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Electricity getting very expensive in the Workshop
vtsteam:
I pulled the ballasts out of mine and wired direct to the tube holders. My tubes came with stickers to put on the fixture warning of the changed connection. Got a lot of electronic parts and copper wire for the scrap bin.
Of course I only had three of them!
Muzzerboy:
Last time I looked, the light output per W of drive was actually very similar for fluorescent and LED. Something like 100 lumens per Watt is typical for both modern LEDs and fluorescent tubes. On the face of it, replacing all of your tubes won't actually reduce your bills in the short term. They even claim very similar life for tubes and LEDs, possibly even longer for tubes. And yes, tubes lose output with time as they age and their voltage increases. But so do LEDs - they age and wear out too before finally failing.
Don't get me wrong. I'm an electronics engineer and I use LED lighting. I prefer to avoid glass tubes and mercury vapour for batten lighting. But being an engineer, I like to get my data right too!
The way the light output is defined / measured may differ between the 2 technologies but by and large, the numbers are going to be reasonably meaningful.
Here's some of the readily available options:
LEDs:
https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/light-bulbs/cat8350001?calclightbulbtechnology=led&cm_sp=managedredirect-_-lighting-_-ledbulbs
Tubes:
https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/tube-lights/cat2690010
awemawson:
On the face of it, replacing all of your tubes won't actually reduce your bills in the short term.
For these tubes the electrical consumption has reduced by 66% for an illumination that subjectively is better so I'm not sure what you're on about !
Muzzerboy:
Sorry I wasn't getting at you but I don't see the 66% improvement anywhere. The lumens per watt seems like a useful figure of merit.
What figures are you looking at here? I agree LEDs are a better solution but don't see how you'd save 2/3 of your electricity costs.
vtsteam:
Seems odd to me. I agree with Andrew that the light level seems equivalent or better with the LED tubes than it was with the fluorescents. So much so that I now am using a single tube in each fixture instead of two. The Parmida brand tubes I use are rated at 2200 lumens on 18 watts.
Also you might consider that the illumination is directional on an LED tube, even a frosted one, while it isn't on a conventional fluorescent tube. So the lighting is more effective in the downward direction. Thus effective light levels may be higher.
By reducing the number of tubes there is an additional savings.
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