Author Topic: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED?  (Read 1389 times)
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « on: October 30, 2020, 02:04:36 PM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Does anyone know of anyone who “restores” vintage light fixtures by trashing the original lamps that come with the fixtures for the purpose of converting them to LED?
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #1 on: October 30, 2020, 02:28:23 PM » Author: CreeRSW207
Not me, I’d rather keep them their original lamp type.
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WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #2 on: October 30, 2020, 02:30:05 PM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I personally find it saddening to see that happening with many old ballasted fixtures such as HID fixtures.
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #3 on: October 30, 2020, 02:49:58 PM » Author: CreeRSW207
I personally find it saddening to see that happening with many old ballasted fixtures such as HID fixtures.
I wish people could see how reliable they are and their historical significance.
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Long live the Incandescent streetlights!
Power Company: Eversource
Startup Landscaping/LED retrofit business.

WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #4 on: October 30, 2020, 03:14:44 PM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Did you notice the vintage halfpiper that was converted to LED?
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

Medved
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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #5 on: October 31, 2020, 04:28:11 AM » Author: Medved
If it is something that has to be used daily, there is usually no other choice. You can not rely on decades old parts, even when NOS. The ever present humidity is killing everything, even more when it is actually not used so has no drying cycles, it just becomes safety hazard.

But if the conversion is done in a minimum intrusive way (e.g. just disconnecting the ballast and use a screw in filament LED, replacing tye ballast for a modern HID and use a modern lamp tyere,...), it is OK to me. Better than hanging there dead, with out of place modern fixture just beside it.

Most historic lanterns were already converted that way (or replaced by look-a-like reproductions) many times in the past (from candles to oil or gas, then incandescents, then MV,...), so in that matter it is normal process.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2020, 04:32:32 AM by Medved » Logged

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joseph_125
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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #6 on: October 31, 2020, 02:02:32 PM » Author: joseph_125
With regards to the preheat halfpiper that got converted to LED I'd say there are less intrusive ways to not necessarily modernize it but to keep it more historically accurate.

While it still won't be preheat, T12 lamps and ballasts (electronic only) are still being produced and those will have a lot more of the original look and feel compared to T8 LED tubes. Note that I purposely didn't take energy saving into account. Of course if energy savings is the goal then T8 fluorescent paired with a low ballast factor ballast or T8 LED is the right way to go.

At least the seller used direct wire tubes which are a drop in replacement that dosen't require drilling like some of the other LED retrofit kits I've seen.

Still for most people it's either convert to a newer light source or scrap it and replace with a new luminaire. Because of that I'd rather see it converted than scrapped. At least then there's the chance it could be converted back if a collection were to eventually acquire it.
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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #7 on: October 31, 2020, 08:23:18 PM » Author: HPS_250
I’m sure there are plenty of people who convert vintage fixtures to LED, but it is something that I would never do myself. I feel that to restore a fixture, you must restore it to it’s original form. If someone, for example, “restores” a GE M-400 by converting it from HPS to LED, that it more of a retrofit to me than a true restoration.
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I’ve always been interested in all kinds of lighting, mainly incandescent and HID, and especially all kinds of sodium lamps (HPS/LPS). I’ll tolerate LED but I’m not a fan of it.
I’m not proud to say that my city has Devolved to LED.

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Re: Are there people who “restore” vintage light fixtures by converting them to LED? « Reply #8 on: November 01, 2020, 02:01:10 AM » Author: joseph_125
Yeah I generally try to maintain the original light source in my more vintage lights. That reminds me I'm probably gonna install the original GE MV ballast in my Crimefighter. I changed to ballast to a 175w MH (but running 175w MV) as I needed to replace the capacitor on the OEM ballast.
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