NEW LED Lamps hitting the Market!
Good Morning Everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and a lot has changed in the past few months. Based on the comments of this blog, everyone wants to know about LED! I will try to satisfy the audience in this post…
We just received our first samples of the 4′ linear LED T8 Tube from Philips a few weeks ago. We have them installed and they are performing surprisingly well. They’re running without a ballast at 87-88 watts for the 4 lamp fixture with Foot Candle measurements close to that of the T8 fixture next to it.
The wiring was difficult. I recieved a call from a gentleman in California a few months ago asking about these LED 4′ tubes. His main concern as we talked was how easy they are to install. I can speak from experience that it’s not as easy as replacing a ballast. I spent approximately 30 minutes re-wiring the entire fixture. With that being said, it looks really nice.
I was surprised to see that you can’t actually see the individual LED’s in the lamp. You probably wouldn’t notice that the fixture is LED unless we told you. (which is a good thing)
As far as how much it costs… All I will say is that you’d better be sitting down. Give me a call/email/comment on the post to inquire more about this emerging technology. This is where lighting is going, we’re getting closer, but we’re not there yet.[polldaddy poll=5638289]
Jack Huff, along with his son Brian and wife Sue, owns and manages Adventure Lighting in Des Moines, Iowa.
Curious if those tubes have the internal driver or external. I have seen the LED tubes made both ways. Seems like the external driver would last longer. The ones we used actually had internal driver, they were super quick to wire actually faster than changing a ballast. Interesting to see where the LED tube market will go.
Good question-
These particular LED tubes are straight 120v. Meaning that you take out the ballast in a normal/existing fixture and wire the power right to the sockets. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the jist of it. You have to run the load to one side of all the sockets on one side of the fixture, then the neutral to the same side of the sockets on the other side of the fixtures. Then a jumper from the other side of the socket to the other side of the fixture. (I’m sure that makes no sense.) Not incredibly complicated, but you get to eliminate the ballast.
I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about it before… but I think that for general lighting, LED tubes aren’t going to be taking over fluorescent any time soon. The numbers just don’t add up. But after a while the prices will come down, and the light output will go up. Just like computers and TV’s.
I’m happy to report that our LED tubes in our office are holding up nicely. Most people we point them out to have no idea that they’re actually LED. Which I think is a testement to how nice they look installed.
Thanks for the questions, keep ’em comin’!
Brian Huff
bhuff@adventurelighting.com
515.288.0444
Fabulous lights! Nice work! Thanks for doing this blog. I love how lighting can change the entire appearance of a room! Amazing!!!