General > General Technical Chat
LED replacement T8 tubes
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Northy:
I've bought one of these to replace a fluorescent tube in a standard fluorescent light fitting:

https://www.toolstation.com/v-tac-t8-nano-plastic-led-tube/p79555

I replaced the starter with the one that came in the box with the tube (I could see through the hole in it that it was just a link), turned it on and it worked.

I found these instructions:

https://www.v-tac.eu/images/certificates/Manual/VT-6072-instructions.pdf

Is it best to re-wire it without the Inductive Ballast in there?

Thanks,

G
Wallace Gasiewicz:
I do not see that the ballast adds anything to the function of the LED.
Just another thing to go bad. And maybe to use extra hydro Watts (not many)
I think that in Norway you use 240V and the ballast is just an inductor (again that is what I think) Maybe a capacitor also
Apparently you ballast is certainly not an electronic one.
I do not see that you need any ballast in your use of a LED lamp. I think any required voltage control is inside the tube
SeanB:
Ballast left in simply adds supply inductance, and this is actually advantageous in increasing tube power supply life, as it will clamp the high voltage spikes present on the supply and limit the energy put into the power supply by them. Will dissipate some power, but likely only under 2W from the DC resistance of the wire, and as the LED tube runs at a very much lower current the voltage drop across the ballast left in will be minimal.

I have done that, plus have had a few with the ballast removed (electronic ballast removed, magnetic ones left in) and the ones with the magnetic ballast left in are still running 4 years later, being on 24/7/365. The ones without had around half the LED tubes fail in under a year.

One advantage to leaving the magnetic ballast in is that, if somebody replaces the LED tube with a regular fluorescent lamp, the end of the tube will not shatter on power application, as the filament is violently blown open circuit and arcs inside the tube. As they likely will not have turned off the power, not having to suddenly deal with a lot of shattered glass and blast right above your head is a good thing.
Wallace Gasiewicz:
Sean:
Thanks

Here in US most people were cheap and used electronic ballasts that make all sorts of RF noise, so they had to remove them when going to switch to LEDs
I'll keep any good inductor ballasts I have
Wally
Northy:
Thanks for the replies.

How do I tell what type of Ballast is in there?

Thanks,

G
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