LED replacement for Fluorescent?

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Since the Fluorescent lamp was 65 watt fat tube and the new 58 watt tubes do not last long with a 65 watt wire wound ballast, plus poor access I decided to swap for a LED tube it was a drop from 5240 lumen to 2400 lumen and 24 watt, but bright enough for area.

It was installed around 3 years ago, but the house has been unoccupied for 18 months so not used that much, wife says yesterday it started to flash, today failed completely other fluorescent on same circuit working fine.

This is the first mains powered LED lamp to fail on me. But it has lasted less time than fluorescent tubes and a lot more expensive. The old ballast was removed so direct supply 230 volt. I see screwfix no longer do them, now they have a smaller 20 watt and 2000 lumen version. Which is 14 mm shorter so not sure will fit?

In view of short life I wonder if better fitting a new HF fluorescent fitting and abandoning LED? It would be brighter, and cheaper to renew tubes in the future. I was surprised at the way it failed, would have expected some LED's to fail and some keep on working, would seem the driver has failed, wonder if some back EMF from other fluorescent on same circuit has damaged it.

But before clearing floor and swapping the fitting, thought I would ask what others have found.
 
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I have never found a problem with the life of a 58w T8 tube on a 65w ballast. They are after all claimed to be compatible. I have never used LED tubes to replace florescent so cannot comment other than to say I am seeing more of them installed in shops and public places and they always seem a bit dim compared to fluorescents.
I have had a number of LED lamps fail however both GU10 and ES types. On dissecting failures I have found various faults. Often in a series chain of LEDs with a capacitive dropper one of the LEDs has failed. Another a GU10 type started emitting serious smoke. The capacitor dropper had gone (low) resistive. The larger ES types are harder to diagnose. The electronics are often fully encapsulated so difficult to fault find. I have one that when switched on cycles from dim to bright to dim to bright continousy for about 5 minutes before settling down. No idea what is wrong with it.

I would replace the florescent fitting myself or get a new 58 w ballast if available.
 
I find the LED replacements are remarkable, a brilliant invention. I note what winston1 says about them looking dimmer, and I kinda recognise what he says. I put this down to LED tubes are directional, but a tube is omni-directional. Thie directionality is a bonus if you're using your LED tube to light work surfaces and those things in front/around you. For the same reason you'd fit a diffuser or shroud to a conventional fluorescent strip. If you want to illuminate across the ceiling or have something like a sign that uses tubes, the directional LED tubes wouldn't be any good. The two LED tubes I have can also be rotated a few clicks either way so you can bias the directionality

Nozzle
 
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They are after all claimed to be compatible. I have never used LED tubes to replace florescent so cannot comment other than to say I am seeing more of them installed in shops and public places and they always seem a bit dim compared to fluorescents.
Given that they are around half the power and half the light output (hence similar 'efficiency') in comparison with fluorescent tubes, that's not surprising.

However, as I've often said, whenever I have replaced fluorescent tubes with LED ones, I have found that the resulting amount of illumination is satisfactory/adequate - probably a reflection of the fact that the original fluorescents were unnecessarily over-powered.

Kind Regards, John
 

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