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Last night, turned on the light it s a 4 of those 32 w f8 type thin bulbs. I/m guessing the ballast has burned out , gotta check it with the ohmeter. Checked online they are about 12$ us . Are they worth replacing ?? . Any of you replaced the ballast . ? the part of putting the wire into the light receptacle looks tricky . Your thoughts . or am I just wasting time .The other 4 bulb unit works fine

It's a simple job. Don't hesitate to do it.

tnx john , gotta wait till the mrs comes home to find the right power switch to turn off in the bsmt. Never changed a ballast before

Or you could bypass the ballast and install LEDs instead. That's my plan once mine go south. I thinks it's gonna run about $225 to do my 800sqft shop.

Ditto...the conversion of a standard fixture to direct wiring is about as challenging as a ballast replacement. Advantages are eliminating the power-consuming ballast and reduction of power consumption with the more efficient LED bulbs.

We replaced every one of the 40 T-8 and T-12 bulbs in the shop using direct wire LED (without ballasts) last year. better lighting without the 60 Hz fluorescent flicker or warmup on the older magnetic ballasts. Current pricing for replacement bulbs is in the $10 or less range for consumer grade 25,000 hour life conversion bulbs (these can be used in fixtures with ballasts - they are straight replacement), and a little more in small quantities for the longer life direct-wired 35,000 to 50,000 life bulbs. For higher CRI LED's (the 90+ that is useful for color-matching) the costs are closer to $20 in quantity.

If working on instruments with magnetic pickups, consider keeping at least one of those noisy flourescent fixtures around for troubleshooting shielding issues. We retained two florescent fixtures (OppLite Work Lamps) on the #1 repair bench...otherwise, nothing lost by moving to LEDs.

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Thanks for all the suggestions !!

My house was done nearly all in fluorescents 30 years ago and had nearly 100 tubes. This year I ripped out all the ballasts and installed led tubes in the fixtures, and it is a night and day change. Far better and brighter light, no ballast hum, and far less electricity used.

Ditto on the switch to LEDs. Instead of ripping out good fixtures all at once, I wait until the existing lights fail, and as they do (they always do), I replace with LED equivalents. I'm happy with this incremental upgrade.

I've been in my shop for almost 10 years and I have six commercial 4-bulb fluorescent fixtures. I've been planning to replace the lights with LEDs as they fail. So far, none have failed.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Woody G,
are you using a local source for high CRI leds or having them shipped?

FYI . now I/m stumped my wife turned off the fuse box to the flourescent light, I tested the black and white connectorsof the ballast and it showed resistance so the ballast after 4 yrs is not dead yet ??. Any ideas of what I can check for ?? thank you

The phone number of an electrician. Sorry, couldn't resist. Those sorts of wiring mysteries send me to the phone to get my guy out here. I hate worrying about wiring problems.

so did all 4 tubes not come on? At that point with ballast showing resistance, I would check for continuity in the switch.

On old fixtures there was a starter as well as a ballast but I'm guessing yours would be new enough to have quick start.

Now if it is an electronic ballast, it might show resistance and still be bad.

And sometimes on multiple bulb units one dead bulb keeps them all from going on. I don't know why, but that happened occasionally on my two bulb shop fixtures. Any of the bulbs pretty grey near the ends?

Just some ideas.

And you may just be out of smoke, from what I can tell, once the smoke leaks out a lot of electrical things stop working

We have a couple local suppliers, but no one is currently carrying high CRI T-8 LEDs in stock, so the last order was through an online dealer.

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Just changed to LED's-best thing I ever did ....

Hi mike thank you for the rundown . The wall switch for this 2 set of 4 thin t 8 bulbs was working fine .On sat three of the bulbs were kaput and one had that dark grey at both ends , We replaced all 4 bulbs and they worked for 2 days then poof they all went out the other set of 4 still work. I/m guessing your theory of electronic ballast is 4 yrs old , and you guessed it , made in republic of crapola (china). I will test all the bulbs in another socket . thanks again ernie

You guys got me all amped up so I went out this morning and bought some LED fixtures to replace my flourescents. I thought about just using replacement LED bulbs but the tombstone connections on my old fixtures were worn out and they were integral to the fixture so they could not be replaced.

You won't be sorry! May have to wear dark glasses for the first couple of days though!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Been switching to LED -- fantastic twice as bright as 40 watt tubes -- no kidding! Check out the wiring diagram before purchasing mine were super simple to convert fixture -- others not so much.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I just plugged one in and it IS bright. It is rated at 3600 lumens but the fixture's light element (not counting the reflector) was not much wider than a single T-12 flourescent bulb. So I was afraid that the LED would not be as bright as my double bulb flourescent fixtures. Wrong. It is quite a bit brighter. I may be able to see my work again.

And they go far longer before they gradually dim. Most of us replace fluorescents when they no longer light, but they are very dim by that point.

I had a combination of problems. A couple of burned out ballasts; a couple of fixtures that had messed up tombstones so I could not insert new bulbs; and dim bulbs. But it sort of crept up on me and didn't seem to be noticeable until just recently. The new LED fixtures will probably make my shop twice as bright. My wife says that I may not need as many of the LED fixtures as I had of the flourescent ones. Could be. I had 8 double bulb fluorescents in my 20 by 20 foot shop, which was just enough.

We saw a marked improvement in both brightness and comfort under the lights after going to LEDs. Although the high output florescent tubes we were using and the replacement LEDs were close to the same output in lumens, everyone in the shop noticed what they felt were higher illumination levels.

In researching this, we found that the rated output for a fluorescent tube is based on a 360 degree reading, so the reflector above the tube figures prominently into how much light actually reaches the work area. There are also losses because light reflected downward will not pass through the tube itself, so even with 80-90 percent efficiency in reflection, a 3200 lumen rating might still mean that only about 75% of that output is actually usable.

By contrast, the LEDs that we use have a single surface mount for the individual LEDs, and have an internal reflector behind each LED, with rated output measured after any losses. No external reflector is needed to redirect the light downward, so the rated output is more indicative of what will be seen in the workshop.

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

LED lighting is definitely the lighting of the future, with fixtures lasting longer and efficiency and efficacy improving all the time.

Just to clarify a comment above, though, tombstones are usually very easy to replace, and cost just a few dollars at the hardware store. Just because they're wrecked doesn't necessarily mean the fixture is complete garbage. As for ballasts, I've changed more than I care to count, but it's my job. In any case, if you're going to LED, anyway, compare the price of a couple of T8 (or T12) replacement bulbs with the price of a new fixture.

The direct wire LEDs we purchased in the shop's initial buy included new lampholders; the conversion bulbs that one of the gentlemen in the shop purchased for his shop did not. It is worth checking whether an installation kit is included with the LED. If buying new lampholders (aka, tombstones), check with the bulb manufacturer to see whether shunted or non-shunted lampholders are needed - none of our direct wire fixtures required shunted lampholders, but T-8 'plug-and-play' type bulbs will.

I would not expect to see a no-name shop light purchased from a big box store to include quality bulbs. Where we've added some lighting (over additional low speed grinder with CBN wheels, and closer to the jointer), we've installed quality fixtures and bulbs. A lighting specialty store will be able to deliver a fixture without ballasts and with the correct lamp holders.

Check the brightness (lumens), rated wattage, color temperature, rated life, and shunt configuration when ordering bulbs - we saw brightness ratings between 1700 and 3200 lumens at about the same delivered cost and average rated life. Brighter may not be better if service life is half of a slightly dimmer bulb.

_________________
For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan