Need some electrical advice on DIY LED light ballast

[Rosss]

Normally i'd ask a sub reddit this stuff but this seems much more homey

 

I am trying to make DIY ballasts for light tubes to replace old magnetic fluorescent ballasts that look like these:

 

 

So my question is, how do these tombstones actually work? Can I just plug 120v hot and ground wires in and it'll power them? Or do i need some type of inverter?! Figured it's worth asking so I don't burn the warehouse down or blow up some bulbs..

 

Another question I have is if these do work like that (plug and play), are they just as efficient as a commercial LED light ballast you'd buy or do these somehow use more electricity? I assume they are constant 500w and whatever bulb I put in is the maximum amount of watts it'll be using at that time, but idk.

 

Thanks for any advice!! I appreciate it!

[Melchior]

You can generally find replacement Ballasts relatively cheap for both Magnetic and Electronic ones, as a whole the technology is getting outdated really quick.  They are also not powered efficiently compared to newer LED assemblies that are now relatively cheap. I would not spec anything that is not identical to the previous as you will are most likely to "burn down the warehouse and blow up bulbs" Your best bet to is to replace the entire fixture as they die, as Florescent tube bubs have escalated 400% in price in the last couple years too. 

 

(some new LED conversion kits use the same ends, and they require you to bypass the ballast as they work off of 120v) EXPENSIVE.

 

Back to the original question commercial 8-foot lamps use a single contact as they use higher power and higher mercury bulbs, hooking 120 up to it will not light the lamp and just burn it out quick. I'm not 100% sure which is more efficient these days with Electronic ballast or Magnetic.

[Rosss]

2 hours ago, Melchior said:

You can generally find replacement Ballasts relatively cheap for both Magnetic and Electronic ones, as a whole the technology is getting outdated really quick.  They are also not powered efficiently compared to newer LED assemblies that are now relatively cheap. I would not spec anything that is not identical to the previous as you will are most likely to "burn down the warehouse and blow up bulbs" Your best bet to is to replace the entire fixture as they die, as Florescent tube bubs have escalated 400% in price in the last couple years too. 

 

(some new LED conversion kits use the same ends, and they require you to bypass the ballast as they work off of 120v) EXPENSIVE.

 

Back to the original question commercial 8-foot lamps use a single contact as they use higher power and higher mercury bulbs, hooking 120 up to it will not light the lamp and just burn it out quick. I'm not 100% sure which is more efficient these days with Electronic ballast or Magnetic.

Thanks for the reply, I understand all this.

 

I want to buy new LED bulbs and replace the magnetic ballasts.

 

You are correct in saying that the ballasts do not cost that much, but $30 is a lot to me lol. If I can make my own ballasts for $7 each I will.

 

Consider this,

 

How do I accomplish something like that? I can't tell if he just hooked it straight up to an outlet or not.

[Rosss]

Also, These seem to say they support 120v ac power?

 

Am I all wrong about this?

[Melchior]

Those are conversion units, they are 120v AC into the assembly, those are generally expensive bulbs.  (10-15 per bulb used to be 40) They are generally used in a place where the fixturing is built in, but there is easy access to bypass the ballast. The bigger challenge is that anything you make is not UL listed and generally can cause issues with insurance if anything goes wrong. You can typically find an entire fixture for less or the same as those bulbs.

 

Also here is the wiring guide: https://www.hyperikon.com/content/installation/Tube-Double-Ended--Installation-Guide.pdf

 

Also, I neglected to ask what part of the world you are from. Things are changing rapidly now.  And typical magnetic ballasts are $10? if you need to replace one.  I'm very pro LED, even before the CFL craze. LED will have a better CRI by far and lumens per dollar will be better today.  I sold commercial and consumer lighting for almost 10 years and keep up with the technology, but pricing is changing fast.

[Rosss]

8 hours ago, Melchior said:

Those are conversion units, they are 120v AC into the assembly, those are generally expensive bulbs.  (10-15 per bulb used to be 40) They are generally used in a place where the fixturing is built in, but there is easy access to bypass the ballast. The bigger challenge is that anything you make is not UL listed and generally can cause issues with insurance if anything goes wrong. You can typically find an entire fixture for less or the same as those bulbs.

 

Also here is the wiring guide: https://www.hyperikon.com/content/installation/Tube-Double-Ended--Installation-Guide.pdf

 

Also, I neglected to ask what part of the world you are from. Things are changing rapidly now.  And typical magnetic ballasts are $10? if you need to replace one.  I'm very pro LED, even before the CFL craze. LED will have a better CRI by far and lumens per dollar will be better today.  I sold commercial and consumer lighting for almost 10 years and keep up with the technology, but pricing is changing fast.

Thanks so much for the reply, I'm still a bit confused though!

 

I'm from North East USA

 

The lighting i'm replacing isn't going to be commercial use, it's a run down 2000 sq ft warehouse type building that i'm just using for storage. It has a bunch of magnetic ballasts that I would like to replace with LED ballasts, because I really like having things as bright as possible!

 

The bulbs I'm going to try are these which say they can take  Input Voltage: AC85~265V

The tombstones I would use to create ballasts would be using these, which are UL listed if that means anything and say "Max Power 660W, Max Voltage 600V, UL listed"

 

So if I wired the tombstones into the power where the old ballasts are, (i assume 120v), would it work okay? Or is there an amperage problem to be considered here? Or do i need something like this to lower the output?

[Melchior]

I get it now, my apologies. I'm from metro Detroit. Things are much different in Canada and EU

 

I think there might be some confusion in terminology, a ballast is this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_ballast) it is used to step up the voltage (and some black magic) to be able to power up the fluorescent lamps.  To use these bulbs you would unwire the ballast.  LED's do not need ballasts, they are either line level (these days) at 120V or low voltage at 12v or 24V (need transformer to step down) LED also don't have problems starting in the cold.

 

Most commercial wiring and fixturing are rated for 600V and 660W for heat dissipation reasons.  The bulbs you linked work off the same power as a wall outlet, but they might have some electronic switching internally to accommodate the whole range. You are pulling 45W per lamp 900W total for @20 bulbs, you will probably want the lights to be on their own circuit.  You are only going to pull 120V 45W through each tombstone. Tombstones tend to break and get brittle with age as old Flourscent bulbs get hot before they burn out, this is why they are sold in bulk. 

 

Those bulbs are a good deal and look to be great quality, but something like this might be easier to install and cost effective as the wiring is expensive.  I would probably recommend something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Sunco-Lighting-Equivalent-Daylight-Integrated/dp/B0748YTDMK/ref=sr_1_8?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1538138099&sr=1-8&keywords=garage+lights

 

What type of fixtures do you have in your building now? I hope its something like this:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Metalux-8-ft-Fluorescent-White-Strip-Light-Fixture-with-2-T8-Light-Sockets-SSF-296-UNV-EB81-U/303782045?cm_mmc=Shopping|G|Base|D27L|Multi|NA|PLA|ExteriorLighting|71700000038718130|58700004245149811|92700035277638889&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3YKzhtzd3QIV1rjACh1n2gaMEAQYAiABEgIxSvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CJzxq4rc3d0CFcPIwAodJmcNgA