Retrofit Emergency Linear Fluorescent Fixtures with Halco's ProLED® LED Tubes

Historically, linear fluorescent light fixtures that required emergency backup required your fluorescent light bulbs to be wired to a both fluorescent ballast and an emergency ballast. This can lead to the original installer creating complex and messy wiring setups that leave most electricians confused when they are tasked to find out what is wrong with the fixture. The diagnostic process is an annoyance and replacing either of the ballasts requires a lot of re-wiring. You are tired of all of the maintenance you are putting into these fixtures and want to update your facilities to LEDs to reduce maintenance and operating costs, what are your options?


First, you can go with brand new LED fixtures that can either have field-install or factory-installed emergency capabilities. The downsides of going with brand new LED fixtures is that you will be looking at a lot of work to remove old dirty fixtures from the ceiling. You also need to consider that you might not just need one fixture, but dozens. Typically, LED fixtures have modern designs that can mimic old traditional fluorescent fixtures but the differences when installed are significant and will lead to a visually unpleasing non-uniformly lit room. So is buying a bunch of new LED fixtures – emergency or not – within your budget? Maybe, but if not, let’s consider the second option – retrofitting.


Retrofitting is one of the best and most popular options for linear fluorescent fixtures. Not only do you get to keep your old fixture to maintain the same look, but it is also easy! We highly recommend using Halco’s ProLED® hybrid LED tube to replace your F32T8 fluorescent lights. The hybrid technology of these lamps allow you to retrofit in both plug-n-play (type A) and ballast-bypass (type B) situations.


For plug-n-play installations, simply take our fluorescent tube lights and push these LEDs into the same socket. It is that easy! Most of the work done with type A installations is checking that your fluorescent ballast and emergency ballast within the fixture is compatible with the LED lamp. This can be done by checking the attachments on the listing or by contact one of our sales associates.


For ballast-bypass installations, most of the work done is with removing all of the existing ballasts and wiring direct line voltage to the fluorescent lamp holders. You may install the LED light when this is complete. However, for fixtures that require emergency capabilities you will need a special LED tube with an integrated emergency battery. Halco has just released their ProLED® Emergency T8 tubes to the market for just this reason.


These emergency LED tubes are strictly ballast-bypass and require constant hot much like a standard emergency ballast does. They come with the option of being switched or un-switched allowing you to have some design flexibility. They function as a standard 4 foot LED tube in normal lighting situations and emergency lights when the power goes out. These lights come in either cool white 4000K or in daylight 5000K.


Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post and remember that if you have any question you can contact our sales team at:


Showroom: 3911 W Van Buren St #3 Phoenix, AZ 85009

Phone: 1-844-357-8897 | 602-233-2552

Email: sales@citylightsusa.com


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Jun 28th 2022

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