Straight Swap T8 6 Foot LED Tube For HF Fitting

[securespark]

Just weighing up the choice between the above and replacing the whole fitting with a dedicated LED fitting that has a non-replaceable lamp.

Has anyone bought LED tubes for a standard fluorescent fitting?

Were you impressed?

 

[ETAF]

i just replaced 3x 6ft tubes in my large 3 car garage with the screwfix complete unit - very easy and so much brighter - no idea on the LED replacement bulbs/tubes - but my lights where going rusty and 1 was buzzing and i have used the screwfix lights before, had one fitted just to use when DIYing - sawing, etc at the front space where the car would go - used that a lot, and its been great , before covid , so always intended to change the others
They where on offer at screwfix around £30 each, twin LEDs and daylight - cant find the order - strange....
anyway
I did change an office flouresent for an LED strip bulb thing and was not impressed - but that was a few years ago for a friend

 

[SUNRAY]

Well...

until recently I've had quite poor opinion of LED fluo tubes, having been involved with fluo to LED replacements and within week or even days returning to revert to fluo due the underwhelming light output, horrible uneven cover, etc

However in a hut (for want of a better description) we had to replace yet another outdoor bulkhead fitting which was tripping the RCD. By chance LIDL had some IP44 (I think) EDIT: just looked at a second fitting I purchased a couple of days later IP65, plastic fittings containing LED tubes for not much money, I got a 2ft unit and it blows the socks off a bulkhead on the ceiling containing a 60W bulb or 11W CFL.
Without the diffuser the light is lovely and even, sadly the heavy patterns of the diffuser do create significant hot and cold spots but nothing like other LED tube shadows I've encountered.

I'm guessing development since the original LED tubes was to be expected.

 

[SUNRAY]

I did purchase some 300mm fittings with integral LED strip to use under kitchen cupboards but found them to be fairly directional lengthwise, IE they give a fairly wide light across the line of the strip but don't spill much past the ends. Mounting at 90°to the line of the cupboards would be far more successful except they are 300mm and so are the cupboards but tiles and pelmet reduce this.

Others have complained about short life of complete units but I wonder if there is a 'get what you pay for' issue.

 

[Sureitsoff?]

I have replaced several flou tubes with led ones and I think they give out more and better light. the new tubes are connected direct ie the ballast is out of cct. its a 5 minute job to rewire the fitting so that the new tube is connected directly
Ps I think all the led tubes were v-tac ones from toolstation

 

[ericmark]

Back some 7-8 years ago I had a fluorescent tube fail and limited access to fitting, I did rewire so power one end, ballast out of circuit, but tube one only lasted 18 months and for most of that time we were not living there, second tube lasted until son replaced with down lighters. So second one around 4 years.

Clearly less light than the fluorescent it replaced, but it was enough and really it was spread required not the amount of light. And the main advantage using an LED tube is when it failed easy to replace.

To me the big question is how long can we buy LED tubes for needing no renewing of fitting? It takes minutes to replace a LED tube, not so easy replacing a fitting.

So I would still use the old fluorescent fitting until we have a replacement system that is as quick and easy as it to replace lights.

 

[sparkymarka]

I’ve replaced my tubes in the garage with VTAC led tubes and the light output is definitely better

 

[Gigagator]

I work in a large secondary school with close to 90 classrooms, most of which have around 6 fluorescent tube fittings (larger classrooms have 9).
We also had offices and some corridors done, I'm not sure the exact number but we are probably talking 500-600 fluorescent tubes converted to LED tubes.

About three years back we had all of the fittings converted to take LED tubes and I don't think we've had a single tube fail since. Light output is pretty good. Certainly no worse than the old fluorescents and probably better to be honest as it's a very even light around the room whereas before we had tubes in various stages of their life, some of different colour temperatures and some just not working.

I would recommend it. Can find out the brand of LED tubes we used if required.

 

[SUNRAY]

It must have been at least 5 or 6 years back I started getting involved with changing fluo to LED and I reckon 50% of jobs went back to Fluo PDQ, the usual complaints being lack of light level (possibly perception in some cases) and deep/multiple shadows, the colour spectrum content raised its head on many occasions too - especially where colours codes were being used such as electronic components. All comments which I have totally agreed with, however as my previous post it looks like tube design has significantly changed.
Interior designers have mooted on a few TV programs LED is the reason grey paintwork became the hot fashion, how much of that is correct I have no idea.

 

[securespark]

Was it one of these?

 

[ETAF]

just checked its not 6ft - sorry they are 5ft , cant find the screwfix order , i purchased 3 of them .... as on offer
- daylight , 45w , dual led , lap 146pp , 4050lumens, 6500K

These - although the life is 30,000 on my cartoon
LAP REEVE TWIN 5FT LED BATTEN 45W 4050LM 220-240V (146PP)

maybe i paid £24.99 on offer .....

 

[securespark]

Just looked at those, thanks. They have external clips and end feeds. No good for a kitchen.

There are some plug and play LED tubes that are designed to fit HF fluorescent fittings.

Wondering if these are a better bet.

 

[333rocky333]

Just looked at those, thanks. They have external clips and end feeds. No good for a kitchen.

There are some plug and play LED tubes that are designed to fit HF fluorescent fittings.

Wondering if these are a better bet.

Have a look at these

OSRAM SubstiTUBE T8 Universal | LEDVANCE

With OSRAM SubstiTUBE T8 Universal, you no longer need to give any thought to the driver technology being used.

www.ledvance.com

made by Osram good make

Sorry dont look like they do a 6ft

 

[JohnW2]

I have replaced several flou tubes with led ones and I think they give out more and better light.

I’ve replaced my tubes in the garage with VTAC led tubes and the light output is definitely better

About three years back we had all of the fittings converted to take LED tubes and I don't think we've had a single tube fail since. Light output is pretty good. Certainly no worse than the old fluorescents and probably better to be honest ....

As I often say, my experiences have been the same. I've seen many fluorescent tubes replaced, 'length-for-length' with LED ones and, despite theoretically having only about half the light output (and half of the power), in terms of perception (which, after all, is what matters) they all seem to have resulted in at least as much/as good illumination as did the fluorescents.

Kind Regards, John

 

[sparkwright]

Just weighing up the choice between the above and replacing the whole fitting with a dedicated LED fitting that has a non-replaceable lamp.

Has anyone bought LED tubes for a standard fluorescent fitting?

Were you impressed?

Yes, bought 20 LED tubes five years ago. Only one has failed.