Review: Hyperikon T8 replacement LED 94 CRI Lamp

[@100amps]

Hi. You kept referring to the cool colour of these bulbs, but also said they are 4000k. Then you said you’re disappointed the colours don’t look like outside. Well, a cloudy white sky is 5000-5500k according to most references. I would therefore expect these bulbs to be more red-orange than outside light. But that’s warmer, not cooler, than outdoors. 4000k is probably somewhere between old school incandescent bulbs (really warm) and overcast sky light outside. Florescent is usually an unnatural ghastly greenish-yellow hue. Very poor CRI. My take is that you made a significant improvement and got exactly what the box said. I like your tape trick. Worked great.

[@PapaWheelie1]

We have put hundreds of these in our office over the last few years. The ones with the frosted cover look better, even with a second frosted cover over the fixture.

[@geoffhetzel9691]

I have similar Hyperikon LED tubes in my kitchen. The original fixture had 6 T12 flourescent tubes. When I put in the LED tubes I installed only 4 tubes instead of 6, and get just as much, if not more light, using less than half the power. My fixture has diffuser panels, so the clear cover of the tubes is not a problem in my application.

[@jackt6112]

An incandescent has a 100% CRI of course. The Altos, 90+ CRIs, are available at Home Depot stores. I just bought two T12s from them. I agree the 45w equivalent is very optimistic. A T12 fixture, with Lithuania Electric ballast that is compatible with T5, T8, T12 bulbs, running two of the Altos at 2325 lumens each = 4650 lumens, uses 52 watts, which is 89.42 lumens per watt. I like them because everything looks natural so I used them in the kitchen in the lighted ceiling and the office areas. The colors are perfect. The Altos have a 35,000 hour life while the LEDs have a 50,000 hour life. Unlike the LEDs, the Altos hold their CRI for 92% of their life. However, the CRI is only half of the story. Fluorescents experience a relatively rapid downward shift in color temperature. Daylight is 5000K (full Sun) to 6500K (shade in full Sun) to 7200K. I'm leaning toward stocking up on Alto T12s due to standardized wiring, thus easy replacement of bulbs that don't depend on me when I'm living abroad or someone with a degree in solving electrical mysteries.

[@kaneo666]

So I have an admittedly long scenario where replacing fluorescent with LEDs in low traffic areas would be beneficial... now, this was in Germany, so it’s slightly different, but still... two reasons that aggravated me to no end led me to do it just for convenience rather than cost savings. My utility room had a single 4ft 36W (not sure why they used 4 extra watts than the US) and the typical European 2 wire magnetic ballast and external replaceable starter (little cylinder with GU10 base that contains a neon tube and filter cap ) that are wired in series with the filaments at the end of the tube. These flicker for a while and make noise before fully lighting up (think early CFLs if you’ve never experienced these in ceiling fixtures) because first the filaments have to heat the tube to a sufficient temperature to allow for ionization of the gasses at mains voltage (which is probably easier to do at 230V in Europe than 120V in the US, which I’m assuming is why they are still a new thing that can be installed, although are quickly falling out of favor as I haven’t seen any 2 or 4ft T5 fixtures with starters over there, and full LED fixtures are becoming more and more commonplace for new installs anyway). Just for reference, the electronic, instant start, etc. ballasts eliminate the need for a starter (and also bypass the filaments completely like in US universal ballasts, although many European electronic ballasts retain them) by applying up to tens of thousands of volts (low amperage, of course) to the tube to instantly ionize the gas and provide a path for current to flow. Anyway, German houses are built with a method called “massivhaus” where the walls are very thick dense concrete, which provides great insulating qualities. They also use boiler heating with radiators (and almost nowhere has A/C), but the utility room is left out, presumably because it will pick up residual heat from the rest of the house, and typically has the furnace and water heater (and washer/dryer most of the time) in it anyway... kinda like attached garages in the US. It would be cold in that room (German interior doors also do not have a floor gap and do have a rubber seal on the door jambs, so you see how cold it can get... they also open every window on the house for about 15 mins each day to air it out, even in the dead of winter, preventing mold). Well... if you’ve ever turned on a stone cold fluorescent light... they don’t like it too much. Our shop had the high bay lights (6 150W metal halide) replaced with a bunch of double tube 4ft T5 fluorescent fixtures... now everyone knows some insufferable person who, if they get too warm, will just turn the thermostat all the way down instead of incrementally lowering it to a desired temperature... then leave. Well, we’d be the first shift to show up after the weekend and it would be as cold as the thermostat would go (~10°C/50°F?) and the center part of those T5s would not even light up a pale purple until a few seconds after turning them on, and it took minutes to get useable light in the bay to do anything requiring good vision (like reading a label). My utility room was very much like that. Since I only had a carport, I kept my tools in the utility room, and when I’d be working on something, I’d go in to grab something where I knew the general location, but needed light (i.e. to grab the right size wrench). I would have been able to go in, grab the tool, and get back out before the damn lamp was even fired up. So I replaced it with a tube I got at Obi (like Home Depot... they’re even the orange home store chain) for about the same price as one of these tubes. With the instant on, my impatience was satisfied, and the increased brightness over the old fluorescent tube was a bonus! Now I should note I replied to another comment on here that these are probably rated by the manufacturer to be compatible with magnetic ballasts that have separate starters like my German example, where my LED replacement tube came with a shunt that replaced the starter. The ballast would just chill then acting as a current limiting device, although it would never get anywhere close to even warming up now. We get conflicting info because they had to tailor the instructions to the US style that we’ve used for decades where the starter is built into the ballast and would most likely dramatically shorten the lifespan of these LEDs (probably on the first flip of the switch!). The manufacturer probably only makes one multivoltage tube to satisfy all the world, and since first world countries like Germany are still using the old school separate ballast/starter, you can bet 99% of the world probably is too. My civilian coworker went on vacation somewhere and took pictures of the street lighting that was one of these two wire magnetic ballasts nailed to a tree with a fluorescent light hanging by the electrical wires between the tree and something else (building or pole)... so uhh... this LED tube was designed for this kind of installation in mind when they say it is ballast compatible on the data sheet.

[@b5a5m5]

11:10 5 1/4" floppy disks, CRT monitor, LCD monitor, LED lighting... This guy is living in multiple decades all at the same time!

[@markiangooley]

Older fixtures invariably have T12 tubes and often have magnetic ballasts. I used to use high-CRI T8 tubes whenever I replaced a fixture with a modern fluorescent one. I think they were over 94 CRI. I’m stuck for now in my parents’ old condo and from sheer laziness I bought plug-and-play Philips LED T12 replacements designed to run off the 1970s magnetic ballasts. $7 each at Home Depot, moderately high CRI, (not sure: high 80s or low 90s?). 2100 lumens, seem to work perfectly. Saved me a lot of work and let me sink back into laziness...

[@chue]

Don't know if this is correct, but I pronounce it "hyper icon". I put some in my last house (regular CRI version), and I loved them. Mine were the 4K unfrosted as well. It is definitely uncomfortable to look at the LEDs directly. Your tape idea is genius. I was really hoping you'd show the part where you removed the ballast and installed the bulbs, but it was not to be. Love your channel, keep up the great work!

[@DanafoxyVixen]

Many of these LED T8 replacements can be used with a Ballast but doing so introduces electrical losses which makes them less energy efficient

[@FixUntilBroken]

At the end, you mentioned the lack of noise the LED lights produce, but I didn't hear you mention the ballast noise with the fluorescent lights. Ballast noise is really annoying if you are around them all day, and they seem to get louder the older the ballast is. Also, to diffuse the light some more, you could put a sheet of white paper over the bulb.

[@paulschmidt7473]

I think these would work well in my kitchen, it has 4 bulbs, 4 ballasts and all of the ballasts are shot (they are 50 years old). The fixture is behind a frosted lens, so clear bulbs would work fine. Considering that a new FL tube is around $5 and a ballast is $25, $45 for 4 bulbs would be a cheaper fix....

[@SteveStoltz]

I recently replaced my florescent bulbs in my lab at work with ballast bypass Hyperikon clear 6500k bulbs and I love them. I plan on getting them for my garage at home.

[@johnvillalovos]

If you like the 6500K, like me, then you might like these: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LD6NCPY/ but not as high of CRI though as only 85. I haven't tried the Hyperikon but have been happy with the ones I linked to. Though they do have a 1/2 second or so delay from power on until light output.

[@SteveStoltz]

Thanks I'll check those out. I'm not real picky, a second to light us is better than waiting 5 minutes for fluorescents to warm up in the winter.

[@oqsy]

If you want a more “sunlight” appearance, go with higher K rating. 4000 is too low to expect “daylight” appearance.

[@sic22l]

Not really. LEDs have quite a bit different light spectrum than sunlight with a very strong spike on the blues. That's bas because our eyes didn't evolve to see it (that's why it causes eye fatigue and damage). That's why LED light at the same color temperature as sunlight would appear pure white with slight blue tint while the sun itself still looks a bit yellow.

[@danielramotowski5187]

I actually performed a conversion like this over a year ago with the same Lights of America shop light! Yes, it was a pain in the ass to take apart and re-wire. However, the results were stunning! I used double end power 6500k 20w led tubes made by Wen Lighting. Don’t know the CRI but probably not as high as 94 lol.

[@MM-sf3rl]

A Foot Candle Meter would of help to compare the real live levels - before and after. Some LED tubes can provide up to a 270 degrees of light; more up light in the fixture; giving better distribution. Also, there are tubes more efficient - somewhere between 130 - 150 lumens per watt.

[@baconnology9564]

Have you tried them upside down?

[@seanzappulla71]

I used these here in Australia in the bathroom and they light up the bathroom. Most of my parents holiday house has mainly led lights and including down lights.

[@simontay4851]

My kitchen light is a 6ft t12 fluorescent with a magnetic ballast and draws about 60W. Would replacing the magnetic ballast with a high frequency electronic one increase the efficiency? For my workbench I have four 12V MR16 LED spotlights above on the ceiling that were originally 20W halogens. $22 each for these LEDs is quite expensive.

[@brendanrandle]

do you think they might work in an old style magnetic ballast with just the starter removed

[@kaneo666]

This is what I came to say... since these are 120-277V, they’re obviously so they don’t have to make different products for different countries. In Europe, 2 wire magnetic ballasts with starters wires in series are still very common, and the (cheap) LED replacements like these come with a shunt that replaces the starter. So the ballast just kinda chills there making sure those LEDs don’t draw too much current 😋 That’s probably why the data sheet mentions it is ballast compatible, but then the instructions are tailored to the customer’s country. Like in the USA, we haven’t used external starters for decades, even with magnetic ballasts (and boy those suckers were heavy...).

[@gusy629]

I love LED tube. You can now say goodbye to slow start blinking fluorescent lights and buzzing noise.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

IKEA will sell you high CRI lights, their bulbs are >90 CRI. Some of my Nichia LEDs are pinker than others.

[@tspiderkeeper]

Yes but Philips is also a very great company and one one of the most popular light bulb manufactures

[@jeffwolf8018]

Will these fit into a place of a T5 bulb or is there a special T5 made bulb all by itself?

[@alext9067]

Don't you have a light meter? I don't really trust them as they have a response curve based on wavelength, but it's a rough idea of what the brightness might be.

[@tpcdude]

Adrian, have you thought of looking at the RFI interference presented by these LED bulbs. I am a HAM radio guy and want to do this swap to cure RFI in the 160meter band made by the electronic balasts in my current setup. will i be seeing RFI on some new frequency with the led tubes.

[@jerrydemas2020]

I put my tubes in up-side down to stop the harsh glare.

[@mport6561]

I have a lampi 3318 and I don’t know how to remove cover to change light

[@james42519]

how is it if they are turned around to face up?

[@misterhat5823]

Couldn't you add a standard 2700k bulb per each n high CRI tubes to lower the color temp without messing up the CRI too much?

[@lazychris2000]

Any chance you are planning on doing a teardown on one of these bulbs?

[@infinitecanadian]

Trying to rewire any ceiling fixture is a bitch because you have to look up all the time and it makes your neck ache.

[@Saphykitten]

I really enjoy these videos (:

[@adamkepinski]

I think I'm gonna sponsor my fish a new lightning set. Will just replace 4 fluorescent bulbs, with 4 LED T8 bulbs. Half the power, probably 1/10 of warmth, fish should be happy :)

[@gmirwin]

There are light meter apps for your phone. Not as good as a real meter, but it would be better than just eyeballing the brightness.

[@seanzappulla71]

I have a few and they connect to the balest with a fuse the needs to be swapped from the starter.

[@i-will-get-you-there]

This is nice..... Good review video. Only a small gripe......Why did you not go "full B.Clive on them?" Okay kidding aside, I wish that there are more and cost effective options for hi-CRI led bulbs. And any that is available they are expensive as F!@$#...!! Thank for the video. Cheers

[@christopherguy1217]

Did you time travel back to the 1980s? The computer stuff looks 30 years old.

[@DanafoxyVixen]

you mention that the Fluro bulbs wear out over time, but so do LED bulbs, and for the same reason, the phosphors wear out. it speeds up if the LED is over driven and get hot

[@johncoops6897]

The LED tubes will degrade SIGNIFICANTLY faster than the fluorescent. These LED tubes are almost certainly NOT CRI > 90. It's just marketing wank for consumers who cannot actually measure CRI anyway.

[@johncoops6897]

B.L. Alley - a current-generation fluorescent tube on a switch start (wire-wound ballast) is rated at between 25,000 and 30,000 hours to 50% failure. That rating is based on the IEC "3-hour" switching cycle, as in the lamp is run for 2.75 hours, then switched off for 15 mins. So, 8 switches per day. It is the switching that kills the fluorescent filaments, so they last heaps longer than that if left running for longer than 2.45 hours each time they are powered. Ove that rated life, the fluorescent's lumen output will have degraded by 10%.The LED tube in this video will have an internal power supply that will almost certainly fail within 20,000 hours of operation. The LED chips will all still be OK, that's not the problem.

[@johncoops6897]

Nope. Unfortunately for you, the real world uses REAL FACTS. Open this link to the spec sheet for the exact fluorescent tube that is mentioned in this video: www.assets.lighting.philips.com/is/content/PhilipsLighting/fp927852083503-pss-en_usPhilips F32T8/835 - Programmed Start ballast 3hr cycle = 38,000 hours, 12 hr cycle = 44,000 hrs. Phillips also sell Long Life (Plus) and Extra Long Life (XXL) versions of the tubes - those are even better than the standard Alto tube that I linked to. OK, now who is more credible - multi-national Philips (who ALSO sells LED Tubes and rates then shorter life than Fluorescent) or some random LED marketing company?

[@johncoops6897]

Interesting - The user "B.L. Alley" just deleted all their replies after I posted that link.

[@XsaviXander]

You're wrong, John.

[@muchosa1]

Don't forget you have to check if your tombstones are shunted or not.

[@1marcelfilms]

Put the tube upside down for a more diffuse light

[@birdmun]

I was wondering the same thing.

[@dennish4304]

The beauty of dual or double ended LED tubes, Put them in upside down, flip the tube ends, it doesn't matter.

[@Thoracius]

Nice scotch-tape hack!

[@1marcelfilms]

4000k is perfect for fluorescent tubes

[@johnvillalovos]

I am a fan of these www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LD6NCPY/ lights and probably easier to install. They state a CRI of 85 and I personally am a fan of the 6500K color temperature for my garage. It is a good color temperature for a work light in my opinion. It looked like the previous fluorescent bulbs had two different color temperatures, I wonder if that contributed to not liking them as much. And cool to see someone in the Portland area doing KZbin :) Oh they also have these less powerful ones: www.amazon.com/dp/B01HBT3BVM/. And I see they also sell ones in color temperatures like 4000K ( www.amazon.com/dp/B06VVL8DSS/ ) but I have only used the 6500K ones.

[@gorak9000]

But what about the R9? CRI is a pretty flawed measurement.

[@johncoops6897]

The R9 is just one colour (Red) in an extended CRI calculation. As you say, CRI is a TOTALLY flawed and largely irrelevant calculation (it's not a measurement). A high CRI only means it scores well on "CRI colours" which are not necessarily colours that you might need to illuminate.

[@infinitecanadian]

Do you watch VWestlife? Recommended!

[@markfreedman2470]

Good video. However 4000 K is not daylight. 5500K is. Expecting these bulbs to render daylight accurately is misguided.

[@scoobyrex247]

Bigclive nice

[@laharl2k]

I mean, ok mercury.....but who's gonna take a fluorecent tube to a recycling center? where is a recycling center that takes fluorecent tubes? i know that's what you are supposed to do but i dont see it happening in practice.

[@simontay4851]

Maybe not where you are but all major recycling centres in the UK do accept CFLs and fluorescent tubes. Its a requirement under WEEE/RoHS law.

[@kingedwin]

Usually any place that takes hazardous materials like paint.

[@laharl2k]

i mean yeah they exist, but i dont see anyone doing it mostly because you have to go and do it, and it you dont have time for that its quite a bother. I think most will just break them and throw then in a trash bag along the rest mostly because most dont even know about the mercury. I know a place around here which takes electronic waste, CRTs amoung others, not sure if they'd accept stuff that contains mercury but only getting there is a 15min car trip and the gas alone will probably cost more (not factoring the time spent) than a pack of tubes.

[@johnvillalovos]

My local Lowes will accept the fluorescent tubes, but Home Depot will not. And living in Oregon we have drop off sites which accept them but they are farther away than Lowe's for me.

[@tinplategeek1058]

In the UK, if you buy a new fluorescent tube from Screwfix, they will take the old one to recycle.

[@tspiderkeeper]

Subbed your also into the same thing i am computers. Philips also has the led version of tube lighting

[@alext9067]

When did they start making 2x4s out of pine?

[@ottersdangerden]

All the 2x4s I can get at homeless and menards are all pine. I can get hardwood from the specialty dealers but the pine boards are cheaper

[@alext9067]

Are you saying that they are Douglas Fir and that Douglas Fir is actually a pine? I thought you were saying that the 2x4s in your area were somehow made from pine like pine boards are. Never heard anyone refer to Douglas Fir as pine, but it technically is.

[@alext9067]

Yeah, I never knew that. I live on Long Island and we have Douglas Fir (which is really a species of pine) and some spruce, which is very light and dry, but kind of shitty the way it comes in. Twisted and bent. The only workable lumber here would be kiln dried Doug Fir. I've never come across anything labeled as pine. Thanks for the info. I need to keep an eye out here on LI.

[@qwaqwa1960]

You seem to be confusing CRI with colour balance. If you want to do a CRI review, why not invest in the gear...a CRI card? Sumthin' like that...

[@danielade9062]

found it

[@InconsistentManner]

LED light in and of itself is inherently different. yes you can get 90+ or 95+ CRI lights. but LED will look different until you are used to it. we are all used to the cheap dollar brand incandescent light bulbs with HORRID color reproduction. So even cheap brand LED bulbs will be better.

[@DanafoxyVixen]

I think your confusing incandescent light bulbs for CFL light bulbs. incandescent light bulbs, no matter how cheap, when running at their rated voltage will give a CRI of 100

[@johnvillalovos]

CRI is defined based on a "black body" and incandescent bulbs get a perfect score of 100 even though incandescent bulbs do a terrible job when trying to compare black versus navy blue. I remember leaving the house and one sock was black and the other was navy blue because I had compared them under an incandescent lightbulb :)

[@johncoops6897]

An incandescent lamp has a PERFECT CRI... and that's what the LEDs are rated against. So if you think that an incandescent (CRI 100) is HORRID, then that makes your CRI=90 LED tube 10% worse than the incandescent.

[@locutusofborg2880]

I feel like these bulbs don't have a proper "driver" -- I'm almost willing to bet that it's just a resistive dropper, hence the 98% power factor.

[@locutusofborg2880]

BigClive did a video about these a few years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3isin6CqNh5jKs

[@i-will-get-you-there]

These ....I think are generally in a series configuration. So resistive dropper will not work since it can only drop from 120v....? Only way to be sure is to cut it open.

[@PapaWheelie1]

Adrian Black - also they work on input voltage from 110-277

[@johncoops6897]

They have a proper driver in them. A 98% power factor is very very good. Nobody uses resistive droppers, it creates too much flicker and you loose all the voltage drop as heat.

[@user-qf6yt3id3w]

EEVblog did a teardown of a fluorescent tube with a proper drive kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnfGdGZnatuoh5o

[@leddempoweredinc.ledlights318]

High you should review our T8 LED tube! Our LED's have 160 lumen/watt! check out LEDD (dot) ca

[@daveinwla6360]

The Hyperikons are wired with neutral volts at one end, 120v at the other end - which is an *electrocution hazard* . When putting the tube into a fixture that has the power ON, if you insert the powered end first while your fingers touch the pins on the other end (easy to do) - and you're leaning against a plumbing pipe or your feet are grounded - Zzzzzzzt! For that reason, most other "ballast-bypass" or "direct-wire" LED T12/T8 fluorescent replacements are wired at just one end, with the pins at the other end just for physical support. To re-wire the "tombstone" sockets to accomodate single-end tubes, the sockets have to be the un-shunted type, i.e. the contacts for the 2 pins are not connected together internally. If the fixture has a modern *electronic* fluorescent ballast, you have to replace the sockets with un-shunted sockets. If the fixture is old and has a *magnetic* ballast, the sockets are already un-shunted and don't have to be replaced. I notice that Viribright distributes a 90+ CRI T8 LED tube that is single-end direct-wire, but the highest CCT is 4000°K. Keystone distributes a 90+ CRI T8 tube that is also single-end direct-wire with a CCT of 5000°K, which is more like northern daylight, and I may try them as natural appearance grow lights for African Violets and possibly orchids.

[@i.0001]

This is untrue. Hyperikon double-ended tubes are UL 1598C certified which specifically prevent this electrocution scenario from happening. Hyperikons and Sylvania are two companies that meet the UL 1598C anti-shock protection requirements for their double-ended tubes. Other makers of double-ended tubes either use a loophole under ETL that doesn't require anti-shock protection rather than UL, or are not certified by anyone (Chinese-branded double-ended tubes on Amazon), or if you're unlucky, fake UL certification.

[@daveinwla6360]

@@i.0001 - The Hyperikon LED tubes described in this video are clearly *double-ended* , as explicitly shown twice by the written specifications and even more explicitly by the wiring diagram shown at the 5:38 point in the video. Hyperikon might now make single-ended tubes to comply with safety regulations, but what is shown in this video are not single-ended, and are the unsafe double-ended type

[@i.0001]

Did you not notice I was already referring to double ended hyperikons and sylvanias? You are earnestly spreading misinformation.

[@daveinwla6360]

@@i.0001 - Did you NOT NOTICE that the video very explicitly stated that the tube that is the subject of this video are double-ended? You repeatedly ignore that in your attempt at revisionism. Do you work for Hyperikon?

[@i.0001]

I have never referred to anything other than double ended tubes. You have an issue with reading comprehension.