Off Topic: Where to buy 5ft Fluorescent Tube Lighting?

[cunning plan]

Hey chaps. Does anyone know where to get cheap standard fluorescent Tube lighting from?

Nothing special, 65w, 240v etc.. :shadey:

 

[Matt84]

I got some recently from screwfix, twin tube 58W but then I replaced the bulbs with LED tubes from Newey & Eyre. 26W tubes I think, looks great in the garage, nice cool white light. You have to bypass the original ballast to fit LED tubes but it's simple enough, with hindsight it may have been cheaper to buy LED fittings but got the tubes off a friend of a friend

Hope that little ramble helps!

 

[Guest]

we just bought a load of 5ft LED tubes for 18+vat each, far superior light colour than the old tubes they replaced. im not sure what price the flourscent tubes are but these LED ones were a direct replacement the only modification was the wiring had to be changed to bypass the CFL ballast as mentioned

Better brighter light at lower wattage so will keep the tree hugger in you happy too and supposed to have a 10,000 hr life span.

Red Arrow Trading

 

[Webbaldo]

Screwfix

For the price of the tubes you can get LED strips.

We have them in the offices at work, like working in a dentist's chair :lol:

 

[cunning plan]

Thank you gents, I will take a look at the LED tube / strips from Screwfix.

If the only modification is to bypass the ballast, then they seem easy enough to fit, especially as the ballast can fail, it is good to eliminate something else from the system.

Currently the lights turn on, then flash on and off slowly. I've changed the starter motors on them and the next thing to try was replacing of the tubes. If that still did not work then I would have had to replace the ballasts, so this is great that LED lights eliminate that step.

 

[Webbaldo]

Don't mean an LED tube mate, actually replaces the whole fitting

They don't have removable bulbs, fitting inc light is all one unit.

 

[Guest]

a quick pic of the LED tubes which just fit into the original fluorescent light fittings

 

[cunning plan]

Thanks guys, I could not find direct-replacement LED tubes / bulbs, so I ended up buying three of these:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/sylvania-luxline-plus-triphosphor-fluorescent-tube-t8-6000lm-1764mm-70w/25780

They are pretty good value for £5.50 each. I also went through a bag of cheap / crappy starter motors until I found ones which worked and now the lights stay on as they should. :mrgreen: