As many of you may already know Florescent tubes soon will be if not already a thing of the past. They maybe cheap in price but they are filled with mercury. The ballasts that are needed to light up the tubes burn out constantly and adds wattage to your already 32 watt florescent tube. Not to mention neither of these items are recyclable. The icky green that comes from these lights are not good for the eyes therefore causing migraines, expose you to to low grade UV radiation, and if you brake it not only are you cleaning up a lot of glass, you are also being exposed to mercury...
and did I mention they're not recyclable?
A lot of companies and environmentally conscious people are turning to LED replacement. Most of the major companies making LED tubes are making simple plug 'n play tubes that still use the ballast. Now this might sound like it makes life easier but not without consequence. Your still using the ballast which is only going to add to the watts of you LED tube and at the end of you ballast's life you still can't recycle it. If your going to switch to LED, I suggest going with direct connect LED tubes. It does require you to bypass the ballast and reconnect the wires from one end of the tombstones to the load wire and the wires from the other side of the tombstones to the neutral wire. This would take no time for an electrician and there are youtube videos everywhere that give you visual demonstrations how to do so.
I came across this local (California) Lighting company, Hollywood Lights LED, that makes a high quality recyclable LED replacement T8 tube. I chose this company to write about over the bigger guys for several reasons. They have a patented technology that allows them to be 30% brighter and run at half the temperature. Many of you may or may not know that heat is what kills LED's, so the fact that these run at 67 degrees compared to the competition at 103, they're just gonna last longer. Another reason I chose these guys is because of the quality. These tubes have 93+ CRI (color rendering index), 2600 lumen output with little to no green. These tube lights use TRIAC dimming (an inexpensive LUTRON dimmer from Home Depot works just fine) and they're 100% repairable in Southern California (unheard of) as well as 100% recyclable. I said this a few post back you get what you pay for and I believe paying literally a few extra dollars for a quality product is gonna save more than just money in the long run, it'll save me time and piece of mind that I bought a 100% recyclable product that can be repaired in the USA. I love to support local businesses so I have purchased these lights for my home already and I'm going green all the way with Hollywood Lights LED .
and did I mention they're not recyclable?
A lot of companies and environmentally conscious people are turning to LED replacement. Most of the major companies making LED tubes are making simple plug 'n play tubes that still use the ballast. Now this might sound like it makes life easier but not without consequence. Your still using the ballast which is only going to add to the watts of you LED tube and at the end of you ballast's life you still can't recycle it. If your going to switch to LED, I suggest going with direct connect LED tubes. It does require you to bypass the ballast and reconnect the wires from one end of the tombstones to the load wire and the wires from the other side of the tombstones to the neutral wire. This would take no time for an electrician and there are youtube videos everywhere that give you visual demonstrations how to do so.
I came across this local (California) Lighting company, Hollywood Lights LED, that makes a high quality recyclable LED replacement T8 tube. I chose this company to write about over the bigger guys for several reasons. They have a patented technology that allows them to be 30% brighter and run at half the temperature. Many of you may or may not know that heat is what kills LED's, so the fact that these run at 67 degrees compared to the competition at 103, they're just gonna last longer. Another reason I chose these guys is because of the quality. These tubes have 93+ CRI (color rendering index), 2600 lumen output with little to no green. These tube lights use TRIAC dimming (an inexpensive LUTRON dimmer from Home Depot works just fine) and they're 100% repairable in Southern California (unheard of) as well as 100% recyclable. I said this a few post back you get what you pay for and I believe paying literally a few extra dollars for a quality product is gonna save more than just money in the long run, it'll save me time and piece of mind that I bought a 100% recyclable product that can be repaired in the USA. I love to support local businesses so I have purchased these lights for my home already and I'm going green all the way with Hollywood Lights LED .