I'm sure, like me, a lot of folks who've come to the comments area have seen a bunch of those lousy videos out there that try to explain this process but fail on a number of points. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we get when an actual pro demonstrates and educates us on the procedure. Finally! Thank you!
Yes, very helpful. From what I gather though, an "actual pro" always twists the wires together before applying the wire-nuts. I'd also say he should have stripped away more than a quarter-inch of insulation, and BTW, wire-nuts are rated by color for the number and gauge of wires they are made to accomodate. And seriously - leaving the ballast in? Why? It now serves no purpose, and takes one screw to remove? What purpose does it serve other than to possibly confuse some future person who might try to insert fluorescent bulbs? Other than that, great video, and I think I've watched enough of them to (hopefully) accomplish this task. Seems a little funny though, if we're shifting over to LED lighting, why do we have to stay with this outdated fluorescent tube geometry in the first place? Why not just install dedicated LED fixtures without the fake "tubes"?
Thank you. Last night i grabbed the ballast version of led bulbs and within an hour the ballast blew. Today i watched your video and 1 hour later (including trip to HD) I had rewired and replaced them with non-ballast ones. Your video is no frills, straight to the point and works.😃Thank you!
I just did this. Went with some GE type A/B LEDs with adjustable temp. . Just snipped, pulled out the ballast, combined all the wires on each end with either the line in or neutral and plugged in the bulbs. Super easy. BTW, Home Depot said they will no longer be selling fluorescent tubes once their current inventory is sold. So, everyone should be doing this, sooner rather than later.
Very professional and easy to understand video, thank you! The lamps I have to replace are in the 12 ft high ceiling of a farm shop. We installed them 20 years ago and one 6 fixture bank of the 2 tube fluorescent fixtures is completely out. The other was on a motion detector and still works. We discovered that at 9,000 ft altitude, those fluorescents were worthless in the bitter winter cold. They just couldn't ever get warm enough to make the gas glow. We may do the rewiring in place and just leave the ballast where it is with wires cut flush. I hadn't heard anyone else talk on RUclips about the V design or the other available bulbs with double rows. This is just a terrific video. Really informative! Now to rewire 15 fixtures...on a tall ladder.
I agree with the other comments - very helpful to have a professional and CORRECT video about making this replacement. Just switched out the old flickering humming fluorescent lights in my garage thanks to your help.
This has been the most helpful video I have seen yet. I'm replacing fluorescent lights in the kitchen ceiling with a bunch of wires and my LED lights don't have many wires worried about putting wires together. You were clear explaining how, thank you.
Electrician here and was stumped with the yellow common wires. This gave me some faith the colors don't matter when it comes to converting to LED. Just a hot, neutral and ground like anything else. Good stuff! Thanks!
Finally a guy who got me to understand how to do this. Amazing how some other videos make it so complicated. Thank you sir 😊 now I can get rid of the humming ballasts and dim tubes. My Dad who was an industrial electrician put these up 23 years ago using different fixtures from different jobs and God bless him he passed at 88 years old leaving me to try and figure this out. You just got through to me. Thanks again
Thank you so much - really clear instructions. Being female I could not twist 5 wires together using just fingers, but with a tool it worked. We have the LEDs, and bad ballast is cut off. Hurrah 😊
Best video ever. Thank You for being so thorough with your instructions. I was stuck between what side should be neutral or hot and you said it doesn't matter, just pick a side. Thank You Very Much!
YES it does. The new bulbs will be marked "N" or "L" for Neutral or Line. Put the "L" side of the bulb into the light fixture that is wired with the hot wire and vice versa.
great video thanks .. answered my question on shunted and non shunted tomstones . . the bypass method. this bypass.. Can it be used on double ended led bulbs.?. w Will this bypass system work on single ended led bulbs too.?
Thank you. Your video was the most informative on bypassing the ballast. I see that doing it with one fixture is very easy. My question is that I have 3 light fixtures connected (each with 2 tubes) that are lined up on the ceiling, feeding from one source. I see how you have said to connect the white with the yellow wires and the colored wires with the black. There are several black wires in some of the fixtures and several yellow and white ones as well. Is it ok to connect more than one black together in fixtures where there are more than one?
The best approach when by-passing the ballast, is to cut all the wires at the ballast which will include a white (neutral) wire, and a black (hot) wire, and strip all wires, then wire nut any color wires leading to the 2 sockets at one end of the fixture to the white wire, and wire nut any colored wire leading to the other end to black - then it will not matter how they chased the wiring from fixture to fixture - All the best!
I have the same issue. The main light fixture that connects to the junction box and 2 other light fixtures daisy chained to the main light fixture. And I can’t find a Video on this scenario.
if you connect the wires like this video @9:31 each LED tube are set in parallel circuit, each tube receives 55V, if the source is 110V (in America). Does it not effect the light color or power usage? if you connect the tubes in serie consecutive would the tubes work in the same manner?
Just to be clear for a single lamp connection please...The R17D type LED is wired with one end on neutral and the other to line voltage with ballast removed. Is that correct?
I am not exactly a DIYer but I have removed my ballast and am trying to install "ballast bypass" bulbs. Coming from the power source, there's black (hot), white (neutral) AND a copper (ground). My question is this, do I need the ground? I don't see the ground wire in this video.
Depend on the house electrical installation. Here because the input is consisted of 2 wires they are 1 hot and 1 neutral/cold. If the is a 3- wires then you would have brown=hot, black=cold and yellow/stripped=neutral connect to the case of the base.
I followed you exactly, and only one end of my bulb lights up. Something is wrong. If I take the bulbs out and switch ends…opposite ends of the bulbs are glowing .. power to both ends
I have (2) ballast (4) -8ft. bulb (F96TT12)-(60-75W) fixtures. Will I be wiring them the same as your video? Also what size LED bulbs would you recommend, since I'm thinking of only using 2 bulbs instead of 4 per fixture ? Thank you
Howcome some are wired hot on one end and neutral on the other end (like in this video) while some are wired hot and neutral on the same end and leave the other side chopped?
I have a hot and Neutral coming in to one side and than both come out and blue and red going into the other. Spliced the Hot and blue and N and red and nothing. Only getting 55v coming in
Did you figure it out yet? All the red and blue wires get connected to the black wire that you cut off from the ballast. You connect the yellow wires to the white wire that you cut off from the ballast. No wires should be connected to the ballast.
I have 2 ballasts in the fixture. There are 6 wires (blue, red, yellow) coming out of one side and another 6 coming out of the other side. There are 2 black wires and 2 white wires coming out of the main power source. In this case, how should I make the wire connection? Should I turn the power off from the circuit breaker before doing work?
I have 2 8 foot fixtures im only converting one over to LED bc the ballast went bad. With lead on one end and neutral on the other end now my LED wont come on (eventho the ohm meter showing 125 volts). Makes zero sense to me why this is happening. Anyone have any ideas?
I guess my question would be! What type of business are these? I seen one video where all the power coming from one end and the bulb has power on one end. Are there different bulbs
For some slow is better. The whole vid was too slow for my tastes too, but I appreciate his thoroughness (learned a couple details), so about 25% into the vid I changed the playback speed (in RUclips settings) to 1.75 and that was perfect for me.
@jack0903 there's a red slider that lets you advance (or go back) in the video. Must be your first day on RUclips. Thats ok, we were all beginners once 👍
I'm sure, like me, a lot of folks who've come to the comments area have seen a bunch of those lousy videos out there that try to explain this process but fail on a number of points. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we get when an actual pro demonstrates and educates us on the procedure. Finally! Thank you!
Yes, very helpful. From what I gather though, an "actual pro" always twists the wires together before applying the wire-nuts. I'd also say he should have stripped away more than a quarter-inch of insulation, and BTW, wire-nuts are rated by color for the number and gauge of wires they are made to accomodate. And seriously - leaving the ballast in? Why? It now serves no purpose, and takes one screw to remove? What purpose does it serve other than to possibly confuse some future person who might try to insert fluorescent bulbs? Other than that, great video, and I think I've watched enough of them to (hopefully) accomplish this task. Seems a little funny though, if we're shifting over to LED lighting, why do we have to stay with this outdated fluorescent tube geometry in the first place? Why not just install dedicated LED fixtures without the fake "tubes"?
Finally someone explains how simple this is. Thank you!!!
Thank you. Last night i grabbed the ballast version of led bulbs and within an hour the ballast blew. Today i watched your video and 1 hour later (including trip to HD) I had rewired and replaced them with non-ballast ones. Your video is no frills, straight to the point and works.😃Thank you!
I just did this. Went with some GE type A/B LEDs with adjustable temp. . Just snipped, pulled out the ballast, combined all the wires on each end with either the line in or neutral and plugged in the bulbs. Super easy. BTW, Home Depot said they will no longer be selling fluorescent tubes once their current inventory is sold. So, everyone should be doing this, sooner rather than later.
Very professional and easy to understand video, thank you! The lamps I have to replace are in the 12 ft high ceiling of a farm shop. We installed them 20 years ago and one 6 fixture bank of the 2 tube fluorescent fixtures is completely out. The other was on a motion detector and still works. We discovered that at 9,000 ft altitude, those fluorescents were worthless in the bitter winter cold. They just couldn't ever get warm enough to make the gas glow. We may do the rewiring in place and just leave the ballast where it is with wires cut flush. I hadn't heard anyone else talk on RUclips about the V design or the other available bulbs with double rows. This is just a terrific video. Really informative! Now to rewire 15 fixtures...on a tall ladder.
Watched 4 videos for this topic, and this one by far is the best, actually learned a lot, very detailed and simple at the same time, thank you Sir.
Best video I’ve found that covers this situation! Thank you very much!
I agree with the other comments - very helpful to have a professional and CORRECT video about making this replacement. Just switched out the old flickering humming fluorescent lights in my garage thanks to your help.
This has been the most helpful video I have seen yet. I'm replacing fluorescent lights in the kitchen ceiling with a bunch of wires and my LED lights don't have many wires worried about putting wires together. You were clear explaining how, thank you.
Electrician here and was stumped with the yellow common wires. This gave me some faith the colors don't matter when it comes to converting to LED. Just a hot, neutral and ground like anything else. Good stuff! Thanks!
Finally a guy who got me to understand how to do this. Amazing how some other videos make it so complicated. Thank you sir 😊 now I can get rid of the humming ballasts and dim tubes. My Dad who was an industrial electrician put these up 23 years ago using different fixtures from different jobs and God bless him he passed at 88 years old leaving me to try and figure this out. You just got through to me. Thanks again
You had 23 years to ask your father... sad bruh
Thank you so much - really clear instructions. Being female I could not twist 5 wires together using just fingers, but with a tool it worked. We have the LEDs, and bad ballast is cut off. Hurrah 😊
By far this is the best video I’ve seen on this topic!
Thank you!!
Got mine changed thanks to your step by step video…
Best video ever. Thank You for being so thorough with your instructions. I was stuck between what side should be neutral or hot and you said it doesn't matter, just pick a side. Thank You Very Much!
Thanks! succinct, effective, relatable & informative for the non-technical/ inexperienced person.
Enjoyed the comment, taking the extra two minutes to remove the ballast.
This video must be good because this was my first electrical project and i completed it without having to call 911 😆
Very Good Tutorial!!!
what if you got red blue wires on each end of ballast 3 yellow on one end and 1 black wire
When doing this to a light fixture, does it matter which end of the bulb goes into fixture based on how its wired?
YES it does. The new bulbs will be marked "N" or "L" for Neutral or Line. Put the "L" side of the bulb into the light fixture that is wired with the hot wire and vice versa.
apparently this is huge information to know in advance
great video thanks .. answered my question on shunted and non shunted tomstones . . the bypass method. this bypass.. Can it be used on double ended led bulbs.?. w
Will this bypass system work on single ended led bulbs too.?
Thank you. Your video was the most informative on bypassing the ballast. I see that doing it with one fixture is very easy. My question is that I have 3 light fixtures connected (each with 2 tubes) that are lined up on the ceiling, feeding from one source. I see how you have said to connect the white with the yellow wires and the colored wires with the black. There are several black wires in some of the fixtures and several yellow and white ones as well. Is it ok to connect more than one black together in fixtures where there are more than one?
The best approach when by-passing the ballast, is to cut all the wires at the ballast which will include a white (neutral) wire, and a black (hot) wire, and strip all wires, then wire nut any color wires leading to the 2 sockets at one end of the fixture to the white wire, and wire nut any colored wire leading to the other end to black - then it will not matter how they chased the wiring from fixture to fixture -
All the best!
I have the same issue. The main light fixture that connects to the junction box and 2 other light fixtures daisy chained to the main light fixture. And I can’t find a Video on this scenario.
if you connect the wires like this video @9:31 each LED tube are set in parallel circuit, each tube receives 55V, if the source is 110V (in America). Does it not effect the light color or power usage? if you connect the tubes in serie consecutive would the tubes work in the same manner?
Just to be clear for a single lamp connection please...The R17D type LED is wired with one end on neutral and the other to line voltage with ballast removed. Is that correct?
How to change my one bulb 24” fixture that has a FS2 starter and transformer to led bypass bulb?
Great video! My ge led tubes require a 1amp inline fuse, what are your thoughts??
I am not exactly a DIYer but I have removed my ballast and am trying to install "ballast bypass" bulbs. Coming from the power source, there's black (hot), white (neutral) AND a copper (ground). My question is this, do I need the ground? I don't see the ground wire in this video.
Depend on the house electrical installation. Here because the input is consisted of 2 wires they are 1 hot and 1 neutral/cold. If the is a 3- wires then you would have brown=hot, black=cold and yellow/stripped=neutral connect to the case of the base.
I followed you exactly, and only one end of my bulb lights up. Something is wrong. If I take the bulbs out and switch ends…opposite ends of the bulbs are glowing .. power to both ends
how can i bypass a light fixture that has a dimmable ballast that is powered by low vot wires
Well done video and explanation
Fantastic video! Thank you!
Thank,you. So easy explanation
I have (2) ballast (4) -8ft. bulb (F96TT12)-(60-75W) fixtures. Will I be wiring them the same as your video? Also what size LED bulbs would you recommend, since I'm thinking of only using 2 bulbs instead of 4 per fixture ? Thank you
Awesome explanation.
How about my situation, I have 3 fluorescent light fixtures connected in sequence??
great video
Howcome some are wired hot on one end and neutral on the other end (like in this video) while some are wired hot and neutral on the same end and leave the other side chopped?
I have a hot and Neutral coming in to one side and than both come out and blue and red going into the other. Spliced the Hot and blue and N and red and nothing. Only getting 55v coming in
Did you figure it out yet? All the red and blue wires get connected to the black wire that you cut off from the ballast. You connect the yellow wires to the white wire that you cut off from the ballast. No wires should be connected to the ballast.
I have 2 ballasts in the fixture. There are 6 wires (blue, red, yellow) coming out of one side and another 6 coming out of the other side. There are 2 black wires and 2 white wires coming out of the main power source. In this case, how should I make the wire connection? Should I turn the power off from the circuit breaker before doing work?
Excellent video, very instructional, thank you very much !!!
I have 2 8 foot fixtures im only converting one over to LED bc the ballast went bad. With lead on one end and neutral on the other end now my LED wont come on (eventho the ohm meter showing 125 volts). Makes zero sense to me why this is happening. Anyone have any ideas?
What kelvin color are the lamps?
When you wire your double ended ballastless bulbs, make sure each pin gets live power on one side, and neutral connections on the other.
Not working. I did what this video taught and what you said
My LED bulbs have LN on one side
What happens if I have to replace a tube with a big box tube? Do I have to look for a certain type? Or do I have to order from you?
I guess my question would be! What type of business are these? I seen one video where all the power coming from one end and the bulb has power on one end. Are there different bulbs
Thanks for the great video but that wire stripper suck get a better one your hand will love u lol😊
Good
This is over my kitchen sink
NO ground wire??
I have the same question. Does ground just hang out by itself and onto the housing?
An electrician is charging me $380 to do this exact same work.
Labor and materials included.
I love in CA is this a fair price?
My electrician in Southern California charges $165 hour. Going to try this myself!
Right
Should be 18ga wire
Now show us how fun it is 18 feet in the air 😑
Bla..bla..bla..snip wires..add power to one end..then add ground to other end.😅
You are to slow to get the lights on just move a little faster!!
For some slow is better. The whole vid was too slow for my tastes too, but I appreciate his thoroughness (learned a couple details), so about 25% into the vid I changed the playback speed (in RUclips settings) to 1.75 and that was perfect for me.
@jack0903 there's a red slider that lets you advance (or go back) in the video. Must be your first day on RUclips. Thats ok, we were all beginners once 👍
YOU TALK TOO MUCH FOR THE SAME THING GO ON !
Great video