LED Tubes

Revolution Lighting’s energy-efficient LED tubes make retrofitting easy. Lightweight and shatterproof, our all-plastic tubes provide a superior quality of light and can reduce your lighting energy use by as much as 60% compared to fluorescent lights. Our LED tubes come in UL Type-A, Type-B, or Type-C designs.

About LED Tubes

Types of Tubes

If you’re considering upgrading your fluorescent tubes to LED tubes, or are simply thinking of replacing other LED tubes, you’ll first need to understand installation and operation of the three different LED tube options available: Type-A LED tubes, Type-B LED tubes, and Type-C LED tubes.

Type-A (Ballast-Compatible) LED Tubes
Easiest, quickest, DIY option, no rewiring

Type-A LED tubes have internal drivers which allow the tube to operate directly from existing linear fluorescent ballasts. Installing Type-A LED tubes is a fast and easy way to upgrade your lighting, and can make a significant impact on energy savings. Without rewiring or need for an electrician, anyone can simply remove fluorescent tubes and replace them with Type-A LED tubes. Please note that Revolution Lighting insists that our Type-A LED tubes only be installed in fixtures with ballasts that appear on its Ballast Compatibility Lists.

Type-B (Ballast Bypass) LED Tubes
Full professional installation, eliminate additional components

Like Type-A LED tubes, Type-B LED tubes operate with an internal driver. However, the integrated internal driver in Type-B LED tubes is powered directly by the line voltage supplied to the existing fixture. Type-B LED tubes may be either single-end-power (power supplied to a single end) or double-end-power (power supplied to both ends). To make this installation work, your electrician will need to remove or bypass the existing ballast. Ballasts draw power too, so in bypassing the ballast, you eliminate compatibility issues, ballast replacement costs and unnecessary power draw.

Type-C (External Driver) LED Tubes
Full professional installation, best option for control system

Unlike Types A and B, Type-C LED tubes have an external driver that powers the LED tube rather than an integrated driver. Type-C LED tubes have a similar installation to Type-B LED tubes in that an electrician first will need to modify the fixture by removing the ballast. During installation, the low-voltage outputs of the Type-C LED tube driver are then connected to the sockets instead of line voltage. Type-C LED tubes offer excellent system efficiency and overall performance. Most Type-C LED tubes are dimmable and are the best type of tube to use with most controls.