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The Best LED T8 Tube for Your Needs

People have been using linear fluorescent lights (LFLs) for years for lighting commercial buildings as well as for residential units. Over the years, this type of lighting has proven to provide high quality light yield and has reasonable life span in addition to being energy efficient. This especially holds true for the T8 fluorescent lights which only utilize about 60% of the energy that the now phased out T12 lamps used to expend. In the passing of years however, people have continued to experiment and discover newer technologies that can provide more cost-efficient light. Just recently, the T8 tube was introduced in the market for tube lights and has then started dominating it.

So what attributes does the T8 tube possess that can get fluorescent lights users to finally make the switch products? manufacturers had no difficulty winning over incandescent bulbs users since incandescent lighting consumes a lot of energy and emits a rather warm light as compared to the cool lights of the LED. However, when it comes to LFLs or fluorescent lights which are also energy-saving and have a respectable life span, consumers might understandable need a bit more to sway there. For starters, what advantages could the LED tube offer when compared to conventional fluorescent lamps?

For one, the T8 tube guarantees a much more improved efficiency than the much known LFLs. According to actual comparative study done on both T8s for LED and LFLs, previous one came out as 30% more efficient than the later. Another major edge is that they have no mercury content as compared to fluorescents. As you know, mercury is a toxic material that is hazardous to our environment as well as to the health of individuals exposed to it. An LED is also capable of directional lighting, unlike fluorescents. Hence, you are not only able to save energy when using LED, you also experience maximum usage of the light it is able to emit. Fluorescent lights emit multi-directional light, thus some lights are lost on other unnecessary places such as in the fixtures and ceilings. Another advantage of LED is that it is capable of being dimmed without losing its lighting attributes. While fluorescents can be dimmed, you need expensive accessories to be able to accomplish such feature and the light it emits is so poor that it would be better to just switch off the light altogether.

One major characteristics of these lights that makes them the better choice for commercial as well as residential use is the fact that they work better with controls than fluorescents do. Fluorescent’s life expectancy actually shortens when they are put together with sensors and other occupancy controls. LEDs on the other hand can work seamlessly with any control systems since their life span is not impacted by switching them on or off. LEDs produced quality light that is comparable to fluorescents. However LEDs do not flicker unlike in some cases of fluorescent lamp. At present, T8 LED has the capacity to emit light up to 50,000 hours. The average LFL however has an approximate life span of 30,000 hours, which is definitely lagging behind LEDs capacity. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to mention that LFL already has the linear fluorescent light in the market. It has an estimated 84,000 hours life expectancy. Considering such, it won’t be long before LED will be able to introduce a more or less the same product in the market.

Quang Vo

My very first job in 1990 was with the Street Lighting Division for my local power company as an Electrical Engineering Student Co-Op..... I guess you can say, in the almost 30 years of business experience, I have seen a lot of changes. However, I believe the changes we are currently witnessing now and the pace of technology advancements in the lighting industry, will be the most exciting time period yet.

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Quang Vo

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