Changing florescent to l e d that look like florescent

I have put five 48 SDM 5050 warm white led panels in mine when the ballast stops working. This only decreases the amps by 1/2 while changing the halogen ceiling lights to led is 1/10th. My 32 halogen ceiling lights drew 32 amps and with leds it's 4 amps. I have found the 5050 chips run the coolest. If you have the 3 light fixture in the kitchen, drill small holes diffuser under the switches so you can turn various ones on/off as needed to save power.

Many are using the led strip lights BUT unlike the panels I'm have problems with the strips having chips stop working and getting dim over time...less than 1,000 hours. The 5M strip I added under my awning has lost 25% of it's chips in less than 400 hours but at less than $10 it's easy to replace now that I put a plug in the wiring.

I used M4 LED bulbs. I removed the ballasts and altered the wiring according to their detailed instructions and am very happy with the result. A little more expensive than strips but it was easy and works well. JMHO

I purchased some LED lamps on eBay like these:
G4 Reading Light 525-Lumen 15 SMD 5630 LED Warm White Bulb Lamp 12V 24V

I gutted the fixtures and mounted four lamps in each. Cost was about $5.50 for each fixture. The light output was slightly less than the fluorescent. The fluorescent fixtures each draw 2.3 amps. After the LED upgrade they draw 0.7 amps. Just add more lamps if you want more light.

Nice job and pictures

I did THIS, it works great. It worked so well in fact when we did our new kitchen I used the same method to do the under cabinet lights. Even our contractor was impressed with how cheap, simple, easy, and effective it was.

i have picked up these off aliexpress and found they work great as well, though a bit long, they can easly be trimed down to fit

Back to your question, there are several makers of LED tubes that fit in the holders for fluorescent tubes. They run from $25 to $60 each and all of them seem to require disconnecting the ballast and they have a pigtail that connects to the 12volt source.

I have not tried any of them due to high cost, about $35 on average or $70 per slim-lite fixture.

I used strips of LEDs mounted on aluminum from Ebay and a standard slim-lite on/off switch.

I mounted the strips with contact cement and wired the strips in series. All mine are wall switch control so the on/off switch is used to control how many strips are on at a time, two for mood or five for reading. I did four fixtures, three with the hi-lo switch.

Switches were more than the LEDs about $15.00 for the switches and $10.00 for the LEDs. I don't work well upside down so I removed the fixtures from the ceiling and took them to my work bench.

Here are some photos of the finished product.


Strips glued and wired in the stripped out fixture.


Fixture on lo.


Fixture on hi.

Easy to do if you have a pencil soldering iron.

D.E.Bishop wrote:

Easy to do if you have a pencil soldering iron.

You can buy simple snap on connectors...no soldering needed.

Looks good. Easier than my approach. I like the way you handle the hi/low switching. I replaced the switch with a DPDT center off switch to do the hi/low on mine. The strips with the aluminum backing should aid in cooling and last longer.

When looking for LEDs, the brightest have 7020, 5730, or 5630 LED chips. Look for listings the tell how many lumens are produced.

If you want the same output as your fluorescent tubes, you need to match both the color temperature and the lumens. Color temperature is how "cool" or "warm" the light looks. Lumens is a measure of brightness.

Find the wattage of your fluorescent bulbs, and google what the lumen output is. (Or it may be on the bulb) You want your LEDs to have the same total lumen output.

THIS CHART is a good guide to color temperature.