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LED Tubes Ballast Compatible or Direct Wire?


Lightup.com's LED tube lights are the energy efficient, cost-effective solution for fluorescent tubes. Some advantages to having LEDs in linear lighting fixtures are that LEDs save you money by have lower wattage for the same number or more lumen output (light), they last longer (up to 50,000 hours of use, equaling several more years), and they contain no mercury or other harmful substances so disposal is just as easy as installation.

At Lightup.com we offer 3 different types of LED Tubes and a wide array of retrofit solutions!

Ballast Compatible - Removing your existing fluorescent tubes and replacing them with energy efficient LED tubes. The LED tube works with your existing ballast and is sometimes referred to as "plug and play". Some benefits include low if any labor cost and the quickest installation time (since there is no need to remove the existing ballast). This method will use your existing shunted sockets.

Direct Wire - Remove your existing fluorescent tubes and ballast. This tube is single ended power which will require you to remove your existing sockets and replace them with non-shunted sockets. By removing the ballast you are not only reducing a fail-point in the lighting fixture but you are also eliminating wattage that the ballast draws. This is the most energy efficient solution for switching to LED tubes but does take a little extra time to install.

Universal - This best of both worlds solution allows you the choice to remove the ballast or not. This tube is double ended power meaning that you can also use your existing shunted sockets for direct wire installation. This is the most popular solution and also extremely energy efficient. Most decide to install these tubes until their current ballast fails. At that point, they remove the dead ballast and install using the direct wire method.

Many LED Tubes here are available in color temperatures between 3000K to 5000K, allowing you to select a light with a warmer hue, a cooler hue, or something in between as it suits your lighting needs. For many office spaces and any other areas where task lighting is needed we recommend 4000K or 5000K color temperatures.

New to LED lighting terminology? Check out our Glossary of Terms or visit our LED Video Library to see different installation methods for each type of LED tube.

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