Going to replace 4ft. fluorescent shop lights with LED's. Seen in Home Depot that have 4 ft. LED replacement bulbs so you dont have to replace entire light, but you have to rewire and remove ballast. Walmart has almost same thing but the LED's are compatible with certain ballast which means you dont need to rewire. Would like to know if anyone has any experience with doing this?

They are not difficult two do either way, and led work better on start up in cold weather
And the bulbs last longer in my opinion

I changed my 8' florescent to LED just removed the ballast and wired direct really easy to do

There are three different kinds of led bulbs you can replace them with. Ones that work with the ballast, ones that work without the ballast, and ones that will work either way. The ones that work either way are the most expensive. The ones that work with the ballast are nice because you literally just change the bulbs. Problem with those is that when the ballast goes bad the bulbs won’t work. Best is to get the ones that you have to rewire and take the ballast out. It’s not hard to do, just cut a few wires and wire nut them together. That way you don’t have to worry about the ballast going out and making your bulbs useless.

I have been doing this in my pole building as the florescent bulbs go bad. Remove the ballast and put in 4 LED bulbs, way brighter and not effected by the cold. I bought a 24 pack of 4 foot LED bulbs on Amazon. I am on my second box of 24 now.

How long are these LED bulbs lasting?

None have had any issues in a couple years. They should last a long time. They are about 10 times brighter even when really cold.

I have converted to LED both ways and really like the light results. Around me the just replace bulbs are much more available and less expensive but I think they require the newer “electronic” ballasts to work. Even cheaper are the complete fixture w/bulbs if it is not difficult to change them out. I have several that it would be a lot of rework to do. But like in my unfinished basement/shop it was simple to replace single bulb ceiling fixture with them really spread the lighting out. They even cord link together. Now have 100% area light for way less wattage and under $50 for 8 4’ lights. It’s now daytime in a windowless basement.

The company I work for used to sell LED fixtures, tubes and retrofit kits. We have since discontinued our line of lighting but still support them under warranty. These are the tubes I would recommend -

https://www.amazon.com/Sunco-Lighting-Fluorescent-Daylight-Commercial/dp/B0874HDW27/ref=sr_1_5?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Of4nzYB3JSUFqn2MkNEg7HEfkrgze6dP0jDoflqdu_p6uHTt6iwlwtBG8SJND2oWereectKaPrJ1iO65YPqf4eoj9SFXgx2q3SZRO1AcwdVzVWEE4bePX4b12EM2Jt2xhn8udSAbBIkTpj93NThacVfRxHebdrUBu0ByyRRZY14hqB36pZNtqKCbyZrDMcDK5Jx4uMbMqwwun5x8uB-684sBpC5kAh_zb1ppoePHJDuaNq-66MNAK3fi6Yh64PkB5iE_AJ5n-X_Lhjwsi1lDyOBhc8AfVAkRn1uQbe55Nns.pjTmtskdz4BkraS1Dr5sZ0hD0IjIHNs7ZRwJzqIJHBo&dib_tag=se&keywords=led%2Bt8%2B6000k&qid=1724683561&refinements=p_n_feature_ten_browse-bin%3A92935383011%2Cp_n_feature_seventeen_browse-bin%3A9692445011&rnid=9692441011&s=hi&sr=1-5&th=1

You bypass the ballast and rewire existing hardware - non-shunted tombstones required. These have a 7 year warranty.

The 4-footers I buy are rated at 50,000 hours.

If that's true then I can run the shop lights 8 hours a day, seven days a week and they should last a little over 17 years.

Going on 8 years on the ones that I rewired the fixtures for in my shop. No problems yet. I did 12 4', 2 bulb fixtures when we moved here. Glad I did.

I don't know if any of you have experienced this but I cannot stand LED lights. Something about them makes me blink like crazy. Our church put in all new LED lights about a year ago and when I am in there my eyes blink like crazy. After an hour in church my eyes hurt so much it is hard to drive home.

Slightly off topic but this topic reminded me. Remember a few (maybe 10) years back when they came out with the crappy curley screw in florescent bulbs. Had a coworker that was all in on global warming and green energy who was buying and replacing his incandescents and bragging about getting the rebates from the "power company" (actually the government) to fund it. Tried to talk me into this as it was such a great deal, good for the environment and soon everyone would be using them. I said if the technology is that good, a better product and saves people money in the long run you don't need government incentives to buy it, The free market will take care of that. That's where we are at with LED today.

No idea but about to do the same

Dad is a retired Master Electrician and he said I did not want the LED bulbs that work with the standard fluorescent ballast

So I am going with what he said, didn't ask him to elaborate why

Just google how to rewire them, it's really easily done. Buy your bulbs from Amazon or other on-line sources and they are A Lot cheaper than buying locally. That said, Menards here sells a 4' 2-bulb lamp with the LEDs for like $12. (or they did around Christmas) It has a plug-in or could be hard wired. I added a few of them to the darker corners of the shop too.

Easy to do.

The shadows you get with led over florescent bothered me for awhile but I got use to it.

I gave up on my florescent plug in shop lights, light was weak, when you could get a bulb to work...Walmart had 4' plug in LED shop lights cheap, The amount of light they throw is so much better than fluorescents....I realize that if you have hard wired fixtures they're not an option, but the LEDs have come a long way...

https://www.menards.com/main/lighti...4341251877-c-1472133557086.htm?exp=false

Hippie add a couple more in the shadowed spots.

The ones I got at Christmas time had no fixture around the bulbs so the light shines more directions really helped eliminate the shadows.

Ill check that out. I still have 25x40 and30x24 shops to do yet.

Already did the shop with lifts in it and I'm here to tell ya, under the car is completely different with led.

I actually sat down and figured out the lumen output of the bulbs I was considering.

I was shooting for 100 lumens per square foot in my wood shop. That is what many different sites suggested, especially for older guys with eyes that don't work as good as they once did.

I figured my shop square footage and multiplied by 100.

I looked up the lumen output of the individual 4" LED tubes I was buying and figured how many double tube fixtures I would need. I got real close to the 100 lumens per square foot, high 90's.

I spaced the fixtures so light from them would overlap and eliminate shadows.

Then I added task lighting where needed (band saw, lathe, workbenches).

I get lots of comments about how nice and bright my shop is. But they're mostly from guys with a few florescents or even incandescents in their shops, shops that you need a flashlight to see into the corners.