Kitchen Light Replacement

[lightman]

If the lens is in good condition on your existing fixture I would rebuild it. Your options would be a new T-8 ballast and new T-8 bulbs or you could go with LEDs as suggested. Changing a fixture can run into work. It may be screwed to the joist or it may be held up with toggle bolts. The new replacement may not have the same footprint may not cover up whats behind the old one. (faded paint) Its also sure to be built better than most new fixtures. Equipment from wholesale electric places are usually much better quality than Walmart and places like Lowes and Home Depot.

For what its worth, I was a licensed electrician and probably changed thousands of ballast. Next month we are due to start a kitchen remodel on my own house and I will be reusing my 30 year old 4 ft fixtures. That is if I don't break the lens. I'm not sure if I'm going back LED yet.

[Petrol & Powder]

Thanks to all.

I'll look into LED bulbs and re-wiring the fixture but I think it's going to come down to cost.

Whichever route is the cheapest is probably where I'm headed.

[firefly1957]

If you go LED replacement get the ones that do not need Ballast i replace my 4 foot bulbs with them and love it! One note sometimes they do throw off a lot of noise on AM radio . I also really like the Braun 5000 lumen 4 foot led shop lights they hang but can be got with coupon as low as $24 and put out a lot of light on 60 watts.

[gwpercle]

We just replaced some old 24" x 48" lay in fixtures with Metalux Flat Panel LED fixtures....they have no bulbs and are about an inch thick, lots more light. Electrician said they were not expensive , the whole panel lights up . I don't know how long they last

Home Depot has Metalux , 24" x 48" flat panel LED fixture and they cost $65.00 , might want to look at them.

I recently replaced some ancient 2 tube fluorescent shop lights with the new tube type LED's , Much brighter ...$125 is a little high, they should be selling for $50 to $60 at home depot.

The flat panel LED are neat , bright and I like the no bulb feature....just hope they last.
And I also hope these new LED's don't start humming and flickering like the old ones...that stuff was aggravating to me !

Gary

[David2011]

With LED lights it's important to watch the color temperature of the lamps. The lower the color temperature, the warmer the light. A 3200°K light is the same color as a quartz halogen lamp. By the time you get to 5000°K or higher you're getting to the (IMO) ghastly blue light. It's OK for a garage but not in your house. Just one person's opinion.

I just replaced the lights in my garage with LEDs. I kept the old fixtures for the yet to be built workshop, to be converted to use LED lamps without a ballast.

[Ole Joe Clarke]

For the reloading room, I have a LED 48" fixture from Lowe's that I just hung at the proper height and plugged it in. Works great and the cost was approximately 40 bucks.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

[MT Gianni]

Costco no longer has them on sale but a 48" LED for my shop is now $30. No way would I go back to incandescant or flourescent after having all LED. Just make sure you don't put one in you garage door opener unless it's approved.

[William Yanda]

Costco no longer has them on sale but a 48" LED for my shop is now $30. No way would I go back to incandescant or flourescent after having all LED. Just make sure you don't put one in you garage door opener unless it's approved.

Approved?

[Petrol & Powder]

If you go LED replacement get the ones that do not need Ballast i replace my 4 foot bulbs with them and love it! One note sometimes they do throw off a lot of noise on AM radio . I also really like the Braun 5000 lumen 4 foot led shop lights they hang but can be got with coupon as low as $24 and put out a lot of light on 60 watts.

RF interference is a concern. This light is near an AM radio that I listen to daily. There's a LED bulb in another nearby fixture that due to its proximity I must switch off when using that radio. Surprisingly the fluorescent fixture didn't interfere with that radio.

[Shawlerbrook]

If total cost is the main concern, the LED bulbs will save you the most in the long term.

[Wayne Smith]

We just replaced the kitchen fixture (florescent) with daylight balanced LED. I replaced the whole fixture and wired it just like the florescent that I wired in about 20 years ago. Makes a huge difference, and LOML suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and hasn't used her SAD light since we put this one in.

We got ours via Amazon - the only one they had that had a wooden case.

[Petrol & Powder]

Ended up with another two tube (T8) 48" fixture from Lowes. The entire fixture was $24.20 total.
Done.

LED would have been nice but even the cheap ones were $40
I have a supply of 48" T8 tubes and other lights that use that tube, so LED would have been nice but it would take a long time before the difference in operating cost exceeded that $15.80 difference in price.

[smoked turkey]

Petrol & power, thanks for the update on your light replacement. Lots of real good ideas here on this thread. I am glad you brought it up and we had such a good discussion on the various options. Hope your new light gives you long service and works good for you.