Replacement of fluorescent tube with led tube
Replacing a fluorescent tube with an LED tube is easy. The replacement of fluorescent tubes by LED tubes brings many advantages to users.
Installing an LED tube is also cost-effective in the long term, as it consumes less energy and lasts longer than fluorescent tubes. Although more expensive as an initial investment, the running costs of an LED tube are significantly lower. LED tubes have a lifetime of around 50 000 hours, while fluorescent tubes have a lifetime of only around 15 000 hours.
Advantages of Led tubes
- Colour rendering: a high quality LED tube has a high colour rendering index (CRI) of up to 98
- No flicker: Led tubes do not exhibit flicker, which is irritating to the eyes
- No hazardous waste: led tubes do not contain hazardous waste
- Versatility
- Long lifetime: led tubes last up to 80,000 hours!
Compatible led tubes!
Compatible LED tube installation is simple and can often be done without changing the luminaire structure. Compatible LED tubes are often required. The LED tube often works directly with the ballast of an old fluorescent tube, which means that the ballast does not need to be removed or replaced. This makes replacement quick and easy.
In these solutions, the old ballast therefore remains in the body of the luminaire, consuming electricity unnecessarily. So in such solutions we have a ballast -> led tube with additional electronics for the ballast -> power supply -> led circuits.
The fire risks in a traditional fluorescent lamp are the ballast and the oxidized connectors, and the fluorescent tube itself. Therefore it is also recommended to replace the body with the old tubes.
Non-Compatible or single-end led tube
However, it is important to remember that not all LED tubes are compatible with all luminaires. Some LED tubes require modification of the luminaire to work properly. Therefore, it is important to choose the right LED tube to replace the fluorescent tube. There are LED tubes that work directly with the ballast of old fluorescent tubes, but there are also LED tubes that require the ballast to be removed or replaced.
In these new types of led tubes, the idea is that the luminaire body is also replaced or modified from the old fluorescent tube body. As a modification, the ballast is removed and the mains current is fed directly to the other end of the tube. The other end is usually short-circuited in such LED tubes to prevent the tube from passing voltage.
If such a tube is installed on a conventional fluorescent tube without any modification, the following happens:
- The led tube does not light up
- The fuse blows on the electrical panel
- The Led tube fails