Replacing fluorescent tubes in the workshop with LEDs

[brewdexta]

I replaced one today, I need to move some junk to get at the other three.

First impressions are very good. No rewiring, replaced the starter with the one that come with the new tube, swapped the tube, turned it on and off you go. Seems brighter that the adjacent fluorescent and less than half the wattage.

 

[vw1]

Hi did you buy them local or ebay ?

 

[brewdexta]

Hi did you buy them local or ebay ?

I bought them on line from here, the 25W 1500mm 865C

 

[normspanners]

The philips LED tubes arrived today, I was expecting to need to rewire the fittings too however, looking at the instructions, for a single tube fitting there's no rewiring to avoid the ballast, and they include a replacement starter, which I assume to be a dummy. If its a double fitting there is some rewiring however I only have singles. Job for the weekend.

I have been working at my mates tonight under his 8ft leds and they are fine no strobe effect on the machines but he said you are better disconnecting the ballast because it is not needed and only draws unwanted current. IE higher bills his lights are on nearly all day and has saved a lot on his lecy bills already .
PS the one piece 8fts are a little bendy in the middle and need a cable tie to hold them up in the centre . but as mentioned earlier EDIT for 2x4ft he used an extra tube end holder, drilled it right through so that it connects both the two tubes pins in one connection, one normal way the other through the back of the plastic.

 

[brewdexta]

I have been working at my mates tonight under his 8ft leds and they are fine no strobe effect on the machines but he said you are better disconnecting the ballast because it is not needed and only draws unwanted current. IE higher bills his lights are on nearly all day and has saved a lot on his lecy bills already .
PS the one piece 8fts are a little bendy in the middle and need a cable tie to hold them up in the centre . but as mentioned earlier he used an extra tube end holder, drilled it right through so that it connects both the two tubes pins in one connection, one normal way the other through the back of the plastic.

Thanks for that Norm, I shall have a look when I get chance, I will need to get my mates scaffold tower around, its a bit wobble on a step ladder.

 

[normspanners]

Also he used to suffer when the lathe or compressor kicked in, with the standard flories the lights would go out momentarily, but in the cold the 8fts sometimes would not restart. for ages But the leds do not flicker.

 

[wookie]

I don't want to be a sceptic here but can anyone please post the Lumen output for the LED tubes they are using and the watt input, all the ones I've been looking at don't compare like with like regarding the fluorescent tubes.

The comparisions I've seen choose LED tubes that use less electric but they also have a lower lumen output than the fluorescent that they claim your replacing.

I'm not saying the LED's don't illuminate your garage/workshop as well as the old fluorescents your getting rid of to your perception but the Lumen-per-Watt values of LED's aren't that much better (if at all) than the fluorescents.

Using the tubes brewdexta linked to....

I bought them on line from here, the 25W 1500mm 865C

1500mm a 25W LED tube produces 2000 Lumens

1500mm a 58W Fluorescent tube produces 5200lumen

so for LED :- 2000/25 gives 80Lumens-per-watt

but the Fluorescent :- 5200/58 gives 89 Lumens-per-watt <-- Better than the LED !!!

or am I missing something here, I might get my powermeter out and actually measure what power a fluorescent tube is using.

Just for the record I like LED lights, I have them on my mountain bike for off-roading at night (great fun btw) and replaced the 50w halogens in the kitchen with 9w LED's and they are to my eyes just as bright.

I'd like to get some LED's for the garage as my fluorescents brown-out quite badly when my compressor kicks in but I'm not convinced they are worth the expense.

 

[brewdexta]

I looked at the lumens on my 58W tubes and they were more powerful as you mention, that's why I was going to buy one tube and see what I thought however the P+P made me think twice and I bought 4, I can use the old tubes for spares in the downstairs barn.

However the light seems brighter, they are not the same tone, the ones I had were warm white and these are much whiter, so could explain it.

But I am using 100W now for the whole workshop, compared to 232W before, and I'm using a couple of LED lamps over the workbench's to increase the light and avoid shadow. Each lamp is only a few watts.

I haven't done the maths on the payback time but I would have had to buy more fluorescent tubes as replacements soon so would have to take that into account.

 

[normspanners]

Well working at my mates place, with leds, I would say conservatively is 1.5 times brighter, than with the flories
Just thought flories give light out all around the tube 360 deg whereas the leds only light downwards about 180 deg maybe that is the diff.

 

[normspanners]

compared to 232W before,

Yes that maybe the lamp draw, but I believe the ballasts use a fair amount of power also, so therefore the total wattage is higher than just 232 and they fair hammer the power at startup.

 

[brewdexta]

Good point Norm, the ballasts are still in there at the moment but I will rip 'em out in a few weeks, I'm building a partition in the barn so I can keep a section of it warmer/drier so will be getting my mates scaffold tower in, I'll do it then.

 

[sparkysy]

Here is a good answer if the linky works properly http://www.lightingever.co.uk/blog/a-comparison-between-led-and-fluorescent-tube-light/ I know they are a bit bias but look at the table half way down should help sort things out

 

[DAPPH]

I use two of the mains run plugged in the wall plate socket ( hooked on to wooden batons so I can move them around if needed ) sealed unit Led flood lamps @ 20 watts each ( see Screwfix ) , one warm light and one cool light . They certainly make the place much better than two sets of four foot fluro tubes especially over the lathe & metal band sawas the light is DC flicker free . They cope with voltage variations well as they run @ 40 volt DC for the LED and handle 100 to 260 volts AC.
one of the lights fell about four feet one day and it still worked , so that fact encouraged me to buy another ....they are very robust .