How to Easily Convert Fluorescent to LED - Step by Step Instructions (Ballast Bypass)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.พ. 2025
- Easily retrofit your old fluorescent T8, T10, and T12 light fixtures to long lasting LED tubes. You can tailor your lights to match your current lighting level or you can go really bright. We will show you, step by step, how to bypass that old ballast.
Simple detailed instructions allow you to make the change over quickly with simple electrical tools and a screwdriver.
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Questions and suggestions are encouraged, so please feel free to comment, but please be tasteful and respect the opinions of others.
Our channel offers videos covering woodworking, tool reviews, and DIY projects. With that in mind, our goal is to provide comprehensive and easy to follow instructions and information geared toward the beginner and the tool challenged, but if you are an old hand, you will probably still learn a thing or two.
Well done guidance on converting florescent to LED fixtures. Cleared up the confusion on types of LED tube bulbs. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for your comment and I'm glad it was helpful.
Very nice! "That Sign's In Front of My Face". Very clever.
Thanks! We both really enjoyed making the video together. She also appears in a couple of others. Thanks for watching!
Thank You for your video. It has provided me the information I have needed. I have 7-2 tube fixtures in my basement to upgrade. They are over 30 years old. I'll research the level of lighting that I need. I have 7 1/2 foot ceilings
Best of luck! That's a big project.
Very well made video! I heard about shunted vs. non-shunted lamp holders. Do I need non-shunted lamp holders to bypass ballast?
No. You didn't watch the whole video did you? Tsk, tsk, tsk... I showed how to do both types, with the shunted fixture near the end. The wire up is exactly the same. It was a four light fixture, so you simply tie 4 wire from one row of tombstones to the white common wire and the other 4 to the black hot wire.
Very helpful, thank you!
Glad it helped. Thanks for watching!!
Great video! I'm about to jump into converting my garage fluorescent lights to LEDs. The Amazon ad explained I didn't need to remove the ballast, however none of the bulbs work so going to follow your instructions to remove the ballast.
Thank you and good luck on the conversion. Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I somehow missed your comment.
Keep in mind that you may not be using the right kind of LED bulb (lamp) for what you want to do. There are Type A bulbs which are made to be used with regular fluorescent light ballasts. There are Type B bulbs which are made to be used without any ballast at all (such as what you're seeing in this video). And then there are Type C which are made to be used with an "LED Driver" (which is similar to a fluorescent ballast, but specifically for driving LED bulbs).
If you'd like to follow this tutorial, you'll need to use Type B LED tubes.
If you'd like to keep your original fluorescent ballasts, you'll need to use Type A LED tubes.
Excellent video, very clear instructable
Thanks Aaron! Appreciate your comments.
Thank you for this video.
Thank you for watching!
Man who was that beautiful lady in the beginning I think she should be in more of your future videos. Amazing job 😎
I thought I would add some eye candy for this video! Your Mimi read your comment and now she has the big head. LOL
Great job! I'll look forward to following your videos!
Thank you!
Thank you
Thank you for watching!
i am thinking on the ballast bypass led and bypassing the ballast all together and i also have an old magnetic Ballast. I have the Ballast cover off and I see that on the yellow wire end of the facture there are 2 black jumper cables going from the left tombstone to the right and there are 2 yellow wires going from the right to the ballast. how would I wire this configure to do the Ballast bypass? then i also have a pull switch as well.
And you should also have a black, white, & green entering the fixture from your power source and attaching to one end of the ballast, right?
Are you going to use the double powered bulbs? If so your wiring setup should be routed like one of the examples in the video. You should end up with one end of the fixture being hot and the other end being neutral.
Also, if you have a single wire going to each tombstone, be sure to wire them up that way when you make the conversion. Likewise, if you have two going to each tombstone, stick with that. These are different types, shunted vs un-shunted, and if you try to change that it can lead to premature bulb failure or they may short out.
The dual ended LED tubes are the best because you can't make any mistakes rewiring the fixture.
You're right, and I would have done that if I could have found them bright enough. Thanks for watching!
thank you so very very much for your very easy to understand video. One thing I did want to know is I love those led bulbs with 3 sides, do you happen to know where you bought them or is there a link to where to buy them and or the bulb make and model number, thank you again in advance for you help is this matter, Blessings, Barb
I bought them from Amazon. Here is a link: amzn.to/3TlKqzv WARNING: I bought 8 of these and 2 were bad. You may have better luck than I did, or you can use this link as a springboard to an LED light search. Good luck and thanks for watching.
Best video!
Thank you! I really appreciate it and thank you for watching.
I’ve got an extremely old fixture with no ground wire. Is it safe to bypass with no ground?
So you have only two wires coming into your fixture from your power source, right? Probably a hot (black or red) and a common (white) with no third green wire. It is safer if you have a ground wire, of course, but if you bypass the ballast it will be as safe as it was before. It will still be 110/120Volts with no ground.
@ I’ve got a black and white wire and when I use my little voltage tester the white one is going off and the black one isn’t so maybe they are swapped?
@@HDTurf Could be. Generally, the black is hot, but there's no guarantee that they wired it up correctly.
A question, you said the led gets a lot hotter than the fluorescent lights. Is there anything to worry about as far as the plastic cover that goes over the light? Thanks so much for your videos!
I don't think so. They are designed for this. They do get hotter, but not enough to get serious burns or anything like that. They can be uncomfortable to handle though. Thanks for watching our video.
@@deerparkhomeshop2471 thanks so much.
thank u informative and entertaining
LED replacements generally use about 1/3 less wattage (heat) than the fluorescent tube they replace. In your example you are using LEDs that produce 2 times the brightness (lumens) so are using more watts resulting in more heat.
@@MyUnibrow thanks. Are you saying that switching to LED is an issue or not? I’m trying to decide whether to do this. Thanks for your help.
Is there any way I can call you with a couple questions about my light that I am converting to ballast bypass with a pull chain.I need to verify how to wire before starting.Please let me know if this would be possible.Thank you.
Before we start playing phone tag, what is your question? I thought the video explained it pretty well, unless you are going to try to wire up for single powered led's.
@@deerparkhomeshop2471 I think I have it figured out.Going to try it after I dig out from our storm tomorrow.I may get back to you if I have a problem,but I greatly appreciate you responding.
No problem. Feel free to contact me.
In this case are the tombstone shunted?
As I remember, they were shunted. One wire goes to each tombstone.
Yes. Dual ends will work with either type tombstone. However, single end LEDs require shunted. Look at this link: www.orilis.com/blogs/led-lighting-tips/single-ended-and-double-ended-led-tubes-explained#@@1mountaindigger
Be careful with the black and red wires, while connecting 5 wires, it can spark.
Yes. You want to make sure the fixture is unplugged while you're working on it. and make sure there is no bare exposed wire below the wire nuts after you screw them on.
@@deerparkhomeshop2471 yep, the black wire even the red wires can catch fire 🔥 and shock you to death 💀.
@@DilianoTheKing7K2 👍
I've been learning Electrical Installation for almost 3 years.
@@DilianoTheKing7K2 That's great. Most of my electrical knowledge came from the courses I took for HVAC technology back in the day. Well, I hope you can make a successful career out of it.
Thanks for your video. I have a question. When you combined the neutral wires you combined (I think) all 4 wires from the 2 tombstones of the fixture (that became the neutral end). I believe you did the same for the hot end wires as well. Is it necessary to combine both wires from each tombstone (to create the neutral end) or can just 1 wire from each tombstone be connected? (With the same question applied for the hot end as well). Thanks!
If you have two wires to each tombstone they are probably the non-shunted type and require both wires, If that's the case, it's not going to work. You can google "shunted" and "non-shunted" tombstones to get some info on the characteristics of each. Good luck on your fixture.
@@deerparkhomeshop2471 Thanks!
What about fuses? I didn’t see anything about fuses. Are they not necessary?
I've never seen fuses in residential flouescent fixtures, but I haven't seen everything.. Do you have a fixture with fuses?
I've seen diagrams for direct wire LEDs that recommend putting a fuse inline with the hot lead. I, like you, didn't think I needed them, but decided to be better safe than sorry.
This is what I bought on Amazon, but there are others
XFFCSEC Fuse Holder Kit:10pcs 18 AWG Screw Type 5X20 Inline Fuse Holder + 150pcs Quick Blow 250V Fuse 0.1A,0.2A,0.5A,1A,2A,3A,5A,8A,10A,15A,5x20mm, 0.5A,1A,5A,10A,15A,6x30mmXFFCSEC Fuse Holder Kit:10pcs 18 AWG Screw Type 5X20 Inline Fuse Holder + 150pcs Quick Blow 250V Fuse 0.1A,0.2A,0.5A,1A,2A,3A,5A,8A,10A,15A,5x20mm, 0.5A,1A,5…
helpful but the words are hiding the light your working on, makes it hard to watch.
I'm sorry, but I re-watched the video and I didn't really see a spot where the writing actually covered the fixture. Please, recontact me and let me know what spot in the video you're talking about. This may be more of a problem if you're watching on a small screen like a phone. I always watch youtube on my 26" computer screen or the TV, but I will be more aware of this in the future.