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T5 Bulb LED Replacement? (1 Viewer)

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SCUBAFreaky

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I've been tasked a project at my church to replace many of the T12 fluorescent bulbs with LED bulbs due to many of the ballasts have burned out. You essentially bypass or cut out the ballast (electrically) for the fluorescent bulb and wire the LED directly to 120V using the same fixture and lamp holder. I didn't know such a thing existed until tonight. Who know?! But makes sense to me once I thought about it.

So I looked on Amazon tonight. They even make a T5 version.

So, the question is, why doesn't a bulb manufacturer make a T5 LED bulb in royal blue or 10,000K white for the aquarium industry?? Seems like there would be HUGE market for something like this, right? Just sayin. Unfortunately, I think I know one of the reasons. Sad.
 

frankc

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I had thought about doing this in my garage. It uses these crazy 8' long bulbs which are a pain to replace. There are actually two kinds of LED replacement tubes: one where you bypass the ballast as you mentioned, and one where you can use the fixture as-is with the ballast. I am guessing it's better to bypass the ballast (especially in your case where it's not working), but I couldn't decide if I wanted to mess with that so I haven't pulled the trigger, but I like the idea.

And I agree it would be great to have reef versions for people with nice T5 fixtures who want to try LEDs.
 

dustinrowe

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I did this in my garage a few months ago. Super simple wiring as I did the bypass of the ballast. Left the ballast in place and opted not to remove it. My only downfall was I wish I bought dimmable LED bulbs.

as for your question with “LED T5’s” being an option, I think the fluorescent style bulb and the filament is what gives the color and overall PAR readings. You’ll never be able to replicate this with any diode.
 

slojim

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my garage, master closet x2, and laundry room have 4 ft fixtures. Trash service technically won't accept 4ft tubes, so I started swapping them out as bulbs failed rather than buy new bulbs. The first was a direct wire I bought at Lowes around the corner. It comes right on and is bright, but you can see the individual diodes, and it stays on a few seconds after turning it off. No big deal, I like it. When it was time for the closet, I had to do them both to stay consistent, and by then, the store stock had moved to bulbs that use the ballast (easier I suppose on the consumer). THese bulbs are difficult to distinguish from standard tubes in the fixture. They flickered badly at first, but I checked online and they were NOT compatible with my ballasts. I replaced the ballasts as well. Ballasts and bulbs - for the money I may as well have replaced the light, but I didn't want to have any ceiling to paint and of the ones with the same footprint, we decided to keep what we had. My garage is still fluorescent, since I recovered enough tubes from the other fixtures to keep it going a while. The LED tubes are better IMO than the fluorescents they replaced- they come on right away, the light quality is good, the rooms they are in are narrow and are still well-covered. They are little lower energy, not enough to make a difference. No disposal issues - none have failed yet.

But LED tubes are likely a short-term transition. I have fixtures, I didn't want to replace them, so I used a form factor that fit my fixture. On a new install, you aren't married to a fixture and LED's offer a lot more ability to change fixture shape or size to meet the need. Likely a similar argument for tanks. If you wanted LED today on a new tank, you would not buy a tube fixture and retrofit.
 
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