3 Major Types of LED Bulbs Require Different Wiring, Can Be Confusing - Convert Fluorescent to LED

LED bulbs for 4’ light fixtures come in 3 different wiring profiles that may require a little research before purchasing the bulbs.

A popular LED bulb is a ‘retro’ bulb that can be used in a fluorescent fixture that runs on ‘ballast’ electricity.
It is easy to install because no wiring is required, simply install bulb and it works on a ballast output.
I’m not a fan because of several flaws. First it is wasting electricity because a ballast isn’t totally efficient being inline with the bulb. Second, the ballast will fail eventually and then you can wire (which takes some effort) your fixture to use a ‘non ballast’ LED bulb.

Both ‘shunted’ and ‘end-fed’ LED bulbs both require regular line voltage, 115 volts which most Americans have for electricity.
All 3 types of LED bulbs have 2 prongs on each end.

A shunted bulb requires a wire to go to each end of the bulb to operate. The bulb will have a “L” on one end of the bulb and a”N” on the opposite, wire the black power wire to the L side of the fixture and the white (neutral) wire to the N side.

An end-feed bulb takes both power wires to one end only. Look for a “L” and a “N” on one end of the bulb and wire the black power wire to the L side of the tombstone and the white (neutral) wire to the N side.

Some fluorescent fixtures are wired with ‘shunted’ tombstones where both prongs are fused together preventing using that fixture from being used with an end-feed bulb. Hence requiring a shunted bulb.

Some bulbs are multi use and can be used in 2 or even all 3 of these wiring situations.

So when converting/retrofitting an old fluorescent fixture a little research is required before purchasing the LED bulbs.

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