Brett, as to your original question see an explanation here
http://www.hhydro.com/Electronic_VS_..._Ballasts.html. As to replacing existing florescent lights, Gordon has you on the right track. I bought 4 rolls of 5050 LED's on Ebay. I could, with a little soldering, gotten by with 3 rolls. They were About $18/5 meter roll. I removed the valence panels, removed the florescent fixtures, built a riser platform mounted the LED rolls on top of the platform with the adhesive backing, attached the wires to the 12 volt leads that went to the old lights and reinstalled the valence panels. Photos are worth lots of words. The first photo is with the valence panel off to show the dual rows of 5050 cool white leds. The second shows the right side with the leds and the left side still with the old florescent lights. I had enough length to almost double the rows on the drivers side so I did. That is why I said that 3 rolls likely would have worked. With the four rolls, I have noticeably more light than I did before (3rd photo). These rolls were 5 meters of 60 leds/meter 5050 SMD Cool White Flexible LED Lights Strips, 6500-7000K.
