led lights

[gluedandscrewed]

scored two 4 foot led bulbs for free , can someone educate me about these lights?,,,never used led's on a tank,,,5000K and as far as i can determine 15watts

[Ryan925]

scored two 4 foot led bulbs for free , can someone educate me about these lights?,,,never used led's on a tank,,,5000K and as far as i can determine 15watts

Are you talking about the 4' tubes that would convert a fluorescent fixture to led?

Not sure what you are looking for. Can you elaborate more on your question and what you would like to know?

[gluedandscrewed]

bulbs to go into florescent fixture,bypassed the ballast, never used them, dont know anything about using them on a tank,,replaced my two flora-sun, 32 watt bulbs over my 100 gal. tank and took one out,, they seem to put out an incredible amount of light,, how are they for growing plants? anything else i should know?

[Ryan925]

bulbs to go into florescent fixture,bypassed the ballast, never used them, dont know anything about using them on a tank,,replaced my two flora-sun, 32 watt bulbs over my 100 gal. tank and took one out,, they seem to put out an incredible amount of light,, how are they for growing plants? anything else i should know?

I for one am a huge fan of led lighting. I use led on my tanks, throughout my whole house and inside and out of all my vehicles. I also do a lot of led conversions on my commercial properties. Removing tons of hid bulbs and ballasts and replacing with led conversions which save a huge amount of electricity and maintenance.

Led really should last an incredible amount of time although not all leds are created equal. You should get very little heat out of them. As far as growing plants usually you want a variety of color spectrums. Some of those led tubes are direct conversion and do not even need the ballasts bypassed.

[gluedandscrewed]

this one works with magnetic, electronic ballasts, friend i got them from, a licensed electrician, still recommended to just bypass the ballast,,gave me a long technical explanation for the bypass that went right over my head,,

[Neptune]

what do you mean by "bypass" the ballast?

[Ryan925]

what do you mean by "bypass" the ballast?

Wire line power directly to the fixture

[Neptune]

Make sure you know if you have single ended or double ended tubes.
That will determine the type of tombstone you have to use and how to wire, "bypass" the ballast.

[Ryan925]

Make sure you know if you have single ended or double ended tubes.
That will determine the type of tombstone you have to use and how to wire, "bypass" the ballast.

I've yet to do it on a tube fixture but do tons of 208v-277v parking lot, garage and eve lighting. Replace a lot of HPS and MH with led and cfl. Yanking out massive ballasts and all the hardware and going to a single bulb is so nice. It's also nice for the property owner to be going from 200w+ bulbs to around 70w lol

[gluedandscrewed]

Make sure you know if you have single ended or double ended tubes.
That will determine the type of tombstone you have to use and how to wire, "bypass" the ballast.

tombstone???the bulb itself has a label with wiring diagram showing electronic, magnetic ballast and direct wiring,, wired mine directly on the recommendation of a friend whose business at the moment is making a living replacing the fluorescent type of bulbs for the businesses in town,,,plugs directly into a electronic ballast fixture, have to remove the starter from magnetic ballast fixture or just bypass the ballast and wire directely

[Ryan925]

Well let's see some photos with your new lights lol

[Neptune]

I've yet to do it on a tube fixture but do tons of 208v-277v parking lot, garage and eve lighting. Replace a lot of HPS and MH with led and cfl. Yanking out massive ballasts and all the hardware and going to a single bulb is so nice. It's also nice for the property owner to be going from 200w+ bulbs to around 70w lol

What's your feeling on the color temp for these? Can you get a 6500 bulb?

[Ryan925]

What's your feeling on the color temp for these? Can you get a 6500 bulb?

If have yo take a look at the boxes I have. I believe the ones I am using in parking garage are more 4500-5000

[Neptune]

tombstone???the bulb itself has a label with wiring diagram showing electronic, magnetic ballast and direct wiring,, wired mine directly on the recommendation of a friend whose business at the moment is making a living replacing the fluorescent type of bulbs for the businesses in town,,,plugs directly into a electronic ballast fixture, have to remove the starter from magnetic ballast fixture or just bypass the ballast and wire directely

Tombstone====the bulb holder....it looks like a tombstone.

For double ended tubes you have to have shunted tombstones and you run the Line wire to one end and the neutral to the other end. The shunted tombstone allows the electricity to flow from one contact across to the other.
For a single ended you use nonshunted tombstones. You run the line to one contact and the neutral to the other on the same end. The tombstone must be nonshunted so the electricity doesn't flow across the contacts and short out.

[Ryan925]

Tombstone====the bulb holder....it looks like a tombstone.

For double ended tubes you have to have shunted tombstones and you run the Line wire to one end and the neutral to the other end. The shunted tombstone allows the electricity to flow from one contact across to the other.
For a single ended you use nonshunted tombstones. You run the line to one contact and the neutral to the other on the same end. The tombstone must be nonshunted so the electricity doesn't flow across the contacts and short out.

Or you may want to choose your tombstone if you don't know what you are doing with electrical wiring