Replacing Fluorescent Tube Bulbs with LED Ballast Bypass Light Bulbs in the Shop, T12, T8, 8ft, 4ft
The old fluorescent bulbs in the warehouse shop were slowly going out. There were 4 pairs of lights out of 11 that were dead, and so the light was starting to get dim too. The problem is that the ballasts are also often bad. In this case, the lights are 8ft long, T12 or T8 single pin bulbs.
There are 2 options when replacing with LED bulbs.
1 - Plug and play LED bulbs that require the original ballast to work
2 - Ballast bypass LED bulbs
Many of the ballasts are already bad, and I do not want to replace those, nor do I want to deal with ballasts dying in the future. Therefore, the ballast bypass bulbs are the best solution. The installation requires a little bit more work, but not that bad. It basically just requires disconnecting the ballast, and running the wires straight to the light bulb sockets.
The difficulties I ran into is that some of the fluorescent tube sockets were corroded or burned out, and some of the wiring was in bad shape or disconnected.
One important point to pay attention to is that the stationary bulb socket also acts as a contact to complete the 110v AC circuit that originally connected to the ballast. So if the bulb was removed, the power to the ballast would also disconnect. No voltage will be measured at the ballast input connection wires if the bulbs are removed.
These are the bulbs I purchased. Available from Home Depot as a 10 pack.
110-Watt Equivalent 42-Watt 8 ft. T8 Linear LED Bypass Light Bulb Type B Single Pin Cool White 4000K
Model #T896FR42/840/BYP2/SP/LED 82875
Store SO SKU #1003882631
The products shown here were purchased by me with the intent to use. I did not receive any free items, and I am not being paid or compensated for this review. The video and description may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link, I may receive a commission. Money earned helps to support my channel and bring you more informative videos about engineering, crafting, and DIY.
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