LED's replacing 48" Fluorescent tubes
 

Hi Gang,

I just bought 4 x 48" 24 watt LED tubes to replace the CFL tubes in the shop. First thought is the light is quite good although a little harsher than the tubes I replaced (more on this later).

One LED tube uses 21 watts on my P3 meter and I found that one light in the fixture is enough as I have several fixtures around the shop relatively close together. The CFL's I replaced use 27.5 watts each but the light from one is not adequate so using two is a must for me (55 watts).
Power saved is (55 x 4) - (21 x 4) or 136 watt hours which I think is significant.

The lights I purchased come with three cover options, milky, clear and striped. I wanted milky but they were out so the eBay seller gave me a deal on the striped 24 watt lights over my original purchase of 20 watt lights. My advice is to get the milky as I think the light will be less harsh.

I like the idea that I don't have spent CFL's to deal with, somehow the long bulbs are more annoying than the E27 lamps we use in our standard lamp sockets. Also so times things get hectic in the shop and I've smacked the CFL's a couple of time and cringed that glass and mercury would come raining down on my which fortunately has not happened!

The fixtures have to be modified but it only took me ten minutes or less to do each one.

Overall I like the bulbs, my cost was $48.99 with free shipping for 4 bulbs. There are several sellers for these kinds of bulbs on eBay.

Rob

$49 shipped for 4 bulbs? or $49 each shipped? I think last I looked, these were more than $50/ea.

It would be great to have out in the garage so I don't have to wait for them to warm up.

4 bulbs to my door for $49, about $12 each. I just went to the shop and I like these a lot more than the CFL's they replaced, the light is much better in my view. Instant on full brightness, cool to the touch.
Rob

Wow, thats very inexpensive.

Yes, and no more flickering tubes!
Rob

What color temperature did you buy?

-AC

Daylight ~ 6000 K because it's the shop, I think if I was doing a small office I might go with the middle temperature LEDs around 4000 to 5000K. What I would do is look at your house lamps if they are CFL's or LED's you might get a good idea of the color you want in your room.

Rob

Rob,

Thanks for the resource and thanks for your reply.

Most of the people I know who have their own shops use "daylight" color (or temperature) lighting, usually conventional fluorescent tubes. And in the interior of their homes they want a light that is 'less blueish'.

I have often wondered why people consign their shops to having 'blueish' lighting.

It's something I've never quite understood.

What is your rationale?

-AC

AC,
When LED's started coming out in 'white' light there was a lot of 'blue' in the white because the manufacturers were working to get there chemistry right. Blue and blue/white LED's were the rage for awhile especially with the audio and car guys.
Personally I think blue in the white or true blue, can be harsh, these lights have no traces of blue in them. I go with daylight in the shop and kitchen because I have a problem with seasonal dark transitions. The daylight bulbs really help with these long dark northern winters.

By the way if you don't know, there were some studies done on CFL's and they found that the light disrupts sleep patterns. I'm going to LED's now but I expect like many of you I still have a pile of CFL's. Try not to read by CFL's just before bed is the advice I found. In my TV room I use a 2 watt warm LED bulb in the background. Nancy thinks I'm nuts but she thought that long before CFL replacement lamps ever came on the market!

Rob

What are the lumen and CRI ratings?

I just found out about these:
http://www.menards.com/main/p-2407785-c-7482.htm

The Sylvania/Osram is a 19 watt T8 LED bulb, but the best part is that it's a TRUE replacement! You do NOT have to modify the fluorescent fixture in any way! (It does have to be electronic ballast though, which all mine are…)

Very bright. The pair of bulbs that I got are 4100 Kelvin, but it's a much nicer color than anytime I've looked at a 4100K fluorescent tube. (Maybe there's less of a green spike to it?)

1800 lumen is weak for T8. 1800/19Watts = 95 lumen per watt
For $4.50 (1/4 the price) toy get 2600 lumen @ 32W = 81 lumen per watt.
You need to run 3 of the LED bulbs @ a cost of $75 to get the same lumen as 2 T8 bulbs.
3x19 = 58W vs 64W for the Conventional T8. With a meager 8W savings it's going to take a LONG time to get your $66 ($75 - $9) back. LED still isn't there when compared to T8 and other high lumen applications. T5 is even more efficienct than T8.
Shop GE 2-Pack 32-Watt Cool White Fluorescent Tube Light Bulbs (Common: 48-in; Actual: 4-ft) at Lowes.com

That all beign said LED is AWESOME in other applications, especially focused light. CFL is awful if you need a directional/focus light.

Servicetech,
My 4 foot 24w LED strips are much brighter than the CFL tubes they replaced.
I don't have the specs so I can't tell you the output but there is no way I'd go back to CFL's. The temperature looks around daylight but not over 5k.

I like the fact that I bypassed the ballasts. I think once manufacturers start coming out with a complete package they will be ballast free. My fixtures had transformer ballasts, I'll be happy to never see them again!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shop-Light-H...-/161453441407

Rob

I don't know. Subjectively, they FELT really bright!

Maybe I can set up two matched fixtures side-by-side, one with some T8 fluorescents, and one with the LED tubes, and then take photos with a camera on iris lockdown.

Also, in my case, I'm using very inexpensive, but electronically ballasted fixtures. Taking them apart is a real pain, but they are still very efficient, even running T12 bulbs. These are not fixtures that I would want to try rewiring, there's just really no space inside to work on them.

I like the concept of an LED tube that doesn't require rewiring because I think it will really help the masses adopt LED tubes. Not everybody is as handy with wiring and comfortable with working on electricity as the folks on this forum.

ServiceTech, thanks for the challenge.

I tested out fluorescent T8's vs these LED tubes that I got, in a number of different real-world tests. The LED Tubes were BRIGHTER EVERY TIME, and beat the fluorescent in EVERY CATEGORY except price.

See the full Lighting Smack-Down on my blog. Lighting Smack-Down: 4′ Fluorescent Tubes vs LED

Bennelson,
Thanks for the review!
I really love the LED's and as I suspected they are brighter. I only put one in each FL holder as that was enough for me. So I went from two bulbs to one LED and it still is better than the FL's.
I just bought an LED work light from eBay. I'll let everyone know how it works out. I'm tired of the super hot fragile fixtures that keep going out when I need them the most.

Designers Edge L1306 108 LED Portable Bright LED Workshop Lighting Green | eBay
Rob

Rob,

I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw a post by you, that you had bought quite a few very inexpensive LED bulbs from ebay, and they were working really well for you.

I think you even included a link to the seller.

Did I get that right?

'Cause I've looked for it again, and can't find it.

-AC

Don't get me wrong, I love LED. It's just the cost doesn't justify the energy savings. In an unheated garage where it's likely very little time is spent, how many decades before LED pays for itself? T8's are already very efficient, and work well at normal room tempatures. How many T8's have you replaced in a residential setting? They last a LONG time.

The REAL DEAL is when LED FIXTURES become more popular. They are already starting to show up at the big box stores, it's just a matter of time before they replace Edison/Flourescent all together. If they would make them in somthing between 3500-5000k I might actually buy them.

I noticed on eBay Yesterday LED T8 replacement tubes , 10w for $20 a tube.

I am going to be replacing the few mid 90's outdated fixtures in the basement with a simple light socket for use with T27 LED bulbs.

To Bad the CFL have such a poor start up light output as once up to temperature they are bright with very good bang for your buck.

Quote from bennelson Blog:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next, I pulled out my Kill-a-Watt energy meter and tested each set of bulbs. Both measured zero with the fixture off. (Always nice to check on phantom loads!) Testing the Fluorescents, they clocked in at 58 watts energy use for the pair. (This energy meter only measures to the watt, no fraction or decimal.) That’s 29 watts each – LESS THAN the rated 32 watts listed on the bulb. I then tested the LED tubes – 39 watts for both, or 19.5 watts each – just a hair MORE than the 19 watts on the label. So although the LED bulbs use only two-thirds (67.24%) the energy of the fluorescent, I was surprised that the fluorescent tubes did use less energy than I thought. I’ll call this one a tie – the LEDs did come in as the winner on energy use, but the fluorescents were more energy efficient than I expected them to be!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I tested a set of 4'ft T8's earlier this week with the KillAWatt meter and got the same results , 57-58w , If they were as good as they rated them they would output 64w for the bulbs plus 10% for the ballast it should read 70w. They appear to be using a Asian marketing trick to sell us. take the 10% off the 58w and you have true bulb output of 52w or 26w each.

easy prey for the LED's

NOTE TO FLORESCENT LIGHTING HOLD_OUTS:
The 8 foot fluorescent tubes are much more energy efficient than the 4 foot tubes. The energy burden is paid at the ends of the tube, while the illumination benefit is multiplied by the foot.

HINT: If you're going to poke the LED guys in the eyes with a sharp stick, your stick should be 8 feet long.

-AC

After testing this pair of LED tubes I just got, I don't think that I would buy more based ONLY on energy savings. Surprisingly, energy savings was the only category I tested that the fluorescents did better than I thought they would.

I probably spend more time in my garage than Servicetech does. Yes, I certainly have the lights on in there less than in my house. However, in the winter in an unheated garage, T8s perform TERRIBLY! As in, they barely put out any light at all until fully warmed up, and even then, they don't output as much light as they would at room temperature.

I like these LED tubes because THEY ARE BETTER LIGHTS which perform MUCH BETTER in the situation that I am using them in. Instant on, very bright, nice color temperature. The point is, I have a well lit garage with LEDs, and I don't with fluorescents.

There are lots of reasons to buy good products for reasons other than purely a financial return-on-investment.

How does that expression go? "A good tool, you pay for once - a bad tool, every time you use it."

No heat when you are working in the garage? i have a small heater that I set to 60f or so when I'm working out there.

Note on the 8', I have an old T12 magnetic ballast for my garage. Noisy ballast and flickers when cold. once it warms up it's plenty bright. I don't think they even make a T8 bulb for 8', I've never seen one. If the ballast on my 8' ever bites the dust I'm considering a T8 or T5 high output fixture to replace it.

Servicetech, I am very glad that you have a really nice, insulated and heated garage in which fluorescent bulbs seem to perform so efficiently for you.

No, my garage happens to be unheated, and uninsulated. I could run an electric space heater, but even then, it would have to be running a LONG time at full power to make a real difference.

I've been working on a project over at my parent's house recently (This one) because there is an insulated shop over there with with an LP furnace.
Unless the furnace was running continuously, 4' T8 fluorescents STILL have a fair amount of warm-up time, and even at room temperature aren't as bright as the LEDs.

I can't justify continuously heating an outbuilding (whether with LP or electric heat) simply to have fluorescent bulbs at room temperature to operate properly.

Yes, ideally, I'd love a well built, insulated and heated garage, for lots of reasons, but that's not what I have right now. Even if I did, I still think the LED tube is just a better light than the fluorescent.

The 8ft tubes are nice because they have a large bright area , away from both end caps , you get less lumen's as you near the ends of the tube.

The 8ft. are actually rated exactly double the lumen of the 4ft. tubes.

Some Philips 8ft here being rated at 5600 lumen , a 4ft produces 2700 lumens.

http://www.usa.lighting.philips.com/...ds/p-3554d.pdf

It's not that my garage is well insulated, just that I live 800 miles south of you. A 10k heater will warm my garage to something reasonable to work in. I have radiant barrier in the attic and have considered insulating the door.