The new age with LED's.

[KathrynRah]

Just thought I would pass along my first experience with the new LED lights. I was recently at Sam's Wholesale Club and noticed a 4' LED shop light. I had seen similar ones at Lowes & Home Depot but the price was a little high IMO at nearly $50 a unit. So Sam's had a Honeywell 4500 lumens, 42W unit for $35. Yep I bit on that just to try one out. I was amazed at the amount of light they gave out. Probably 2-3 time that of a comparable florescent unit. So anyone in the market might want to give them a try. Eventually I plan on changing all of my florescent units over to LEDs

[kokkaWABY]

I haven't seen those yet, this would at least fix the cold temperature issue where the tubes would flicker and be a bit dim until they warm up. That and not having the scratch my head and touch the bulb to get it to "catch". I think the ballast is out of whack on mine...

Speaking of ballast, does the LED bulb require any retrofit? It was my understanding (very probably wrong understanding) that the ballast would provide a high voltage "start-up" pulse to get the fluorescent light to start and then would just regulate the current. I wonder if the LED light goes really bright at first and then dims... I guess they factored that into their design. I sometimes wonder why I speak at all...

[LuckyVarka]

Not sure of the ballast on retrofit. These units don't require any. It is my understanding (very limited) that the LED bulbs are basically DC voltage. I would imagine there would have to be something to convert it to AC. I had a discussion with someone the other day about retro fitting a LED into a florescent unit and I thought they said they had to disconnect the ballast. I am sure someone in this forum will put a little light ( no pun intended) onto the subject.

The one that I got in fact I bought another yesterday are instant start. Well within a millisecond anyway. They are constant bright and do not change from when they are turned on.

All I know is that I am tired of florescent bulb units. They don't last at least the way they used to. Most have electronic ballast and not a starter like the older ones. A year or so and they just quit. Change the bulbs is not a fix anymore. Junk them and buy another unit. I think this one is suppose to last for 50,000 hours and they state an annual cost to operate is like $5 a year.

[lewnrgkk48]

I agree... right now LEDs tend the be pricey because they are not the "standard" lighting, but it is coming. The energy savings, coupled with the more green approach (none of the more harmful gasses like mercury vapor and argon, xenon, neon, or krypton). In my area they are banning (or have already banned) the 100 watt incandescent bulbs "for the environment" but promote the compact fluorescent lamps which IMO are far worse for the environment that any incandescent bulb. LEDs seem to solve both problems, and if bought in China then they are not all that expensive (but you need to experiment a bit first).

[admin]

I have converted our 2 car garage / workshop to LED lighting completely. 31 years ago I installed 5 dual tube 48" fluorescent tube fixtures. I know I have replaced most of the ballasts once and a while back I noticed several were humming badly. I tried a DIY approach. I purchased some LED strips from China. Like the ones sold here (http://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-50cm-Rigid-Bar-light-DC-12V-36-led-SMD-5630-Aluminum-Alloy-Led-Strip-light-/131287457082?var=&hash=item0).

They operate on 12 volts DC. 900 to 1100 lumens per 50 cm (20") strip. Each strip draws about 9 watts (.75 amp @ 12 VDC). There are aluminum channel strips with plastic covers the strips can slide into. I simply pulled the FL tubes and ballasts out of the fixtures and used double stick tape to secure the LED strips to the FL case. I used 4 strips in most of the fixtures. To supply the 12 volts for the first conversion I used a couple salvaged AC to DC power supplies I have collected over the years. I also purchased some power supplies on ebay like these (http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-6A-72W-5-5-2-5mm-AC-to-DC-Power-Supply-Adapter-for-5050-3528-LED-light-strip-/291594588318?var=&hash=item0).

There are plugs (http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=DC+12V+Power+Plug+Adapter+Connector+ for+5050+3528+led+strip+light+power+supply&_id=262022095266&&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2658) that make the wiring slightly simpler.

If anyone wants to try this be aware you are on your own. You do need some electrical knowledge and what you end up with is not necessarily going to be code approved.