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| Just because you can, doesn't mean you should |
That's one of the reasons I chose the direct wire bulbs, without the ballasts. The two bulbs round up to a total of $12 and you throw away the ballast for good. Another is that the ballast itself consumes some power so you loose some benefit of the swap. Also, if the ballast goes bad eventually you have to buy another or do the switch to one end bulbs at that point requiring a different type LED bulb. Don't be put off by the rewiring for the no ballast setup. It's actually the simplest wiring job, you pitch out the old ballast, the new bulbs are cheaper, the power usage less and a lower chance of ever having a fire (ballasts can and do catch fire). ___________________________ Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible. | |||
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Member |
^^^^ That’s what I do when I convert to LED’s. Throw out the old ballast and hard wire the power to the tombstones. ——————————————— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1 | |||
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Ammoholic |
We do not recommend direct wire ones because people (and mostly stores) change light bulbs with the switch on. If someone sees a spark or shocks themselves while on a ladder they are likely to fall and break something. In his case he already had the lamps so I matched him up with how to replace ballasts. Also for T8s you need to replace the tombstones (sockets) if you want direct wire ones if they are fed on one end, ones fed on both ends you can keep the T8 sockets. Our recommendation does not take into consideration the tiny loss from the ballasts it's about safety and making them idiot proof. FWIW most commercial retrofits use direct replacement (with ballasts left in place) lamps. I assume mostly for labor savings, but probably also for safety too. Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| Member |
The commercial/industrial retrofits I’ve done (thankfully not too many because I, like most people I know, hate working on light fixtures) the number one consideration is money. It’s a lot cheaper for them to buy only bulbs and tombstones (if needed) and tons of wire nuts and no ballasts. ——————————————— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1 | |||
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| Ammoholic |
^^ Around my they change the lamps and walk out the door without having to remove 600 or 700 ballasts. Here the labor is the expensive part not the wire nuts and tombstones, faster they can get in and out the better. So they swap a metric crap ton of lamps, replace failed ballasts (if any) only and walk out the door. The only ones they usually rewire are the MH and MR16's. Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| Master of one hand pistol shooting  |
For ballast bypass there are direct wire to one end. And direct wire to both ends. SIGnature NRA Benefactor CMP Pistol Distinguished | |||
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| Member |
Just remember that if you go with LED’s with the ballasts you have to STAY with the ballast type bulbs down the road. If you go with direct wire (110 to the LED bulbs) you only need to remember that you go with the no ballast types. In short - THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. | |||
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| Ammoholic |
If I convert a fixture for a customer that is supplying materials, I write on it with sharpie (out of sight) "120v lamps only", or if I change T12 → T8 I write "T8 only." Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| Master of one hand pistol shooting |
Yes mark any changes inside the cover where some bozo MIGHT see it. I was in the middle of converting T12 to T8 several years ago in my public buildings. Several times I found T8 lamps where T12 were still proper. Sometimes in a two lamp fixture there was one each. Now I have retired from there and my successor is converting to ballast bypass LED with one end wiring. We both fear the bozo lamp changer down the road..... El Marko inside! SIGnature NRA Benefactor CMP Pistol Distinguished | |||
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| Just because you can, doesn't mean you should |
The bulbs I installed come with a sticker in each package that you apply that not only says that but shows all the details and which end is powered. ___________________________ Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible. | |||
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| As Extraordinary as Everyone Else  |
Pardon the slight thread drift.. Before I recently retired from my custom construction company we were installing something like these that don’t have ballasts or bulbs but have strips with good success. What do the electricians here think of these (not necessarily this particular brand) https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...A3I8KX9ASDKJS1&psc=1 ------------------ Eddie Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina | |||
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| Member |
^^^ Nothing wrong with those fixtures at all. They even have a 5 year warranty. I’ve installed dozens and dozens similar to those in commercial/industrial sites, unfortunately (I hate light fixture work = boring and monotonous). Great price too. ——————————————— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1 | |||
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| Team Apathy |
Skins, Changed out the ballasts today as you instructed. I have 4 fixtures, 8 tubes total. 7/8 worked fine. One tube of one fixture isn’t lighting up. It isn’t the tube as I swapped it with a known good tube. Problem stayed in the same location on the fixture. I double checked the wiring I changed, it looks solid. I gently tugged on the wires leading to the lamp sockets and they *seemed* solid... nothing popped off anyway. Is the likely problem a bad socket or a bad ballast? I just realize I could have swapped the two blues from the ballast and that would have narrowed it to either the ballast or the not the ballast.. | |||
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| Member |
Yes, swap the leads to isolate it to either the ballast or bad connection in a tombstone. ——————————————— The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalm 14:1 | |||
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| Ammoholic |
^^ What he said. I fix electrical stuff for a living. 90% of it is process of elimination. You did step one, problem didn't follow bulb, so it's either ballast, or sockets. You guessed step two, swap the blues, if problem follows the wires, bad ballast, if not, bad socket. If it is the socket, you can use shunted and you only need to hook up blue to one stab in connection, if you get non shunted, you need to hook up both leads to both sides of socket. You won't be able to tell which socket is bad so replace both for that lamp if deduction leads to bad socket. They are stupidly cheap. Shunted = two stab ins Non Shunted = four stab ins Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| Team Apathy |
I finally got around to checking this... swapping the blue wires resulted in both tubes lighting up. The connection must have been bad even though it looked like all three bare wires were twisted together real well. All is swell now. | |||
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