Converting Booth to LED

My booth has 4’ tubes. Is there a simple replacement LED bulb or do I need to do a bunch of rewiring? I tried some simple replacements a few years ago but the ballasts ran very hot and shut down.

Don
 
you bypass the ballast . there are 4ft replacement bulbs . rewire is + on one end - on the other .
 
you bypass the ballast . there are 4ft replacement bulbs . rewire is + on one end - on the other .
Thanks. That sounds like a fair bit of work plus I wired my lights on 230 volts. Need to get better motivated to take that job on.

Don
 
4' tubes come single ended which i got (pos & neg on same end) or dual ended.
Both varients of 4' have 2 pins on each end. The 8 footers got 1 pin each end right Shine?
 
For someone with decent basic wiring skills, how fast you can access the fixtures & inside of fixtures to bypass the ballasts is a good part of the pain in the ass & time variable part. In current work warehouse I had to move 12' ladder back & forth & up & down with 8' bulbs & tools by myself where in changing fluorescent 8' bulbs in a couple of previous warehouses with someone moving me around on platform & forklift made a world of difference in time & effort.
For electrical part, you generally just untwist screw on connectors from the larger live wires & then have to snip the small wires (20 to 24ga?) from the ballasts & figure what you need to run to where, which I stated earlier.. Most fixtures I've converted so far had enough small wire to not have to splice for length & a few that needed splicing had enough wire to steal. I've done most with power on, but that's me.
Wire cutters & strippers is pretty much main tools needed, along with small & medium wire twist nuts. Most covers to ballasts & wiring slip in one end & have a twist end on the other, where some are small probably just # 2 phillips screws. Any issues with covers, screw it. Literally. Battery screwgun & some short #6 or # 8 self tapping screws can get old annoying covers back in place quickly.
Never dealt with 230 volt ballasts, but that would simply be capping off either of the 2 hot wires with twist nut & running one hot to one connector of bulb & ground/ return to other end.

Don :::::, I hate to promise shit to anyone these days, but I promise you this is the kind of project that if you get done, the time spent will become distant memory & you'll wish you did sooner. Get procedure done on first of matching units & you should be past the ole mental stumbling block, rest much quicker.

EDIT, yes 4" twin end bulbs have one positive & one negative to one end. Some bulbs are active on 1 side only, others either way. 8" single pin are positive one end, negative other end, bulb either direction from ones I've done.
 
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I made this conversion just a few weeks ago based off some things I read here. Did a bunch of research and settled for the following: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S5TTT0K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These are single ended and as such I did purchase some tombstones, which were relatively inexpensive. Got those off Amazon too. I cut out the ballasts and removed them. After I wired the first fixture, it took me about 15 minutes to convert each subsequent fixture. Also, a bit curious after wiring up that first fixture, I turned the lights on to compare the old with the new. I can tell you I was blown away with the difference. I tried to take a picture of it but my pictures could not justify the differences. With my shop fully lit up with LEDs now, I still marvel in the abundance of seemingly natural sunlight. I don't know how I functioned out there in that cave before this conversion.
 
I didn't go back and read all of the post but I did convert mine as well. I kept my fixtures and did the LED balast by pass tubes. I chose daylight color. I've been very happy.
 
during my current shop remodel, I'm debating on switching everything over and ordering a few sets of these.

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I moved my 22x23 garage over to LEDs. Wow what a difference. I did a lot of reading over on Garage Journal, there's some excellent resources in the sticky posts. Good vendor recommendations too.

 
Just changed over the last of my 8ft. flouescent fixtures to LED on the body repair side of my shop. The difference was literally night and day. It is hard to realize how dim the flourescent bulbs get over time until you change them
 
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Coincidence this thread came back. 2 days ago i had one fail, today another, last month another.
At least 5 failed since i converted & it's my home garage.
Kitchen i have same brands, still perfect, they're on from morning till bed whereas garage gets switched on/off.
Wonder if turning them on/off shortens life. Seems like it.
Always buy a few extra. Well worth it though, never would go back to fluorescents. Leds are great.
 
Mine have been dropping like flies as well. I am guessing the box of 20 from Amazon for 249 for 8 footers is not the way to go. Half the string goes, then the rest. Amazing light when they work, but so much for the LED lasting longer than incandescents let alone fluorescents..
 
Mine have been dropping like flies as well. I am guessing the box of 20 from Amazon for 249 for 8 footers is not the way to go. Half the string goes, then the rest. Amazing light when they work, but so much for the LED lasting longer than incandescents let alone fluorescents..
I think a lot of it has to do with the brand/supplier just like anything else. Try ShineRetrofits or Greentek
 
I'm still debating on this. I dont wanna sound cheap, but I have about 35 fixtures to replace. I'm not rich! I work in my garage every night and I get stuck on things sometimes and it just bothers me until I do it.
 
Did you guys buy the fixtures or just the bulbs?
I just got the bulbs. You got to choose if you want them to work with ballasts or on 120. Since the majority of my fixtures had troubled ballasts, I got the 120. You just simply get black on one side of the fixture and white on the other side. For me it was killing 2 birds with one stone, since getting the real fixtures could be 40 bucks.

We live and learn, like everything else. I was not able to pay 650 for the 25 lamps either, but I guess the bonus is I am not as pissed with this 10.00 bulb burning out as I would be if it were a 25.00 bulb. But I guess this kinda transfers over to the cheap paint job thread.
 
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