On 6/9/2017 8:46 AM, TimR wrote:
I have a four foot two tube fluorescent in a finished basement room with a failed ballast. At least, I think so. I put new tubes in, they glowed orange at the end for a second but never lit.

It's an old T12 fixture with a very old ballast.

I could:

1. replace the T12 ballast with a modern electronic one

2. replace the fixture with T8 or T5

3. replace the tubes or the fixture with LED tubes. They would have to be the kind that don't use the existing ballast.

4. something else I haven't thought of

My goals are lots of light (this is my music and DIY projects room), and long life (I'm old enough to think about jobs I won't have to do again.) I don't care much about energy efficiency as all the solutions are reasonable.

Any suggestions?

These are tube fluorescents, not CFLs, but the short life of CFLs has me a little worried about LEDs. It's always the electronic driver that fails, not the light source itself. We've found at work that with some energy savings projects, when they do fail you rip them out and start over, because after a couple of years the company is out of business and you can't get parts.


Regardless what you do, I suggest ridding of the T12s.

I'm a advocate for LEDs and that would be my final suggestion. THere are
a greater selection of light outputs and color with LEDs allowing you to
choose what you like for your basement. You can easily purchase 4 foot
LED lamps, remove the ballast and hardwire directly to power and be
done. Some LEDs now offer a direct plug and play with T8 ballasts but
they cost a bit more and in your case, you'd need a T8 ballast but that
would defeat the purpose.

You may be able to find cheaper LED fixtures but you'll get what you
paid for. Cheaper LEDs mean cheaper parts and mainly, the drive which is
the heart of the LED. Therefore, it is easiest to insert LED lamps in
existing fixture and remove ballast.