Plug and Play T8 LED Tube Fittings

[seftonbarn]

So T8 LED tubes that can be directly connected to 240v L+N are now available. (sold at TLC here) . They don't need any magnetic or electronic ballast. There are plenty of youtube videos that show you how to wire these new tubes in to the existing T8 fixtures (like these). Now that these direct wired tubes are available I was thinking that this makes the traditional metal carriers a little superfluous, particularly in a garage or workshop environment where appearance is of no great concern. I was wondering if there any twist and lock type plastic lamp holders on the market that can be directly wired and screwed direct to the rafters hence negating the need for the metal fixture? I am a bit rusty but I can't imagine what, in terms of compliance, would be problematic about this?

 

[Simon47]

At one time it was fairly common to have a flouro tube mounted in a couple of terry clips and free connectors each end (of course, early ones would be BC, new fangled ones would be bi-pin).
Hard to see how anything like that could be regs compliant these days - not least because you can remove one connector and the pins on the tube are exposed and live.

 

[DPG]

At one time it was fairly common to have a flouro tube mounted in a couple of terry clips and free connectors each end (of course, early ones would be BC, new fangled ones would be bi-pin).
Hard to see how anything like that could be regs compliant these days - not least because you can remove one connector and the pins on the tube are exposed and live.

Exactly how my grandad did the lighting in his garage many years ago. He was a very good mechanical engineer, but very poor at electrical work.

 

[brianmoooore]

At one time it was fairly common to have a flouro tube mounted in a couple of terry clips and free connectors each end (of course, early ones would be BC, new fangled ones would be bi-pin).
Hard to see how anything like that could be regs compliant these days - not least because you can remove one connector and the pins on the tube are exposed and live.

I came across a brand new one about five of six years ago. It wasn't a tube providing light though, it was a UV-C lamp, treating water from a borehole, was mounted vertically, and in a location that required IP55 as a minimum!
An occasionally tripping RCD and IR testing led me to find it.
All l could do was to clean the cr*p off of the lamp holder to improve the IR, write a not particularly polite note to the installation/maintenance 'engineers' on the control cabinet with a permanent marker, and inform the owner of what I thought of the workmanship.