Are you planning to replace your fluorescent light bulbs with LED? If yes, then this article is for you.
When it comes to energy-efficient every LED tube manufacturer know that LED, which stands for Light Emitting Diode, are on top of the buyers’ choice. Like fluorescents and other bulbs, LED lamps come in different wattages. However, in case of standard bright lighting, you may choose high output T8 22 watt tubes.
Installation is relatively easy. However, it’s important that the ballast of the fixture you use is configured specifically for LED. Remember: you can never place LED lamps in fluorescent fixtures, and vice versa. For this purpose, you may need to remove the ballast to adjust the wirings. To do this, follow this step-by-step procedure.
Step 1:
Make sure that the power is turned off to prevent electric shock accidents during installation. After that, you will require to bypass the electronic ballast. You do these by connecting all the tubes stored wires to neutral and the other one to line voltage. Although you are required to hook up the right set of wires to the right place, you can put the tubes either way once you have completed this step.
Step 2:
Now that you have bypassed the electronic ballast by following the previous step, you now proceed to checking it. By now you have got your line voltage neutral and ground coming through your fixture. The ground is hooked up to a specific chopper/nut. You can take it from one of the tubes next to the chopper/nut and hook it to all the wires that come from one end of the fixtures. These will be assigned for the neutral.
Trace the line coming into the node, and all the line fixtures coming out of its other side will serve as your line voltage for hot. With the T8 LED tube, if you have properly assigned the wires (one side for neutral and the other one hot), the tubes can be put either way.
Step 3:
Before you place the fixture back together, you need to check first if all the wiring connections are working right. To do this place one LED tube and turn the power back on. If it lights up, then it is working. Now, power off again before you put back the cover plate in place.
Step 4:
The final step before placing all the T8 LED tubes is to label a sticker on the plate. It indicates that the fixture has been adjusted to specifically accommodate LED tubes. This allows electricians who will replace the tubes in the future to know which fixtures can be used for which particular tubes. Once a fixture has been adjusted for LED, it can no longer be used for fluorescent or other kinds of tubes. See to it that the label/sticker is on the center of the plate or any other place where it can easily be spotted.
Step 5:
Now place all the tubes and other labels/stickers (containing the same indication) in the light box. The whole process will take up approximately 3-5 minutes. Once you have completed this step, you can put the cover back on. Test all your lamps by turning on the switch.
