Replacement for old 6 foot T12's needed

Hi - I've got 4 bulbs in two fixtures that I need to replace. I thought about the newer T8 or T5 fixtures, but have only found them in four foot lengths, not the existing 6 foot length I have now.

Is there anything in LED that would make sense? Home Depot had a 2 foot by 2 foot LED light but it was $200 and I'm thinking I would need maybe 3 of them to replace the current lights so it would be $600.

Or I could put the newer T5 fixture in and they have a 6 bulb one that might make up for the 4 foot length.

The reason for all this is my old magnetic ballast went out on one the fixtures and they don't make them any more due to the PCBs in them. I could go to a new electronic ballast but the wiring is different and I would have to change the wiring to the ends of the fixtures. Since they are the older T12's it seems like it is time to update them.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

- Dave

Rewiring the existing is not difficult. What lamp is in there now? Are the HO lamps? (One approx. 1/4" diameter center pin connection) Or the typical two small pin? If they are standard output (2 pin) the 6 lamp t5 should more than make up for it's length in brightness. If they are HO lamps, it may be a toss up. But there are 6 and 8 lamp t5's available. What is the area used for? How high are the fixtures? More info needed for real advise....

I would lean towards new T5 fixtures myself instead of retrofitting unless the cost and effort is worth it. Forget the LED fixtures I looked at them in the stores and the output isn't equal to the same length T5 ones it could require 8-10 of them to get close to matching your current setup. Unless you are desiring more output I would calculate current lumens and then match it with lumens based upon T5 fixtures as the output may be higher in T5 setups for the same tube lengths You have essentially 24 feet of fixtures but you may be able to get 20 foot of T5s to match the output (5x 4 foot ones) instead of 24 feet.

Phantom - The current ones are the high outputs withe one center post. I think they are about 8 ft high. Yes, I think the 6 or 8 lamp T5 would work or the width of the area, around 4 ft, might take two of them. Thanks

Lynx - Thanks for the lumen tip.

If you decide you really want to keep the old fixtures, try a sign company of dedicated electrical supply house. Signage often has different combinations of odd length lamps. And a lot of that hardware is still out there. They may be able to help you with some sort of retro fit kit as well.

A high-output 4ft dual T5 or T8 would probably exceed the light output of the 6ft T12.
You could probably do two offset 4ft single T5 "bare" fixtures inside a dual 6ft "fancy" fixture, if you're wanting to keep the external appearance.