LED Lights Made a HUGE difference!

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks guys. I'm tickled silly with the change. I really am. And the LED tech is bound to get cheaper and maybe better too. I just cannot believe the difference.

"I had a Sony Betamax too."
I received a used one in a white elephant exchange. Still own it but never use it. I'm told the quality is so high that students in visual arts programs will pay good money for one. I should try - it could finance another hand plane.

"Do you know how many lumens/sq foot?"
I got the Smart Drive KT-LED15T8-48GC-850S. The specs say they are 2200 lumens, 15 watt, 5000 degree.

"Problem I have with LED with my experience in industrial settings and home is the life is terrible, nowhere near what they claim".
I agree with you. I put a date on mine when I put them in the house so I can track that. So far, the first failure was at 2 years 3 mos. In a very heavy use room. We shall see.

Have a good Saturday!
Fred

[Frank Pratt]

Hi, my name is Frank, and I too am a recovering Betamax user...

Anyway, back on topic. The interesting thing with LEDs is that the lumen/watt output is very comparable to high pressure sodium or fluorescent, in the neighborhood of 100L/W. Where LEDs have the huge advantage is that all the output is in one direction, whereas other light sources loose so much of their output to fixture optics. So in most fixtures, a 14W LED lamp is about equivalent to a 32W T8 fluorescent lamp & better than a 40W T12.

[Bill Space]

Long story..... It was then that he realized the "tombstones" for the direct bulbs were different too...

This is strange. Are you in the US?

I just converted 12 2-tube shop lights from standard tubes to LED direct wired tubes I bought off EBAY for around $4.50 each delivered. The tombstones were not an issue at all. Direct replacement physically was a non issue.

These were two different types of shop lights. One had the standard ballast which I removed, and the other type had LCR networks built into each end of the assembly, which I also eliminated.

In any case, the tombstones in both type fixtures were plug and play with the LED tubes.

[Frederick Skelly]

Don't know Bill. I'm repeating what the man told me. Based on what you said, yeah it is odd.

[John K Jordan]

...Where LEDs have the huge advantage is that all the output is in one direction, whereas other light sources loose so much of their output to fixture optics....

This is so true. Even white reflectors absorb a lot. I installed T5 HO bulbs in fixtures with mirrored internal surfaces to direct more light downward.

[Rod Sheridan]

Depending upon where you live, you may not be able to convert a fixture to direct wire LED's without losing the electrical approval.

This is an issue where I live, you need to retain the ballast to keep the approval unless you use a kit specifically designed for that exact model fixture....Regards, Rod

[Doug Garson]

Depending upon where you live, you may not be able to convert a fixture to direct wire LED's without losing the electrical approval.

This is an issue where I live, you need to retain the ballast to keep the approval unless you use a kit specifically designed for that exact model fixture....Regards, Rod

Rod, is that based on Ontario or Canadian code and does it matter if it's a commercial shop? Converting to LEDs is in my plan for next year and I'm trying to decide which way to go.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I switched to LED through my whole house except two rooms that has halogen lamps. Now that I got an energy monitor (see recent thread in off topic about that) I see how much more energy the halogens use.

I do feel that the LED's have gotten dimmer over the last 4 years since installing them. I just used LED bulbs in regular fixtures.

[Frank Pratt]

This is strange. Are you in the US?

I just converted 12 2-tube shop lights from standard tubes to LED direct wired tubes I bought off EBAY for around $4.50 each delivered. The tombstones were not an issue at all. Direct replacement physically was a non issue.

These were two different types of shop lights. One had the standard ballast which I removed, and the other type had LCR networks built into each end of the assembly, which I also eliminated.

In any case, the tombstones in both type fixtures were plug and play with the LED tubes.

Some fixtures have shunted tombstones, meaning the 2 contacts are shorted together. LED lamps that are the ballast bypass type need to have a tombstone at the power end that has discrete contacts; 1 for the hot, 1 for the neutral. Ballast compatible lamps use the original tombstones.

[glenn bradley]

It is great to have good working light. Congrats on the install. For me it is an upgrade through attrition method. I started with the $17 Lowes dual lamp T-8 fixtures assuming I would replace them with quality fixtures once things were more organized. They lasted better than expected so I eventually built out to 16 of them, many have been operating since the mid 2000's. Somewhere around the 12 year mark a couple of them failed and I replaced them with Costco LED fixtures at $60 a pair on sale. I just wanted to mention this for others who are already outfitted who may have gone the inexpensive route early on like I did. you can sneak up on the replacements based on failures

The LED fixtures are great as I use a brutal 6500k lamp in the traditional fixtures and am used to that nice bright light. I picked up a couple more LED fixtures the last time they were on sale and will just swap out the next Lowe's fixtures to die. I did pick up one obnoxious fixture from Sam's that is slow to start and is really harsh. This has nothing to do with Sam's, it just happened to be the product they had.

P.s. I have a variety of incandescent and other lighting that I use for lumber selection and finishing. The near blue light in the shop is great for working visibility but, you don't want to select colors under them; no one that I know uses that color-temp in their home

[Martin Wasner]

I'm glad I went with LED in my shop. We've got I think 34 high bays and the exterior wall packs on a single 15 amp circuit.

We had a pretty good storm come through towards the end of summer. We lost one leg, and had exterior lights and half the interior. Kinda funny, my shop power is picked up just before a tree knocked some stuff out feeding the rest of town. The whole town was dark except for my shop.

[Bill Space]

Some fixtures have shunted tombstones, meaning the 2 contacts are shorted together. LED lamps that are the ballast bypass type need to have a tombstone at the power end that has discrete contacts; 1 for the hot, 1 for the neutral. Ballast compatible lamps use the original tombstones.

Frank, if the ends are shunted together, which is the case with about every fixture I have converted to direct voltage application, this should not be an issue. And if they were not shunted together, and had some resistance between the tombstone pins, that resistance would be a non issue if both pins were connected to the same voltage, after the conversion was done.

So i do not think there is an issue regardless of how the tombstones are originally wired, if one understands the basics...

I checked the tubes I bought and the two pins are shorted together inside the tubes. So to get the tube to work, only one pin on each end needs to have voltage applied. In the case of AC in the US, black to one end, white to the other...