I'm okay with this. Switching from incandescent to florescent saved energy, but florescent gives off UV light that damages your eyes over time. LEDs are nearly perfect because they're even more efficient than florescent and they don't give off UV light.
@@fredashay Oh Dear! LED are the most dangerous lighting out there. Councils cannot even get insurance for their LED street lights because they are so unsafe and causing eye problems and cancer etc. The EU etc is NOT interested in how dangerous LEDs are as exposed by experts such as Dr Alexander Wunsch on his videos such as Artificial Light Chronobiology And LED Hazards over on vimeo and the Mark Steele court videos on the Ian R Crane channel on UA-cam.
I used to be able to fix a light that had gone out by swapping the bulb now in order to save energy we throw the whole of the light including it mount and fit a new one. Every led flood light io have fitted has been totally useless and needs replacing usually around the 12 to 16 months mark regardless of quality. The last one was a £ 60 quid led floodlight lasted 16 months. Ther other fitting is a halogen been fitted 12 years ands Ive put a new filaments in 3 times. So lets waste all that money nad fill up out waste bins.
If you fancy it and have the time, swap out the LED cob in the flood light. They are normally 50w, I swapped mine for 80w. You can swap them for 100W cob too, the brightness is the same, the cob will last much longer because its not over driven.
Seen so many LED units burn out when not used with a separate transformer/ ballast To reduce the mains supply. Not exactly energy saving or time saving or money saving.
I had the same problem. Replaced a perfectly working fluorescent tube for an LED version. Didn't last two years. Guess what, put the fluorescent tube back in and it still works to this day.
0 seconds ago My Garage fluorescent 6ft fixture still has it's original 50+ year old ballast. When the bayonet cap tube failed I changed the connectors to fit a new tube. Therefore it's a very environmentally friendly fixture & lasted longer than any modern LED ever will.
I have about 20 to 30 complete fittings with tubes. My brother in law who is a civil engineer asked if I wanted to salvage anything from a building his company bought and were about to redevelop. I just took everything. Funnily enough he used to work for the company as their civil engineer.
The original fluoro in my garage is from 1976, two additional ones were added in 1986, all on original ballasts although the older one is quite noisy now, I've got quite a few spare tubes as well
We had the same situation. We had a 3x 5ft T12 fluorescent fittings in the garage that had been in the house since we moved here (so at least 1996). They've always worked perfectly. But we decided to upgrade to LED batten. Within a month, they were flickering and half of the strip was not lighting up. Luckily enough, we had the old fluorescent fittings still. So we gave them a clean, sprayed them a new coat of paint, gie them some new electronic starters (the green ones which don't flicker) and put them back. Won't be trying LED for another couple of decades yet. It's just not reliable enough.
Unless LED lamp manufacturers have come up with a 360 degree output tube as opposed to roughly 100 degrees of the tube circumference being used as a heat sink, these replacement tubes will not provide proper fixture lumen output optics. The optimum solution would be a LED tube with 360 degree circumference of evenly diffused light. LED diodes by nature give off a point source, which will not work with with the reflector optics of a fluorescent fixture. Even with the fluorescent lamp ban, these lamps will still be available long after the ban is in place. It would seem logical to either retrofit or replace all fluorescent fixtures which are easy to do, but leave any existing fixture that would pose upgrading or replacement problems as fluorescent. In some cases, LED color temperature and CRI will be different from a fluorescent lamp of the same CCT and CRI. It all depends on manufacturer. It’s hard to believe we are at the end of an era. I live in the US and remember when the F40T12 (four-foot fluorescent) lamp was the workhorse in the commercial and industrial facility world, then in the mid 1990’s, the F32T8 lamp became the industry standard. LEDs have made some improvements over the years, but the technology is still somewhat in its infancy, so there are still many optic and lifeline issues with them. The only thing about LEDs is they are quite boring. Fluorescent lamps (especially preheat, rapid start and even programmed start) are more interesting to watch turn on. Even HID is being replaced with LED, which makes for uninteresting start-ups, if you like watching such things!
Another issue I notice with LED tubes is that almost all 4ft ones are significantly dimmer than the fluorescent tubes they claim to “replace.” The 4ft F32T8/F40T12 LED tubes are usually around 1800-2500lm, whereas most F32T8 and F40T12 lamps are 2800-3200lm, and the best F40T12 lamps are 3600lm! I think this is yet another case of cheap LEDs being inherently “better” than name brand LEDs. I can find cheap 4ft LED tubes that are 3000lm, but the highest I can find from one of the “big three” is 2500lm. I feel like the name brands are purposefully making their LEDs crap because they know people will buy them anyway because “Oooeooohuoo, iT’S leD!!111” The lighting industry is going from “oh, this isn’t a very good product for me because it’s not bright enough or it’s not the right color” to “oh, it’s LED, we don’t need to worry about anything else! Anything to get rid of those evil energy-sucking fluorescent lamps!” The fact that integrated LED fixtures exist tells you everything you need to know about the lighting industry right now.
This is also an issue for some medical equipment, as some older hardware (and actually some hardware bought as recently as 2020) uses Fluorescent tubes. One such piece of equipment uses two T12 tubes, which I cannot replace, and we're not allowed to modify equipment, so in the end it's probably going to go to waste just for the sake of two tubes!
Im over here Stateside (Texas) and ive begun the conversion of my friends store from fluorescent to LED. He opted to retrofit the existing fixtures. I bought LED bulbs from an electrical supplier in my area that bypasses the ballast allowing line voltage to be connected directly to the tombstones (lighting sockets). This makes a conversion quick and easy by removing the ballast.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 The ballast is a little black or silver box that's behind a little pocket or enclosure of the fixture. It usually hidden behind a metal piece that you would take out of the fixture at to access it and the wiring. Make sure the power is turned off to the fixture first before doing any work to it.
Fluorescent tubes are incredibly efficient, maybe five times better than the old incandescent bulbs. It is highly unlikely that replacing with LED tech, is ever going to pay for itself, and replacement tubes are going to be absurdly expensive, and not as long lasting.
@@hiteck007 It's even worse that most LEDs you can but today are overdiven or have underzised power supplies with no interference filter, often no fuse and horrible quaility of soldering. They will likely fail in 4 years or less. Even higher quaility fixtures these days are absolute garbage because the LEDs in them are integrated and not replaceable.
In our home we replaced the two 6ft tubes in the kitchen and the two in the double garage quite a few years ago with the equivalent LEDs. No problems, no failures or flickering nor having to recycle or replace so far!
I bought some LED T8 lamps that said you would not need to bypass the ballast. For some reason, I had to bypass the ballast anyway. But it wasn't hard, and everything has been fine since then.
It will be you and everyone else that will be getting recycled. LED are the most dangerous lighting out there. Councils cannot even get insurance for their LED street lights because they are so unsafe and causing eye problems and cancer etc. The EU etc is NOT interested in how dangerous LEDs are as exposed by experts such as Dr Alexander Wunsch on his videos such as Artificial Light Chronobiology And LED Hazards over on vimeo and the Mark Steele court videos on the Ian R Crane channel on UA-cam.
Its really gloomy in our factory after 4 yrs.I didn't realise how badly they loose their intensity but I bet they still consume the same amount of power
I used to work in a weaving mill so we had to have high grade fluorescent for colour accuracy. We swapped to all leds i think £100ish a pop and had thousands of them. Ended up with double the lights as rhey just couldnt do what a fluorescent does it was horrible.
How long ago was that? I replaced my old 5ft tube with a new LED tube and a starter bypass last year, it cost me £8 and is noticeably brighter than the tube it replaced, LED replacement priced have cratered in the last 2-3 years; I remember seeing quotes for £70 not so long ago.
@@williamjackson5942 not at all we had people in to do it specifically it's just the nature of the environment and quality of light we needed wasn't anywhere close to what we got from the fluorescent tubes. LEDs can be brilliant don't get me wrong but just didn't work for us. If you look at light boxes which companies use for checking colour swatches for match all the big players are still using flourescent tubes.
Ohhhh you make live you're my best friend.. Tu.. tube.. tu.. tube... Drum drum drum drum drum... OOOOH YOU MAIE ME LIIIIVE WAAAA WAH WAH.. FLUORESCENT TUBE IN A NIGHT LIGHT SOCKET AND TURN IT ONFFSHFJFKGLGKFHSHGD
Very Interesting Video-Thank You-Here in the US I use specialty tube T8 bulbs for their CRI and Kelvin ratings-it hard to find LEDs that even come close-and not close enough to meeting my needs-plus the price is thru the roof. I'm onboard ecologically, but they haven't fully sorted out meeting the needs of the "fringe" markets. Cheers
@@srpacificAre you sure? Osram & others sold a very wide range of Tri-Phosphor tubes with various use case.I.e. red biased for butchersmeat displays, Northern Light fo artist's and many others including high CRI types.
@@srpacificif manufacturers still believe tubes still work even in the uprising of LED we would have a better phosphor that would make tubes high output and very high CRI at 100
It depends you can get LED products with a wide range of CRI - just because it’s LED doesn’t say it’s good or bad colour performance- price is always an indicator 😉
@@efixx I think that you missed my point-I need 5500-6500K CRI 95+ lighting-flourescents meets my needs at a price I can afford. The rush to LEDs is in credible shortsighted and very profitable. Just like the whole propane cooking fuel kerfuffel this is small stuff, and everybody gets all excited-AND IGNORED THE BIGGER ISSUES. 1 airplane flight buts out far more pollution than many families do in a year. The beef industry contributes something like 10+ percent of greenhouse gasses--THOSE ARE THE BIG ISSUES THAT NOBODY GET FIRED UP ABOUT.
I wish more new led fittings came with repacable internals. Such a waste of time and materials to have to throw out an entire fitting just because the electronics have gone.
We need a new standard for replaceable LED drivers, smart controls, and the actual LED part, so they can all be swapped individually! More modularity, less unique parts. Pretty much every industry could develop their own USB-C kinds of universal standards if there was demand. Much as I love XKCD that comic about standards needs to stop holding the world back!!
Very true, lots of modern led lights are a disgrace with no parts available to repair. And often poor quality too and low light output compared to say a good old 2d despite claiming equivalents.
You also need to really shop around for a good LED replacement light as the low quality ones will often already have a few dead LEDs from the factory and will die after a year or two while the much more expensive LEDs will last a lot longer! :)
Another expensive idea from the EU, it never ends. Given time the change would happen, maybe during a building refurb but now it could well be forced earlier and be very expensive. They did the same with phone chargers, GDPR and now they want home users to be able to change phone battery's. None of the above are for the people, just rules for rules sake.
Fluorescent tubes are much better 🌟 You can expect long lifespan, very good colour CRI, especially triphosphor tubes. Same efficiency as LED's. It's pointless to replace them as you will get half number of lumens. Stocking up on fluorescent tubes is the way.
I've also been out. Bought over 300 spare tubes. Using mainly T5 GE long last tubes. These are just excellent and have ultra long lifespan. I have 40 fittings won't ever switch to LED's. @@bradbttl
You can get tubes that connect directly to mains voltage so all you have to do is remove the ballast and wire one of the sockets to L and N. Light isn't quite the same though, even with good rendering and all, one can tell the difference between a real tube and a LED.
You just need to cut the 2 ballast wires and join them together for the single end feed tubes, then it dont matter which way round you fit the tube. 4000k LEDs seem to give the same light as the old tubes and use 1/3 of the power.
Given that truly high quality lights i.e. incandescent and high pressure sodium arc have both been killed off to please the sun god, fluorescent is kinda the last hope.
Recently renovated my existing shed with extra wood paneling and added furniture so i can store all my fluorescent tubes, CFLs and any non LED light sources so I dont have to live in a 100% LED only lighting house
@@pootle5096 I know what's best for me and also to preserve the rare lighting fixtures, bulbs and tubes that are getting discontinued. I make sure to get copies so I can run them in the house and keep the others for preservation
At my work I've been using the remaining 4 foot florecent tubes where needed and rewiring figures where thr ballast has failed in the past year. Some areas have 8 foot tubes that burned out before my time due to neglect. I've replaced thoes last fall and plan to repaired the remaining working ones. So far I have encountered 1 defective tube which isn't a big deal since it's in a utility room and it's now brighter than it ever was.
Are there LED replacements for the colour matching tubes, used in paint booths and print rooms, and artificial daylight tubes, used for people with SAD?
The key words are "ballast compatible". When you're looking for LEDs to simply plug-and-play into existing fluorescent ballasts, simply buy the LED tubing that's labeled "Ballast Compatible" on the packaging, and it will work as good as plugging in a new (old?) fluorescent tube. [Source: I've already replaced all of my fluorescent tubes with LED tubes.]
I have already suggested switching to LED lamps at my place of work over 6 months ago, needless to say nobody took any notice, now they will have to. Just as they ignored my warning from your earlier video about siting EV chargers close to the building (Zurich/ Commercial Premises). Love your channel, Thanks for sharing.
They will only have to do it as and when old ones expire. And you need to factor in led tubes do offer less light tube for tube than a fluorescent whether some may claim otherwise or not. It is a simple fact. And some led lights just burn the eyes off you. There is still a lot of progress to be made with led lighting
I have had that set in my bathroom mirror light for 5 years now and it works fine. Flickers a lot though at 50 Hz due to the simplicity of the tube circuitry but I suppose that could be remedied by an integrated current regulator in the tube or changing the entire tube ballast for a led driver.
@@wombatillo Just replace the tube last you another 5 years, iv been looking after student related premises for 8 years and and the living and communal areas are fluorecent lighting 5 and 4 foot fitting and not one unit has failed in that time, we replaced tubes and starters but not one single fitting,
Yes the simplest choice and he never said thing at all show how much brains he got. He Just about making money and make people think they need to replace the whole thing.
I swapped out a T12 tube for led literally yesterday. The existing fixtures can all stay there until people remodel or rebuild. SMH, UA-cam get dumber.
I replaced all my dad's tubes years ago. Got these cheap LED tubes that don't need drivers; they just take AC. Light is brighter and is more white (there were several versions of white available), flickering is gone, no noise, less power, no ballasts to replace, and haven't had to replace one tube yet in spite of buying the cheapest ones I could find. It's amazing that this ban is even needed...who would choose to keep paying more for less?
We’ve just swapped out our maintained fluorescent emergency lights for LED’s. The difference is like night and day… literally. They’re so much brighter the neighbours don’t need to switch their lights on! 😮
I spent a year in Northern France, in 2010, working with SSP (a British company) France, designing and replacing lighting for LEDs before most LEDs were even available. We had a designer who approached many manufacturers and most said LEDs were a fad and didn't want the business so, he went to China who were willing to work with him. We would photograph lights and lamps, he would buy some then redesign them for LED, go to China, discuss the options and get handbuilt LEDs for test. The client was shown the colours, they chose which one they liked then we put an order in for the amount we needed. The manufacturer sent us a PAR38 and asked if we could find a use for it as it had the new large square LEDs. Years later I saw it being used to replace Halogen floodlights.
The retrofit unit that uses a "powerful magnet" to attach it to a metallic chassis: presumably this is a neodymium magnet? Given that there seems to be an obsession with making everything electrical fire resistant (metal instead of plastic clips etc), has anyone thought through the implications of the low curie point of such magnets? In a fire, anything relying on them for attachment is just going to fall off the ceiling...
The T12 fluorescent tube still be produced if the T5 & T8 permanently banned from 2023 will be completed until 2026 future. The T12 fluorescent tube will phased out by 2050 in the EU
While this is apparently marketing for a specific brand, it covers real issues and workarounds. Thanks for the information. The US is not at the same point, but this is good to know.
Yes I do wonder how many ever make the claimed lifespan. It is a case you get what you pay for with led,s. Chinese shit generally only lasts a year. No often than not it is the drivers that fail
@@johnwarwick4105 its most the drivers that fail on the floodlight/front door lights that been fitted , also the retro 28w 2d fittings just burn out on the piece in the centre where it goes into the 4 pins on the fitting
I absolutely hated fluorescent tubelights at work, as the 120Hz flicker (100Hz where line current is 50Hz) in my peripheral vision would give me migraines by the end of the day. I upgraded to LED replacements in the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom, and if there's any flicker in the first 2, it's less perceptible, but in the bathroom, just tossing a towel over the shower-curtain rod shows the "strobing" effect pretty clearly. Most of those systems use LED strings at about 50%-70% of peak line voltage, a small dropping resistor to do some of the lifting, and finally linear regulator chips to regulate peak current to the LEDs. That means both current- and light-output spikes near the +/- peaks of the sinewave, lousy power-factor, and worst of all, flicker. "Universal" replacements that can work on 50Hz/60Hz and 120V/240V, tend to have actual power-supplies and provide almost zero flicker, but $$$. But they're hella bright, I'll give them that. Too bright, in fact, as the one in my bathroom makes me feel like I'm out in the midday sun, even in the middle of the night. I have a usb-chargeable touch-light in 2700k that I keep set relatively low, to just see where I'm going, vs blinding myself with the overhead light. Also, some lights *need* the ballast to remain, whereas the universal ones often don't, and in fact the ballast just wastes power idling. Bright(!) side is that I didn't have to replace any fixtures at all, and they were all drop-in replacements.
You can still sneak them in to california going where there is no inspection station The two routes in California with no inspection station are ca 88 over the carson pass and nipton road. The Nipton road route puts you on I 15 way south of the inspection station. Businesses that still want to use fluorescents can bring them in via those routes with no inspection station
As a principle, I have replaced all the fittings with LEDs as and when necessary and what I am noticing is that the reliability of the LED installation is a lottery and I would say that more than 50% of the LEDs have failed prematurely and long before their stated life expectancy. The trouble is that often the whole fitting has to be replaced as the light source is integral e.g. floodlights. On the cost basis alone the replacement of existing lights with LEDs is much more expensive in fitting/conversion/upgraded lamp/labour costs than a simple light source replacement. We have a number of specialist fittings that will be costly to convert, if at all possible, due to their architectural design and the cost of replacement would involve construction making good and other builders work and possibly an alternative aesthetic, which blows the cost out of the sky. Locally, the Highways Department have replaced the sodium street lights with LED fittings at great expense, however, although the fittings are of a similar physical size, the light output and distribution is much less, leading to pools of higher intensity lighting immediately below the fitting, which then tails off very badly, leaving large dark patches between the lamp standards. Street lighting is supposed to provide security lighting as well as sufficient illumination to minimise hazards, these new lights manage to do neither.
I have been an electrician 35 years fixed thousands of fluorescent lights alot people probably are or not aware that when tube or starter starts malfunction causing flickering people who are are suffering epilepsy can have an episode, learnt this as apprentice ,also we use get old tubes put hole in end of tube release gas said incase explodes when breaks,we were not told of toxic gas released in our face cause issues trade school never told us found it out myself many years later ,wonder if going effect me when old got look into this more ,leds great do like them mine lasted years ,led light globes another story dont last 50,000 hrs maybe year two used every day few hours in lounge room ,know there is light globe been burning constant think its 100years more filament bigger sure its in fire station look it up .😮
Fluorescent lamps should have been scrapped years ago. Lead fast have got some great solutions to help with that transition. One question are the tubes still Made of glass or are they plastic? The glass tubes are bloody dangerous when they break. I saw a guy shove one into another blokes face when I was in the army, trust me it wasn’t pretty. Great video as always Gordon 👍
I still have some fluorescent tubes and some need replacement. Good to know they’re being phased out, donI quickly get some replacements for the coming years, as LED tubes don’t do the “welcome” blink and sound when turned on. That still needs to be reproduced before I want to make the switch to LED
So I work at a hardware store some have adapters so you don't need to change adapters. However nowdays we tell people to go CEF or denmins coz they have them already
I do property management in the USA we stoped replacing fluorescent tube light five years ago. Most of my properties are already all led we prefer direct wire led tubs
We have replaced our fixtures with led versions in our common garage a few years ago. We have around a 100 lamps. They are all still working. And we are already beyond the break even point given the energy savings. Great investment. Furthermore, we have now some spare capacity for charging some additional EVs.
CFLS give out roughly double the lumens compared to led but also draw double compared to led...so in the end its the same and upgrading cfls to led is just mad unless you need a new fixture or doing new installs.
Thanks for the explanation. Spooky how I talk about a failed tube in my kitchen and up pops this video... my phone is listening. I have to replace ALL the tube fittings to get a colour/intensity match. The "lifetime" LED downlights in my bathroom cost me on average £60 a year to replace, and the clips b@gger up the ceiling plasterwork. It's a 'kin' outrageous level of waste. How is that good for the planet?
Retrofit bulbs are excellent as we have 12 units in our garage that are perfect yet the tubes are failing after 8 years. I do worry that the new style integrated led units, once the strip of leds fails to work the whole unit will end up in the scrap. In my quest to find additional units that match my existing ones ive come across either a huge price hike for the bare unit or from some manufacturers a complete stop of the fixture and light source being 2 separate items therefore causing the homeowner that would simply change a bulb to now have to call an electrician to change the unit. (the eco warriors will be on that one soon enough) In our setting that simple change would involve 12 units as my ocd wont allow just one unit to look different. As said in other comments i will be looking on ebay for old units that take tubes for my future install in my shed.
time to load up on tubes and scalp them on for double money come spring. Although if you are talking about maintenance in a building allot of EM lights cook the tube used for EM and you can replace all 4 in one and cycle the 3 good lamps into the next 3 to reduce on throwing away good tubes that still have another year or two in them.
Had no idea fluorescent tubes are to be banned. Evil eu. Recently we were bullied into having to have compact fluorescent instead of proper incandescent ones! Crazy behaviour in both cases. Simple free choice and new building or refurbishment is the right way to have done it. Scrapping working lights for want of a new bulb is totally anti environment.
@@godimsofuckingboredWe still have to follow all their nanny state laws though because of the inability of our (il)liberal lefty governments (incl. the nominally “Conservative” ones) to stand up to the intrinsically undemocratic EU organisation!
Never mind all that! I've got a five foot (or us it four? Can't remember ) tube in my kitchen, is there an easy like for like replacement or have I got to actually do some decorating?! Not to mention the circular one in the dining area.... I'm decorating arent I?!
In the first place there should be no bans. Let everyone decide what light they would like to use. I have been using fluorescent lights for decades without any issues, and they give way more diffused light compared to LED. Fluorescent bulbs don't cost much to replace. LED's are just not good because of high upfront cost and more frequent replacements are needed which means its going cost much more. LED's don't last that long, I've had many failures in less than 1 year, some fixtures have irreplaceable components, so that means you have to replace everything creating more unnecessary e-waste. Its not about saving energy. It is about paying more and limiting your choice to only LED's!
This ban is going to create a staggering amount of e-waste. How is that good for the environment? Why is there a need to force people to use LED? They already are during refurbishments etc.
Switch to LEDs in my outdoor shed. About the same lumens, virtual instant on, no flickering, 1/2 the power consumption, double the life and no mercury disposal problem. What’s not to like??
Maybe its just me but I never liked the colour of many fluorescent tubes to the extent they were actually somewhat uncomfortable so essentially a mandated change to LEDs with hopefully better colour temperature options should be good for me as someone in places where they are used.
@@liam3284 Yeah some exceptions for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if the cheaper the tube, the worse the colour temp but hopefully it shouldn't matter in a few years as LEDs become the norm.
I’ve still got a few T12s new in packaging 😂 considering you cab still buy regular incandescent lamps online, I don’t think this will be a big worry for anyone..
I see a lot of headcases throwing away working lights because the new ones are allegedly more efficient. They forget they have working lights and it'll work out cheaper to use them til they fail then replace with more efficient lights. Personally, I cannot stand those nasty CFLs or LEDs. I use incandescent when I can get them.
@@ahah1785 It really isn't much money. In a typical house you have 4 lights on for maybe 8 hours a day. That's 8x100w bulbs vs 4x25w flouresent. BTW you lose all you save by using flouresecnt aif you turn them on and off s it needs a high starting current. Here, a typical electric cost is 14c per KWH. So let's look at how much 400W would use in a month... That's 400x30x8 which is a massive $13.44 So how much if it was 4 x 25W florescents - that'd be $3.36. But if you can't afford $13.44 for lighting then you really need to get a proper job.
Do be aware that even though fluorescent lights were bad for health, LED lights are vastly worse. They cause bleaching of the retina in normal use leading to AMD and blindness with exposures over 2 hours 45 minutes per day. They also disrupt the circadian rhythm and hormones leading to huge increases in the rates of breast and prostate cancer (>50% and >105% respectively). And the high frequency flicker at twice the mains frequency (100 hertz in the EU) which is devastating to about 1% of the population (headaches, migraines, optical migraines leading to temporary blindness and intense tinnitus. And many other problems. LED have have no red or infrared light which also means reduced mitochondrial function and poorer health.
It’s the final chance for fluorescent enthusiasts to collect the new old stock tubes from the lamp bins that you LED suckers have thrown away! Hope you’re pleased with yourselves adding to the waste electronics and plastics every time one of your foreign made LED fittings breaks… which is much more frequently than fluorescent ever did!
ShOcK & AWE surprise. I had no idea (mark time). And here I thought everything was going along swimmingly :) GR8T wake up call. Now I'm heading back to bed. Please let me know when you've got it completed. Cheers from the U.S.
For tax purposes, replacing a broken item with its closest modern equivalent is maintenance, not capital. So now that flourescent lights are no longer available, replacing them with the closest equivalent LED fixture will become maintenance rather than capital expenditure.
It seems that one reason for banning florescent lights is because they contain _(a small amount of)_ Mercury. So why are amalgam dental filling still being used by NHS dentists? Is Mercury dangerous in a light fitting but safe and effective when stuffed into our children's mouths? The biggest source of atmospheric Mercury pollution in the West is the dental profession and will remain so for many years unless all crematoria have chimney scrubbers fitted. Or... the unthinkable, distasteful solution is use. That would not be very politically 'acceptable'.
Someone gave me a few fluorescent fixtures without tubes. By the time I went to install them 4 years ago the LED tubes were the same price as fluorescent - and way better!
@@blow0me Light bulbs come in different brightnesses. You need to look at the Lumens to see how bright they are. Watts are a measure of power, so LEDs will be brighter than a fluorescent with the same power.
I haven't used florescent lamps in years anyway. I either use LED lamps running on electronic T8 ballasts (type A), or I use LED lamps that run directly from the mains voltage (100-277volts type B).
Why would you WANT to keep using tubes? I mean, they're inefficient as hell compared to LED's... electricity isn't free and during summer, the extra heat makes your home even worse off...
Flourescent tubes are getting banned over what, a few milligrams of mercury metal, led light bulbs have an advantage over cfls that come with a cheap ballast unless on a ballasted fixing and incandescent bulbs which are line resistors on a stick, all because of the long lifespan, but on batten and false ceiling applications where you expect them to stay for many years is where light starts to shed on the LED, for starters nothing is replacable, the led driver might be replacable but if the actual light module fails, either way it gets chucked in the landfill, its a step back as it prioritises consumerism and capitalism. Sure you can say the same thing about flourescent tubes but you replace the tube at the fraction of a cost usually £5 and depending on the ballast, it might serve an entire LED lifespan + several more years in one go and with high output tubes being a thing, you can have less fitting per sqM. And flourescent tubes are to me the sweet spot with a mix of longevity and recyclability, with the glass melted and turned into something new. They should have banned the use of incandescent bulb based traffic lights if you ask me.
Nope, look at all of the resources used, LEDs are semiconductor devices and like a diode can run on direct AC or DC but they use a driver, when the driver fails the fitting will flash, and then you have to chuck it away meaning resources wasted, and the toxic metals used in LEDs are arsenic, lead, iron, copper, and nickel. Heightened, direct exposure or consumption of some of these substances can lead to cancer and skin lesions, search it on Google!
@@ivankirola2707you have a few options, keep it the same, replace the switchgear to electronic as from my experience, the more times you strike a tube the ends wear down more than expected, replace half of the installation from regular T5 to T5HO and remove the other half or convert an entire T8 installation to T5HO since the light output is really the same, and you also have the options discussed in the video where you retrofit or replace with led. It's up to you, it's your electricity bill you can influence where it goes, but remember a flourescent tube is always tonnes cheaper and easier to recycle than LEDs!
You specifically only state T5 and T8. So what about all other compact fluorescent lights ? And more important, existing emergency light maintenance which require fluorescent. Replacement would be a cost, that cannot save money.
All are banned - emergency lights - for stand alone units it’s usually more cost effective to replace the sign or emergency light. Most units now have self test which is another bonus
@@efixx When all it needs is a 50p T5 Tube, replacing the entire light is not cost effective. But yes, self test can be helpful....if we can trust it works.
if rohs is going to make it more expensive i dont want it. i would rather non rohs compliance to keep the prices down and just be told to recycle or dispose of properly. if the reason for the bans because of the mercury then omit the mercury and run the voltage higher. that is what they did for a while in cfl bulbs to eliminate the startup delay. with mercury i think a bulb runs at 600 volts but without mercury it would be as high as 10000 volts. if the manchester fixtures contain the ballast within the body of the fixtures then it would be possible to replace the ballasts or i think they make led bulbs that have limiting resistors that can limit the currents and voltages to make them work with original ballasts.
The changeover and efficiency will only be as good as the installation,I can see tons of work for the 'Cowboys' + the costs will run into £Ms for someone, be it the landlords or owners of the properties
UA-camr Big Clive has a video on LED's that should last forever "The lamps you're not allowed to have. Exploring the Dubai lamps" AND how to properly drive-fire-power a fluorescent.
That is very unlikely. "Fluorescent" describes the electrochemical reaction inside the bulb. LEDs are simply not "Fluorescent" in any widespread sense, and things like the T5 and T8 sockets are irrelevant to the bill. The issue is mercury and other toxic chemicals, and the relatively high danger of shattered glass. LEDs in the T5 and T8 form factor solve all those problems, and eliminate the need to replace ballasts.
@@VPWedding Actually, most LED lights are fluorescents. You know how LEDs are monochromatic? Well, these lights are UV-spectrum LEDs lighting up a fluorescent coating. They use much the same phosphors as fluorescent lights, the difference is the way they generate the UV. I did look up the EU regulation though, and it doesn't regulate LED-based fluorescence.
banned? lol and I thought Australia was the only country that made up laws and rules for sake of making shit up. I mean the nanny state here would enact laws that regulate how many litres of oxygen you can consume in an hour if they could, but looks like EU and UK got one up on us this time :) Seems the electrical business wants this, as Gordon said " great for electricians" but not so for struggling SMB's or homeowners, at least they can buy drop in replacements and do it themselves I presume or have they outlawed that over there too? and at what cost as well, complete "drop in replacement tube" sounds like a marketing managers wet dream for price markups,
While converting to LEDs makes sence, I have to wonder if the use of any sort of incandecent and flourecent lighting will eventually become illegal, thus becoming like a witch hunt. It seems like government is getting involved where it really shouldn't, under the guise of "doing what's best."
Mate LED's are extremely harsh lights, I really can't stand them not to mention their extremely short life in comparison.. Might have to go back to incandescent
i just wish normal light bulbs were still around. if leds were so good why were normal bulbs banned? leds are not eico friendly due to heavy metals. lead zink, mercury, etc, , plastic lots of that. a normal bulb was mostly glass. some tin, card stock. maybe (pending use) a alloy metal and or a inert gas. cosy pennies compared to the leds and lasted far longer.
I don't actually think UV and specialty lamps are banned. UVC isn't currently even feasible to produce with LEDs, and UVA and UVB I think are still more efficient to use fluorescent+UV phosphor.
I dont own a single of these lamps and I work as a Translator so I dont really need the information but I always love to learn and this was really interesting ! I didnt know Balasts are a part that can "run out" at some point
Do you watch videos in different languages so you can cover a wide variety of topics? Like this is quite a niche electrical video, do you specifically watch these or just anything specialised?
I already replaced all of my flossies, took the lot down fitted LED light bars, cheap as chips easy to swap, far far far better lighting, comes on instantly, no flicker, and in fact the lighting is so good I am considering another small alteration so as to be able to only turn on every other light bar, but keeping the option to have them all on if necessary! In all honesty I would go for LED light bars every time! That is my workshops, at home I led lights everywhere now, and in all honesty, fewer headaches, better lighting, and so so so much cheaper. In fact since the energy prices have gone up so much my electricity bill has gone down. I pay on demand, no direct debit, I have smart meters, they send me a bill I check it if it's right I pay it, my very first electricity bill after changing everything to LED lighting was 0 yes honestly zero, as I was a little in credit before the smart meters. That's the way to go folks Stop pouring your hard earned pounds into the fat cat coffers!
Just a word, but you don't get your electricity cheaper if you don't pay by direct debit. In fact you could very well be on a higher tariff or they might be charging you extra because you are not on a direct debit.
i HATE led strips, hurt my eyes & give me thumping head :-( i still got atlas & thorn branded tubes new in my loft, abt 90 of them so i will keep my fluorescents thanks
i had a custom that was trying to do the same with 100watt incandescent lamps when they were going to be phased out, he brought from me 200, he had them stored in his damp shed, when he started using them he went through them quickly as they had degraded, and then moaned to me they they were cheep faulty ones. not my problem i said.
What about blacklight tubes are they going to be banned as well. I don't think they should be banned because they are special perporse lamps. Led blacklights suck.
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Learn more about the LEDVANCE range of fluorescent tube replacements.
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You would have said buy a LED tube with a starter. If you cared about people saving money. Just job about making money no heart for people anymore.
what about specialist UVB tubes they banned too?
I'm okay with this.
Switching from incandescent to florescent saved energy, but florescent gives off UV light that damages your eyes over time.
LEDs are nearly perfect because they're even more efficient than florescent and they don't give off UV light.
@@fredashay Oh Dear! LED are the most dangerous lighting out there. Councils cannot even get insurance for their LED street lights because they are so unsafe and causing eye problems and cancer etc. The EU etc is NOT interested in how dangerous LEDs are as exposed by experts such as Dr Alexander Wunsch on his videos such as Artificial Light Chronobiology And LED Hazards over on vimeo and the Mark Steele court videos on the Ian R Crane channel on UA-cam.
which tubes if any, will work with emergency gear ?
I used to be able to fix a light that had gone out by swapping the bulb now in order to save energy we throw the whole of the light including it mount and fit a new one. Every led flood light io have fitted has been totally useless and needs replacing usually around the 12 to 16 months mark regardless of quality. The last one was a £ 60 quid led floodlight lasted 16 months. Ther other fitting is a halogen been fitted 12 years ands Ive put a new filaments in 3 times. So lets waste all that money nad fill up out waste bins.
Once the phone system goes 100% digital you'll be chucking out all home phones and answering machines too so leave some space in the skip.
If you fancy it and have the time, swap out the LED cob in the flood light. They are normally 50w, I swapped mine for 80w. You can swap them for 100W cob too, the brightness is the same, the cob will last much longer because its not over driven.
they're destroying these legacy systems and replacing them with inferior ones.
Seen so many LED units burn out when not used with a separate transformer/ ballast
To reduce the mains supply.
Not exactly energy saving or time saving or money saving.
I had the same problem. Replaced a perfectly working fluorescent tube for an LED version. Didn't last two years. Guess what, put the fluorescent tube back in and it still works to this day.
0 seconds ago
My Garage fluorescent 6ft fixture still has it's original 50+ year old ballast. When the bayonet cap tube failed I changed the connectors to fit a new tube. Therefore it's a very environmentally friendly fixture & lasted longer than any modern LED ever will.
I have about 20 to 30 complete fittings with tubes. My brother in law who is a civil engineer asked if I wanted to salvage anything from a building his company bought and were about to redevelop. I just took everything. Funnily enough he used to work for the company as their civil engineer.
The original fluoro in my garage is from 1976, two additional ones were added in 1986, all on original ballasts although the older one is quite noisy now, I've got quite a few spare tubes as well
We had the same situation. We had a 3x 5ft T12 fluorescent fittings in the garage that had been in the house since we moved here (so at least 1996).
They've always worked perfectly. But we decided to upgrade to LED batten.
Within a month, they were flickering and half of the strip was not lighting up.
Luckily enough, we had the old fluorescent fittings still. So we gave them a clean, sprayed them a new coat of paint, gie them some new electronic starters (the green ones which don't flicker) and put them back. Won't be trying LED for another couple of decades yet. It's just not reliable enough.
Unless LED lamp manufacturers have come up with a 360 degree output tube as opposed to roughly 100 degrees of the tube circumference being used as a heat sink, these replacement tubes will not provide proper fixture lumen output optics. The optimum solution would be a LED tube with 360 degree circumference of evenly diffused light. LED diodes by nature give off a point source, which will not work with with the reflector optics of a fluorescent fixture. Even with the fluorescent lamp ban, these lamps will still be available long after the ban is in place. It would seem logical to either retrofit or replace all fluorescent fixtures which are easy to do, but leave any existing fixture that would pose upgrading or replacement problems as fluorescent. In some cases, LED color temperature and CRI will be different from a fluorescent lamp of the same CCT and CRI. It all depends on manufacturer.
It’s hard to believe we are at the end of an era. I live in the US and remember when the F40T12 (four-foot fluorescent) lamp was the workhorse in the commercial and industrial facility world, then in the mid 1990’s, the F32T8 lamp became the industry standard. LEDs have made some improvements over the years, but the technology is still somewhat in its infancy, so there are still many optic and lifeline issues with them. The only thing about LEDs is they are quite boring. Fluorescent lamps (especially preheat, rapid start and even programmed start) are more interesting to watch turn on. Even HID is being replaced with LED, which makes for uninteresting start-ups, if you like watching such things!
Another issue I notice with LED tubes is that almost all 4ft ones are significantly dimmer than the fluorescent tubes they claim to “replace.” The 4ft F32T8/F40T12 LED tubes are usually around 1800-2500lm, whereas most F32T8 and F40T12 lamps are 2800-3200lm, and the best F40T12 lamps are 3600lm!
I think this is yet another case of cheap LEDs being inherently “better” than name brand LEDs. I can find cheap 4ft LED tubes that are 3000lm, but the highest I can find from one of the “big three” is 2500lm. I feel like the name brands are purposefully making their LEDs crap because they know people will buy them anyway because “Oooeooohuoo, iT’S leD!!111” The lighting industry is going from “oh, this isn’t a very good product for me because it’s not bright enough or it’s not the right color” to “oh, it’s LED, we don’t need to worry about anything else! Anything to get rid of those evil energy-sucking fluorescent lamps!” The fact that integrated LED fixtures exist tells you everything you need to know about the lighting industry right now.
Exactly, I was thinking the same. The glory of florescent tube cant be replaced by LED tubes.
This is also an issue for some medical equipment, as some older hardware (and actually some hardware bought as recently as 2020) uses Fluorescent tubes. One such piece of equipment uses two T12 tubes, which I cannot replace, and we're not allowed to modify equipment, so in the end it's probably going to go to waste just for the sake of two tubes!
There’s plenty still around on the internet and ebay, including special UV colours used in medical equipment.
In the bill passed in Maine such UV bulbs may be exempt from the ban as they are not general purpose lighting.
@@bigjd2kGET OFF MY PROPERYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@soundsparkGET OFF MY PROPERTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im over here Stateside (Texas) and ive begun the conversion of my friends store from fluorescent to LED. He opted to retrofit the existing fixtures. I bought LED bulbs from an electrical supplier in my area that bypasses the ballast allowing line voltage to be connected directly to the tombstones (lighting sockets). This makes a conversion quick and easy by removing the ballast.
How do you remove a ballast? Where is the ballast?
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 The ballast is a little black or silver box that's behind a little pocket or enclosure of the fixture. It usually hidden behind a metal piece that you would take out of the fixture at to access it and the wiring. Make sure the power is turned off to the fixture first before doing any work to it.
Fluorescent tubes are incredibly efficient, maybe five times better than the old incandescent bulbs. It is highly unlikely that replacing with LED tech, is ever going to pay for itself, and replacement tubes are going to be absurdly expensive, and not as long lasting.
But they all flicker!
Exactly, most people in society have this problem where they have to have the next best and newest thing regardless of its quality or relevance.
@@golden.lights.twinkle2329 You are wrong and ceartainly never heard of electronic ballasts.
I'm really annoyed that this Flurecent disappearance right under my nose was happening & didn't know about this until now. I'll be stocking up I think
@@hiteck007 It's even worse that most LEDs you can but today are overdiven or have underzised power supplies with no interference filter, often no fuse and horrible quaility of soldering. They will likely fail in 4 years or less. Even higher quaility fixtures these days are absolute garbage because the LEDs in them are integrated and not replaceable.
In our home we replaced the two 6ft tubes in the kitchen and the two in the double garage quite a few years ago with the equivalent LEDs. No problems, no failures or flickering nor having to recycle or replace so far!
Same here for garage and quite a few years ago too, I ended up replacing the fitting as well as end caps crumbled
I bought some LED T8 lamps that said you would not need to bypass the ballast. For some reason, I had to bypass the ballast anyway. But it wasn't hard, and everything has been fine since then.
It will be you and everyone else that will be getting recycled. LED are the most dangerous lighting out there. Councils cannot even get insurance for their LED street lights because they are so unsafe and causing eye problems and cancer etc. The EU etc is NOT interested in how dangerous LEDs are as exposed by experts such as Dr Alexander Wunsch on his videos such as Artificial Light Chronobiology And LED Hazards over on vimeo and the Mark Steele court videos on the Ian R Crane channel on UA-cam.
I despise florescent. My entire home is LED.
A few years? fluorescent tubes last literally decades!
Its really gloomy in our factory after 4 yrs.I didn't realise how badly they loose their intensity but I bet they still consume the same amount of power
DIIIDIIIHDIH.. DIDI SPIDER FLEEPS!!!!
I used to work in a weaving mill so we had to have high grade fluorescent for colour accuracy. We swapped to all leds i think £100ish a pop and had thousands of them. Ended up with double the lights as rhey just couldnt do what a fluorescent does it was horrible.
How long ago was that? I replaced my old 5ft tube with a new LED tube and a starter bypass last year, it cost me £8 and is noticeably brighter than the tube it replaced, LED replacement priced have cratered in the last 2-3 years; I remember seeing quotes for £70 not so long ago.
@@ianemery2925 probably about 5 years but as I said ther had to be very high quality for good accuracy we expensive silk garments.
@@ianemery2925 It's colour accuracy but high CRI light fittings aren't that expensive anymore.
Too bad someone got the wrong bulbs, we replaced our flourescents with LED at work, half the bulbs nearly twice the light!
@@williamjackson5942 not at all we had people in to do it specifically it's just the nature of the environment and quality of light we needed wasn't anywhere close to what we got from the fluorescent tubes. LEDs can be brilliant don't get me wrong but just didn't work for us. If you look at light boxes which companies use for checking colour swatches for match all the big players are still using flourescent tubes.
Places that have had the Fluorescent tubes replaced with LED fittings always look dimmer and colder.....
Ohhhh you make live you're my best friend.. Tu.. tube.. tu.. tube... Drum drum drum drum drum... OOOOH YOU MAIE ME LIIIIVE WAAAA WAH WAH.. FLUORESCENT TUBE IN A NIGHT LIGHT SOCKET AND TURN IT ONFFSHFJFKGLGKFHSHGD
Very Interesting Video-Thank You-Here in the US I use specialty tube T8 bulbs for their CRI and Kelvin ratings-it hard to find LEDs that even come close-and not close enough to meeting my needs-plus the price is thru the roof. I'm onboard ecologically, but they haven't fully sorted out meeting the needs of the "fringe" markets. Cheers
LEDs have far superior CRI to fluorescent tubes, unless you are using cinema grade tubes like the ones made for Kino Flo
@@srpacificAre you sure? Osram & others sold a very wide range of Tri-Phosphor tubes with various use case.I.e. red biased for butchersmeat displays, Northern Light fo artist's and many others including high CRI types.
@@srpacificif manufacturers still believe tubes still work even in the uprising of LED we would have a better phosphor that would make tubes high output and very high CRI at 100
It depends you can get LED products with a wide range of CRI - just because it’s LED doesn’t say it’s good or bad colour performance- price is always an indicator 😉
@@efixx I think that you missed my point-I need 5500-6500K CRI 95+ lighting-flourescents meets my needs at a price I can afford. The rush to LEDs is in credible shortsighted and very profitable. Just like the whole propane cooking fuel kerfuffel this is small stuff, and everybody gets all excited-AND IGNORED THE BIGGER ISSUES. 1 airplane flight buts out far more pollution than many families do in a year. The beef industry contributes something like 10+ percent of greenhouse gasses--THOSE ARE THE BIG ISSUES THAT NOBODY GET FIRED UP ABOUT.
I wish more new led fittings came with repacable internals. Such a waste of time and materials to have to throw out an entire fitting just because the electronics have gone.
Look up TM66 guidelines
@@efixx Just read a lot of websites with a lot of words but very little information. This seems like something someone should do a video about. 😁
Yeah - I buy same lamp some months later and found differently electronic inside. So I must fix the full lamp and not only the chrashed electronic.
We need a new standard for replaceable LED drivers, smart controls, and the actual LED part, so they can all be swapped individually! More modularity, less unique parts. Pretty much every industry could develop their own USB-C kinds of universal standards if there was demand.
Much as I love XKCD that comic about standards needs to stop holding the world back!!
Very true, lots of modern led lights are a disgrace with no parts available to repair. And often poor quality too and low light output compared to say a good old 2d despite claiming equivalents.
You also need to really shop around for a good LED replacement light as the low quality ones will often already have a few dead LEDs from the factory and will die after a year or two while the much more expensive LEDs will last a lot longer! :)
Another expensive idea from the EU, it never ends. Given time the change would happen, maybe during a building refurb but now it could well be forced earlier and be very expensive. They did the same with phone chargers, GDPR and now they want home users to be able to change phone battery's. None of the above are for the people, just rules for rules sake.
You do know we left the EU years ago, don't you?
Fine if the size is available. I have a classic MK shaverlight with an 18" tube. No problem in USA, but practically impossible to find in UK.
Fluorescent tubes are much better 🌟 You can expect long lifespan, very good colour CRI, especially triphosphor tubes. Same efficiency as LED's. It's pointless to replace them as you will get half number of lumens. Stocking up on fluorescent tubes is the way.
I've been out the other day and bought over a hundred spare tubes, I only have 10 fittings, hopefully that will be enough to last for life
I've also been out. Bought over 300 spare tubes. Using mainly T5 GE long last tubes. These are just excellent and have ultra long lifespan. I have 40 fittings won't ever switch to LED's. @@bradbttl
exactly my thoughts...might as well be me who wrote this=)=)=)=)
You can get tubes that connect directly to mains voltage so all you have to do is remove the ballast and wire one of the sockets to L and N.
Light isn't quite the same though, even with good rendering and all, one can tell the difference between a real tube and a LED.
You just need to cut the 2 ballast wires and join them together for the single end feed tubes, then it dont matter which way round you fit the tube.
4000k LEDs seem to give the same light as the old tubes and use 1/3 of the power.
This is definitely the first time I've ever heard anyone describe fluorescents as "better quality light" than _any_ alternative.
Given that truly high quality lights i.e. incandescent and high pressure sodium arc have both been killed off to please the sun god, fluorescent is kinda the last hope.
Recently renovated my existing shed with extra wood paneling and added furniture so i can store all my fluorescent tubes, CFLs and any non LED light sources so I dont have to live in a 100% LED only lighting house
Sensible man!
@@pootle5096 I know what's best for me and also to preserve the rare lighting fixtures, bulbs and tubes that are getting discontinued. I make sure to get copies so I can run them in the house and keep the others for preservation
At my work I've been using the remaining 4 foot florecent tubes where needed and rewiring figures where thr ballast has failed in the past year. Some areas have 8 foot tubes that burned out before my time due to neglect. I've replaced thoes last fall and plan to repaired the remaining working ones. So far I have encountered 1 defective tube which isn't a big deal since it's in a utility room and it's now brighter than it ever was.
Are there LED replacements for the colour matching tubes, used in paint booths and print rooms, and artificial daylight tubes, used for people with SAD?
Artificial daylight leds and led tubes certainly exist and they can easily have better CRI than tubes.
@@wombatillo They're expensive though.
Most LEDs have a CRI of around 80 to 85, cheap ones have sub 80.
85 to 90 are high end
95+ are hyper expensive.
The key words are "ballast compatible". When you're looking for LEDs to simply plug-and-play into existing fluorescent ballasts, simply buy the LED tubing that's labeled "Ballast Compatible" on the packaging, and it will work as good as plugging in a new (old?) fluorescent tube. [Source: I've already replaced all of my fluorescent tubes with LED tubes.]
I've got some GE bulbs that are absolutely perfect T8 replacements. I forget they're LED half the time. Been going for years without issue.
I think they will be compatible with a preheat fixture, but rapid start or electronic ballasts will need to be removed!
@@liam3284 depends on the tube. I've seen a mix. The GE ones I mentioned require electronic ballasts
I have already suggested switching to LED lamps at my place of work over 6 months ago, needless to say nobody took any notice, now they will have to. Just as they ignored my warning from your earlier video about siting EV chargers close to the building (Zurich/ Commercial Premises). Love your channel, Thanks for sharing.
LED is usually the fastest payback a business can get!
They will only have to do it as and when old ones expire. And you need to factor in led tubes do offer less light tube for tube than a fluorescent whether some may claim otherwise or not. It is a simple fact. And some led lights just burn the eyes off you.
There is still a lot of progress to be made with led lighting
You covered every scenario except the fact you can just buy a LED TUBE AND STARTER and fit like you would a fluorecent 2 minutes work job done
I have had that set in my bathroom mirror light for 5 years now and it works fine. Flickers a lot though at 50 Hz due to the simplicity of the tube circuitry but I suppose that could be remedied by an integrated current regulator in the tube or changing the entire tube ballast for a led driver.
@@wombatillo
Just replace the tube last you another 5 years, iv been looking after student related premises for 8 years and and the living and communal areas are fluorecent lighting 5 and 4 foot fitting and not one unit has failed in that time, we replaced tubes and starters but not one single fitting,
Yes the simplest choice and he never said thing at all show how much brains he got. He Just about making money and make people think they need to replace the whole thing.
I swapped out a T12 tube for led literally yesterday. The existing fixtures can all stay there until people remodel or rebuild.
SMH, UA-cam get dumber.
I replaced all my dad's tubes years ago. Got these cheap LED tubes that don't need drivers; they just take AC. Light is brighter and is more white (there were several versions of white available), flickering is gone, no noise, less power, no ballasts to replace, and haven't had to replace one tube yet in spite of buying the cheapest ones I could find. It's amazing that this ban is even needed...who would choose to keep paying more for less?
We’ve just swapped out our maintained fluorescent emergency lights for LED’s. The difference is like night and day… literally. They’re so much brighter the neighbours don’t need to switch their lights on! 😮
🤣
Madness. Throwing out safe lighting for LEDs.
I suppose you have a smart meter installed in your home as well?
I spent a year in Northern France, in 2010, working with SSP (a British company) France, designing and replacing lighting for LEDs before most LEDs were even available. We had a designer who approached many manufacturers and most said LEDs were a fad and didn't want the business so, he went to China who were willing to work with him. We would photograph lights and lamps, he would buy some then redesign them for LED, go to China, discuss the options and get handbuilt LEDs for test. The client was shown the colours, they chose which one they liked then we put an order in for the amount we needed.
The manufacturer sent us a PAR38 and asked if we could find a use for it as it had the new large square LEDs. Years later I saw it being used to replace Halogen floodlights.
Local DIY store was giving them away for free, so I stocked up!
The retrofit unit that uses a "powerful magnet" to attach it to a metallic chassis: presumably this is a neodymium magnet? Given that there seems to be an obsession with making everything electrical fire resistant (metal instead of plastic clips etc), has anyone thought through the implications of the low curie point of such magnets? In a fire, anything relying on them for attachment is just going to fall off the ceiling...
What madness. No such law in Australia.
You've enough shit to deal with in Australia without this as well !
@pootle5096 Yes.😱🤣
Yet!@@Nick41622
The T12 fluorescent tube still be produced if the T5 & T8 permanently banned from 2023 will be completed until 2026 future. The T12 fluorescent tube will phased out by 2050 in the EU
While this is apparently marketing for a specific brand, it covers real issues and workarounds. Thanks for the information.
The US is not at the same point, but this is good to know.
Technology still isn’t quire there for led , I’ve seen no end of fittings failing after 6 months
I've got a led tube that has lasted over 2 years and still going strong.
Yes I do wonder how many ever make the claimed lifespan. It is a case you get what you pay for with led,s. Chinese shit generally only lasts a year. No often than not it is the drivers that fail
@@johnwarwick4105 Almost all the LED's I've used have vastly lived up to and outlived the claims...
@@johnwarwick4105 its most the drivers that fail on the floodlight/front door lights that been fitted , also the retro 28w 2d fittings just burn out on the piece in the centre where it goes into the 4 pins on the fitting
@@64-bit63 the tubes seem to last its the other stuff that we find that fails , security lights and retro fits 28w 2 d lamps
I absolutely hated fluorescent tubelights at work, as the 120Hz flicker (100Hz where line current is 50Hz) in my peripheral vision would give me migraines by the end of the day. I upgraded to LED replacements in the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom, and if there's any flicker in the first 2, it's less perceptible, but in the bathroom, just tossing a towel over the shower-curtain rod shows the "strobing" effect pretty clearly.
Most of those systems use LED strings at about 50%-70% of peak line voltage, a small dropping resistor to do some of the lifting, and finally linear regulator chips to regulate peak current to the LEDs. That means both current- and light-output spikes near the +/- peaks of the sinewave, lousy power-factor, and worst of all, flicker.
"Universal" replacements that can work on 50Hz/60Hz and 120V/240V, tend to have actual power-supplies and provide almost zero flicker, but $$$.
But they're hella bright, I'll give them that. Too bright, in fact, as the one in my bathroom makes me feel like I'm out in the midday sun, even in the middle of the night. I have a usb-chargeable touch-light in 2700k that I keep set relatively low, to just see where I'm going, vs blinding myself with the overhead light.
Also, some lights *need* the ballast to remain, whereas the universal ones often don't, and in fact the ballast just wastes power idling.
Bright(!) side is that I didn't have to replace any fixtures at all, and they were all drop-in replacements.
You can still sneak them in to california going where there is no inspection station
The two routes in California with no inspection station are ca 88 over the carson pass and nipton road.
The Nipton road route puts you on I 15 way south of the inspection station.
Businesses that still want to use fluorescents can bring them in via those routes with no inspection station
As a principle, I have replaced all the fittings with LEDs as and when necessary and what I am noticing is that the reliability of the LED installation is a lottery and I would say that more than 50% of the LEDs have failed prematurely and long before their stated life expectancy. The trouble is that often the whole fitting has to be replaced as the light source is integral e.g. floodlights. On the cost basis alone the replacement of existing lights with LEDs is much more expensive in fitting/conversion/upgraded lamp/labour costs than a simple light source replacement.
We have a number of specialist fittings that will be costly to convert, if at all possible, due to their architectural design and the cost of replacement would involve construction making good and other builders work and possibly an alternative aesthetic, which blows the cost out of the sky.
Locally, the Highways Department have replaced the sodium street lights with LED fittings at great expense, however, although the fittings are of a similar physical size, the light output and distribution is much less, leading to pools of higher intensity lighting immediately below the fitting, which then tails off very badly, leaving large dark patches between the lamp standards. Street lighting is supposed to provide security lighting as well as sufficient illumination to minimise hazards, these new lights manage to do neither.
I have been an electrician 35 years fixed thousands of fluorescent lights alot people probably are or not aware that when tube or starter starts malfunction causing flickering people who are are suffering epilepsy can have an episode, learnt this as apprentice ,also we use get old tubes put hole in end of tube release gas said incase explodes when breaks,we were not told of toxic gas released in our face cause issues trade school never told us found it out myself many years later ,wonder if going effect me when old got look into this more ,leds great do like them mine lasted years ,led light globes another story dont last 50,000 hrs maybe year two used every day few hours in lounge room ,know there is light globe been burning constant think its 100years more filament bigger sure its in fire station look it up .😮
So according to the video there are millions of these fixtures going to be redundant. I wonder why land fill tip they will end up in?
Fluorescent lamps should have been scrapped years ago. Lead fast have got some great solutions to help with that transition. One question are the tubes still Made of glass or are they plastic? The glass tubes are bloody dangerous when they break. I saw a guy shove one into another blokes face when I was in the army, trust me it wasn’t pretty.
Great video as always Gordon 👍
Thanks Sean - some are glass, others plastic depends on the manufacturer.
Let's ban fluorescent tubes because one tube was used to cause injury....
led tubes are glass.....maybe try not smashing tubes in peoples faces ? Squaddies do some diabolically stupid things
I still have some fluorescent tubes and some need replacement. Good to know they’re being phased out, donI quickly get some replacements for the coming years, as LED tubes don’t do the “welcome” blink and sound when turned on. That still needs to be reproduced before I want to make the switch to LED
interesting video. keep up the good work!
So I work at a hardware store some have adapters so you don't need to change adapters. However nowdays we tell people to go CEF or denmins coz they have them already
I do property management in the USA we stoped replacing fluorescent tube light five years ago. Most of my properties are already all led we prefer direct wire led tubs
We have replaced our fixtures with led versions in our common garage a few years ago. We have around a 100 lamps. They are all still working. And we are already beyond the break even point given the energy savings. Great investment. Furthermore, we have now some spare capacity for charging some additional EVs.
Great insight thanks for sharing. Used the space power capacity for EV charging 👍
100%
Also trying to get people to replace to led quickly is going to cause so much e-waste.
It's so much better to keep using it until it dies.
Same with heat pumps. Too soon too fast.
This is crazy. Flourecent tubes are as energy efficient as LED tubes and have roughly the same life span. I guess they weren't expensive enough.
Mercury is the issue
@@efixx Well, LEDs are doped with arsenic...
CFLS give out roughly double the lumens compared to led but also draw double compared to led...so in the end its the same and upgrading cfls to led is just mad unless you need a new fixture or doing new installs.
Thanks for the explanation. Spooky how I talk about a failed tube in my kitchen and up pops this video... my phone is listening. I have to replace ALL the tube fittings to get a colour/intensity match. The "lifetime" LED downlights in my bathroom cost me on average £60 a year to replace, and the clips b@gger up the ceiling plasterwork. It's a 'kin' outrageous level of waste. How is that good for the planet?
Retrofit bulbs are excellent as we have 12 units in our garage that are perfect yet the tubes are failing after 8 years.
I do worry that the new style integrated led units, once the strip of leds fails to work the whole unit will end up in the scrap.
In my quest to find additional units that match my existing ones ive come across either a huge price hike for the bare unit or from some manufacturers a complete stop of the fixture and light source being 2 separate items therefore causing the homeowner that would simply change a bulb to now have to call an electrician to change the unit. (the eco warriors will be on that one soon enough)
In our setting that simple change would involve 12 units as my ocd wont allow just one unit to look different. As said in other comments i will be looking on ebay for old units that take tubes for my future install in my shed.
time to load up on tubes and scalp them on for double money come spring. Although if you are talking about maintenance in a building allot of EM lights cook the tube used for EM and you can replace all 4 in one and cycle the 3 good lamps into the next 3 to reduce on throwing away good tubes that still have another year or two in them.
What to do when i want to avoid LED at all?
Just buy as many fluorescent tubes and incandecent bulbs as you can find to see out your lifetime.
Had no idea fluorescent tubes are to be banned. Evil eu. Recently we were bullied into having to have compact fluorescent instead of proper incandescent ones! Crazy behaviour in both cases. Simple free choice and new building or refurbishment is the right way to have done it. Scrapping working lights for want of a new bulb is totally anti environment.
Fluorescent are full of Mercury, you don't want Mercury Poisoning...
You do know we left the EU years ago, don't you?
@@godimsofuckingboredWe still have to follow all their nanny state laws though because of the inability of our (il)liberal lefty governments (incl. the nominally “Conservative” ones) to stand up to the intrinsically undemocratic EU organisation!
Exactly, its all a con to force people to buy this and buy that.
Never mind all that! I've got a five foot (or us it four? Can't remember ) tube in my kitchen, is there an easy like for like replacement or have I got to actually do some decorating?! Not to mention the circular one in the dining area....
I'm decorating arent I?!
Yes lots of like for like replacement tubes.
@@efixx excellent, thanks chaps👍
In the first place there should be no bans. Let everyone decide what light they would like to use. I have been using fluorescent lights for decades without any issues, and they give way more diffused light compared to LED. Fluorescent bulbs don't cost much to replace. LED's are just not good because of high upfront cost and more frequent replacements are needed which means its going cost much more. LED's don't last that long, I've had many failures in less than 1 year, some fixtures have irreplaceable components, so that means you have to replace everything creating more unnecessary e-waste. Its not about saving energy. It is about paying more and limiting your choice to only LED's!
This ban is going to create a staggering amount of e-waste. How is that good for the environment? Why is there a need to force people to use LED? They already are during refurbishments etc.
Switch to LEDs in my outdoor shed. About the same lumens, virtual instant on, no flickering, 1/2 the power consumption, double the life and no mercury disposal problem. What’s not to like??
Maybe its just me but I never liked the colour of many fluorescent tubes to the extent they were actually somewhat uncomfortable so essentially a mandated change to LEDs with hopefully better colour temperature options should be good for me as someone in places where they are used.
It depends on the type. Tri-phosphor or Quad-phosphor usually had good colour. Halophosphates on the other hand, were awful.
@@liam3284 Yeah some exceptions for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if the cheaper the tube, the worse the colour temp but hopefully it shouldn't matter in a few years as LEDs become the norm.
I’ve still got a few T12s new in packaging 😂 considering you cab still buy regular incandescent lamps online, I don’t think this will be a big worry for anyone..
Any chance of a version of this for domestic fittings, perhaps in more laymans English
I see a lot of headcases throwing away working lights because the new ones are allegedly more efficient. They forget they have working lights and it'll work out cheaper to use them til they fail then replace with more efficient lights. Personally, I cannot stand those nasty CFLs or LEDs. I use incandescent when I can get them.
sounds expensive on the electric bill...i still use alot of cfl tubes and wont switch to led but incandescent is where i drew the line.
@@ahah1785 It really isn't much money. In a typical house you have 4 lights on for maybe 8 hours a day. That's 8x100w bulbs vs 4x25w flouresent. BTW you lose all you save by using flouresecnt aif you turn them on and off s it needs a high starting current.
Here, a typical electric cost is 14c per KWH.
So let's look at how much 400W would use in a month...
That's 400x30x8 which is a massive $13.44
So how much if it was 4 x 25W florescents - that'd be $3.36.
But if you can't afford $13.44 for lighting then you really need to get a proper job.
Do be aware that even though fluorescent lights were bad for health, LED lights are vastly worse. They cause bleaching of the retina in normal use leading to AMD and blindness with exposures over 2 hours 45 minutes per day. They also disrupt the circadian rhythm and hormones leading to huge increases in the rates of breast and prostate cancer (>50% and >105% respectively). And the high frequency flicker at twice the mains frequency (100 hertz in the EU) which is devastating to about 1% of the population (headaches, migraines, optical migraines leading to temporary blindness and intense tinnitus. And many other problems. LED have have no red or infrared light which also means reduced mitochondrial function and poorer health.
Really sad, that the UK government missed the opportunity of Brexit to withdraw from than questionable agreement
I have never seen a lamp manufacturers supposed life time actually meet there so called expectations,
yup especially LED
Just threw out the tubes from the kitchen and went for a Philips Hue Surimu armament. Best choice ever!
It’s the final chance for fluorescent enthusiasts to collect the new old stock tubes from the lamp bins that you LED suckers have thrown away! Hope you’re pleased with yourselves adding to the waste electronics and plastics every time one of your foreign made LED fittings breaks… which is much more frequently than fluorescent ever did!
ShOcK & AWE surprise. I had no idea (mark time). And here I thought everything was going along swimmingly :) GR8T wake up call. Now I'm heading back to bed. Please let me know when you've got it completed. Cheers from the U.S.
Glad you enjoyed it!
What about UV lamps as used in reptile enclosures etc
Well we all new it was coming ..also replacement electronic ballest getting difficult to get hold of 👍👍
For tax purposes, replacing a broken item with its closest modern equivalent is maintenance, not capital. So now that flourescent lights are no longer available, replacing them with the closest equivalent LED fixture will become maintenance rather than capital expenditure.
I.e. tax deductible
until your government decides they'd actually like to have the money they extorted out of you by forcing you to replace the fixures
It seems that one reason for banning florescent lights is because they contain _(a small amount of)_ Mercury. So why are amalgam dental filling still being used by NHS dentists?
Is Mercury dangerous in a light fitting but safe and effective when stuffed into our children's mouths?
The biggest source of atmospheric Mercury pollution in the West is the dental profession and will remain so for many years unless all crematoria have chimney scrubbers fitted. Or... the unthinkable, distasteful solution is use. That would not be very politically 'acceptable'.
So it is last call to get high CRI fluorescent then
Someone gave me a few fluorescent fixtures without tubes. By the time I went to install them 4 years ago the LED tubes were the same price as fluorescent - and way better!
Led tubes are £8-9, a same size fluorescent is about £1.60. That is not the same, and the led tube offers less light.
@@blow0me Light bulbs come in different brightnesses. You need to look at the Lumens to see how bright they are. Watts are a measure of power, so LEDs will be brighter than a fluorescent with the same power.
and more damaging to your eyes - but you won't know that yet...
@@pootle5096 But somehow you DO know that. Care to explain?
@@pootle5096 I don't doubt it, which is why most led lights ow have opaque diffusers. LED's can really burn into your eyes without it
Bloody hell. I've got to think about the sodding colour for these now too?!
Why is the UK complying with an EU law? I thought the UK was no longer subject to Brussels?
Really want to know how there going to ban these halogen lights for cooking. Can't get much heat from led 😂.
No mercury in the halogen lamps
Lamps like that will still be sold just like heat lamps for reptiles because they are specialist lamps
@@efixxthere is very little mercury in fluorescent tubes look at a video big Clive did he proves all this just the stupid media spouting crap again
I haven't used florescent lamps in years anyway. I either use LED lamps running on electronic T8 ballasts (type A), or I use LED lamps that run directly from the mains voltage (100-277volts type B).
Still loads of them living in the wild
Fluorescent tube ban is fcked up.
What will they do in all the horror games and movies without flickering fluorescent tubes :(
Why would you WANT to keep using tubes? I mean, they're inefficient as hell compared to LED's... electricity isn't free and during summer, the extra heat makes your home even worse off...
Flourescent tubes are getting banned over what, a few milligrams of mercury metal, led light bulbs have an advantage over cfls that come with a cheap ballast unless on a ballasted fixing and incandescent bulbs which are line resistors on a stick, all because of the long lifespan, but on batten and false ceiling applications where you expect them to stay for many years is where light starts to shed on the LED, for starters nothing is replacable, the led driver might be replacable but if the actual light module fails, either way it gets chucked in the landfill, its a step back as it prioritises consumerism and capitalism.
Sure you can say the same thing about flourescent tubes but you replace the tube at the fraction of a cost usually £5 and depending on the ballast, it might serve an entire LED lifespan + several more years in one go and with high output tubes being a thing, you can have less fitting per sqM.
And flourescent tubes are to me the sweet spot with a mix of longevity and recyclability, with the glass melted and turned into something new.
They should have banned the use of incandescent bulb based traffic lights if you ask me.
I think more like energy efficiency issues.
Nope, look at all of the resources used, LEDs are semiconductor devices and like a diode can run on direct AC or DC but they use a driver, when the driver fails the fitting will flash, and then you have to chuck it away meaning resources wasted, and the toxic metals used in LEDs are arsenic, lead, iron, copper, and nickel. Heightened, direct exposure or consumption of some of these substances can lead to cancer and skin lesions, search it on Google!
@@AntonyoKnight Well, who pays for my electricity bill? I pay for it, not them.
@@ivankirola2707you have a few options, keep it the same, replace the switchgear to electronic as from my experience, the more times you strike a tube the ends wear down more than expected, replace half of the installation from regular T5 to T5HO and remove the other half or convert an entire T8 installation to T5HO since the light output is really the same, and you also have the options discussed in the video where you retrofit or replace with led. It's up to you, it's your electricity bill you can influence where it goes, but remember a flourescent tube is always tonnes cheaper and easier to recycle than LEDs!
@@professionalineverythingI think that fluorescent tubes are banned too early.
Still stick with me Fluorescents thank you for now. Plus LEDs give me headaces.
same
You specifically only state T5 and T8. So what about all other compact fluorescent lights ? And more important, existing emergency light maintenance which require fluorescent. Replacement would be a cost, that cannot save money.
All are banned - emergency lights - for stand alone units it’s usually more cost effective to replace the sign or emergency light. Most units now have self test which is another bonus
@@efixx When all it needs is a 50p T5 Tube, replacing the entire light is not cost effective. But yes, self test can be helpful....if we can trust it works.
I say stock pile many, many then replace fixtures at end of life or are re-modeling occurs.
DISCOVER THE COVERFHDHDKSJFJFJD
if rohs is going to make it more expensive i dont want it.
i would rather non rohs compliance to keep the prices down and just be told to recycle or dispose of properly.
if the reason for the bans because of the mercury then omit the mercury and run the voltage higher.
that is what they did for a while in cfl bulbs to eliminate the startup delay.
with mercury i think a bulb runs at 600 volts but without mercury it would be as high as 10000 volts.
if the manchester fixtures contain the ballast within the body of the fixtures then it would be possible to replace the ballasts or i think they make led bulbs that have limiting resistors that can limit the currents and voltages to make them work with original ballasts.
The changeover and efficiency will only be as good as the installation,I can see tons of work for the 'Cowboys' + the costs will run into £Ms for someone, be it the landlords or owners of the properties
UA-camr Big Clive has a video on LED's that should last forever "The lamps you're not allowed to have. Exploring the Dubai lamps" AND how to properly drive-fire-power a fluorescent.
The Dubai lamp is now available for everyone - ua-cam.com/video/YWcfz1lfD-w/v-deo.html
Y'know, I wonder if they accidentally banned LED bulbs too, if they only used the "fluorescent" definition they might have!
That is very unlikely. "Fluorescent" describes the electrochemical reaction inside the bulb. LEDs are simply not "Fluorescent" in any widespread sense, and things like the T5 and T8 sockets are irrelevant to the bill. The issue is mercury and other toxic chemicals, and the relatively high danger of shattered glass. LEDs in the T5 and T8 form factor solve all those problems, and eliminate the need to replace ballasts.
@@VPWedding Actually, most LED lights are fluorescents. You know how LEDs are monochromatic? Well, these lights are UV-spectrum LEDs lighting up a fluorescent coating. They use much the same phosphors as fluorescent lights, the difference is the way they generate the UV.
I did look up the EU regulation though, and it doesn't regulate LED-based fluorescence.
@@o0shad0oo Many dyes for clothes include fluorescence. But in terms of light bulbs, the term is clearly defined.
banned? lol and I thought Australia was the only country that made up laws and rules for sake of making shit up. I mean the nanny state here would enact laws that regulate how many litres of oxygen you can consume in an hour if they could, but looks like EU and UK got one up on us this time :)
Seems the electrical business wants this, as Gordon said " great for electricians" but not so for struggling SMB's or homeowners, at least they can buy drop in replacements and do it themselves I presume or have they outlawed that over there too? and at what cost as well, complete "drop in replacement tube" sounds like a marketing managers wet dream for price markups,
Of course, a large part of the reason for this ban is mercury ? despite mercury not having been used in tubes for how many decades ?
Mercury is an essential to the physics of a fluorescent tube. They have reduced the amount with newer T5 tubes but it’s still in all tubes.
I dodged this bullet by buying full cases of now deeply discounted bulbs
While converting to LEDs makes sence, I have to wonder if the use of any sort of incandecent and flourecent lighting will eventually become illegal, thus becoming like a witch hunt. It seems like government is getting involved where it really shouldn't, under the guise of "doing what's best."
Mate LED's are extremely harsh lights, I really can't stand them not to mention their extremely short life in comparison.. Might have to go back to incandescent
i just wish normal light bulbs were still around. if leds were so good why were normal bulbs banned?
leds are not eico friendly due to heavy metals. lead zink, mercury, etc, , plastic lots of that.
a normal bulb was mostly glass. some tin, card stock. maybe (pending use) a alloy metal and or a inert gas. cosy pennies compared to the leds and lasted far longer.
Can i retrofit ked lamps into my florescent bug zapper?
Not sure if you can get a UV version - good question
I don't actually think UV and specialty lamps are banned. UVC isn't currently even feasible to produce with LEDs, and UVA and UVB I think are still more efficient to use fluorescent+UV phosphor.
@@gregorymalchuk272UVC LED's are feasible and they do exist.
There are various products on sale which incorporate them.
I did this 5 years ago.
I dont own a single of these lamps and I work as a Translator so I dont really need the information but I always love to learn and this was really interesting ! I didnt know Balasts are a part that can "run out" at some point
Do you watch videos in different languages so you can cover a wide variety of topics? Like this is quite a niche electrical video, do you specifically watch these or just anything specialised?
@@NAEBODY electronics interest me a bit but also just to pick up on how different people talk and what type of words they use
I already replaced all of my flossies, took the lot down fitted LED light bars, cheap as chips easy to swap, far far far better lighting, comes on instantly, no flicker, and in fact the lighting is so good I am considering another small alteration so as to be able to only turn on every other light bar, but keeping the option to have them all on if necessary! In all honesty I would go for LED light bars every time! That is my workshops, at home I led lights everywhere now, and in all honesty, fewer headaches, better lighting, and so so so much cheaper. In fact since the energy prices have gone up so much my electricity bill has gone down. I pay on demand, no direct debit, I have smart meters, they send me a bill I check it if it's right I pay it, my very first electricity bill after changing everything to LED lighting was 0 yes honestly zero, as I was a little in credit before the smart meters. That's the way to go folks Stop pouring your hard earned pounds into the fat cat coffers!
Just a word, but you don't get your electricity cheaper if you don't pay by direct debit.
In fact you could very well be on a higher tariff or they might be charging you extra because you are not on a direct debit.
i HATE led strips, hurt my eyes & give me thumping head :-( i still got atlas & thorn branded tubes new in my loft, abt 90 of them so i will keep my fluorescents thanks
i had a custom that was trying to do the same with 100watt incandescent lamps when they were going to be phased out, he brought from me 200, he had them stored in his damp shed, when he started using them he went through them quickly as they had degraded, and then moaned to me they they were cheep faulty ones. not my problem i said.
I hate led and flourescent tubes are just as efficient as led. I like flourescent more and think the ban of flourescent and cfl is stupid
What about blacklight tubes are they going to be banned as well.
I don't think they should be banned because they are special perporse lamps.
Led blacklights suck.