Hello, I have a 3ft T8 fluorescent light fixture with a ballast that just died.
The actual hardware where you put in the bulbs is also broken.
I want to finally replace it with something to make it smart, thing is, I dont know what would be the best option and I want some suggestions.
I dont have a picture right now (I can provide it in the morning), but this light resides in kind of a “imbedded box” above the ceiling, so you cant see it when its covered with a frosted piece of plastic.
This box is round 4ft x 2.5ft x 1.5ft in dimensions
Now, I dont have neutral wiring in my home, so I will need to control it with something like a Sonoff, or a Zigbee device or other Wifi device, but I dont want to to be cloud enabled.
I’ve found some lights panels like this one, and also stuff like this one, and of course just replace it the same kind ox fixture that is already there but a LED version.
What are your experiences with lights like this and what do you recommend?
Its been several years ago, but when T8 LED tubes became readily available, I wanted to use them instead of the fluorescent lighting I had. I started researching the LED lighting tubes and found very few that would work with my old magnetic ballast. So I picked OSRAM/Sylvania LED tubes and found compatible electronic ballast to go with them that I could purchase at my local Lowe’s. My old fluorescent tubes were T12, but the LED tubes were T8, so I changed out the tombstones as well. I picked LED tubes that had comparable lumen values with my old fluorescents, and found the lighting just as good. So I’m happy with my setup .
BTW, I also have a similar “imbedded box” setup in my kitchen and I replaced the fluorescents with LED tubes in it as well.
[EDIT] I should have mentioned, that I do have neutral wiring, so I can’t really comment on how to handle your situation.
Sylvania makes t8 led tubes that will work with existing fluorescent fixtures that have ballasts. They are $10 per pair at the local home improvement store here.
With LED the balast is superfluous so replacement tubes will work with the balast removed.
The starter must also be replaced with a dummy or a fuse. It depends on how bad your fittings are I guess. Of course that doesnt help you from the automation side of things
Since you were saying you have a recessed box above the light you could fit the smarts in there and use a normal non-smart light fitting of your choosing.
I say to put the smarts above it since:
Which I take to mean you don’t have a neutral at the light switch, however there will be one at the light (of course).
By putting a smart switch above the light you can have this permanently powered (by leaving the physical light switch always on) and control the light by a remote (such as an IKEA Tradfri or similar) or HA automations etc. You would still have the ability to turn it off by the physical switch if you needed to but that isn’t recommended for a ‘smart’ home.
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