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Longevity of fluorescent tubes


Barry Ten
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I use a lot of link and light fluorescent tubes for my layout lighting. Although I would likely use LEDs now, the tubes have worked well and the oldest ones are probably pushing around 12 to 13 years old now without needing replacing. These are all long, 30W or 40W tubes. In a few places on the layout, though, I had to use the short 22-23cm 10W tubes and for some reason these seem to need replacing much more regularly, typically after 1 - 2 years. You know when they are near the end as the black deposit at one end of the tube becomes very pronounced. Does anyone know why these shorter, lower watt tubes should have a shorter life than the longer ones? Very few of the latter have ever needed replacing despite being "on" for an hour or two most evenings throughout the year, so probably thousands of hours of life so far.

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You are right about the lifetime of the long ones. I have three, two 4ft and a 5ft, and they have all lasted many years, although I don't know exactly how many. I don't have any shorter ones so can't answer your question. What prompted me to reply is the fact that the longest one has just given up the ghost.

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I only just recently had to replace a 21 year old fluorescent tube that’s 8 ft long. They are on for at least 8 hours a day virtually every day. I have been considering changing to led types so I can introduce day/ night scenes  

Edited by Andymsa
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Yes they do seem to last for ever, but beware that the colour temperature changes over time.

These days I have replaced all of my florescents with LED battens which seem to be vastly superior in every way.

Ian C

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If left running, tubes last much longer. Frequent switching off & on shortens their life considerably.

When Blackpool got there Coronation trams, they were changing virtually all the tubes in every tram every month. As the trolley pole traversed the overhead, there was intermittent current collection, particularly at junctions and joints. This of course caused the lights to go off quite a lot.

 

Stewart

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On 23/10/2021 at 15:29, Barry Ten said:

I had to use the short 22-23cm 10W tubes and for some reason these seem to need replacing much more regularly, typically after 1 - 2 years

 

I'd installed similar in a kitchen with the same annoying results. I noticed that there was more heat build-up around the connector sockets than you'd expect. This tallies with the observed blackening.

 

When we moved I put LEDs in and none have failed so far in 4 years.

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And their lifetime is sometimes longer than you think. The one that I reported earlier that had given up the ghost has started working again. For several days it has refused to start. Today I have been out to the shed three or four times and on each occasion when I have switched on the lights, the long one has come on with the others. Why does this happen?

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35 minutes ago, Robert Stokes said:

And their lifetime is sometimes longer than you think. The one that I reported earlier that had given up the ghost has started working again. For several days it has refused to start. Today I have been out to the shed three or four times and on each occasion when I have switched on the lights, the long one has come on with the others. Why does this happen?

If it has a starter, flashes then comes on, that could be faulty.

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Several factors Robert, including ambient temperature and supply voltage. However the intermittent starting shows that the tube is probably near the end of its usable lifetime. 

 

The short lamps always did tend to have lower lifetimes, something I observed when buying the 8W version for emergency exit signs. 100 off quantities were a regular purchase since I got into the habit of just relamping the lot before an annual inspection on several sites. Worked out cheaper than being called back to replace them as they failed. I certainly saw better lamp lifetimes from those driven by soft start electronic ballasts than switch start types, I think the latter tended to overheat short tubes before striking reducing the lifetime. 

 

All fluorescent lamps are officially being withdrawn from sale from September 2023.

 

However, you can buy LED tubes which are a direct mechanical fit in standard fluorescent battens. They do  need to be internally rewired though that is not difficult. I would not do this piecemeal and insist that where it is done a whole area are all converted at the same time since putting a conventional fluorescent tube in a fitting which has been converted for LED will cause a short and a bit of a bang. Important to label them "LED lamp only"  It makes commercial sense to do this in places where there are a lot of fancier fittings. If it is just a few for a railway room I'd just swap them out for completely new fittings. 

 

 

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My last ship had short 'kitchen' type linked fluorescent lights for illuminating the main switchboard which were normally left switched on. After about 4 years these started failing and changing the tube didn't get them working again. A lot of research found the specs for the fitting. It turned out the expected life of the fitting was less than the tube.

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On 04/11/2021 at 09:50, Dave John said:

 


However, you can buy LED tubes which are a direct mechanical fit in standard fluorescent battens. They do  need to be internally rewired though that is not difficult.

 

 

The LED tubes I have bought here are fully compatible with the existing light fittings. No modifications required. 

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12 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

The LED tubes I have bought here are fully compatible with the existing light fittings. No modifications required. 

That works for magnetic ballasts, all the replacement tubes I have seen require an electronic ballast to be disconnected or bridged to be out of circuit.

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I've just replaced the Fluorescent battens (6 off) in my railway room with full LED battens and in the process increased the light output somewhat.

(The fluorescents were the ones with HF ballast.)

 

They were installed new in around 2009 and all the tubes were dim, one had failed completely

I was going to just replace the tubes but decided on a full LED upgrade.

 

They are 50W 6000lm each and come with a 5 year guarantee (based on 12 hours usage per day.)

They are so much brighter that just 2 normally give enough light.

 

They are the same make as two we fitted in the kitchen a couple of years one year ago, although at that time they were just 5000lm 4000lm :Dfrom 50W

(efficiency is constantly improving)

 

IMHO Well worth investing in LEDs

 

 

Edited by melmerby
Correction to details, failing memory
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Hi Iain

These:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08WPX2QC9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

They are supplied by the UK agent and sold through the V-Tac Amazon shopfront. Other sizes are available from the V-Tac shop

 

They have fallen in price somewhat as well, the ones for the kitchen were £30.50 each against £37.00 for two.

 

They were also only 4000 lumen not 5000 as I thought and were purchased just 12 months ago (time drags during a pandemic :(

Edited by melmerby
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Ahh, I thought you had just replaced the tubes, but you have changed the complete fittings. I actually use these for my layout lighting above the exhibition part of the layout, as they are a) very light (pun intended) and very bright.

 

I bought them a tad cheaper from eBay and 4500k rather than 6500k as I prefer daylight to cool white, but I would also recommend these types of lights.

 

EDIT - just checked the ones I bought for the layout 6 months ago, and they have DOUBLED in price!!!

Edited by WIMorrison
checked price - absolutely horrified with increase
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2 hours ago, WIMorrison said:

Ahh, I thought you had just replaced the tubes, but you have changed the complete fittings. I actually use these for my layout lighting above the exhibition part of the layout, as they are a) very light (pun intended) and very bright.

 

I bought them a tad cheaper from eBay and 4500k rather than 6500k as I prefer daylight to cool white, but I would also recommend these types of lights.

 

EDIT - just checked the ones I bought for the layout 6 months ago, and they have DOUBLED in price!!!

Can't see the point of just replacing the tubes, they aren't IMHO as good overall as a new one.

The Kitchen ones are 4000K

 

The V-Tac ones are very light, there isn't much that isn't plastic, as such they don't need an earth.

The component count without the LED strip is very low.

 

Another LED light I had contained In order from the mains supply: A polyester capacitor to drop the voltage a bit, a bridge rectifier and a low value resistor.

Not much to go wrong.

 

EDIT

Forgot the 400v low value electrolytic across the rectified DC.

Edited by melmerby
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Replacement with LEDSs, either individual tubes or whole battens, isn't an option I want to pursue until it's absolutely forced on me by the non-availability of the fluorescent tubes. I use about 25 for the layout lighting (linked in short runs) and mounted in various ways that I'd sooner not mess with unless there's no choice. As mentioned, I've been favorably impressed with the longevity of the longer tubes, it's only the one or two shorties that are the problem and I can largely eliminate those with a bit of re-designing.

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4 hours ago, WIMorrison said:

That works for magnetic ballasts, all the replacement tubes I have seen require an electronic ballast to be disconnected or bridged to be out of circuit.

 

Yes, they are  running with a magnetic ballast.

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5 hours ago, Dave John said:

There are direct replacement options available as suggested by AndyID. However I would tend to convert and take the magnetic ballast out of circuit to maximise energy savings . 

 

Good idea. I just checked and the ballast does get slightly warm. It's probably only dissipating about a watt or two but every little helps.

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14 hours ago, melmerby said:

IMHO Well worth investing in LEDs

Agree 100%. We've just replaced the last of the fluorescent tubes in our house.

 

The change to daylight white LEDs in the garage was most impressive. 

 

We also bought some round LED ceiling panels that have a switch on the back enabling changing between different colour temperatures - useful in allowing us to decide on which works best for the particular room involved.

 

Yours,  Mike.

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With the exception of an understairs cuppoard, the loft & one exterior "bricklight" every single lightsource in my home, study, mancave & exterior lights are LED.

 

Yes, they have a longer life & a better "instant" light but we don't see any appreciable drop in our kwh consumption.

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In my model railway garage I have two twin tube 8 ft fluorescent light fixtures. Getting life expired and I find 8 ft tubes impossible to find now, I intend to replace these with LED battens in the spring. 

 

Any suggestions ? - I'm looking for a warm light - what colour temperature / deg kelvin should I look out for ? I don't want the harsh blueish light.

 

I have received a Screwfix flyer and they have advertised Twin 6 ft 60 watt LED battens, 6000 lumens, £36.49 each Would three of these be a suitable replacement  ?

 

I also have eight five foot fluorescents in the loft. Interesting to read that tubes for these will become unavailable after 2023. I might just buy some spare tubes before that date.

 

Brit15

 

 

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