Parmida LED T8 Bulbs used in this video: amzn.to/3lXXtdF Another well reviewed ballast bypass LED bulb: amzn.to/450TyxW January 2024 One Year Update: All these bulbs are still working well with no failures or any LED's out. Still very happy with them, enjoying the increased light output. They paid for themselves in power savings within 18 months and are now saving money.
I got a real education trying to convert to LEDs. First I tried the plug and play but I guess the ballast was bad. Next I tried the Retro bulb, one end hot and requiring un-shunted plugs, couldn't seem to find the bulbs. Finally, after reading CZcams articles, I bought some ballast bypass bulbs and love the installation simplicity, this is the way to do.
I wish I had found your video first. Bing, bam, boom! Straight to the point. No farting about and simply we'll explained. Tried the other videos with no success and using your tutorial it worked first time.
just a word of caution though, my led tubes were from Amazon as well, but a different brand and was totally different wiring for bypassing the ballast, so when I followed the method on this video, it immediately blew the breaker. My fault for not checking the instructions included though. In my case it required gathering all the leads from one end, grouping them together and fastening them to either the black or white incoming wire. Then gathering all the leads from the other end, grouping them together and fastening them to the remaining incoming wire.
My garage is 28' X 48'. The back half is my shop area and the front half is garage. I used 5000K bulbs in the garage portion & 6500K in the shop area. I have 10'6" ceilings and the walls & ceilings are all painted in semi-gloss white paint. I have (20) 8' 4 bulb fixtures in the room & the light is absolutely fantastic. Something else to check out for anyone wanting to do this conversion is to check with your local utility company to see if they offer any rebates or incentives for converting to LED. I got nearly $270 for converting my garage & basement lights from our local municipal utility company.
I've actually has these bulbs in my basement for years and this is the first great video on how to do the bypass. Thank you so much I'm running down to build me some bypass fixures now!!
On the job installing emergency regular l.e.d I had to wire and install the the tubes while the power was still live. It was crazy but I'm still obsessed. Trip city but the buildings needed their power.
One other advantage to the LED fluorescent tube replacements is it looks like the startup time is a faster. I hVe fluorescent tube lights that take 2 to 3 seconds to light up, which is even more annoying when turning on the lights with a motion sensor.
Yep, good point. They are instant on and unlike the fluorescent tubes that take a minute or two to warm up and come to full brightness, there is no warm up time with LED.
I installed led tubes recently, had only single led light inside my room, well they are amazing and quite cheap now (i paid about $3 per tube) although i made a mistake and bought smaller ones as i didn't know the longer one 2x the power is only $1 more expensive.. now im in dillema to either buy the longer ones and save the short ones or just install the short ones as i've already bought all 3 of them, only one installed so far....
Thanks for the great video on the flourescent lights. I am unddeceided on 4000 or 5000 color temp. Love the thought of never replacing another buzzzzin ballast or burnt out one. I haven't flew my Trex 500 or 450 much since Heliproz North & South closed, not sure where a good parts suurce is any more. Also thank you for all the good information on your helicopter website.
Yes, residential electrical codes are vastly different between countries and I would imagine 240V over 120V would be a large contributor to that. Seeing that Australia, Europe/others are running 240V throughout, may I ask what gauge of wire and circuit breaker size is code for standard general usage circuits? Here 14 AWG wire for 15A 120V is code for our standard light & wall plug circuits. Curious if it's lower (both smaller wire & lower amp breakers) for standard outlets in countries that run 240V since doubling the voltage, halves the current draw?
@Rchelicopterfun Light circuits are 8amps an a 1mm or 1.5mm mutli stranded cable service them. Power circuits that take household appliances have a 16amp circuit an serviced by a 2.5mm mutli stranded Cable. All circuits in newer installs in residential are on separate rcd's. The lighting circuits had those rcd's made mandatory years ago. One of the reasons was to stop people be electrocuted in ceilings. If you access the rules Australian standards As 3000.
Good to know it's right about half which makes perfect sense. Interesting that multi-strand is used; solid core copper (NMD-90) here in NA here with most residential codes.
I'd like to do this but mine has 2 ballasts and at each end of the fixture are 2 red, 2 blue, and 2 yellow wires. From the center opening, 1 black wire goes to a wire nut and splits into 2 blacks, 1 going to each ballast. 1 white wire from the center goes to a wire nut and splits into 2 light yellows, 1 to each ballast, but one of them first goes into a screw attached to the fixture before going into ballast. It seems much more complex.
It's unfortunate the industry didn't standardize on single end or double end. Now you have tubes that are one or the other or both, which is going to cause all kinds of confusion when it comes time to replace the tube.
John, my current setup is wired (seemingly) exactly like yours. The ballast wires run with the two yellows to one end where the tombstones are jumpered together. The Red and Blue run to the other end. Two questions, possibly related: 1) Do I need to know exactly how the "yellow-end" wires are jumpered to follow your method?, or can I assume that any jumpered setup is likely to be the same as yours? ...and 2) Do I need to be sure that my tombstones are "un-shunted" -- let me know if you have any insight for me on these questions, many thanks!
Q1: As stated in the video, the yellow wire end tombstones in the fixtures I did are wired (jumpered) in parallel. Q2: *Big affirmative YES* the tombstones are un-shunted with this specific connection example I show, otherwise you would direct short the hot and neutral.
Thank you for this tutorial. One thing though. I watched another florescent to LED conversion/ballast bypass video where the guy actually kept the blue and red wires. Is there a reason that you got rid of the blue and red wires?
Yes - easier/faster with these specific fixtures (two instead of four). As I stated in the video, choose the best connectivity method for your specific application.
@@Rchelicopterfun I just wanted to add an update and thank you again. I just finished converting four pairs of florescent lights to LED and bypassing(removing) the ballasts in two of my closets, my laundry room and my garage. I did exactly what you did in this video. All total it probably took me about 45 minutes. I didn't think it was going to be as easy as it was. I just thought you made it look easy. You really helped me out a great deal.👏
@@MF-kb2nv They're known a 2 end power. The hot goes to one end & the neutral goes to the other. This is the method I prefer. I personally don't like single end power conversions.
great video. thanks for using the light meter to demonstrate the difference in brightness. Question; My fluorescent fixture doesn't;t have that ballast that your did. Can I just pop in LED tubes into the existing tombstones? Thanks!
I don't know of any florescent T8/12 fixture that doesn't use a ballast, so I can't say if this method would work in your fixtures. All I can offer is study the wiring diagrams shown, and see if one is the same to your specific fixture layout. However, all have ballasts, be it single wire to each tombstone for shunted tombstones (requiring the hot going to one end and neutral to the other) or dual wires going into non-shunted tombstones like I have in mine.
I'm looking for a single tube 4 feet LED-ready strip fixture that's not hardwired but can be plugged into an Alexa outlet and bulbs can be replaced as they go bad. I don't want those bulb integrated ones where you have to toss out the entire fixture when they go bad. Hard to find them. I guess there's no market for them?
Hi John Thanks for quick reply. I was reading afterwards that LED tubes may cause RF interference, in particular FM radio. Not sure about television? Since you have electronics experience maybe you could give me a heads up. Also since all my lights have that cheese grater plastic cover over the tubes, is it best to get the LED tubes with the non clear opaque cover? Thanks
@adsbadsb9488 - RF noise? None from these. I would presume any brand of LED tube light would put out an order of magnitude less RF interference than most magnetic or electronic ballasts. Your call on lens type - totally personal preference.
This is a very informative video and I think I can do it based on your instructions. My question, if you don't mind my ignorance, is whether or not I need to remove the ballast and do the conversion or can I just replace the fluorescent bulbs with LED ones and leave it at that. I am doing this in an office building because the tenants have complained about the light hurting their eyes and they are either not turning them on or one girl even brought in a floor lamp. So, I am thinking I need to switch to LED. I currently have T8, 32 watts. (At least that is the box I found in the storage closet). I thought they would just be able to be switched to LED bulbs without all these extra steps, but what do I know? Also, we have the cheese grater-type covers too, which are recessed. We bought 2x4 replacements for them as some are cracked, and they must be just slightly too large. My husband tried to cut one down a bit but cracked it in the process. Any tips on how to do that better and also any suggestions for the lumens I should be looking for in this type of setting? Thank you so much for any help with this!
If you choose to get ballast bypass LED tubes (the type used in this video), as explained in the video, you MUST bypass the ballast for them to work. You can leave the ballast physically mounted in the fixture if you wish, but the fixture MUST BE REWIRED to bypass the ballast completely or the tubes will be destroyed the first second they are powered on. If you want to leave the ballast in and not deal with rewiring, then get LED conversion tubes that state they work with the ballast (usually called hybrids). However, as stated in the video, there are many different ballast configurations and there always seem to be compatibility issues; it's a coin toss in other words if they will work correctly. When you get rid of the ballast, you get rid of compatibility issues, a failure point and an unnecessary energy consumer. No idea on an efficient way to cut polycarbonate fixture diffusers. Any time I've had to trim them, I use a Dremel rotary tool with a fiberglass cut off disc. Slow going.
I had bought 2 Phillips "Instafit" tubes and 2 Sylvania similar for a "round to it" conversion. Tip: read the entire box CAREFULLY. If it says something to "go to.....for ballast compatibilty", RUN. I can just about guarantee that your existing ballasts are NOT compatible. After going through the microscopic list and trying to find a match at my HD box store....$37 per ballast. Ordered the exact same ballast from Amazon for $20. It worked out...but save yourself the frustration and do the bypass method shown. BTW 3000K (kelvin) is similar to the old tungsten incandescent bulb color. Also: Converting a "shop light" may not be anywhere close to as easy as shown here.
i have multiple flourescent fixtures in my garage ceiling that are butted up against each other and wired together. So in addition to the wires/ballast inside that look exactly like in your video, there is a large connection wire running through to each fixture. Not sure if your instructions would still apply in my case? Wanted to try doing this retrofit myself.
Without knowing what that "large connection wire" is actually doing/supplying by way of voltage testing, I can't comment with a yes no answer. If this 'LCW" is just a standard supply line of a hot & neutral, then the connection would be the same.
Thanks so much for your clear video,. Our setup looks just like yours, but I don't understand shunted vs unshunted yellow wires. Does it make any difference which yellow wire is connected to the power and neutral? I think I understand you connect one yellow wire to each. Sorry to be so ignorant.
A shunted tombstone means both contacts are shorted internally in the tomb. If that is the type of Tombstone you have, then you *must* use the two end confection method (hot on one end of the tube, neutral on the other). If however your tombstones have two yellow wires going to each side of the tombstone (tombstones wired in parallel) then they are not shunted (shorted) and you could feed neutral to one yellow and hot to the other. If you have any doubts whatsoever about the connectivity options, best to get an electrician 🙂
@alicewilliams-root5129 - No I don't because all my fixtures are the same so I used the best method for them in my specific application. However, there really is not much different in the double end connection. I covered the various connectivity methods at the beginning of the video showing the hot on one end and neutral on the other. I show the schematic that came with the bulbs that shows both singe end non-shunted and double end shunted wiring. The only difference from my single end connection method is you run the hot to one end tomb and the neutral to the other. If all that is too complicated, then please hire an electrician because this job does require a basic level of electrical understanding.
I did this on your instructions, as shown when you used alligator clips without the tombstones. Popped the circuit as if I had errantly crossed black with white, even though I used two separate wires, each one connected to a different pole?
Brother John, So for me to wire these just as you have here in the video, I will need to make sure I have non shunted tombstones right? Sorry to bother you man.
If you have non-shunted tombs, then yes, you can wire them the same if you wish. If you have shunted tombs, you would run line voltage to each end as per the wiring diagram for these specific Parmida bulbs.
i have HO tubes. when i removed the ballast and connected red tombstone wires to white and blue to black that left two yellow wires that connected to the ballast. the lights were very dim. are the yellows connected on to hot and one to neutral?
Pretty minor and likely unmeasurable in the grand scheme of total power consumption; considering the few micro seconds a gas discharge tube peaks higher start current, over the thousands of hours it operates at nominal consumption.
Good eyes 😎 Homebase is usually north end of Kinbasket reservoir (BC Canada). A natural wind-tunnel in that section of narrow valley; often gusty however, but makes for some interesting rigging & riding.
You would follow the instructions and schematics that come with the tubes for your specific fixture layout. Likely shunted tombstones requiring double/2 end connection (hot on one end of tube, neutral on other end).
My wiring configuration is almost the exact same as yours: two yellows on one end that ran to the ballast, and on the other end, two blues and two reds. Non-shunted. However, on the yellow end, the two wires running from tombstone to tombstone are white, with the two yellows running from one of those tombstones to the ballast. Would this change anything from what you did in the video to bypass the ballast, or does this not matter?
I have a four tube one ballast fixture, all the other vids I have watched have the red and blue wires connected to the white, but you just lopped those off can you explain why no current to the red blue side still works?
If you watched the beginning of the video, I showed the various wiring schematics along with both single end and double end connection methods. It works because these ballast bypass LED tubes are both single end or double end connection (as per the schematics). If you happen to have shunted tombstones of course, then you will need a double end connection - hot to one end of each bulb & neutral to the other end of each bulb (if they are the same type of bulb). ALWAYS follow the schematics that come with your bulbs for your type of fixture.
@@Rchelicopterfun Lol. you caught me, I skipped the beginning of the video. So it really will not matter if the fixture is 2 or 4 tubes. I guess I should find out what a shunted tombstone looks like.
didn't see where it mattered which wire went to hot, and which went to neutral. Does it matter? The other videos with the red and blue wires was very specific as to L and N on the bulbs. I have these same bulbs.
I have a 2-bulb fixture and did the ballast bypass. It worked but when one of the bulbs is out, the other one doesn't light up. Does anyone know why this is and is it a problem?
Would have to see your exact wiring schematic and know the exact bulbs you are using and the type of tombstones in your fixture. Almost sounds like you are feeding power through one bulb to the other somehow, but that is just a guess.
@@Rchelicopterfun I have shunted tombstones. The live and neutral wires from the ceiling are going to the left and to the right tombstones on one side. The other side has no connections. I am using FEIT T8/T12 type B bulbs.
Yep, sounds like you have both bulbs wired in series so if one is removed, the circuit is broken and off goes the other. You have to run one hot to one end of each bulb and one neutral to the other end of each bulb with shunted tombs. Study the double ended connection schematic @4:44 You need to do that to each bulb in the fixture.
Yep, look to be out of stock. There are of course other 5000 K ballast bypass options. These ones for example are very similar and get good reviews as well: amzn.to/450TyxW
My lights have one ballast to 4 tubes in one fixture. John, may I send pictures of my setup to your email. If you would giude me on how to install my parmida Type B bulbs that would be MUCH appreciated!
......you forgot to mention tombstones should be 'un-shunted', you were lucky or forgot to mention but the tombstones in the fixture were un-shunted!!!
Parmida LED T8 Bulbs used in this video: amzn.to/3lXXtdF
Another well reviewed ballast bypass LED bulb: amzn.to/450TyxW
January 2024 One Year Update: All these bulbs are still working well with no failures or any LED's out. Still very happy with them, enjoying the increased light output. They paid for themselves in power savings within 18 months and are now saving money.
Great video. Now I feel confident upgrading my hall light. Liked your presentation explaining all the details needed. Thanks much
Have fun with the upgrade and thanks for watching 🙂
I got a real education trying to convert to LEDs. First I tried the plug and play but I guess the ballast was bad. Next I tried the Retro bulb, one end hot and requiring un-shunted plugs, couldn't seem to find the bulbs. Finally, after reading CZcams articles, I bought some ballast bypass bulbs and love the installation simplicity, this is the way to do.
Have watched five other videos on this type of conversion and yours is by far the best and most informative! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Glad it was helpful 🙂
I wish I had found your video first. Bing, bam, boom! Straight to the point. No farting about and simply we'll explained. Tried the other videos with no success and using your tutorial it worked first time.
just a word of caution though, my led tubes were from Amazon as well, but a different brand and was totally different wiring for bypassing the ballast, so when I followed the method on this video, it immediately blew the breaker. My fault for not checking the instructions included though. In my case it required gathering all the leads from one end, grouping them together and fastening them to either the black or white incoming wire. Then gathering all the leads from the other end, grouping them together and fastening them to the remaining incoming wire.
So you had double-ended lights right with shunted tombstones right?
Seeing the light switch inside the utility room arc inside each time I turned on all the fluorescent strips was enough for me to convert to LED.
Wow I never realized how much power the ballast were drawing on their own. I need to change mine in my shop, thanks for the how to video.
Yep, me neither until I checked it. I figured a few watts at most.
My garage is 28' X 48'. The back half is my shop area and the front half is garage. I used 5000K bulbs in the garage portion & 6500K in the shop area. I have 10'6" ceilings and the walls & ceilings are all painted in semi-gloss white paint. I have (20) 8' 4 bulb fixtures in the room & the light is absolutely fantastic. Something else to check out for anyone wanting to do this conversion is to check with your local utility company to see if they offer any rebates or incentives for converting to LED. I got nearly $270 for converting my garage & basement lights from our local municipal utility company.
👍
I've actually has these bulbs in my basement for years and this is the first great video on how to do the bypass. Thank you so much I'm running down to build me some bypass fixures now!!
Great video presentation! Very clear and a big help to an untrained electrician to get the job done!
Thanks & glad you found it helpful - have fun with your install 🙂
I did the Type A tubes and have lasted over 10 years. 5K works great in a garage.
...very good tutorial...I've been searching for two days, this is the best I've seen thank you
Glad it was helpful 🙂👍
On the job installing emergency regular l.e.d I had to wire and install the the tubes while the power was still live. It was crazy but I'm still obsessed. Trip city but the buildings needed their power.
Thank you! Did it your way no more ballasts and everything smoothly! Thank again!!!
Glad you got your conversion done without issue. 🙂👍
I did this conversion based on your instructions. Super easy and worked great, thanks!
Great to hear 👍🙂
This is exactly the video I needed. Thanks for the info and detail!
Glad to hear it
Informative, clear and concise. Can't wait to do my LED tube conversion. Thanks!
Have fun 👍🙂
Great instructional video….Thanks a lot!!!!…You got a new subscriber!!!!!
Glad you found it useful; thanks for the sub 🙂
@@RchelicopterfunInstallation went smooth today, no problems!!!!! Thanks again!!!!!
@@brent1387 Nice 👍
Just did this. Thanks so much. Worked like a charm. Cheers.
Excellent 👍🙂
One other advantage to the LED fluorescent tube replacements is it looks like the startup time is a faster. I hVe fluorescent tube lights that take 2 to 3 seconds to light up, which is even more annoying when turning on the lights with a motion sensor.
Yep, good point. They are instant on and unlike the fluorescent tubes that take a minute or two to warm up and come to full brightness, there is no warm up time with LED.
Thank you!!! you were the best illustration.
Thanks for the visit.
I installed led tubes recently, had only single led light inside my room, well they are amazing and quite cheap now (i paid about $3 per tube) although i made a mistake and bought smaller ones as i didn't know the longer one 2x the power is only $1 more expensive.. now im in dillema to either buy the longer ones and save the short ones or just install the short ones as i've already bought all 3 of them, only one installed so far....
Excellent video, will give this a try!
Enjoy your improved illumination 🙂
4 minutes. Amazing !
A really good and useful video, thank you very much for making this and explains in layman’s terms the benefits of the process. Well done indeed!
Glad it was helpful
Thanks for the great video on the flourescent lights. I am unddeceided on 4000 or 5000 color temp. Love the thought of never replacing another buzzzzin ballast or burnt out one. I haven't flew my Trex 500 or 450 much since Heliproz North & South closed, not sure where a good parts suurce is any more. Also thank you for all the good information on your helicopter website.
Excellent explanation
Thanks for watching 🙂
Australian standards require a hrc .05 amp fuse on every light fixture. It must be a safety issue here because of the 240 volt system.
Yes, residential electrical codes are vastly different between countries and I would imagine 240V over 120V would be a large contributor to that. Seeing that Australia, Europe/others are running 240V throughout, may I ask what gauge of wire and circuit breaker size is code for standard general usage circuits? Here 14 AWG wire for 15A 120V is code for our standard light & wall plug circuits. Curious if it's lower (both smaller wire & lower amp breakers) for standard outlets in countries that run 240V since doubling the voltage, halves the current draw?
@Rchelicopterfun
Light circuits are 8amps an a 1mm or 1.5mm mutli stranded cable service them. Power circuits that take household appliances have a 16amp circuit an serviced by a 2.5mm mutli stranded
Cable. All circuits in newer installs in residential are on separate rcd's. The lighting circuits had those rcd's made mandatory years ago. One of the reasons was to stop people be electrocuted in ceilings. If you access the rules Australian standards As 3000.
Good to know it's right about half which makes perfect sense. Interesting that multi-strand is used; solid core copper (NMD-90) here in NA here with most residential codes.
Well done, Thank You
Thanks for watching
I'd like to do this but mine has 2 ballasts and at each end of the fixture are 2 red, 2 blue, and 2 yellow wires. From the center opening, 1 black wire goes to a wire nut and splits into 2 blacks, 1 going to each ballast. 1 white wire from the center goes to a wire nut and splits into 2 light yellows, 1 to each ballast, but one of them first goes into a screw attached to the fixture before going into ballast. It seems much more complex.
It's unfortunate the industry didn't standardize on single end or double end. Now you have tubes that are one or the other or both, which is going to cause all kinds of confusion when it comes time to replace the tube.
John, my current setup is wired (seemingly) exactly like yours. The ballast wires run with the two yellows to one end where the tombstones are jumpered together. The Red and Blue run to the other end. Two questions, possibly related: 1) Do I need to know exactly how the "yellow-end" wires are jumpered to follow your method?, or can I assume that any jumpered setup is likely to be the same as yours? ...and 2) Do I need to be sure that my tombstones are "un-shunted" -- let me know if you have any insight for me on these questions, many thanks!
Q1: As stated in the video, the yellow wire end tombstones in the fixtures I did are wired (jumpered) in parallel.
Q2: *Big affirmative YES* the tombstones are un-shunted with this specific connection example I show, otherwise you would direct short the hot and neutral.
Thank you for this tutorial. One thing though. I watched another florescent to LED conversion/ballast bypass video where the guy actually kept the blue and red wires. Is there a reason that you got rid of the blue and red wires?
Yes - easier/faster with these specific fixtures (two instead of four). As I stated in the video, choose the best connectivity method for your specific application.
@@Rchelicopterfun I just wanted to add an update and thank you again. I just finished converting four pairs of florescent lights to LED and bypassing(removing) the ballasts in two of my closets, my laundry room and my garage. I did exactly what you did in this video. All total it probably took me about 45 minutes. I didn't think it was going to be as easy as it was. I just thought you made it look easy. You really helped me out a great deal.👏
@@Rchelicopterfun do you know what the led bulb is called that has the line at one end and the neutral at the other end of the bulb?
@@MF-kb2nv They're known a 2 end power. The hot goes to one end & the neutral goes to the other. This is the method I prefer. I personally don't like single end power conversions.
@Jon Hansen update: I have done several now. I prefer the same method as well
great video. thanks for using the light meter to demonstrate the difference in brightness. Question; My fluorescent fixture doesn't;t have that ballast that your did. Can I just pop in LED tubes into the existing tombstones? Thanks!
I don't know of any florescent T8/12 fixture that doesn't use a ballast, so I can't say if this method would work in your fixtures. All I can offer is study the wiring diagrams shown, and see if one is the same to your specific fixture layout. However, all have ballasts, be it single wire to each tombstone for shunted tombstones (requiring the hot going to one end and neutral to the other) or dual wires going into non-shunted tombstones like I have in mine.
Thank you. I'm likely mistaken and should take a closer look at my fixtures @@Rchelicopterfun
I'm looking for a single tube 4 feet LED-ready strip fixture that's not hardwired but can be plugged into an Alexa outlet and bulbs can be replaced as they go bad. I don't want those bulb integrated ones where you have to toss out the entire fixture when they go bad. Hard to find them. I guess there's no market for them?
John. Now you have had these new tubes installed, how are they still working? Any issues or failed or dimming let's.
Good video, well explained.
All still working, nice & bright, no complaints. Thanks for watching 🙂
Hi John
Thanks for quick reply. I was reading afterwards that LED tubes may cause RF interference, in particular FM radio. Not sure about television? Since you have electronics experience maybe you could give me a heads up. Also since all my lights have that cheese grater plastic cover over the tubes, is it best to get the LED tubes with the non clear opaque cover? Thanks
@adsbadsb9488 - RF noise? None from these. I would presume any brand of LED tube light would put out an order of magnitude less RF interference than most magnetic or electronic ballasts. Your call on lens type - totally personal preference.
This is a very informative video and I think I can do it based on your instructions. My question, if you don't mind my ignorance, is whether or not I need to remove the ballast and do the conversion or can I just replace the fluorescent bulbs with LED ones and leave it at that. I am doing this in an office building because the tenants have complained about the light hurting their eyes and they are either not turning them on or one girl even brought in a floor lamp. So, I am thinking I need to switch to LED. I currently have T8, 32 watts. (At least that is the box I found in the storage closet). I thought they would just be able to be switched to LED bulbs without all these extra steps, but what do I know? Also, we have the cheese grater-type covers too, which are recessed. We bought 2x4 replacements for them as some are cracked, and they must be just slightly too large. My husband tried to cut one down a bit but cracked it in the process. Any tips on how to do that better and also any suggestions for the lumens I should be looking for in this type of setting?
Thank you so much for any help with this!
If you choose to get ballast bypass LED tubes (the type used in this video), as explained in the video, you MUST bypass the ballast for them to work. You can leave the ballast physically mounted in the fixture if you wish, but the fixture MUST BE REWIRED to bypass the ballast completely or the tubes will be destroyed the first second they are powered on.
If you want to leave the ballast in and not deal with rewiring, then get LED conversion tubes that state they work with the ballast (usually called hybrids). However, as stated in the video, there are many different ballast configurations and there always seem to be compatibility issues; it's a coin toss in other words if they will work correctly.
When you get rid of the ballast, you get rid of compatibility issues, a failure point and an unnecessary energy consumer.
No idea on an efficient way to cut polycarbonate fixture diffusers. Any time I've had to trim them, I use a Dremel rotary tool with a fiberglass cut off disc. Slow going.
I had bought 2 Phillips "Instafit" tubes and 2 Sylvania similar for a "round to it" conversion. Tip: read the entire box CAREFULLY. If it says something to "go to.....for ballast compatibilty", RUN. I can just about guarantee that your existing ballasts are NOT compatible. After going through the microscopic list and trying to find a match at my HD box store....$37 per ballast. Ordered the exact same ballast from Amazon for $20. It worked out...but save yourself the frustration and do the bypass method shown. BTW 3000K (kelvin) is similar to the old tungsten incandescent bulb color. Also: Converting a "shop light" may not be anywhere close to as easy as shown here.
A couple years later, how are those bulbs holding up? How are they in the cold?
Still all working, not a singe one has failed, there is zero warm up time, full brightness even at -35C in the garden shed as we expect from all LEDs.
i have multiple flourescent fixtures in my garage ceiling that are butted up against each other and wired together. So in addition to the wires/ballast inside that look exactly like in your video, there is a large connection wire running through to each fixture. Not sure if your instructions would still apply in my case? Wanted to try doing this retrofit myself.
Without knowing what that "large connection wire" is actually doing/supplying by way of voltage testing, I can't comment with a yes no answer. If this 'LCW" is just a standard supply line of a hot & neutral, then the connection would be the same.
@@Rchelicopterfun thx much. don't suppose a photo would do any good?
Thanks so much for your clear video,. Our setup looks just like yours, but I don't understand shunted vs unshunted yellow wires. Does it make any difference which yellow wire is connected to the power and neutral? I think I understand you connect one yellow wire to each. Sorry to be so ignorant.
A shunted tombstone means both contacts are shorted internally in the tomb. If that is the type of Tombstone you have, then you *must* use the two end confection method (hot on one end of the tube, neutral on the other). If however your tombstones have two yellow wires going to each side of the tombstone (tombstones wired in parallel) then they are not shunted (shorted) and you could feed neutral to one yellow and hot to the other. If you have any doubts whatsoever about the connectivity options, best to get an electrician 🙂
Do you have a video on the 2 end connection method?
@alicewilliams-root5129 - No I don't because all my fixtures are the same so I used the best method for them in my specific application. However, there really is not much different in the double end connection. I covered the various connectivity methods at the beginning of the video showing the hot on one end and neutral on the other. I show the schematic that came with the bulbs that shows both singe end non-shunted and double end shunted wiring. The only difference from my single end connection method is you run the hot to one end tomb and the neutral to the other. If all that is too complicated, then please hire an electrician because this job does require a basic level of electrical understanding.
I did this on your instructions, as shown when you used alligator clips without the tombstones. Popped the circuit as if I had errantly crossed black with white, even though I used two separate wires, each one connected to a different pole?
Then your bulbs were different than these Type B one. Follow the schematic.
How do you wire 2 or multiple tubes with the wall plug cord that was used?
Brother John, So for me to wire these just as you have here in the video, I will need to make sure I have non shunted tombstones right? Sorry to bother you man.
If you have non-shunted tombs, then yes, you can wire them the same if you wish. If you have shunted tombs, you would run line voltage to each end as per the wiring diagram for these specific Parmida bulbs.
@@Rchelicopterfun John you are first class Brother!!!!! Thanks so Much!!!!
Great question
I like fluorescent far to much to change them to LED, especially with the electronic ballasts. I go for color temps between 4000k and 6000k T8
Absolutely - to each their own. Of course the question is how much longer will fluorescent bulbs be available? Stock up 🙂
i have HO tubes. when i removed the ballast and connected red tombstone wires to white and blue to black that left two yellow wires that connected to the ballast. the lights were very dim. are the yellows connected on to hot and one to neutral?
ok great video but you missed the initial start up usage so figures are better than stated
Pretty minor and likely unmeasurable in the grand scheme of total power consumption; considering the few micro seconds a gas discharge tube peaks higher start current, over the thousands of hours it operates at nominal consumption.
what I want to know is... where do you use those north sails and booms?
Good eyes 😎 Homebase is usually north end of Kinbasket reservoir (BC Canada). A natural wind-tunnel in that section of narrow valley; often gusty however, but makes for some interesting rigging & riding.
What if only have 1 yellow going to each tombstone?
It look like yours had 2 yellow from each?
Does 1 yellow mean theres a jumper inside tombstone?
You would follow the instructions and schematics that come with the tubes for your specific fixture layout. Likely shunted tombstones requiring double/2 end connection (hot on one end of tube, neutral on other end).
My wiring configuration is almost the exact same as yours: two yellows on one end that ran to the ballast, and on the other end, two blues and two reds. Non-shunted. However, on the yellow end, the two wires running from tombstone to tombstone are white, with the two yellows running from one of those tombstones to the ballast. Would this change anything from what you did in the video to bypass the ballast, or does this not matter?
Wouldn't change a thing if the parallel jumpers between the two non-shunted tombs are a different color. 🙂
Thank you very much, sir! Great video!
I have a four tube one ballast fixture, all the other vids I have watched have the red and blue wires connected to the white, but you just lopped those off can you explain why no current to the red blue side still works?
If you watched the beginning of the video, I showed the various wiring schematics along with both single end and double end connection methods. It works because these ballast bypass LED tubes are both single end or double end connection (as per the schematics). If you happen to have shunted tombstones of course, then you will need a double end connection - hot to one end of each bulb & neutral to the other end of each bulb (if they are the same type of bulb). ALWAYS follow the schematics that come with your bulbs for your type of fixture.
@@Rchelicopterfun Lol. you caught me, I skipped the beginning of the video. So it really will not matter if the fixture is 2 or 4 tubes. I guess I should find out what a shunted tombstone looks like.
I completed my installation and it is working. Ended up having to use all red and blue wires from the neutral side. Thanks for the video
didn't see where it mattered which wire went to hot, and which went to neutral. Does it matter? The other videos with the red and blue wires was very specific as to L and N on the bulbs. I have these same bulbs.
As per wiring schematics shown in the video and that came with these bulbs - doesn't matter.
@@Rchelicopterfun you sir, are a master. Problem solved. Thanks brother
Are those bulbs only sold in bulk?
Nope, they have them listed in various quantities (2 being the minimum, at least when I look on Amazon).
I'm assuming this is for a single ended tube type?
As I stated and demonstrated in the video these bulbs work in all types: single end, both ends, shunted or non-shunted tombstones.
In USA ok or not
I have a 2-bulb fixture and did the ballast bypass. It worked but when one of the bulbs is out, the other one doesn't light up. Does anyone know why this is and is it a problem?
Would have to see your exact wiring schematic and know the exact bulbs you are using and the type of tombstones in your fixture. Almost sounds like you are feeding power through one bulb to the other somehow, but that is just a guess.
@@Rchelicopterfun I have shunted tombstones. The live and neutral wires from the ceiling are going to the left and to the right tombstones on one side. The other side has no connections. I am using FEIT T8/T12 type B bulbs.
Yep, sounds like you have both bulbs wired in series so if one is removed, the circuit is broken and off goes the other. You have to run one hot to one end of each bulb and one neutral to the other end of each bulb with shunted tombs. Study the double ended connection schematic @4:44 You need to do that to each bulb in the fixture.
@@RchelicopterfunThank you for getting back to me. I will try that.
Where can I get one of those alligator clip chord plugs?
I made mine.
just checked Amazon. These are no longer available on Amazon
Yep, look to be out of stock. There are of course other 5000 K ballast bypass options. These ones for example are very similar and get good reviews as well: amzn.to/450TyxW
My lights have one ballast to 4 tubes in one fixture. John, may I send pictures of my setup to your email. If you would giude me on how to install my parmida Type B bulbs that would be MUCH appreciated!
do they only come in packs of 20???
Packs of 4 also.
@@Rchelicopterfun yeah, I finally found them. all sold out. lol
Pre-twisting?
Pre-twist what? It's all single strand wire.
......you forgot to mention tombstones should be 'un-shunted', you were lucky or forgot to mention but the tombstones in the fixture were un-shunted!!!
Read description!!!
Why bother removing the ballasts? just leave them in place.