LED shop lights?

[Electrojim]

You're as likely to be asked, "Do you want fries with those lights?" I buy mine on eBay from this guy: https://www.ebay.com/itm/253841793249. Less than $5.50 each in 25s with free delivery. So far not a single failure. Love your Mission Statement (motto) and great track record! Oh, good luck with the rocking chair; do that first, sounds like you could use it.

[Greg_Lewis]

Yeah. We have one hardware store in town that's been in business for 140 years (and some of the employees have been there from the beginning) and they know what they are doing. Each department is staffed with folks who know the merchandise and how to use it. The other stores, not so much. What really bugs me is when you ask a question about a product and the "clerk" (they are NOT associates, they are CLERKS) just picks up the package and looks at the label. I've probably already done that, and probably already know more than what's on the stupid label anyway.

The rocking chair is in sad shape. It's wifey's grandmothers and was the first piece of furniture we got 52 years ago. Probably 100 years old. Wifey had surgery on her finger and they gave her full anesthesia. So, groggy from it, she got up in the middle of the night for the potty and lost her balance and fell into the chair. She wiped out the left arm of the wooden chair along with the four spindles that hold it up. I don't have the skills or tools to make new spindles and drill out the old ones at the different compound angles each one requires, and then finish the new work to match the rest of the chair. The guy who has the skill says it could run as much as $1000. Wifey want's it fixed. There is a plan B with some screws but I'm not hopeful.

As to Mediocrates, he had a 2.5 GPA and is best known for discovering the lowest common denominator. His essay on the subject was scored 5 out of 10 in reviews, most of which suggested not bothering to read it. He is the patron saint of bureaucrats.

[Bill Shields]

I just write in the fixture 110 V BULBS in a sharpie..

[Patio]

There are labels, like the one you made, that come in the case the tubes come in. You might have to ask for them, but it is a requirement to label the fixture when making the change. At least in Washington there is, as it is the manufacture's rule and that trumps the NEC.

[gwrdriver]

Thanks, Jim. I'd planed to do the same. Most of the tubes commonly available are the type A, for use with ballast.[snip] The type B tubes are less common and I've found some hardware store folks who don't know the difference.

I replaced all my workshop lighting (4' x 24 tubes) with LEDs several years ago with direct wire tubes from a place in Atlanta. Only one industrial lighting supplier in the City knew about direct wire, but they didn't carry any. Their customers didn't want to go to the labor expense of converting their existing fixtures. Understandable. The Big Box stores (you know the ones) were of course utterly clueless, especially when asked whether their replacement tombstones are shunted or non-shunted. I would have expected almost everyone in the supply chain to have learned about direct-wire by now, but apparently not.

Once I had done ONE conversion (about 30 mins) and had a system, I converted the rest of my lay-in fixtures in less than 15 minutes each. I can't now quote the Kelvin or wattage of the tubes I used but the difference in benchtop light level was fantastic.

If anyone would like to know the exact details of my installation (sq.ft, cell hgt, K color, wattage, bulb supplier, etc) I'll be glad to dig that information up.

[Greg_Lewis]

Thanks for your offer GWR. When I finally get a round tuit, I'll post a follow-up. As to the folks not carrying the type B, it would seem to me that the average homeowner wouldn't know, or want to dig into, the difference. I would, though, expect the professional supply houses to have it all. Believe it or not, the local Lowes does have the type B in a pack of 20.

But the saga of my air compressor continues and until that's fixed, and some of the other annoyances of home ownership, this will have to wait.

[Richard_W]

I think that as the fluorescent tubes in my shop lights go out I'm going to replace them with LEDs.

I'm thinking that the bypass tubes would be easier than pulling down the existing hard-wired fixtures. Budget is an issue — I'd rather keep the cost per fixture to less than $25.

So have any of you been through this and what did you end up with?

I am not up on all the LED options. That being said About 2 weeks ago I went to Ace hardware. They had 48 inch T12 LED replacement tubes for $9.99 a pair. You don't have to do anything to the fixture, just change the tubes. I bought 3 boxes and put them in the bedrooms and family room. I like them a lot. I intend to buy more next time I go to Ace for the shop.

Richard W.

[Greg_Lewis]

Thanks, Richard. It's certainly easy to just replace the fluorescent tubes with the type A LED tubes and keep the ballast. A couple of years back I replaced two shop lights with LED fixtures and they are much brighter, so all I need now is to get the top priority home repairs done and I can proceed with this.

[Bill Shields]

Only as the fixtures get old and the ballasts go bad ..you are back to square one...which is why I chose to rip them all out at the time of bulb chsnge.

As the commercial used to say 'pay me now or pay me later'

[Greg_Lewis]

I agree, Bill. One of the reasons I replaced those two fixtures was the price of the ballast and new fluorescent tubes was about the same as the price of a whole new LED fixture. At that time the option of just doing the tubes only didn't exist.

When I worked at the university a ballast went bad and leaked some unknown black goo down onto a nice photographic background cloth we had and ruined it. Leaked all over the counter, too. I wouldn't be surprised if it had PCBs in it or something else bad.

[Richard_W]

Thanks, Richard. It's certainly easy to just replace the fluorescent tubes with the type A LED tubes and keep the ballast. A couple of years back I replaced two shop lights with LED fixtures and they are much brighter, so all I need now is to get the top priority home repairs done and I can proceed with this.

I just came back from Ace and the price mentioned of $9.99 is the sale price through the end of the month. Regularly $17.99.

I bought the 2 packs they had left, but intend to buy 5 packs next weekend when they come in. They had the dimmer ones, but I wanted the daylight 5000K ones.

Richard

[Bill Shields]

That is a bit pricey since we are seeing 20 direct wire bulbs for $100

My routine is open fixture. Cut all wires at ballasts. Take out ballasts

All wires at each end get wirenutted together and connected to 110v line.

No matter what the tombstones configuration...or the color of the wires..just tie all the wires together at each end.

Requires one extra red wirenut and one yellow and two short pieces of wire.

Job done..10 minutes.

Install direct wire bulbs.

Tag accordingly.