Well, luckily only had (10) single 16W bulbs to replace. Used the Toggled brand from Home Depot. Finally got around to this and adjusted/removed the ballasts for the retrofit.
Unfortunately, whatever dimmer I try I get buzzing.
Dumb standard on/off - works fine, but feels like the sun is shining.
Dumb Lutron dimmer - bulb buzzing
Inovelli red dimmer - switch and bulb buzzing
Zen 27 - doesn’t even turn on
LED replacements are Much brighter than the old 40w fluorescents. Another positive is it went from 400W to 160W on that switch with the retrofit.
I did this in our kitchen. I think I got my LED tubes at home Depot too. Don't remember the name only that they were made in Michigan. They work great. Much better than the florescent I replaced.
Here's what happened to my LED "drop-in" replacement. Low Electrical IQ (me) and bad ballast apparently... ended up changing out the old fixtures for some cheapo LED ones. Working great.
Wow! That is terrible. I have 5 Philips Instantfit 4000K (16W) tubes in use for the last ~8 years in two fixtures. When I put them in, I was uncomfortable/lazy with re-wiring the tombstones for 120V LED tubes. So instead, I replaced the ballasts with Philips electronic ballasts at the same time. So far, everything has been ok. These tubes are not dimmable. I have one of them on a Caseta switch and the other on a Zooz ZEN21.
That would seem to be the better option. Although I know of another install of Instantfits which has also remained fine for ~6 years. Since I did that install as well, I know I replaced the ballast there too with an electronic ballast.
Yeah I ended up finding some super duper cheap LED shop lights on a crazy Amazon sale for like $6 a strip (now $20). Was too good a deal not to pass up. Controlling them via an old Iris plug. Working great..
If my memory is correct, I looked at drop in replacements and that they required certain ballasts. I also remember reading that the ballasts just gave another failure point and used more electricity than removing them. I had the time and had no idea how old the ballast was in the fixture, we bought the place in 2017, so I did the rewire. I also made sure I added the stickers so anyone that looks will know it's NOT a florescent fixture anymore.
I did add one of those cheap LED fixtures in my shed and that is really bright too compared to the old florescent types the same size.
Many older fluorescent tube fixtures used magnetic ballasts. These are not compatible with LED replacement tubes. If you have newer electronic ballasts, they should work.
I've not seen any data of the increase in efficiency of a fluorescent fixture with LED tubes. I would not be comfortable using drop in LED tubes anyway.
The drop in tubes have a little extra electronics to provide the right voltage needed for the LEDs. I had two fixtures with four foot fluorescent tubes. One of them had magnetic ballasts, so I just purchased a new fixture with LED lights. The other one had electronic ballasts, so I just replaced the fluorescent tubes with the drop-in tubes. Both have worked well for several years now.
