I had replaced the two T8 Philips fluorescent tubes with two Utilitech YGA05A32-T8-18W-840-T LED tubes quite some time back. I did not change any of the ballast wiring and all worked fine. A few days ago the circuit breaker tripped (bad switch I believe) and after resetting this fixture did not seem to work. I tried the tubes in another fixture and they worked fine, I also tried good T8 fluorescent tubes and they did not work either. So my assumption is that the ballast went bad during the circuit interruption. Most all of the online help seems to suggest that I do not need to replace the ballast and I have tried direct wiring as posted online in many places. That didn't work in my case. I've noticed these LED tube end pins look identical to a fluorescent tube pins. Both ends look exactly the same and there is no markings to indicate L or N on either end….maybe I have an older style? Can anyone tell me if there is something different about these LED tubes that requires a replacement ballast or is there a different wiring scheme needed with these tubes which are at least a year old and maybe an older model than that? TKS!
LED T8 tube replacement
led
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Best Answer
The breaker trip was the ballast dying. It is done.
You can replace the ballast if you like. EBay is flush with T8 ballasts at sane cost; many are pulls from fixtures converted to direct-wire LED. Pay very close attention to the number of wires going to each lampholder (tombstone). If each gets 2 wires, replace with preferably a rapid-start or programmed-start ballast, though an instant-start will do. If each tombstone gets only 1 wire, only an instant start ballast will wire up. This ballast change will allow you to use the absolutely superb 90 CRI tubes now readily available (those utilitechs were junk) or will allow you to use "plug-n-play" LED tubes.
If your ultimate plan is LED, do not use any ballast at all. Obtain direct-wire LED "tubes" that accept power from opposite ends of the tube. This is safer and plays well with all fixtures including instant-start (LEDs with same-end power do not like 1-wire tombstones).