When we bought the house in 2004, it had the old florescent tubes in the kitchen. They worked fine for 20 years, but eventually, the ballast went out. It was time to make change.
I am not an electrician, but I do know how to change a socket or a switch, so I went to YouTube and started looking around. Watched a couple of videos then got out the ladder and some hand tools. Found the proper breaker and turned it off.
Total time on this job was about an hour, and that included running to town to buy the bulbs. The kitchen is bright now, holy-moly. It's bright.
If you're afraid of this job, don't be. It really is as easy as it looks. IF you can change a switch, you can do this. As with all things electrical, shut off the power and proceed slowly. This is not a bad job.
3 comments:
I went to leds. Bulbs are same size as 4 ft fluorescents and use less than half the watts. The ballast is completely removed and two bulbs are as bright as 4 of the old ones. My whole house is led now because electric rates keep climbing. I'm not an electrician either.
Prior owner used the garage mostly as a workshop and had fluorescents very well lighting it all. He paid a lot of attention to shadowing, too. I pulled all the ballasts and went to LED and it has been great. No idea of cost savings, but the lighting is still excellent and I haven't changed a tube since the LEDs were installed.
I used to rewire 4 bulb F40 lights in offices. 8 tombstones, 16 wires, new ballast. When LEDs came around it was faster and cheaper to just put in new fixtures. And you get a choice in light colors and intensity. No more sickly green tones, no more flickering or hum, more lumens, much less electricity used. It’s a no brainer. Snd they last 10 times longer ar least.
Drew458
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