deepcreek
Member
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2009
- Messages
- 1,000
My brother and I installed seven 48" four bulb T12 florescent in our 24x24' shop 16 years ago. They were commercial grade Lithonia wraparound fixtures and have served us well.
It's always been a chore to keep all 28 bulbs going at the same time. Everything is fine for a while but then it seems like one fixture or another needs a bulb replaced.
Recently, some of the ballasts have been acting up and some bulbs don't come on at first or at all. Most have their original ballasts but one has had them replaced several times. I don't think they make them as good as they used to.
There are two ballasts per fixture at $20 buck each so $280 to replace them all. I briefly considered replacing the fixtures with those LED shop lights sold at Sams and Costco that many woodworkers seem to like.
I did some research and found a ballast bypass LED replacement bulb from Hyperikon. Basically, you remove the ballasts and wire the existing tombstone sockets directly to the incoming power. The new bulbs are T8 size but fit in a G13 tombstone for a T12. After removing the ballasts, it's really no different than installing a standard light fixture.
That's it. Fixture upgraded with energy efficient, long life LED bulbs. It takes less than 30 minutes per fixture for the conversion start to finish and I work slowly around electricity (even when the breaker is off). Total cost for 28 bulbs was $290 or about the same as replacing the ballasts. They are rated for 45,000 hours with a five year warranty so I hope to have carefree light in the shop for a long time.
I'm super pleased with my "new" shop lights and wanted to share. No affiliation at all with this company. Just a new fan.
FYI - I went with the 4000K Daylight Glow and like the clean light.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S5O83BG/
It's always been a chore to keep all 28 bulbs going at the same time. Everything is fine for a while but then it seems like one fixture or another needs a bulb replaced.
Recently, some of the ballasts have been acting up and some bulbs don't come on at first or at all. Most have their original ballasts but one has had them replaced several times. I don't think they make them as good as they used to.
There are two ballasts per fixture at $20 buck each so $280 to replace them all. I briefly considered replacing the fixtures with those LED shop lights sold at Sams and Costco that many woodworkers seem to like.
I did some research and found a ballast bypass LED replacement bulb from Hyperikon. Basically, you remove the ballasts and wire the existing tombstone sockets directly to the incoming power. The new bulbs are T8 size but fit in a G13 tombstone for a T12. After removing the ballasts, it's really no different than installing a standard light fixture.
That's it. Fixture upgraded with energy efficient, long life LED bulbs. It takes less than 30 minutes per fixture for the conversion start to finish and I work slowly around electricity (even when the breaker is off). Total cost for 28 bulbs was $290 or about the same as replacing the ballasts. They are rated for 45,000 hours with a five year warranty so I hope to have carefree light in the shop for a long time.
I'm super pleased with my "new" shop lights and wanted to share. No affiliation at all with this company. Just a new fan.
FYI - I went with the 4000K Daylight Glow and like the clean light.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S5O83BG/
