Replacing old T12 fluorescent light bulbs with LED ones (type A)

[tk3000]

Hello Folks,

Recently I bought a house whose garages ceiling is populated by old t12 fluorescent light – about 12 40watts bulbs. Was in the process of replacing them with t12 led equivalent (type a) bulbs which a plug and play (no need to worry about shunt, no shunt, or bypass the ballast). But so far, it seems to be have been the wrong approach.

There are different types of ballast which can be a problem and they are weak point of failure and another load on the circuit consuming power. The bulbs bought are 40watts type A (brand: Feit Electric) and they seem to be problematic to say the least. Pics bellow:



I believe that most plug and play t12 led bulbs can also be directly wired (bypass the ballast). Is that correct?

Doing a direct replacement, found out that some worked some did not; and about half of the ones that worked failed after a few hours of use. Then, with another pair I did a direct wiring (bypassing the ballast) and installed the new t12 led bulbs and nothing, nada, zilch; they simply did not work. All in all, I tried to install 8 of the 14 bulbs I bought and only two are still working (2 failed after few hours, 2 never worked, 2 worked for a few hours and 2 are still working). The following are some of in the batch of t12 led ballasts (there is a t8, but that is for something else):

Below is a pic of a sequence of t12 fixtures installed in the ceiling. It seems that they are using two ceiling light boxes in both extremes of the sequence. Wires from a rounded ceiling elect box comes out in first fixture, and only a neutral comes out of rounded ceiling elect box in the last fixture. Pics below:





After all, bypassing the ballasts seems to be the way to go (but there is always a risk that in the future someone not knowing about the conversion may install ordinary fluorescent bulbs there); so, on a second thought, new led receptacles seems to be the way to go (in spite of being more costly).

Any insights on how deal with that situation would be appreciated.

 

[Steve123]

After all, bypassing the ballasts seems to be the way to go (but there is always a risk that in the future someone not knowing about the conversion may install ordinary fluorescent bulbs there); so, on a second thought, new led receptacles seems to be the way to go (in spite of being more costly).

I believe in most places code requires the the fixture to be marked with an appropriate warning of type of bulb to be used as replacement.

The bulbs I used were supposed to come with a sticker, but didn't. I bought at a real electrical distributor, so I asked them. Counter guy said he had never been asked for stickers before, but he contacted Sylvania and they mailed him the stickers. I'm not sure what real electricians do, maybe they print their own stickers.

 

[tk3000]

In the past, my experience – however limited – is that t12 led bulbs that would work with a ballast in any orientation would also work in a light fixture with the ballast bypassed, but one can never be sure of that (after some researching it seems that would be the Type AB led t12/t8/t10 bulbs).

In any case, on occasion of buying them, upon asking the sales person he indicated that the t12 led in question would work with or without a ballast. The box and the manual says nothing against or in favor of it working without a ballast. Also, there is no quick way to contact support in Feit Electric’s website (only for resellers and such).

An online review about a very similar Feit Electric’s T12 led bulb (different box color) indicates the following:

“
These are made for people who don't mind leaving their old, heavy ballast slowly rusting away on the ceiling., but they bear no indication that a ballast is in fact required.
I bought them from Costco to replace fluorescent in my house -- I fortunately bought only 8 of them, because I discovered that they will get fried if you bypass the ballast. That was nowhere evident -- neither on the box nor in the instructions, which only stated that you could just replace your fluorescents without any other work. (Which, of course, is also true of almost all LED tubes on the market that will work with a bypass.)
After all, what's the point of using LED to replace fluorescent if you have to leave that antiquated transformer, buzzing at 60Hz, up there?
The tubes are fine, a bit dim with the ballast, but my reasons for downrating the product are
(i) since it is one of the few tubes left on the market that requires a ballast, that should be clearly indicated on the product -- I checked yesterday (Oct. 27, 2020) at Costco, and it still says nothing about it;
and
(ii) no modern LED tube should require a ballast; at the price of these (they are actually quite expensive compared to better products from, e.g., Hyperikon), they should accept dual-ended, single-ended, and ballast drives.
For now, I'll leave these seven (I fried the first installing it with a bypass) up, but sooner or later (before the tubes give up), I'll replace them with single-ended tubes and remove and recycle those ballasts.
“

So, I went ahead and returned them.

The LED t12/28 that are made for use without a ballast is the way to go. No extra load (power consumption), heat, nuisance noise, degradation over time, and eventual total failure of the ballast. No to mention that the ballast can potentially cause quicker deterioration or failure of the t12/18 led bulb itself.

Lesson learned, never buy things in a hurry or make assumptions. The plan now is to bypass all ballast, paint the metal cases of the fixtures and install new t12 led bulbs.

 

[havasu]

I got tired of replacing ballasts and bulbs, then breaking the old bulbs. I went to Costco and purchased a pair of LED 4' lights for $30, post Bidone being $80.