A few decades ago, fluorescent tube lights entered the home lighting and industrial lighting scene. Thanks to their cylindrical design, they produced good quality light that was dispersed better than incandescent bulbs. Soon tube lights began to be used in warehouses, factories, offices, homes, indoor gardens, schools almost everywhere that lights were needed. The sockets continued to be occupied by incandescent bulbs until miniature fluorescent tubes – the CFLs, arrived. Now LED technology is replacing both fluorescent tubes and CFLs at the same time.
LED tube lights are an elongated source of light with low luminous intensity. The distribution of light is better and glare is significantly reduced compared to other light sources.
Why LED tube lights make sense?
Fluorescent tube lights are energy efficient – about three times as efficient as incandescent bulbs. But LED tubes are much better. A 23 watt, 6 foot LED tube light can replace a fluorescent tube that hogs 60 watts. The life of more than 50,000 hours and 5 years of warranty mean that this piece of technology makes a lot of practical sense. The primary reason why tube lights are used – energy efficiency - is also the reason why LED tube devices are ideal replacements. Given the long operating hours the return on investment is high and break even can be less than a year in some situations. In areas like subways, tunnels, and factories the long life of these lights translates into significant savings in replacement and maintenance costs.
Features of LED Tube lights:
Variety - LED based tube lights are available in a variety of lens types (frosted and clear) and colors.
Aluminum heat sink – Heat sinks are important for LED lights as LEDs operate best when heat is efficiently conducted away. Aluminium is one of the best conductors of heat that helps prolong the life of the lighting device by preventing overheating.
Mercury‐free – The presence of mercury is a major drawback of fluorescent tube lights. Fluorescent tubes need to be disposed safely but safe disposal facilities may not be handy. Carrying a five foot long tube to a disposal facility located 10 to 30 miles away is not exactly a practical proposition.
No ballast required – Ballasts are needed to provide the striking voltage to Fluorescent devices. The ballast adds to the cost of lighting. It also increases power consumption and is also one additional piece of equipment that adds to the failure risk of the fluorescent tube. LEDs on the other hand can work on low voltage currents.
Shock and vibration resistant – Solid state lights are easy to carry and install. They do not have fragile electric elements that might snap due to vibrations nor are they made of glass that can create risk of breakage and laceration injury.
Should you use ballast free tube lights?
It is better to use ballast free tube lights. These work on low voltages and use less electricity. It may however be necessary to rewire the tube light holder to eliminate the existing ballast from the electric circuit. If you do not want to rewire the tube light holder retro‐fit kits are available with us for direct replacement of fluorescent fixtures. It is possible to include a circuit in the LED tubes design that will nullify the changes made to the electric current by the ballast. LED tubes that are used with ballasts consume slightly more electricity than ballast free tubes.