Thanks to the miniature size of LEDs, engineers have learned to create lamps of a wide variety of designs, including repeating the shape of fluorescent and halogen lamps. Tubular fluorescent lamps of the T8 type with a G13 socket were no exception. They can be easily replaced with a similar-shaped tube with LEDs, significantly improving the optical-energy characteristics of the existing lamp.
Today we can confidently say that LED light bulbs of any form factor are superior to their fluorescent counterparts in almost all respects. Moreover, LED technologies continue to progress, which means that products based on them will be even more advanced in the future. To confirm the above, a comparative description of two types of tubular lamps is given below.
T8 fluorescent lamps:
T8 LED lamps:
In addition, T8 LED lamps have twice the light output with equal energy consumption, are less likely to fail and have a manufacturer’s warranty. The ability to place different numbers of LEDs inside the bulb allows you to achieve an optimal level of illumination. This means that instead of a T8-G13-600 mm 18 W fluorescent lamp, you can install a 9, 18 or 24 W LED lamp of the same length.
The abbreviation T8 indicates the diameter of the glass tube (8/8 inch or 2.54 cm), and G13 is the type of cap indicating the pin spacing in mm.
Having weighed all the pros and cons, we can conclude that converting a fluorescent lamp to an LED light bulb is completely justified, both from a technical and economic point of view.
Before moving on to upgrading the lamp by replacing T8 fluorescent lamps with LED lamps, you first need to properly understand the circuits. All fluorescent lamps are connected in one of two ways:
In raster ceiling lamps, 4 fluorescent tubes are connected to 2 electronic ballasts, each of which provides operation of two lamps, or to a combined ballast, including 4 starters, 2 chokes and 1 capacitor.
The connection diagram for the T8 LED lamp does not contain any additional elements (Fig. 3). 
A stabilized power supply (driver) for LEDs is already built inside the case. Along with it, under a glass or plastic diffuser, there is a printed circuit board with LEDs, mounted on an aluminum radiator. The 220V supply voltage can be supplied to the driver through the pins of the base, either on one side (usually on Ukrainian-made products) or on both sides. In the first case, the pins located on the other side serve as fasteners. In the second case, 1 or 2 pins can be used on each side. Therefore, before modifying the lamp, you need to carefully study the connection diagram shown on the LED lamp body or in its documentation. The most common are T8 LED lamps with phase and neutral connections from different sides, so alteration of the lamp will be considered based on this option.
By carefully looking at the diagrams, even an inexperienced electrician will understand how to connect an LED lamp instead of a fluorescent one. In a luminaire with ballasts, you need to perform the following steps:
The contacts in the form of pins for connecting the T8 LED lamp are marked on its base with the symbols “L” and “N”.
Converting a fluorescent lamp with electronic ballast is even easier. To do this, just unsolder or cut with wire cutters the wires going to and from the ballast. Then connect the phase and neutral wires to the wires of the left and right sockets of the lamp. Insulate the connection point, insert an LED lamp and apply supply voltage.
It is much easier to install and connect a T8 LED lamp in Philips branded lamps. The Dutch company has made the task as simple as possible for its consumers. To install an LED lamp with a length of 600 mm, 900 mm, 1200 mm or 1500 mm, you will need to unscrew the starter and screw in the plug supplied in the kit in its place. In this case, there is no need to disassemble the lamp body and remove the choke.
When choosing a T8 G13 LED lamp, you should pay attention to the design of the base. It can be rotary or have a rigid connection to the body. Models with a rotating base are considered to be the most universal. They can be screwed into any converted light fixture, with either vertical or horizontal slots in the socket. And by adjusting the angle of the lamp, you can change the direction of the light flux.
It is not uncommon to find negative reviews on the Internet that the service life of T8 LED lamps is much less than stated. As a rule, such comments are left by people who bought a Chinese “no name” for the price of a fluorescent lamp. Naturally, the quality of the LEDs and drivers will not allow it to work even for one year.
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The main disadvantage of fluorescent lamps is the presence of mercury inside them, the vapors of which are deadly to humans.
But technology does not stand still; its active development has led to the creation of LED lamps, which have surpassed fluorescent lamps in almost all respects. Currently, their only drawback is the cost in comparison with fluorescent lamps, but in terms of the sum of all the characteristics and benefits, and most importantly for safety reasons, they are unrivaled.
It is not profitable to replace old fluorescent lamps entirely with similar LED lamps, at least just economically, It's better to just replace the bulbs, because manufacturers have been producing T8 tubular LED lamps for a G13 base for a long time, and you can install them, leaving the old lamp body and only slightly modernizing it.
To install LED lamps instead of fluorescent lamps, it is necessary to slightly modify the lamp, make it simpler by removing several unnecessary components from the connection diagram. Now I will show in detail how easy it is to do it yourself.
First of all, let's look at diagrams of standard raster luminaires designed for installation of four fluorescent lamps, these are most often mounted in Armstrong-type ceilings.
There are only two varieties of them, two different schemes, the first with ballast and starter, is the most common:
The second scheme is more modern, with an electronic ballast:
In modern tubular LED lamps, in particular T8 with g13 socket, the driver necessary for the LEDs to light is already built into the body of the lamp itself and there is no need to install anything additional.
Respectively, reworking any fluorescent lamp comes down to dismantling all unnecessary equipment: ballast, starter, electronic ballast, etc. and connecting power directly to the contacts of the LED lamp. For both types of lamps, the connection diagram is common, all green conductors in the diagram are connected to the neutral wire, and all red ones to the phase wire, it should turn out something like this:
And once again, everything is quite simple, on one side a phase is supplied to the llamas, and on the other, a zero. In this case, the polarity is not important, since alternating current is connected, connect in the way that is most convenient for you. In addition, it does not matter which of the contact pins the electrical wire is connected to, because each pair of them, on each side of the LED lamp, is closed.
In the case of remaking a raster fluorescent lamp, we simply take the wires that come from the g13 sockets and cut them off, and then we connect all the wires of one side to the phase terminal, and all the wires of the other, to the neutral terminal. As a result, you should get something like the following installation diagram for LED lamps instead of fluorescent lamps:
As you can see, the technology is simple , you don’t need to have any special education to convert, say, all fluorescent lamps in an office, factory or store to LED lamps.
By the way, we wrote in the article “Connecting a fluorescent lamp” how to mount and connect a fluorescent lamp, and most importantly, how to install T8 tubular lamps
As a result of this modification, you get a new, modern LED lamp, safe, with low energy consumption and a long service life.
remember, that old fluorescent lamps cannot simply be thrown away or, worse, simply broken, they must be disposed of because they contain mercury. Every major city has centers where you can donate your energy-saving lamps, often completely free of charge.
I waited my turn for remodeling and this kitchen ceiling lamp. I recently changed energy-saving lamps to LEDs in the bathroom, and now I need to redo the chandelier in the kitchen. This lamp has two energy lamps with an E27 base, so instead of them you will need to stuff two sets of drivers and LEDs here. The difficulty is that all this LED technology simply loves to warm up and warm everything around it :-) And given that the lamp is ceiling-mounted and therefore poorly ventilated due to the glass hemisphere, there is a high probability that the LEDs will overheat, because the light in the kitchen sometimes burns for hours. Therefore, I immediately refused to install LEDs on the steel base of the lamp, although it is almost twice as large as those in the bathroom, but it is very thin, almost like a beer can.
We unscrew the energy-saving lamps, disconnect the power wires from the ceiling terminal and remove the base of the lamp from the ceiling by unscrewing the three screws.
For the role of a passive radiator, I decided to adapt a sheet of duralumin approximately 2.5 mm thick. We get rid of the cartridges and measure the diameter of the lamp base.
In my case, the diameter of the pancake will be approximately 33cm. Using a compass, we beat out a circle on a sheet of aluminum, after which, using a jigsaw with a metal file, we cut out the future area for the LEDs. We clean the sawn nickel with sandpaper and get rid of burrs on the edges.
Next, we need to transfer the marks to it so that the LEDs are evenly installed in their places. So that the heat is evenly distributed throughout the metal, and the light does not shine anyhow. For this I used a paper stencil, which I pored over for almost an hour. You can ignore this point and glue the LEDs at random, as long as they don’t bunch up on the aluminum sheet. One hell, all this beauty will not be visible behind the lampshade.
I decided to lighten the front surface of the radiator. Therefore, I wrapped several layers of paper tape on the cardboard, as if putting it in a stack, and then I cut out these round pieces with a homemade punch (a piece of pipe with a sharpened end) and glued them to the previously made marks.
After painting the radiator with white paint, peel off the round pieces of tape and degrease the exposed areas with some kind of chemical, alcohol, vodka, solvent, acetone, etc.
The radiator is ready for gluing LEDs, but before that we make sure to call them with a tester, since sometimes we come across non-working (defective) ones. We also straighten the legs of the LEDs, because initially they are pressed closer to the base of the LED.
I tried to glue them in such a way that I could then connect them in series. Later it will be clear that I still screwed up with one LED, because I glued it on the wrong side and the wires to it had to be pulled in a roundabout way :-)
After drying for a day, we proceed to soldering all the LEDs in the circuit. The connection diagram is the same as in this homemade lamp, except that there are two drivers, and there are one more light bulbs in each circuit, because one of the drivers did not want to start with 10 LEDs ().
As soon as we have finished weaving the web, we connect the drivers and test turn on our spotlight. In my case, after an hour of continuous operation, the plate became slightly warm. True, the test is not entirely correct, since the LEDs look up, and besides, they are not covered by a glass dome. But in any case, such a large radiator does its job perfectly. By the way, I don’t recommend looking at the bright LEDs that are turned on without protecting your eyes with some kind of glasses, since the light is so bright that after it, dark pea spots remain in your eyes for a long time. Even cameras don't do well if you focus on LEDs. I suspect that such stress for the eyes obviously does not add sharpness to vision :-)
After the tests, we unsolder the drivers and placing them in the center of the spotlight, we make marks on the radiator. After that, we drill holes for the nylon ties, the terminal block and the supply of the network wire. It doesn’t hurt to remove the chamfers with a large drill so that nothing is rubbed or cut through.
We cut out a round insulator from some kind of plastic, the ideal would be textolite, but for some reason I couldn’t find it at home. We place it under the block, which we fasten with a screw, and then we tighten the drivers themselves with nooses. Finally, we solder and clamp the wires into place.
This is what all this disgrace looks like from the opposite side (photo below).
To attach the radiator to the base of the lamp, I had to drill three more holes around the perimeter, and then stupidly hang it on a wire (photo below). Although it would be more reasonable to tightly screw it through large washers in order to transfer heat to the base of the lamp.
Actually, here is another lamp placed on the meter, waiting for it to burn out completely or for some LED to burn out. Initially, there were two warm energy-saving lamps of 23 W each, but now there are 44 warm LEDs. The total power of this luminaire with two drivers is now approximately 27W. By eye, I didn’t notice any difference in brightness; I don’t have any fancy lux meters yet, but the mobile phone sensor from a distance of 170 cm shows almost the same values, maybe a few points less (photo above). In general, the fact that these homemade lamps shine brightly and consume little is of course a big plus. But at the moment, I’m more concerned not about saving energy, but about how long these garlands will last, since lately I’ve been wanting to gradually get off this expensive energy-saving needle :-)
Below I have listed some components from Ali for assembling a similar lamp.
Entering almost any office space, school, kindergarten or office of any enterprise, you can notice that the lighting almost everywhere consists of so-called fluorescent lamps, i.e. fluorescent lamps (usually 36 W devices).
Indeed, just literally 5–7 years ago it seemed that this was the most economical type of lighting for the office. But time passes, new lighting options appear, much more energy-saving and durable. Now LED lamps are being introduced everywhere in order to save money. Of course, if there is an ordinary chandelier hanging in the office, then all that needs to be done to modernize is to change the incandescent bulbs to LED.
Is it possible to install LED lamps in fluorescent lamps if it was decided to switch to a more energy-saving type of lighting or if you have to throw them away in order to install LED tubes in their place? There is no need to rush into this. After all, it is absolutely clear that buying such a lamp in a store will cost many times more than purchasing a separate element. We need to figure out whether it is possible to convert a fluorescent lamp into an LED one.
The answer to this question is yes. It remains to understand how to replace LDS with LED. Converting a fluorescent lamp into an LED lamp is practically no difficulty, and in essence it is a simple modification of an old lamp. After all, only a change in the circuit is required, and the LED tubes are completely identical in shape to fluorescent lamps. To do this you need to follow a few simple steps:
Typically, the operating time of an LED lamp declared by the manufacturer is at least 30,000 hours, and yet much will depend on the manufacturer of the driver, i.e., the electronic ballast, and the light elements themselves. But in any case, installing T8 instead of fluorescent lamps is beneficial for several reasons:
In a word, converting a fluorescent lamp into an LED lamp with your own hands is a profitable business, and if possible you should not neglect it. Well, now there shouldn’t be any questions left about how to remake the lamp.
