How to Buy: Led Tube lights
Choosing the right Led Tube Lights can be confusing due to the myriad of product types and installation options. We have created this guide to assist in the process and help you make the right choice for your specific projects.
What are Led Tube lights?
The consumer demand for quality Led Tube lights fueled recent industry changes, beginning with the introduction of proper safety and light output standards. Much of this development was due to building and facility managers looking for a way to replace problematic fluorescent tubes with a long-life solution. An additional impetus for development was also the phase out of T12 ballast technology, which led many to look for a solution that would allow for the re-use of existing fixtures without costly conversions to different technologies. Led Tube lights allow for replacing linear fluorescent tubes, (commonly referred to as T8/T10/T12), with LED technology. The first products came to market around 2007; however, early generation Led Tube lights not only lacked adequate light output, safety certifications were often non-existent. The lack of quality found in these early replacement solutions unfortunately gave initial buyers a bad impression of LED fluorescent replacement technology.
Today, Led Tube lights are truly able to offer a one-for-one replacement, and have recently reached price levels that offer payback periods well under 12 months. As a result, commercial and residential customers alike have become very interested in the technology, but many are often discouraged by the sheer number of options both in products and installation methods.
How Do I Choose the Right Led Tube lights Replacement Option For Me?
The first and most important step in choosing which product is right for you is to decide on the installation method you would like to use. The installation method will largely vary on what type of existing fixture technology you have-- either T8 or T12.
To figure out what you currently have installed, it is best to remove a bulb from the fixture and read the markings on the end. This will reveal a lot about your current fluorescent tube and usually indicate if the bulb is T8 or T12.
If no markings are available, the size in diameter of the tube is the easiest way to determine the type you have installed.
T8 Led Tube lights are 1-inch in diameter and T12 tubes are 1 1/2 -inch. If you have a tube that is very small in diameter (5/8 inch) you have a T5,and thus the remainder of this discussion will not be of use in terms of helping retrofit this application.
Now that you know what type of tubes you have, the next key is to understand the type of ballast. In general, T8 Led Tube lights use electronic ballasts while T12 use magnetic ballasts. Opening the fixture and examining the ballast will give you the ultimate answer as to what type of ballast you have; but, in general, the older the fixture, the more likely it is to have a magnetic ballast.
With the ballast and tube type considerations out of the way, let`s discuss the various replacement options.
