How to wire 4ft led lights

How to wire your new led by bypassing your ballast

[@hal4utube]

I just bought 25 double ended LED lights for my garage so this video was perfect for my application. The procedure will not work for single ended LED tubes.

[@alexcomp99]

THE BEST ONE!!! I watched several others and this is by far the most professional. Example - Watched other demonstrator snip the ballast wires "close" thereby making it extremely difficult to re-use (I shouted WHY when he did it). This guy didn't and mentioned it. Every question I had was answered. Great job!!!

[@byronormsby2441]

Thank you!! I had to bypass a ballast at my work, I was so nervous until I watched your video, I did what you did and it worked! Thanks again bud

[@cwrobinson6363]

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. I just ordered my LED tubes.

[@billthedrummer9463]

What a fabulous video! The ballasts stopped working on my garage fixtures so I went to Home Depot to purchase new ones. I wish I had seen this video prior because it's so simple to "bypass the old ballast", re-wire & install new LED bulbs in the existing fixtures! Instead, I purchased new LED fixtures, had to take down the "perfectly fine ones" and install the brand new ones. It would have saved me several steps and the cost would have been much less to get the same result. Thank you, I'll go with your way on the next set!

[@bill444w]

You did one of the best explanation I've seen so far. Thank you!

[@TruthTeller20242]

You can't just shut the light switch off like he said if you do that you will get the shit shocked out of you turn the breaker off!!! I cannot believe he said that you could do that, you cannot!!!!!

[@OutyMan]

I mean, you CAN, but it's like putting your hand on a table saw that is turned off, but not unplugged. I wouldn't touch any circuit unless the switch to it is off AND the breaker for that circuit is off. Edit: I'd also add that I would also test the wires with a non-contact voltage tester before touching the wires, and after removing the wire nuts, test the black(Load) and white(Neutral) wires for voltage with a multimeter before directly touching the uninsulated ends of the wires. You can get these for about $10 each if you buy them bundled together.

[@emmascott5950]

Hey! I haven't plugged mine in yet BUT, this was the best DIY video and I went through DOZENS!!! Thank you SO much for posting this! Looking at diagrams and other videos just made it feel so overwhelming! Yours was laid out beautifully and just super simple! I didn't have the exact same wiring set up as yours but I love how you started by showing what wire was what because that was the main thing catching me up! SUPER helpful and after all the stressing over other videos, I just was shocked on how easy this was! Once again, thank you so much!

[@phyl1283]

Excellent video instructions made very clearly for those of us who need all the help we can get. Well presented.

[@RickHarrington4106]

Love your video--very clear and easy to follow. Thanks!

[@jolyonwelsh9834]

Most direct drive LED retrofit lamps are single end feed using non-shunted tombstone lamp holders. The ones that you have shown here are double end feed, which is quite unusual. Or you can use smart drive LED retrofit lamps which run off the existing T8 ballast. All of which are double end feed.

[@helicopterjohns]

He should change the title of this video to wiring double ended LED Lights. The wiring on single ended LED tubes is different.

[@cappster]

This video helped me get my light rewired for a Lithonia Lighting 1233 RE 2-Light T8 Fluorescent Residential Shop Light that is found on Amazon. The LED light I used was Kihung T8 LED Light Tube 4ft 22W. Not all lights are wired the same, but the light fixture I have worked perfectly after following this video's directions and I am no electrician.

[@dant3113]

Do all LED tubes work by bypassing the ballast? I read that some LED fixtures also come with electronic ballast and work in a similar way to flouresent bulbs.

[@beepsntones]

great vid thanks I am guessing the tombstones or holders whatever you call them are shunted. I am thinking of changing mine I have about 160 of them. I opened one of them and each end is shorted. please help. regards

[@michaelgray4693]

Did everything you said .now for the bulbs. What make, model, etc do I purchase for I am replacing T12 4 ft. bulbs

[@mrluigiproduction]

Helpful video! Not to sound ungrateful, but it would be nice if questions from commenters were answered.

[@rohit646]

I have a light with 2 bulbs not one bulbs inside, wiring it the same way single bulbs work not the double bulbs. Why?

[@Detcord-wc9yw]

Can I use my old lights as a light saber?

[@MrLuigi-oi7gm]

Hi Rohit, I wrote this up for a friend who was retrofitting his light boxes for LED's. It describes the steps I took to retrofit my fixtures. It really shouldn't matter how many bulbs are in the socket. Just do as I say, bundle all the neutral (usually white) wires together, bundle all the hot (usually black, but not always) wires together. Do the same for all the ground wires. Here is the full set of instructions: Wiring: a. The bulbs I bought were the 2-sided variety for my 2-sided fixtures. That is, the neutral wires go to the tombstone on one end of the fixture and the hot wires go to the tombstone at the other end of the fixture (in my case, 4 feet away). The wiring for 1 sided fixtures is significantly different, so BEWARE! b. I did not remove any of the wires inserted into the tombstones from the original installation. They can be removed by various methods, but I felt that would only be inviting potential problems (breakage) of the tombstones. All of the original wires emerging from the tombstones can be connected to the new wiring by twist caps. c. It is same to assume that most LED bulbs can not be used with original magnetic ballasts still in the circuit (my retrofit situation). Some LED bulbs can be used with electronic ballasts. My suggestion. Just don't use the original ballast. I cut the wires from the original magnetic ballasts leaving about 5 inches of wire. I don't plan on ever reusing those nasty magnetic ballasts, but if I have to I wanted enough wire available to reconnect them. I removed the ballasts from the receptical to satisfy my need for a clean and tidy retrofit. :-) d. The following describes the wiring strategy I employed. Before cutting and disconnecting any wires I took a good hard look at the wiring "mess" inside the receptical. The neutral/white Romex cable wire eventually made its way to the left tombstone in my receptical. So the left tomestone was neutral. The hot/black Romex cable wire eventually made its way to the right tombstone in my receptical. So the right tomestone was hot. There were other wires connected to the right and left tombstones. After removing the ballast, I took ALL the wires connected to the left tombstone and connected them via a twist cap to the white neutral wire. One nice tidy bundle of connected wires. I took ALL the wires connected to the right tombstone and connected them via a twist cap to the black hot wire. A second nice tidy bundle of connected wires. I left the bare copper ground wire connected to the metal receptal box. I put the cover back on the receptical. Connected the buld. Success! (BTW, when using twist caps it is code in some areas, and just good practice, to twist the cap until you have a pigtail of twisted wires that extends about 2 inches outside the cap. This helps to prevent the wires from ever becoming disconnected inside the twist cap. You can wrap electrical tape around this pig tail of wires just in case you accidentally stripped too much insulation at the end of the wires leaving exposed wires outside the twist cap. But if you strip off the right amount of wire and generate that 2 inches of pig tail electrical tape is really not necessary.

[@douglasbattjes3991]

At 2:20 seconds you said control you on and off with a light bulb, you may want to correct that statement

[@snakeman1354]

*Help* Great video but I've wired mine exactly to the spec you have. Problem is i turn the breaker on and like a florescent bulb they barely function at all without a ballast. Any advice??

[@donaldquimby8099]

Good video, but one little thing. At 7:20 it looks like red, white, green, black and blue are all wired together. For those who are just scrolling to jump to the final connections, I don't think that you should wire all those together. Is that right?

[@donaldquimby8099]

Good video, but one little thing. I do not KNOW how the tombstones on the red side are connected. I suppose a red side jumper is implied at around 6:26. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think it is clearly stated that the two tombstones on the red wire side are in anyway connected. I almost ignored this because I thought I saw a black wire and a red wire going to the left side, but the black turned out to be a shadow.

[@tonygotts199]

Nice job but there is a code violation by national electrical code.No squeeze connector on the fixture to hold the SJ cord . That's why house's have electrical fires.

[@jimmyjennings8956]

How much are 4 ft led tube's and how much cheaper is it to do this rather than just buying the fixtures already made with the led tube's?

[@kamranparvez]

Good job sir

[@droman3]

This video was a great help! Watched it once and I was able to do 5 fixtures back to back! I used the Hyperikon led lights from Amazon.

[@marlonoreilly7716]

I dont get it? I watched other videos and they worked it totally different. They had 2 connectors wired together at one end and absolutely no wires hooked up at the other end. Also, is the end tombstone with the red wire wired to the other tombstone beside it?

[@Sami-rp7mf]

Thank you so much. I was planning to change the whole fixture with a new LeD and now I am going to use your approach. Thx

[@randyman6956]

Ok,, all neutral to one end and power to the other,,now my house breaker trips for the light I rewired,,, what did I do wrong

[@doghouseliver6955]

best vid I have seen on this sofar.. So you are saying, it does not mayyer which wires the hot and nuetral go to?

[@sheldonazua1785]

Hi good night I did put up my LED lights but when am finish it was lighting dim can u tell me what went wrong

[@leonstk]

hi, how to make a power cord connector (wall power plug)for the led light?

[@mikeboston421]

maybe this should have 'convert' in the title..........

[@richarddevenezia8186]

would you recommend throwing out the ballast or storing it inside the shroud

[@jwallace5674wv]

Save ballast for later... I kobe'd my ballast into the trash

[@scundoorsup5342]

Very confusing . Do you need shunted or non shunted tombstones

[@kongphimtaydam9801]

How to wire 4 wire on other end 2 red and 2 green and opposite ends 2 wire yellows?

[@mikejohnson8867]

You did'nt mention shunted or non shunted tombstones....

[@tboy0507]

what if your lights are 277 volts how to change them

[@TeamProsperity]

Are you sure? you wired the red to N? Red should go to hot and blue or yellow to N

[@ChrisGagnonDIY]

this is the best explanation i have seen. i think you have helped people that may be intimidated by taking on this project. i like that you did not use a technical terms so we can all understand. thanks for taking the time to post this video.

[@hanspecans]

just blew out my 4" tube following this advice. NOT ALL LED's do not require a ballast. Some of them do.

[@FelexAndVirginia]

Thanks sir

[@jackiemcgough131]

will THIS same way work with model T8V803-22E led light's

[@portapipe]

Dude: DONE! I have a plastic-metal version with a couple of electric plug on it, plus a switch. All done in 15 minutes (just because I've plug wrong the wire on the switch :P ) Thanks ;) and yes: is so easy.

[@lutz7001]

Can you send me a link to your website to look at pricing? I have 6 4' 2 bulb fluorescent lights in my garage its 30'x30' and before I get more of the same I want to look at LED. Thanks

[@7dragon77]

les torix c'est de la merde come connection , il n'y a pas des waggo à languette chez vous

[@bahramafshar3976]

Excellent of this video you made ,complete step by step , without any confiugen for those ,which had no idea how to do it (first time persons) ,hope you make more videos about house applications . again Thanks for your time and instructions

[@briantimms6528]

Thank you sir, had a client of mine throw out a HEAP of LED tubes and cases, wanted me to take them off-prem and organise a scappy for the metal. I sat looking at them thinking surely they still work, but I am used to fluro with the starter/ballast. With your instructions I was able to confirm they are wired correctly, and throw the lights together for testing, they work! now I can upgrade my garage and home-office lights to LED with confidence. Cheers!

[@rustyfoster7852]

How do you know if your led bulb has a driver? I've got Phillips led 17watt bulbs T8 .

[@ibrahimchipashya9961]

How to bypass the ballast and starter

[@rickyking231]

I like to find some of those light bulbs

[@hsn3333]

Methodically explained, details clarified, and very well demonstrated. Most useful. Thank you very much.

[@redrampage4581]

little bit of info missing but good video

[@themannymouse]

I did exactly this... and my bulbs burnt out. Turns out I have shunted tombstones- which are NOT to be used with led bulbs. Be careful.

[@scottthompson2446]

I think you need a quick disconnect to be in code compliance. Maybe that is just commercial/industrial code?

[@timt6023]

Great job..thanks. But at lowes they dont have lifetime bulbs, can any led work...same procedure, etc.

[@santafesuperchief]

Is this for Plug & Play LED bulbs?

[@jeremy6891able]

No. This is for dual end power. DEP

[@santafesuperchief]

@@jeremy6891able These are duel end power. They worked on the ballast but I think the ballast went bad, so can I still use them by bypassing the ballast?

[@jeremy6891able]

@@santafesuperchief yes you can

[@santafesuperchief]

@@jeremy6891able These are made by Zhenjiang Qiangling Electronic Co., Ltd., sold at Walmart. I don't have any other information on them except they were called Plug&Play bulbs. Works with existing ballasts.

[@susans3411]

Excellent walk through! Thanks from the Rocky Mountains.

[@anitabuxton1911]

Just remember ther's two types. One is plug and play and it won't work if you remove the ballast. Make sure you buy the correct tubes.

[@TheLeokwok]

Viewer should know that there are many type of wiring schemes for different types of ballast. Usually, there are far more wires under the ballast cover. Also, no one is certain what ballast is used for the fixture over your head. This video is misleading.

[@rmascarinas47]

Is this a standard wiring for any brands of LED 4ft tube? Thank you.

[@chasem3355]

You saved me the cost of an electrician. I searched through a bunch of videos until coming across this one. The ballast and wiring was nearly identical to the four I had to replace. Thanks!

[@jenniferzhan408]

Are you interested in making a video for our led fixture? we are a led light seller, and looking for someone who can help us make a video for our 4ft led fixture. in order to show how to install the led fixture to our customer.

[@fernesal]

I think someone needs to explain from these videos what's the straight voltage that these leds can support to work so we understand why the ballasts are not needed. And what's the voltage the ballasts delivers to the light bulbs or light tubes. And if we need to plug every hole in the tombstones or just one. I followed the diagram in the ballasts that showes every hole in the tombstones seems connected. And I did so. They turned on so...😒

[@csfigueroa2641]

Camera guy needs to move camera slowly and pan slowly, unless you want to get viewers sick.

[@derekdman16]

exceptionally descriptive! love it

[@dwightduckworth9990]

You said "If we buy the bulbs from you" With whom should we speak? Company name? website?

[@tombodine1532]

Good video. Thanks. Quick question: Did the fixture shown in the video have shunted or non-shunted sockets?

[@kkyoung375]

hi, i just open my fixture and there is two ballast inside,i connected all the blue and red wire together going to the black and my yellows going to the white then put the bulb but nothing work,what i am doing wrong.thanks

[@vincemucci2506]

There are two types of leds connects bypass and one side depending on what tombstones come with your bulbs mine were line and neutral so I only had to make one side live black to line and white to neutral as some people mention in video it doesn’t make a difference and it’s true

[@jfr3d79]

Nice video. Very straight forward and very detailed. I have some LED lights from Hyperikon that are Ballast compatible... just not my ballast. So I wanted to bypass. I have an idea but this video confirmed everything. Should be really simple to do. Thank you!

[@Jerry-dc5wq]

If you ever want to switch back to your ballast, coil up your excess wire, you cut your wire to short to reconnect it.

[@aah134-K]

Very helpful, i thought this type you hook one end, the breaker tripped, then after seeing this made the correct way like the one mentioned here and all good now

[@traumamanr7]

This was the best video on this subject that I have seen. I wish you would do more videos like this with electrical issues. You laid this out so simply and explained it great.

[@markjching]

I wish someone would post a video to include daisy-chaining several shop lights after conversion

[@bob51502001]

You said you had two wires coming from each Tombstone you don't! You got one wire coming from each tombstone

[@MrCuervo22779]

so is it safe to say that I just need the bulbs and not any other stuff a vendor may be selling in a retro kit form?

[@WOODYSOOPY]

By-pass means go around, you didn't go around you remove the ballast

[@checkolook]

Great teaching but your Camera man sucks, moving to much!!!

[@pierluigicolotto9570]

My works too. Used woodprix handbooks and build it with no problems.

[@dennisvarnau8340]

Jeremy, there are many companies called Innovative Energy Solutions. Could you provide a website or contact information?

[@destinrobin5724]

Very good .

[@techguru4u862]

I read somewhere that you had to replace tge tombstones with non shunted ones. Your video says leave them alone. I plan on using the Hyperikon bulbs from Amazon. 4 bulb fixture... can I leave the tombstones or change them ?

[@BSquared1000]

+TechGuru4U , my understanding is that for any retrofit where the lamp has metal pins on one end that fit into a tombstone plug, the tombstone needs to be non-shunted to avoid a short that will ruin the bulb. One of the Feit bulbs uses a different system where the tombstones only support the lamp and none of them provide power.

[@dennisvarnau8340]

Jeremy, there are many companies called Innovative Energy Solutions. Could you provide a website or contact information?

[@topflight2358]

what if you have three wires coming from your left and a pull string on the right ??

[@GeordieMcTavish]

so do this

[@marlonoreilly7716]

Great video. I can't tell if the tombstone with the red wire is connected to the one beside it?

[@Arcadias1595]

I have the Hyperikon tube lights from Amazon and this doesn't work for me.

[@Pigpen76]

you probably have the single ended lights. the hot and neutral wires have to go to the same tombstone, not one on each side as shown in this video

[@slemayhem]

Anyone: looking for 5000 lum led. Like the ones he's using. I can't find them anywhere? Any suggestions? Thanks

[@jamesbork127]

lowes only carries 4000 lumens but home depot carries 5000 lumens

[@dmilano56]

Do you have a website to order bulbs from, or are they sold at Hardware stores?

[@chatchainoiwong6161]

Your explanation is very good ,I do understand Thank you Charge

[@thesultanmerchant]

I have 4 flourescent light fixtures with 2 ballast and need to convert to LED. Can you pl make video showing how to connect all wires?

[@jeremy6891able]

Do you have single end power or dual end power led tubes?

[@TheOlavarria49]

Thank you for your excellent video....LED Wiring Project...

[@fernesal]

Well, I don't know what generation that LED is. I bought a box of 16 pack. They told me I don't need to change anything. Just remove the old fluorescents and put the leds on. They worked!

[@OutyMan]

Those would be "universal" or "ballast-compatible" bulbs. They work with a lot of ballast types, but not with others. I think it's magnetic vs. electronic ballast that is the main compatibility issue. They can be a great solution to start saving power with LEDs. Keep in mind though, you're still paying for the juice the ballast uses, and the failure-prone ballast will die and/or kill the bulbs much sooner than direct line-powered LEDs.

[@wcheebh]

Does the led lights work on 240vac?

[@albertoromo2012]

Thank you! Excellent demonstration.

[@kimoandrews5802]

Why did you wire white to red and black to neutral?

[@rufusvanwags7754]

My two LEDs did not come with instructions. I enjoyed your video but I’m wondering why there’s just one wire coming from one end and not two. Are the two tombstones connected because that was not discussed. How does the one LED get power from the tombstone that’s not that’s not connected?

[@OutyMan]

It's hard to tell exactly, because there were no close-ups of the tombstones, but the far side with the one red wire going to the tombstone appears to have a white "jumper" wire connecting it to the other tombstone. Also, unless there are more wires hidden under those tombstone mounting boxes, the tombstones appear to be "shunted" where the prong that holds the bulb on each side of each tombstone is connected internally to the prong on the other side of that tombstone.

[@bobsterbambino2830]

This is the method to install for shunted tombstones correct?

[@ingoknappe7571]

Best Video explains simple we’ll done

[@rajmajmudar3285]

Excellent demonstration for wires connection.