Testing Ballast or going LED?

[Doug Garson]

Swapping bulbs around no joy. I'm going to order bypass LED and eliminate the ballast. Just going to reconfigure this fixture for now. Next one that goes I'll buy the 24 pack to be able to swap as the go bad.
Only thing is now I am going to have a bunch of good T8 fluorescent bulbs kicking around.

John

If you bypass the ballast, suggest you clearly label the fixture to make sure no one installs a fluorescent tube in the future (not sure what would happen if they did but might be dangerous).

[Jason Roehl]

If you bypass the ballast, suggest you clearly label the fixture to make sure no one installs a fluorescent tube in the future (not sure what would happen if they did but might be dangerous).

Nothing will happen. Fluorescent tubes need a much higher voltage to start—which is what the ballast provides.

[Curt Harms]

If you bypass the ballast, suggest you clearly label the fixture to make sure no one installs a fluorescent tube in the future (not sure what would happen if they did but might be dangerous).

The tubes I bought from Home Depot came with sticky backed labels.

[John Stankus]

Mailman delivered four CNSunway 5000K 2400LM LED bulbs a few minutes ago. Snuck off of work and installed them (<5 minutes since I had done bypass yesterday which only took a couple of minutes). The work fine and I have light over the bench again!
Interesting difference is that you can see the tubes through the diffuser in the fixtures since the arrangement is not longer using the reflectors in the fixture. Light is good over bench. I'm please with the replacements.

John

[Doug Garson]

Nothing will happen. Fluorescent tubes need a much higher voltage to start—which is what the ballast provides.

Seems not everyone agrees with you, thus my suggestion, this quote from Regency Lighting who may just be overly conservative to avoid potential liability. https://insights.regencylighting.com...g-on-a-fixture
"We hope that once you retrofit to LED you don't decide to go back to fluorescent, but it's possible that someone could inadvertently install a linear fluorescent lamp in a ballast-bypass fixture. When the LED lamp does need replacing, if you mistakenly try to replace it with a fluorescent, the lamp may not work or could be hazardous."
There's also an posting on Quora that says it will explode but I don't know the credibility of that source.
Can't hurt to label it. In Canada you violate the CSA rating of the fixture if you bypass the ballast and to be legal you need to recertify the modified fixture so it's just not practical to do.

[Ole Anderson]

Either replace the fixtures with LED fixtures or remove the ballasts and go with bypass LED bulbs. Look on 1000Bulbs.com and you can get good pricing buying by the case (12 bulbs). Or check with your local electric provider, many have low priced LED bulb incentives.

[Ole Anderson]

Seems not everyone agrees with you, thus my suggestion, this quote from Regency Lighting who may just be overly conservative to avoid potential liability. https://insights.regencylighting.com...g-on-a-fixture
"We hope that once you retrofit to LED you don't decide to go back to fluorescent, but it's possible that someone could inadvertently install a linear fluorescent lamp in a ballast-bypass fixture. When the LED lamp does need replacing, if you mistakenly try to replace it with a fluorescent, the lamp may not work or could be hazardous."
There's also an posting on Quora that says it will explode but I don't know the credibility of that source.
Can't hurt to label it. In Canada you violate the CSA rating of the fixture if you bypass the ballast and to be legal you need to recertify the modified fixture so it's just not practical to do.

All bypass bulbs I have installed came with warning stickers to install inside the fixture. But I can't hardly imagine a case where someone will, way out in the future, try to put a fluorescent bulb in a LED converted fixture.

[Curt Harms]

All bypass bulbs I have installed came with warning stickers to install inside the fixture. But I can't hardly imagine a case where someone will, way out in the future, try to put a fluorescent bulb in a LED converted fixture.

Another 'oops' I can see is if someone not knowledgeable installs a hot-on-one-end tube backwards, the non powered end of the tube in the powered tombstones.

[George Yetka]

For future. How high is garage ceiling? if you are 10' or above 2 of these per bay absolutely fills garage Im 11' with 4 of these in 4 car garage
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...-40K/306254659

[John Stankus]

For future. How high is garage ceiling? if you are 10' or above 2 of these per bay absolutely fills garage Im 11' with 4 of these in 4 car garage
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...-40K/306254659

I had contemplated using some high bay LEDs to replace, but it was a bit cheaper just to use the bypass T8 LED tubes. The four tube 4 ft T8 fixture is getting close to the Lumen output in the one you spec'd (maybe a little off). The four ft four bulb fixtures with 2800 Lumen fluorescent tubes would be about 11200 Lumens. With teh CNSUNWAYs that I got at 2400 Lumen each will be about 9600 lumen. Comparing to some of the other fixtures (still with fluorescent tubes) the LED seems brighter than the first batch (but those were 4000K) and about the same as the last one I put in (I think 5000K). The LEDs are fine. And I did label with a sharpie LED only Ballast removed. When I can dig out my label maker I'll make a nicer warning label.


John

[Rod Sheridan]

Where I live you cannot remove the ballast from the fixture and convert to LED's.

The fixture was designed with the ballast in place as the overload protection device, removing it removes the electrical approval.

I converted some of my fixtures to LED type, ballasts are the electronic type for T8 lamps....Rod.

[Jason Roehl]

Another 'oops' I can see is if someone not knowledgeable installs a hot-on-one-end tube backwards, the non powered end of the tube in the powered tombstones.

Also a non-event. I’ve done it by mistake when bypassing ballasts. The “dead” end of the LED tube is just that—dead. Nothing happens.

[Curt Harms]

Also a non-event. I’ve done it by mistake when bypassing ballasts. The “dead” end of the LED tube is just that—dead. Nothing happens.

Non-event for sure but "Why isn't this stupid light working?" There are more than a few people who do well to install a tube, let alone install an unfamiliar type correctly.