Shop LED lights
 

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In between our car/truck projects there is always something that need to be done. In my case it is changing from florescent shop lights to LED. My reason for changing is that bout once a month a fixture will burn out and need to be replaced. Have 22 fixtures in my shop. Been replacing them, but finally is said- ENOUGH. I checked into converting from florescent to LED, and it was simple enough. Main things is removing the ballast and wire direct for LED's. So I checked out different places that sold LED tubes, and also looked at videos on how to convert. My fixtures are made by Lights of American, sold at Wal Mart. The ballast is electronic (which is my problem with them going bad so soon). None of the videos showed my lights, so I took one of the old ones that was bad, checked out the wiring and after some checking worked out how to hook it up. Got two LED tubes adn checked out the fixture and it works great. Had to take a couple pics I missed during assembly, but everything is in order now. Enough of me running my mouth, this is how I did mine.

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Thought this pic would show the difference, but it doesn't. Light closest is LED, the two off set light are florescent and are yellow from use.

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Take down fixture and remove tubes, I cut the plug-in cord off and determine which wire is lead (hot) and which is neutral, green is ground. Use meter to find hot side, by touching ground with one lead and touching other lead to a wire. One will show 120 volts and the other almost nothing. I mark the hot wire with red marker.

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Cut wires loose at the end of the ballast.

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Remove plastic cover from metal reflector and disconnect ground from reflector.

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The end cap must be removed from the electrical section, small plastic clips will release the two parts (pain in the butt).

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When pulled apart, cut all wires to the electronic ballast.

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Remove ballast and discard.

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Here's a couple pics showing old ballast. These were from old ones I had already changed, upper one is already showing signs of use. On the back side it shows the same signs.

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Back to the end piece. Cut off the two black leads and tie the two red leads togheter.

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Remove these old plug wires from end cap, to use hole for reinstalling plug wires.

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Feed hot and ground wires thru the empty case. Connect neutral wire to the two red wires, tie together with twist connector.

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Reinstall end cap to electrical section.

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Reattach ground to fixture.

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It should go without saying, but clean up your fixture while it is apart.

Close to supper time, I'll be back later to finish this up.

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Thanks for taking the time to post this. How's the light output of your legs compared to the old florescent ones? How much did your legs run you?

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Lighting is much brighter now. Only cost is for the LED tubes, which I purchased on Ebay, from Ebright, they sell in a box of 25 tubes for $125.00, no tax and no shipping. Thats $5.00 per tube, which is cheap, most places want $10 to $15 for them...Jim

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Cut two red wires off at far end of fixture, black will feed both recepticales.

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Connect lead (hot) wire to black wire with twist connector.

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Reinstall cover over wires.

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LED tubes i purchased have a diagram for how to wire up connections. These tubes are lead (hot) at one end and neutral at the other. This end of LED tube (with diagram) must be at the hot end of fixture. Some other LED tubes can be hooked up at only one end.

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Install LED tubes, plug in to check if everything is OK.

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This is a LED tube with LED's showing, hard to tell with the photo. Can can get them either clear (led's showing) or milky (looks like a florescent tube). I chose the milky...Jim

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Sweet info and nice work.......we have a shop/tool section on here this will fit in perfect there.......mods will have to move it there.......looking into this for my garage......

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Thank you, hope it will help out...Jim

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Thanks Jim for the write up.
I haven't seen the LED tubes yet.
Are they really that much brighter then normal tubes?

The costs of the tubes are not much higher as the florescent tubes I think?
They should last longer also...

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OK Thanks!!
Maybe I should look into it also !

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Will do this upgrade as my fluorescent bulbs fail...:metal:. Thanks for posting!

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Kees, as Mark said they are much brighter, and the light is more direct. It states these tubes have 50,000 hrs life span...Jim

Hart, thanks for checking it out...Jim

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thanks for the thread, I have been thinking about doing this in my shop...would the clear bulbs put out more light? what is the reason for the white bulbs?

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Dude you made me do mine today went to Lowes and bought 6 led tubes and two double light housings......rewired the light over my work bench and put in two tubes....what a difference....my wife comes home with groceries and notices the new light now she wants the two in the kitchen rewired asap.....then my nosey neighbor see the light and like a moth to the flame he comes and ask me did I put a new light.......needless to say look what you started on here.......so I will buy 4 new tubes for the kitchen and I will install two new lights in my garage in the future............thanks again.........

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Really can't say they (clear) are any brighter. With the clear tube you see each LED, if you look directly at it then look away, you see blue dots for awhile. That is the reason I went with the milky cover. Milky is like a florescent only brighter...Jim

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Glad you like the change, sorry for any extra work ;) just keep the wife happy...Jim

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I hope the bulbs last longer then the LED light bulbs. I started using them in my home & 4out of 6 have gone bad with in 6 months.

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I would take them back to the store. I think they have a year warranty. What brand?

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Don't you have 4ft or 8ft housings? Because I've went to two different lowes and neither has had 8foot led lights...

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I have 4ft housings......1 over my work bench and 1 in my kitchen 4 light housing recessed.....and I bought two 2 light flip housings at Lowes 25.99 a piece Metalux brand......

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Metalux-SNF...-48-in/3335372

.......and these t8 led tubes

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-2...ulb/1000083433

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Nice write up on that. My friend has been using those tubes for a while now and loves them. I find the part of LED's that does not hold up to the 50,000 hrs is the transformer. So if one dies look at that first. Enjoy.