- 20 Pack T8 LED Bulbs 4 Foot, 18W, 2300LM, 5000K, Type B, UL Listed | 4FT LED T8 Tube Light Bulbs Ballast Bypass for Single & Dual-Ended Power, 4 Foot T8 T10 T12 Tube Light for G13, Frosted Lens

I bought the 20 pack, and the bulbs arrived in a heavy cardboard carton with custom fitted foam packing nestling each bulb. Excellent packaging! No damage and each of the 12 bulbs I have installed so far works perfectly. Cannot tell yet how long they will last. Installed in 2 rows of 3 fixtures end to end. 6 of the 12 original bulbs were fairly dim, so when they were converted the room is much brighter. These are probably about as bright as brand new 32W fluorescent tubes, but only use 18 W. The 5000k color is very "bright" The price in the 20 pack was very reasonable. Actually much cheaper than buying new 32 W fluorescent bulbs. The most important thing to remember here is that these are "Type B" LED, and you have to re-wire your old fluorescent fixtures to bypass the ballast. I removed them and discarded. Because this was an old style installation with 3 fixtures end to end, I had to extend the regular household wiring in a few spots (splice in an extra length of the white or black wire to reach the wires in the fixtures to wire them the way I wanted.) I have converted 10 of these fixtures so far and always the tombstones at one end have yellow wires, so I connect the "common" (white wire) to these. The other end always has blue and red wires which I always connect to the "line" or black wire. Many you tube videos showing this, and some of the Mfrs have them, too. Wiring both ends eliminates the need to replace the tombstones with the non-shunted style, which saves you several dollars per fixture (4 tombstones at $2-3 each for 2 bulb fixture) and a bunch of time You can also install Type B LED in a 1 end wiring scenario, but it involves the tombstone replacement mentioned above. If you can replace an electrical receptacle, or light fixture, you can do this job. If you are not confident with basic electrical wiring you can buy direct replacement bulbs which just replace the fluorescent tubes directly. They cost more, and still use the power sucking ballasts, so I can't say how much power you will save. Or hire an electrician, which will change your payback time from months to decades. I made my own labels to put on the fixture. Stuck it on the cover under the bulbs that hides the wires: NO BALLAST Use Only Type B LED Bulbs Dual End Powered

The previous owner of my house trash picked some office style 4 tube fluorescent fixtures. I have no idea how old they are but slowly the ballasts have been failing and I've just been dealing with the lower light levels. With 8 lights spread across the basement I could afford to lose a couple as all 4 lights typically didn't fail, just 2. Now that I have 2 completely dead fixtures and 2 with only 2 lights working it was time to do something. The ballasts were about $25 each and I needed two per fixture. Then I was going to need 4 tubes which are another $10. To fix only what was broken I needed six ballasts and 12 tubes which adds up to $180. Far cheaper to go LED. The process was simple. Cut all the wires going to the bulb holders on one side, strip them and wire nut them to the neutral (white) wire. Then cut all the wires going to the other side and attach them to the hot (black) wire. Of course you have to remove and reinstall the wire cover and I took the old ballasts completely out but that was it. On mine I had Red, Blue and Yellow wires going to the holders. That's three pairs and 4 holders but the holders are linked together inside where I couldn't see it. Some lights you can see the wires to the holders. The yellow wire came from the opposite ballast which threw me for a second but then I realized that one side would be hot and one side would be neutral and all the wires on each side would connect to the hot and neutral respectively. I did have to use a slightly bigger wire nut and these lights don't come with any wire nuts, so if you're doing this you may want to get an assorted pack of wire nuts if you don't have them. I had plenty so it wasn't a problem. With some lights you may be able to use the wire nuts that are already there. As for the light output, I've done one so far and I have another light with 4 brand new 40 watt bulbs and these are noticeably brighter. It's not blindingly different but it is noticeable. Now compared to some of the older fixtures with the 32w economy bulbs it's night and day different. Given the difference between the 32 and 40 watt bulbs I'd say this is the same jump higher so probably an equivalent of 50w if I had to guess. I'm already planning on splitting the lights 4+4 and adding a second switch because I won't need them all on at once.