T5 LED Conversion

SimpleMan

SimpleMan

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Can somebody with the knowledge point me in the right direction of converting my shop lights from T5 fluorescent bulbs to LED? I’d rather not rewire the lights to eliminate the ballast but if that’s the best way I will. What would y’all do?
 
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There used to be ballast compatible bulbs, it’s been years since I’ve looked at them though. I used the ballast bypass kind in both mine and my parents garage, it’s simple but need to make sure your tombstones are the correct design. Shunted vs unshunted.

My only other recommendation is buy frosted lens LEDs. The clear lenses distort the light pattern and will create stripes across light colored surfaces. I went with clear and have removed a few of the lenses due to this. My father (against my recommendation) got clear as well, his do the same thing.
 
There's several options for what you're wanting to do.

The most common as mentioned above is type B. Removal of the existing ballast is required and rewiring to line voltage.
You can get these in single end and double end. I *believe with the double end option, it doesn't matter if your tombstones are shunted or unshunted. The double end allows for a hot side and neutral side whereas the single has to be hot on the same side. The other end pins are just for keeping the bulb in place. I'm not an electrician, but I've heard the double end is easiest to wire.

There's another option that uses a separate driver. This will give you the most light ouput and you can could dim the light, it's Type C.

Type A is a true homeowner DIYer. These are plug and play. Simply switch out your old flourescents and replace with new T5 LED and wallah! There are pros and cons of these.
Ballistic compatibility and ballast life among other things.

And, there's a type A+B.
Switch out the bulbs and when ballast goes bad, wire it up as a type B and keep using the new bulbs. Not sure how many you have, but this is an option if you have a lot of them and didn't want to rewire them all at once.
 
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hp468 said:
My only other recommendation is buy frosted lens LEDs. The clear lenses distort the light pattern and will create stripes across light colored surfaces. I went with clear and have removed a few of the lenses due to this. My father (against my recommendation) got clear as well, his do the same thing.
Click to expand...

I wondered about this, and would have bought clear lenses, thanks!

Pineapple said:
There's several options for what you're wanting to do.

The most common as mentioned above is type B. Removal of the existing ballast is required and rewiring to line voltage.
You can get these in single end and double end. I *believe with the double end option, it doesn't matter if your tombstones are shunted or unshunted. The double end allows for a hot side and neutral side whereas the single has to be hot on the same side. The other end pins are just for keeping the bulb in place. I'm not an electrician, but I've heard the double end is easiest to wire.

There's another option that uses a separate driver. This will give you the most light ouput and you can could dim the light, it's Type C.

Type A is a true homeowner DIYer. These are plug and play. Simply switch out your old flourescents and replace with new T5 LED and wallah! There are pros and cons of these.
Ballistic compatibility and ballast life among other things.

And, there's a type A+B.
Switch out the bulbs and when ballast goes bad, wire it up as a type B and keep using the new bulbs. Not sure how many you have, but this is an option if you have a lot of them and didn't want to rewire them all at once.
Click to expand...

I have 7 fixtures with 4 bulbs each, 14' off the floor. May do one at a time. 🤣
 
Rewiring isnt that difficult. On a 10' A frame ladder, its doable. I had to rewire about 10 of them. By the 3rd one, i could do them in about 5 minutes with just cutting the ballast wires and leaving it dead in the fixture.

Then take all your old bulbs and do some backyard wrestling.
 
Jabroni said:
I'Ve put these in my man cave..need to change out a few more in garage yet. Install is easy.

https://a.co/d/7JH743R
Click to expand...
My dad is wanted to change his out. Found this thread instead of starting a new one. Did you just do a direct swap from fluorescent tubes to these? No rewiring required?
 
It’s literally the easiest wiring job you will ever do besides swapping a light switch.

I followed included directions, removed the ballast and put in LED’s in a 4 light fixture in about 10 minutes.
 
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