I replaced 8' T12 bulbs with LED tubes, bypassing the ballasts and their inherent buzz.
I got the LEDs from
www.greenlightdepot.com
on sale for about $15 per 8' tube.
The hardest part of changing the wiring to bypass the ballasts was repositioning the ladder to get under each fixture.
The LED lighting is far superior.
That raises a good point -
there are actually three ways to upgrade from fluorescent tubes to LED lighting:
1. There a LED replacement tubes that are directly interchangeable with fluorescent tubes. This is supposed to be the easiest and fastest approach. While I suspect that these replacement tubes are readily available from on-line suppliers, I prefer to buy things that are that large and fragile from B&M stores, and I haven't found any in our area. Also, this option doesn't result in ideal efficiency - the ballast is still in the circuit, and consumes energy.
2. There are LED replacement tubes that are designed to go into fluorescent fixtures while bypassing the existing ballasts. Since the existing ballast is discarded, this option leads to maximum energy efficiency. Again, this is supposedly simple, but it is necessary to replace the plastic lampholders. I haven't done an exhaustive search, but I haven't found the necessary lampholders in any of the stores where I have looked. And as Pete noted, there can be code/insurance issues if you modify the innards of an electrical fixture that has a safety label.
3. Finally, you can just replace the entire fixture - both the sheet metal and the electrics. This might be a bit more expensive (although if you get the fixtures on sale - - -), but it's a solution that makes sense if you only have one or two fixtures that you want to modernize.
But ultimately, Gary is right - the most difficult part (for us old guys) is getting up on the ladder.