The Home Machinist!

warmstrong1955 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:56 pmAgreed with Steve.

Worrisome.

I'm so used to the chicken little greenies being wrong about everything, it's hard for me to accept anything remotely green. But LED's are great.

SteveHGraham wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:12 am

warmstrong1955 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:56 pmAgreed with Steve.

Worrisome.

Mark that on your calendar.....first time someone agreed with you this year.

What’s your yearly average? Three times p/year?

warmstrong1955 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:27 amfirst time someone agreed with you this year.

I disagree.

SteveHGraham wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:42 am

warmstrong1955 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2018 11:27 amfirst time someone agreed with you this year.

I disagree.

Of course you do.....you have been triggered.....bro......

I'd like to shed some more light on this subject.
Just stopped at the local ACE and asked about LED bulbs and converting fluorescent fixtures to LEDs. The upshot was that each LED bulb was $24 so for a 2 bulb fixture it comes to $48 + Tax AND one has to do some minimal rewiring.
A COSTCO 4' double tube LED fixture costs anywhere from $16 to $29 and all it requires is to unhook the currently suspended fluorescent fixture and hook up the new one and plug it in.
I understand that if you have recessed fixtures that are hardwired in, it is a different situation.
However, having said the above, it makes more sense for me just to replace all the fixtures, not that there are that many.
JMHO.
--earlgo who disagrees to agree with um, wait, that doesn't sound quite right.

If you want to save $$, Amazon sells multiple types of the 4 ft LED bulbs for about $6 each - no freight charge with Prime. I have purchased four or five six packs and an quite satisfied. It only take one LED bulb to replace two of the originals so the conversion cost is $12 per fixture.

Shedding more light on lights......
I looked at the Feit lights on the Costco site. Price has gone down since, just took another look, but still, at current pricing:
$28.00 per (2) 4' bulb fixture, not including freight. The 'local' store, 200 miles away, doesn't stock them, so freight is involved.
Advertised at "42 actual watts".

The LED bulbs I bought came out to a bit less than $9.00 a copy, but call it $18.00 per fixture just for giggles. Amazonian Prime....so no freight.
Measured wattage on my Amazonian LED's.... is 28 watts per fixture. That is measured....not advertised. I put an ammeter on 'em. Calc your own 'lectric bill savings.
It takes a whopping 15-20 minutes to remove the ballast & rewire.
I have (12) 4' lights.
That amounts to a savings of $10.00 a light, or $120.00 to convert the herd.
Why would I throw away the old lights? I fix things, it's what I am all about, and with a net savings of 10 bucks to fix each one....that's a no brainer.....to me. I don't charge myself by the hour!
And I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I save a buck or two! Leaves me cash to buy more tools....
"Use it up, wear it out, make it work, or do without." (My folks were depression era people)
If I was running a business....might be different....but I doubt it! I would probably buy a couple LED fixtures new, and rotate & convert as required....like I am doing now.

But that's just me!


Bill

I've been doing the same thing. Getting the 4' T8 replacements, removing ballasts, and moving on with life. But one word of caution. I bought a new brand to try, on sale, what can I say, I'm a sucker. Anyway, there was no marking to distinguish one pin from the other. The line drawing that poses as instructions gave no indication of wiring differences. However, it turned out that they were not internally shunted, so you had to wire them in a specific way to work. Won't matter if your "tombstones" are shunted, mine were not. So basically a 50% chance, so of course I had 3 of 4 that didn't work. And, thinking I was familiar with the process, trying to be efficient, I went ahead and cut the wires to eliminate all that excess before testing. Guess what... I got to splice a bunch of wires to reverse those that didn't work, and then everything worked.

BadDog:
I don't understand your reference to "shunted" for the tombstone connector ends. As in connected?
Can you please expand on your description of specific wiring requirements to make these work?
Thanks.
~RN
"No ignorance is too much to prevent asking."

NP317,

Yup....Russ is talking about the two pins (each end) being connected together internally. The 4' LED tubes I bought are, but I have heard of some that are not. I wired the tombstones so all the pins saw either neutral or line, regardless.

Bill

See attached:

Exactly.

And in the future, I'll never cut off the "unnecessary" wire again, but rather tie them together outside the tombstone. Even if I have internally shunted LED tubes, who knows what I might try to install in the future, so better safe.

The lumens per watt that these new LED's deliver is simply astounding. As things burn out, I'm replacing with LED.