Not being able to find the length I wanted locally, I recently purchased some 90cm (30 watt) fluorescent tubes online from Centrale Brico based in Compiegne 60200. They were competitively priced and are OSRAM make which I thought would be OK.
They came by Colissimo and were very well packaged so no problem with that.
However, upon inspecting the tubes I find that each and every one is plainly marked “Made in Russia”. If I had known this fact I would never have bought them.
Makes me wonder why OSRAM, and indeed a French Brico company, are selling goods made in Russia. I thought we were supposed to be using economic sanctions against Putin and Co.
Just thought I would mention this so that others may be aware when purchasing OSRAM goods.
My guess would be they had them in a warehouse before the war so Russia was already paid and they want to clear stock.
My guess is that only backwards countries like Russia continue to make outdated technology.
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Exactly, why buy fluorecents when LED are half the watts for more brightness and no mercury inside? There is a dutch based company I used last year they shipped next day and 150mm in my case x 12 were only €18 each. Could have paid €21 for the very best but its only for a barn.
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You can even buy tubes which just fit in the existing lumiere so don’t even have to do any installation work.
That said I do still have fluorescents in the garage and basement in France - the tubes are fine so I’m in no rush to swap to LED.
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I was just replacing like for like.
I’ve been lead to believe that a different starter module is needed for the LED tubes. Is that correct or will the LEDs work with the old starter units ?
Electronic or old fashioned bulb?
90cm fluorescent tubes in fittings that are at least 30yrs old and probably still have the original starter modules.
Every LED tube I’ve purchased in France came with a starter in the packaging, so I’ve never had to find out.
As already said a new ‘starter’ should be provided with new LED tube.
They are not a starter as such, simply a way of shorting out the wiring as the starter is no longer required. You could rewire the fitting internally, in which case you could get rid of the old choke as well & save even more power.
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…I changed my 3 fluorescent tube in the garage to LED tubes. F.I. … you do also need to change the starters.
In this neck of the woods the LED tubes and the starters are sold separately. There is no indication on the tube packaging that a new starter is included.
I need to double check but I think the replacements for the traditional bimetallic strip starters are empty and just fill the hole.
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Do you have a wiring diagram for that which you would be willing to share ?
And cost €6.50 each !
Its straight forward Robert, leave out the choke(starter) and connect directly to tube holder, just be careful to get the power end of the LED to to power end of the tube fitting otherwise there will be a short as one end of the LED has dummy pins just to locate it.
Your old chokes use more power the the actual fluorescent tube, found this by accident when testing my mums. 42w tube, 120w total being drawn!!!
I will have a look inside one of the fittings and see what is what.
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Put simply all it needs is for live & neutral to arrive at the business end of the LED tube. Everything else can be chopped out. Clearly any metal chassis needs to remain connected to earth.
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I recently just replaced the whole unit with these:
Very simple to do, bright and cheap.
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Would that be the live from the transformer unit or direct from the mains ?