LED fluorescent battens

Hello,

I am looking at changing the lights in the garage to some LED flouresent lights.

I am looking at these:

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Sylvania-S...erproof-Fluorecent-Fitting---No-Tube/p/185061

I am wondering if I could connect them all together if I get approx 4? They will have 22W tubes when fitted.

Thanks

James

Oh no.

Now stupid manufacturers are selling "LED Fluorescent lights".

morpheus83uk said:

I am wondering if I could connect them all together if I get approx 4? They will have 22W tubes when fitted.

Click to expand...

Yes, of course.

You could just replace the existing Fluorescent Tubes with LED Tubes, The lights might need a slight modification but it's easier enough to do, some just require an old ballast to be bye past by just powering the Driver end or using the LED starter insert.. The lights you've put up require a Tube so may as well save money!

https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/noxion-a..._gst=51deda8e0fb96a0ff3afa776d8e39c971aad0e4a

As @EFLImpudence says Oh no, the problem with LED replacement tubes for fluorescent lamps is there seems to be no standard, the tubes I bought had the supply one end, and other end of tube was a short circuit, idea was leave the ballast in place, replace the starter with a fuse, but then ballast becomes a dropping resistor/reactor so wastes energy as heat, so removing the ballast was better, but then if you fit a fluorescent back into the unit, we have the big bang theory. OK I did it as could not buy fat 65 watt tubes any more, and the 58 watt did not last long, and now if tube fitted wrong way around there is a direct short, not a good design.

So yes you can fit them, but why do they sell them? With a HF ballast a modern fluorescent is the same efficiency as a LED, and tubes last around same time, and fraction of cost. OK they have mercury in them, but LED has other nasty substances like arsenic so same difference.

A unit designed to take only LED would be better, in 10 years time will you remember they are LED only?

chivers67 said:

The lights might need a slight modification but it's easier enough to do, some just require an old ballast to be bye past by just powering the Driver end or using the LED starter insert.. The lights you've put up require a Tube so may as well save money!

https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/noxion-a..._gst=51deda8e0fb96a0ff3afa776d8e39c971aad0e4a

Click to expand...

Not sure if it happened but there was talk of banning them, only lamps like you linked to were going to be allowed for sale, your link shows the Magnetic choke version, they also make one for Electronic ballasts.
The idea is to eliminate injury if a Fluorescent lamp is ever refitted

morpheus83uk said:

I am looking at changing the lights in the garage to some LED flouresent lights.

Click to expand...

If you want LED lighting, buy some LED lights.

Do not buy an empty box that was designed for fluorescent tubes and shoehorn some LED conversion efforts inside.

Presumably the manufacturer has large stocks of the old fluorescent fixtures that they want to get rid of, or they want to get maximum life out of the injection mould used to make them and has therefore decided to sell them as something that they clearly are not.

Of course, there is no such thing as "LED Fluorescent Lights".

There are such things as "LED Tubes" as replacements for "Fluorescent Tubes" - in various ways.

Better still, there are LED Panels, which may cost a bit more, initially.

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies. I already have LED bulbs in the garage but they dont cover enough area and arent bright enough which is why I wanted to go down a larger light source route. These fit the bill and I would have thought LED run for longer and less water but brighter lighting?

Also on the page it states that they are for LED Tubes. I didnt want something where if it breaks I have to replace the entire unit which is what I seem to keep finding. These integrates LED ones I wanted something I could just replace the tubes in.

Thanks for all the replies I am glad I can just join them together without having any issues. Is there any special way of doing it or just two cables in one from the switch and the next to the next light?

Thanks

Sorry forgot to add my garage is 5m long and 3m wide roughly would 4 of these be overkill? I am using my garage for my workshop so I am wanting plenty of light.

Thanks

A 5 foot fluorescent with a HF ballast is around 5400 lumen so with double tube fittings that would be around 41,600 lumen which is quite a lot of light, however one of the advantages or disadvantages if you don't realise is they are not fixed to a set wattage, in a long corridor where tubes are used to light every 5 meters or so, really don't need that much light, so fitting a tube giving 2200 lumen instead or 5400 lumen will not matter, it may be less than half the light, but don't need it anyway, but you can get LED replacement tubes same length which give out same as old fluorescent tube, this 5 foot fitting is 50W it may look like a fluorescent fitting but it does not have a tube in it, the fitting is the whole thing, no tube required.

So today a 5 foot batten can be anywhere between 2000 and 10,000 lumen it is up to you. The link is £40 (4,500 lumen) and yours is £25 plus two tubes at £23 each for 18W so £71 in total, (4,400 lumen), both non corrosive so yours seems rather expensive. When you look around this one costs less than the LED tube costs from Wickes. OK I have no idea how good, but I have only bought two 5 foot LED replacement tubes for fluorescent fittings, reason for two was first one only lasted 18 months, and most of that time house was empty. OK came from Screwfix not Wickes and the second one is still working, but it is the only LED apart from toys I have needed to replace. Did have some 0.58 watt G5.3 MR16 lamps from Pound World fail, but at 0.58 watt really only toys.

I have the LEDlite replacement tubes from TLC in my garage fittings - but only because they come up to full brightness right away in the middle of winter when I go in there to get something from the freezer.

About 18 months ago our local scout hall needed all its fluorescent fitting renewing (they were very old) and the electricians they use were pushing LED tube fittings. We insisted on HF fluorescents - better light, easy and cheap replacement tubes and significantly lower lifetime cost.

Unless the original is well over sized, then little to be gained tube fluorescent to LED, the problem is old magnetic ballast around 70 to 80 lumen per watt depending on voltage, new HF ballast around 90 to 100 lumen per watt, but since both use same tubes, the tube is rated with a magnetic ballast so the gains published are not really correct.

With a few exceptions like 2D most the folded fluorescent tubes were useless, specially those designed to replace a standard tungsten bulb, think they were called cold cathode fluorescents, so we all have learnt replacing a 11W CFL with a LED version of 7W we seem to get a better light, I say seem, as I replaced 10 globe CFL 8W each with LED at 3W and it seemed brighter, until you tried reading a book, and I had to swap to 5W LED.

But in my kitchen I replaced a 65W fluorescent tube for a 22W LED it was clearly much darker, but really did not need 65W in first place, so did not matter.

However LED tend to be directional, so swap tungsten with LED and in the bulb faces down or up makes a big difference.