Fluorescent Conversion

  • 4 Ways to Convert a Fluorescent Tubelight with 2 Ballasts to a LED T8 Fixture

    There are four possible reasons you have two ballasts in your T8 or T12 fluorescent tubelight fixture. See which one matches your light fixture and how our EZ double end powered LED T8 conversion kits can help.


    1) I have one wall switch and all the bulbs light up in my fixture when I turn the wall switch on. There is only one switch that turns on this fixture and there are two ballasts inside.

    You have an old style fluorescent fixture. No matter the type of bulb (either T12 or T8, the size is on the bulb) you can rewire this fixture. Please tell your electrician to review this video and instruct him that the double ended feed bulbs require Hot (black) and Neutral (white) wired on each end. Here is the wire diagram.


    2) My fixture has two switches that control it this way; One switch controls 2 bulbs and the other switch controls either 1 or 2 more bulbs. When I turn both switches on all the bulbs will be on. Both switches are in the same place on the wall.

    Your fixture must have been set up to allow you three levels of lighting, You can turn on some of the lights, the other set of lights or all the lights. Therefore your fixture has two Hot wires (Black) and one or two Neutral (White) wires going to the fixture. From your wall switches, this fixture can be rewired, but as we are not on site we can not tell you exactly. Any good electrician can get this fixture retrofitted with LED and remove the old energy sucking ballasts. A simple wire diagram is included here, give it to your electrician. In our sample diagram, one switch will control two lamps, and the other switch will control one lamp. When both switches are on, all the lamps we will be on. In some cases, your wiring on site may be slightly different.

    Convert dual ballast fluorescent T8 fixtures to LED T8 with 3 Levels lighting and a switch box diagram


    3) My fixture's tubes all come on at the same time, but I have two switches on opposing sides of the room that control the fixture, that way, no matter the door I come in, I can turn the light on or off.

    This is called "three way switching". There are a number of ways this is wired, and we cannot explore all of them here. Get your electrician on the job and in 10 minutes he will know where the hot and neutral wires are that come in the fixture and will be able to wire up your retrofit quick. As long as he knows that the bulbs are powered from each end, Hot (Black) on one and Neutral (White) on the other it will be easy. Your electrician will remove the ballasts and wire up your LED to work perfectly.


    4) My fixture has 6 bulbs in it, it requires two ballasts to make it work. When I turn on the switch all 6 bulbs come on.

    We have a video and a diagram for fixtures like this. Usually these are shop fixtures but are easy to convert. For 6 lamp fixtures we recommend that you buy the two parts you need Al-la-cart, the bulbs and the label. Then use wire nuts as shown in our video to connect the wires.

    One fixture 6 lamp double end powered wire diagram

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    Tags: retrofit, Dual Ballasts, Fluorescent Conversion, LED T8 Lighting

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