LED replacement for a Fluorescent Tube

[church]

I just received an LED replacement for a Fluorescant tube. I tried it in one of my fixtures I use for UV tubes and here is the surprise. The light output is good the colour temp of my sample was 6000K. It works with or without a ballast which makes it useful for retrofit in existing fixtures, just replace the tube and when the ballast eventually dies remove the ballast. We are now evaluating them as a replacement for the 10,000 tubes that we have in the facility that I work in for my day job. the 4ft tube only uises 18W, the tubes come in four colour temps.

I also know one local company is evaluating them for use in their movie light boxes. Anyway the link is below.

GIELIGHT CO., LTD-

 

[derekleffew]

I know I'm going to regret asking this but...cost per tube?

 

[church]

we are told if you want to buy a sample of one the price is $18/tube and after that it depends on what quantity. We got our sample for free. The life is 50,000 hours and it uses 18W, the light output is 2000 lumens.

For us the big saving is labour for installation - it can run with the existing ballast and as the ballast fails we can eliminate the ballast. We were looking to replace the existing T12 tubes and ballasts with T8 tubes and ballasts and now we are also evaluating the LED tubes. Depends on the ROI.

 

[gafftaper]

Wow that's a really interesting twist. It'll be interesting to see if the technology goes mainstream or not.

 

[church]

A T8 tubes use 25W of power and produce 2050 lumens but we have to change ballasts as well as the T12 ballast doesn't work with a T8 tube. The scary thing is we have over a thousand fixtures each of which needs four tubes. The power saving ignoring the ballast loss is huge. Also the power factor of the LED tube is 0.93 which helps as well because as an industrial establishment our billing rate is determined by our worst case power factor in the month. We have power factor correction but the load is not constant during the day and swings around so anything that reduces this helps us out.

 

[ledlite]

I am also testing LED replacement tubes for low level use in garage basement. I have a trial tube that claims 100,000 hours plus - now you have to hang around a long time to ensure this is valid. Anyway looks an easy decision - we are using 36 Watt T8's 4 ft - with ballast & starter watts are close to 50. Our trial tube is 15 W - so payback is probably between 2 & 3 years in high use situations. Tubes are expensive but our internal rate of return calulations are 55% per anum if life expectantcy gets close to that claimed. In any case electric savings are so significant these things probably only have to last another 12 months after payback to give a strong ROI. This is not without risks but the opportunity is so great it far outweighs any downside.

 

[dannyn]

That is very cool.
I did not think that it would be possible beacuse of the way that florescent tubes start up.
Do you know if they are indoor/outdoor?

 

[gafftaper]

I am also testing LED replacement tubes for low level use in garage basement. I have a trial tube that claims 100,000 hours plus - now you have to hang around a long time to ensure this is valid. Anyway looks an easy decision - we are using 36 Watt T8's 4 ft - with ballast & starter watts are close to 50. Our trial tube is 15 W - so payback is probably between 2 & 3 years in high use situations. Tubes are expensive but our internal rate of return calulations are 55% per anum if life expectantcy gets close to that claimed. In any case electric savings are so significant these things probably only have to last another 12 months after payback to give a strong ROI. This is not without risks but the opportunity is so great it far outweighs any downside.

Hey LEDlite that's some amazing information. It sounds like you work for a manufacturer of this or a similar product. If you are, it's great to have manufacturers reps around CB, but there are a few special rules for you to follow. Be sure to stop by the New Member's board to introduce yourself. It's your one chance to brag all about yourself and your company (within reason).

 

[ledlite]

When you instal a LEd tube you can just remove the starter & many/most will operate with or without ballast. However the removal of the ballast will often represent a very significant portion of the savings.

We are using the tubes inside - but there are now increasing numbers of LED products for just about any purpose you can imagine, ...

 

[church]

The savings are tremendous with the LED tubes, we worked out that we will reduce our power consumption by greater than 3MWh per day. This compares with the 2.4MWh per day savings for the T8 tubes. We haven't taken into account the ballast savings because we may just replace the tubes and then only remove ballasts as they fail. Regardless the ROI is lss than 3 years.

 

[ledlite]

Hey LEDlite that's some amazing information. It sounds like you work for a manufacturer of this or a similar product. If you are, it's great to have manufacturers reps around CB, but there are a few special rules for you to follow. Be sure to stop by the New Member's board to introduce yourself. It's your one chance to brag all about yourself and your company (within reason).

No - I do not work for any one connected with LED lights - I manage property & interested in getting costs down - thats my interest.

 

[TimMiller]

I know about a year ago when i was looking at getting LED tubes installed we ran into several problems. A. was the initial cost of around 100+ a tube. B. was that the medical center downtown was all retrofitted to LED tubes and a few weeks later they were all pulled out due to not being bright enough. From what i have seen from tubes so far they not nearly as bright as the ol flourescent (btw i am strongly anti CFL) but its only a matter of time before LEDs break through, and i was checking out a different product, so yours may very well be a better solution.

 

[church]

agreed I have seen this as well. the tube I originally posted at the begining of this thread puts out 2000 lumens compared with the 2050 lumens of the T8 tube and cost me $18 as a sample price which compares favourably with the price of a T* tube and ballast

 

[TimMiller]

Also the ones i was looking at you had to pull out the ballast, so that was going to be some additional cost. Also as far as i have seen you cannot buy a flourescent fixture without the ballast, it comes as a package deal because how many people need the fixture but not the ballast.

 

[church]

yes the ability to use this tube with the ballast is a really nice feature that gives the option of just removing the ballast when it fails. This reduces the installation cost to just the low cost of someone changing the tube. When the fixtures don't work on 347V it can be done without an electrician. The electrician is only required to change a ballast or for any work involving 347V - at least in our location. I should have mentioned the tube works from 85V up to 265V without problems.

 

[Smurphy]

I have seen these tubes of which you speak,I like them they are bright and nice. But I do have one problem with them when you mix like 1 or 2 with a whole room of standered florescent lights then you have this soft blue with the white of a regular, drives me crazy.

 

[VeeDubTDI]

I'm wondering about the beam spread of these things. I'm sure they're great for high-ceiling applications, but what about standard or low ceilings, wall mounted fixtures, etc?

I'm going to have to buy a couple and try them out.

 

[BillESC]

The technology is rolling along and gaining speed. How long do you think it will be before standard lay in fluorescent fixtures will be available without ballests? Not long I'll wager.

We're talking with a hospital at this time on a 10,000 tube replacement. With an ROI of less than 36 months it looks promissing.

 

[cisgrig]

This looks interesting. Where do you get these tubes?

 

[ledlite]

There are many companys manufacturing LED T8 replacement tubes in China - but sometimes it is hard to locate a local importer. Note T5 tubes remain competitive because much lower outlay helps ROI even though energy savings are much less than LED. Also try explaining you want to pay $85+ for an LED tube & many/most are not interested in ROI result! ;-)

A nice review can be found at LED Lighting which many might find useful.