On Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 3:38:39 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sat, 15 Sep 2018 08:51:28 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 11:35:45 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 9/15/2018 12:30 AM, Peabody wrote:


I have six fixtures (12 tubes) in the kitchen above a
dropped ceiling with plastic lens sheets belown the
fixtures. I'n afraid that changing just the bad ones to LED
will make things look funny because the light intensity,
color or distribution will be different. So I think if I
change any to LED, I'll probably have to change all of them.

Reading up on this, it appears there are a number of options
for LED tubes, some of which require a ballast, and some
don't (but at a higher price). So I think I'll have to
spend some time at HD or Lowes with my calculator.

Is this a commercial kitchen? I cannot imagine six fixtures in a
residential unless it is huge.

If you plan to be there for a while, it may be good to look at other
options too. Fancy lighting can get costly though.

Maybe it's one of those kitchens where the cook makes meth?

Regarding other options, he has a drop ceiling, so unless he's going to
change that, I think the options are very limited, no? It's pretty
much fluorescent or LED that are similar to the rectangular fluorescent
above a clear light panel in the drop ceiling. An advantage to LED,
if he gets the dimmable ones would be he could control the amount of
light. With 6 new lights in there, he might be surprised how bright
they are. It looks to me like getting LED tubes where he rewires without
the ballast might be the reasonable low end solution. The other higher
end option being a ceiling renovation with modern fixtures.

If he is using natural light tubes like I have in my kitchen, I have
not really seen a LED lamp that duplicates the color spectrum. LEDs
are fine for things like the garage where you were running "cool
white" T12s anyway.
In places where you want a softer light LEDs usually leave something
to desire and there is nothing that dims like an incandescent yet.

Actually there is. I posted her about a year ago about Philips new warm glow led bulbs. When you dim them, they go orange, just like an incandescent. Side by side, you can't tell them apart and they look totally different than regular leds.


(LEDs and CFLs are stuck with one color). I understand the technology
is there to make a LED just about any color you want but I haven't
seen a color changing LED dimmer yet.
Flourescents are stuck with the phosphor they shot into the tube.