Greetings and good morning Borg Collective…

3 of the 4 fluorescent lights in my kitchen fixture have gone kaput…they are OEM install circa 2003. Thay are the tube type fluorescent lights. I see there are several wattage and brightness replacements available. These will go in a high ceiling, at least 10 feet if not a little higher. What would be the best replacement tube(s) for me to consider?

As always, thanks for the expert advice!! Blessings to all…

Simple Costco! Direct replacement, no need to replace or rewire the fixtures, just plug n play

12 pack Feit Electric LED 4 ft replacement tubes
$99, what a bargain!

https://www.costco.com/Catalog...All&keyword=led+tube

^^^^ Pow!


Or replace the whole thing with and LED fixture

Good luck. I can't figure out the nomenclature for what is cold/blue tint versus what is billed as "warm" LED lighting. I miss light bulbs.

Whatever you get, it'll be a change from fluorescent, which emits basically green.

LED for sure.
We did LED T8 in our old house, directly in the original housings, never had an issue apart form 1 that would light at 50% brightness & took a power cycle or 2 to get fully on.

In general I prefer a neutral natural light to slightly warm light.
Not a fan of the cooler shades.
When I changed my garage fluorescent to LED I went with something in the 4K range as I recall.



One more thing is that you don't just replace the bulb ~ you have to remove the ballast~ if using the old fixture.
Also I found that you have to specify whether both ends are active or just one.
I retrofitted using the single end termination.
Not terribly hard but an amazing improvement.
YMMV

My personal preference is no florescent in the house.. not any room. I think the light projected is too industrial. The replacement LEDs are better, but I still don't like the light. When we remodeled our kitchen, we had the contractor remove the god awful recessed fluorescents, fill in the recess and installed 4 strategically placed LED recessed can lights that can be dimmed and the the color adjusted. A world of difference. Anyway, that's my take on that and I'm not suggesting you do that as it does cost a bit. Best option is the LED replacements. The ones that go right into the existing fixtures. I have those over my workbench in the garage and love them for that application. Maybe go to a dedicated lighting outlet and talk with the pros there. There's a lot of new stuff on the market.

Prison type lighting or soft romantic?

My entire house is all LED. Fluorescent lights were more of a PITA. I haven’t had any issues for at least 3 years so far.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Simple Costco! Direct replacement, no need to replace or rewire the fixtures, just plug n play

If the fixtures are compatible. Don't recall the technical explanation, but some aren't. One of the five fixtures in our garage was not. It would light, but would eventually overheat and shut down. Replaced it with a compatible fixture and all was well.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Simple Costco! Direct replacement, no need to replace or rewire the fixtures, just plug n play

If the fixtures are compatible. Don't recall the technical explanation, but some aren't. One of the five fixtures in our garage was not. It would light, but would eventually overheat and shut down. Replaced it with a compatible fixture and all was well.

They are compatible with electronic T8 ballasts. Magnetic T12 needs to have ballast replacement or direct wire lamps.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Simple Costco! Direct replacement, no need to replace or rewire the fixtures, just plug n play

If the fixtures are compatible. Don't recall the technical explanation, but some aren't. One of the five fixtures in our garage was not. It would light, but would eventually overheat and shut down. Replaced it with a compatible fixture and all was well.

They are compatible with electronic T8 ballasts. Magnetic T12 needs to have ballast replacement or direct wire lamps.

Sounds about right. I knew it had something to do with the ballast types.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
In general I prefer a neutral natural light to slightly warm light.
Not a fan of the cooler shades.
When I changed my garage fluorescent to LED I went with something in the 4K range as I recall.

For the kitchen, garage, workshop, I like around 5K. While brightness is measured on a different scale, everything just seems to pop more to my eyes. But, everyone is different, no wrong choice.

Else around the house, I’m with you on 3500-4K.

Just had 6 fluorescent fixtures in the basement replaced with LED panels. No flickering, no hassle. Very happy.

RE: color. If I were getting lighting for a kitchen I'd go with a daylight color. That would give the most accurate lighting for food prep. No blue cast, no yellow cast. You want the food to look like it was outside in sunlight.

Rewiring a florescent fixture to accept direct-AC LED tubes is not difficult. There are many of these available of various color temps, some even dimmable. Did this recently to a shop light fixture, very happy with the results. Note that the tubes come in either hot+neutral to one end, or hot to one end, neutral to the other styles, you can usually wire the fixture either way, but might need more wire in the latter case. I just re-used the wires that were free after removing the ballast.

Like the others I'd use this opportunity to change the fixture to a proper LED one. They make them in about the same size as old florescent fixtures. Personally inside I prefer white light in the 4000-5000k spectrum but maybe more importantly light with a high color rendition rating which means you will be able to "see" color more accurately. Whatever lighting you decide on look for them with a CRI of 90 or higher.

Lumens is how bright they are, K is the "warmth".

For a kitchen something in the 3000K range. Look at your old bulbs for the lumens and decide if you need more, less or the same.

I would use the power on one end T8 or T5 LED's and remove the ballasts from the fixture. Simple directions on youtube for the wiring. Worst case you may need to replace the tombstone (mount) on the power end if it's the wrong type and they are about a dollar.
The ballast uses a lot of the electricity, makes the heat, and goes out at some point requiring replacement.

My townhouse is fully LED. Cost me a little more but worth it. The longevity for LED is amazing. I like 3500 to 4K on the color spectrum.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
My townhouse is fully LED.

Of the lighting we regularly use in the ensigmatic household, very little is non-LED anymore. The fluorescent bulbs in the laundry room are about it. And those only because, after replacing all the fluorescent bulbs in the garage (and that mainly because of the cold weather performance of the fluorescent bulbs in those fixtures), we've a plethora of spare bulbs.

There are non-LED bulbs in several other fixtures, but they're ones that are used so little the expense of replacing them didn't make sense for what little energy savings would result.

It may have been a commercial thing, but our power company paid for us to switch the plant to LED.

Might be worth checking to see if there’s a program with your supplier.