UK LED T8 lights

[Chris retired]

Having done the numbers I modified my 5 x 4ft double batens in the workshop to take LED tubes T8 22W. After less than a couple of years, 50% have failed. They flash annoyingly just like the old tubes and then give up altogether. Has anyone else had the same experience. One theory is they don't dissipate heat fast enough?

 

[MDJ]

no I haven't, but then again I use LED panel lights not T8 tubes, strip them out mate, chuck them and buy some new decent LED panels

 

[brianmoooore]

I've had around ten T8 5' LED tubes (cheapest I could find) in use for several years now. Not a single failure.

 

[Chris retired]

no I haven't, but then again I use LED panel lights not T8 tubes, strip them out mate, chuck them and buy some new decent LED panels

Yep, done that elsewhere no problem. I made the decision on the finances and time not being an issue now retired. Would like to get it out there in case tube manufacturers are pulling one.

 

[brianmoooore]

They flash annoyingly just like the old tubes

Switched on or off? Two of mine are controlled by an IP55 switch which turns out to be not quite as IPX5 as claimed when hit by driving rain. When this happens, the two tubes turn into disco strobes for a couple of hours unless the switch is turned on.

 

[Chris retired]

Switched on or off? Two of mine are controlled by an IP55 switch which turns out to be not quite as IPX5 as claimed when hit by driving rain. When this happens, the two tubes turn into disco strobes for a couple of hours unless the switch is turned on.

Switched on. No problem as you decribe as very dry environment.

 

[suffolkspark]

What brand? Ive used several over the years, osram, philips, crompton, armadillo. not had a failure

 

[Chris retired]

What brand? Ive used several over the years, osram, philips, crompton, armadillo. not had a failure

I did go for the cheapest and they still are - Crompton

 

[Carolina]

Hi. I know it's a month old thread but I'll still reply. Got an email for not posting in the last 30 days

Now, I won't go into brands as it's a local thing, UK brands won't be the same as the ones I can get in my country, but overall we only get either straight or locally rebranded low end Chinese products (as we know there are also more decent Chinese products from known manufacturers) as replacements for fluorescents and... oh boy, where do I start?

They're bad. The high failure rate isn't even the worst thing about them, somehow they managed to make them worse than fluorescents, I've had to install a bunch in commercial locations and everyone (and I mean this, everyone) wants cool 6500K light, don't ask me why, bulbs, tubes, floodlights, anything, it's gotta be 6500K doesn't matter the location, anyway, tubes, the light is so bad it's almost blue and the CRI must be in the 40s, being generous, I didn't do any test but I can tell from experience and by looking at certain objects being illuminated by them, if you're far or squint your eyes a bit you can see the individual LEDs through the cover, some are glass but others are plastic, no difference in light quality though.

Fittings with diffuser milk covers or transparent lenses do help but these tubes look terrible in bare fittings or inside fridges, oh, and by the way, you can't really use them inside fridges, condensation forms in the power supply and they go pop after a few months, but since there's no actual fluorescents anymore (unless you get NOS bulks, a customer won't do this) you're either stuck with a dark exhibit or these things.

Not uncommon to see them flicker around town, pretty much every store has at least one somewhere, usually at the front over the sign, they cook inside IP65 fittings... but I suppose you get what you pay for, $5 a piece or $15 for 4, almost every retailer has similar pricing.

When it comes to LED flat battens are somewhat better, not the pinnacle of quality, at least the ones I know of, we don't get Sylvania/Osram, Philips or any of the 'known' brands in my country so it's what I have to work with, I always warn the customer the replacement tubes will not be the same as the actual fluorescents, they're only better when it comes to energy saving.

I wouldn't use them at home, we're still rocking T12 and I keep a decent amount of spares in different sizes for all the fittings we have, I've also got my fair amount of T8s lately from jobs and also pavement/skip finds, same with ballasts and starters, enough for a couple more decades, the T12 are tough and can work for 10+ years for sure, even more, ones in our basement are from the late 90s and still work, I yet have to see a LED anything work for over 2-3 years, they're heavily overdriven in order to squeeze more lumens out of them and meet the lm/W regs with the least possible amount of diodes.
The cheapo bulbs are fixable, pop the cap open and swap two resistors, they might even last for the advertised 15 years with that, but it comes at the price of almost halving the light output, so a 100W equivalent becomes a 60W equivalent, or close, depends on how much you restrict the power across the diodes.

The 'brand name' ones might be better, but I still don't think they'll be as reliable as actual fluorescents.

 

[RoyR48]

Having done the numbers I modified my 5 x 4ft double batens in the workshop to take LED tubes T8 22W. After less than a couple of years, 50% have failed. They flash annoyingly just like the old tubes and then give up altogether. Has anyone else had the same experience. One theory is they don't dissipate heat fast enough?

This may help someone?
My village home has Main voltage of 252Volts late at night and around 244Volts during daytime; my house is the first being supplied off the 3 phase Pole Transformer. At the far end of the street houses are getting around 220Volts.

I installed 7 x 1800mm LED Battens to replace the T8 florescent tubes. Within 6 months 3 of the LED Drivers had failed; over voltage input?

After some research and testing I purchased 7 x DUCATI 4.16.10.09.64 Motor Run Film Capacitor, 6 µF, 425 V (£3.80 each), and installed these in series with the LIVE wire, this dropped the Mains voltage to 220V +/- 5 volts. 9 months in and all still working fine and the LED drivers are now just warm instead of being hot.

6uF reduced my Mains voltage by 30 Volts.

8uF reduced my Mains voltage by 20 Volts.