The new age with LED's.

[aixuzayimau]

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.

[AlaloLoagNany]

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...

[AlfonsoGri]

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...

[AldPokel]

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.