Donating Tube Lights (Fluorescent and LED)?

[Tom Wheeler]

Long story short, I started replacing some burnt out shop lights in my garage with the LED tubes before finding that 70% of the failures were actually due to old ballasts. I have since rewired everything with ballast-bypass LED tubes, but I now have a mix of fluorescent and LED tubes I'd like to donate.

There are approximately 15 T8 fluorescent and 10 LED tubes, all 48" double-ended bi-pin. The fluorescent tubes are new in box, left by the previous homeowner. The LED ones are drop-in replacements for the fluorescent ones (they require a ballast) and are barely used.

I'd like to donate them somewhere. Is Arch Reactor interested in them? If not, does anyone know of a non-profit that might be able to use them?

[Nathan Schrenk]

I think Arch Reactor would be happy to take the LED tubes. I don't know that we have any use for the T8 fluorescents, though.

Thank you!

Nathan

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[Myles Farrell]

There is no plan to convert the lights in the clean shop anytime soon so the T8 tubes would be night to have as spares as well.

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[Myles Farrell]

nice to have*

[Tom Wheeler]

Great! I am happy to deliver them and my schedule is fairly flexible. Is there a day/night and time that I can bring them by (and ideally get a receipt for tax purposes)? .

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[Derek Sigler]

We will be at AR from 6 to midnight(ish) tonight or Sunday evening.  I can email you a tax receipt.

Thanks!

-derek

[Jim S]

Tom,

What did you end up getting for ballast bypass LED tubes?  I have some fixtures that the ballasts still work but are noisy so wanted to go for ballast bypass bulbs.  I found most of the LED replacements seem to be for leaving the ballast - guess most people don't want to mess with the wiring.  And there was something about the sockets being shorted or not.  The T8 and T12s use the same sockets IIRC.  It got complicated and I put it off.  Need to figure things out and get it done.

Jim

[Tom Wheeler]

Thanks, Derek. I'll plan on bring the lights by on Sunday evening!

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[Tom Wheeler]

Hi Jim,

The lights were Hyperikon brand, specifically these, which work with or without ballast. I also ordered these tombstones (non-shunted) from Amazon.

I created a simple diagram (attached) to show you how I hooked it up. The "R/Y wire nut" in my diagram refers to 3M red-yellow wire nuts, which were awesome. The 16-gauge wire fit perfectly into the tombstones, though I *think* 14-gauge and 18-gauge also work.

I rewired all 16 fixtures in my garage, so I was concerned that maybe at least one or two parts would arrive DOA. I am happy to report that the failure rate was zero. My only complaint is that there's about 0.3 second delay between when I hit the switch and when the light comes on, but that's way better than the performance of the ones with the old ballasts and similar to much like with some LED bulbs in my house. Just two LED tubes in each fixture was even brighter than the three fluorescent tubes each fixture had before, so overall power usage is only about 30% of what it was.

BTW, I have a few dozen of those tombstones left over, so I'll donate them to Arch Reactor too.

Hope that helps,

Tom

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[Jim S]

Tom,

Very helpful.  I figured if I waited I would just have more, better choices and likely cheaper and it looks like I was right!

Jim