it will be time for some color testing. That should be interesting.

Jeff

Yes, the higher the K rating the brighter and whiter (ie: 27K is much yellower (darker) and 5K is much bluer (brighter)) but going to high is not always good for when it comes to certain colors as it will wash them out.

Just a thought on replacing florescent tubes.  Definitely go with the non ballast LED tubes.  I have used the bright white verses the cool white or the soft white.  The soft white to my eyes is to pinkish and the cool white is great for the workshop but to bright for the layout.  Two thing about florescent tubes are that they generate heat and so do their ballasts. The older the tube is the more energy it takes to start it and to keep it lit.  When they go bad and turn black on the ends they can use much more juice to turn it on, and generate a lot more heat, to try to keep it going.  Also most florescent tubes have the tendency to eventually bleach the color out of things.  I don't know all the technical data on light spectrum but its like leaving things out in the sun with out UV protectant.  It happens slowly but you may have seen some older Lionel boxes that have sat in a store that had florescent lighting.  If you hold them next to a bright new orange box, what a difference.  This fading can happen to our layouts over time too.  So slowly that we probably would not notice unless compared to older pictures when it was brand new. Thanks for listening!

Fuzzy D