Shop lighting

[Synchro909]

Electricity here is generated using brown coal whci we have enough of to last hundred of years but it is a very dirty way of doing it so in an affort to reduce greenhouse gasses and the cost of electricity (which has gone so high it's become political), our stste Government is subsidising the repalcement of incandescent and flouro lights with LEDs. We just had the whole house done, including my workshop. I used to have a 100watt incandescent globe and a 32 watt flouro tube above the work bench. I now have one 7 watt LED there and while the light is not as bright as it was, I get by. There are adaptors available that allow two globes to be put in the one roof fixture. I will buy one of those and another LED globe so I will have 14 watts of LED light (down from 132 watts) and I think that will be plenty.
I am on the committee of one of our clubs and in or clubrooms, we took up a similar offer and changed scores of flouro tubes to LED a year or two ago. The members had to be told it was done - no one noticed but the treasurer sure did!

[denniskliesen]

My old fluro above my work bench gave up on me recently so I bought an LED to replace it. The LED takes about 25% more space but I can't say it puts out anymore light than the fluro did when it was working. The rest of my garage consists of T5 fluorescent and the bulbs are all 6500K. When I see LED that puts out more light than what I have I might consider but the LED are a long way off from matching lumens to the T5.

[old31]

I agree with denn.

For those of you looking for a bright garage, you need to look at T5's from HD or Amazon.

[77Birdman]

Originally Posted by dbaldwi3

Upgraded half of my garage with sunco 8 pack of 4’ led complete fixtures for 190.00 on Amazon. old fixtures had bad bulbs and or bad ballasts just threw them all out, the new ones are 4500 lumens 5000k daylight bulbs super bright now!

I built a new shop last year. Shop area is 40' x 25'. I got an 8 pack from the amazon as well. The price at the time was around $150, less than $20 a light. I divided the space long ways by 3 and ended up with 2 rows of light spanning the length. MORE than enough light. This is a dinosaur thread and its interesting to see the price of the leds and the hesitation about using them 4 yrs ago. Now its the standard and a no brainer.

[katy]

My shop is 32' X 60' w/10 48" 4 tube fluorescents. A few years ago I replaced all the ballasts w/electronic ones, 1 of the electronic ballasts replaces 2 of the old ones.
The electronic ballasts power T8 lamps instead of the old T12s. Each fixture now uses about 85% less power than previously.
8 of the fixtures are spread out on the ceiling and I put individual switches on them so I only turn on as many as needed for the area I'm working in.
The other 2 fixtures are over the welding/work bench w/their own switch.

[ryanheacox]

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For those that are close to an Ocean State Job Lot, I just picked up 10 of these. 2400 lumen, 4’ shop lights, $4 a piece with cord and hanging cables. Got some different models, same brand that were on sale last year for the garage that are still going strong. These will go in the basement.

[lrjones]

I put in 9 LED strips in my pole barn a couple of years ago and they produced excellent light, however, the radio and the cordless phone were useless due to static caused by the lights. Paid about $32 per strip if I recall. Also, have one LED can light in the basement and have noticed when that light is on one of the tv channels in the upstairs living room will not come in. I put up an outdoor antenna on the barn so the radio will now work. FWIW

[Smog Tech]

I use 4 foot LED shop lights from Harbor Freight. 5000 lumens, very bright. My old eyes love them. $20 ea. on sale or with 20% off coupon.

[31 Woody]

I bought inexpensive 4’ LED’s from Amazon, I think it was 4 sets of 2 LEDs per package. IIRC it was about $60 or so to the door. These had grounded plugs on the ends, which was fine as that was how I had my garage set up. I pulled down the 4’ fluorescents and up went the LEDs. I had to make a simple mounting bracket, but each light went up in minutes. SOOOOO much brighter! Chuck those fluorescents in the garbage.

EDIT: I never noticed how old the thread was until I looked a few posts above mine. Yep, the world is changing fast. If only we could make old threads easier to see. Maybe some LED’s?

[katy]

Chuck those fluorescents in the garbage.

Better to send them for recycling.

[jrelliott]

I have been looking at LED replacement bulbs for church, and there are ones that will replace both T8, T10 and T12 bulbs with the same LED bulb. Would suggest getting the ones that you remove the ballast from the circuit as the ballast is still prone to failure and draw current as they are not 100% efficient. The LED bulbs come in different K ratings of the color spectrum, so that is another consideration. From the literature 2 LED bulbs will put our as much light as 4 40W bulbs(160+Watts) vs 2 LED 18W bulbs(36Watts total) and no loss from the ballast. The bulbs have an average life span of 18+years a 8 hours a day 365 days a year.

[Joe K]

Originally Posted by ryanheacox

For those that are close to an Ocean State Job Lot, I just picked up 10 of these. 2400 lumen, 4’ shop lights, $4 a piece with cord and hanging cables. Got some different models, same brand that were on sale last year for the garage that are still going strong. These will go in the basement.

They had these at the local OSJL for $14.99 and also an "improved" version for $18.99.

That is they had the $14.99 units until the local store sold out - then only the more expensive version.

I commented to the store manager about the dearth of the cheaper units. "I'd like to get more to sell more but OSJL doesn't send along any more" he replied.

Meanwhile down in Taxachusetts, the Billerica OSJL was still in stock and carrying the $14.99 units. So I made the trip down and bought 10 (!) to outfit my garage/man-cave.

I would guess them about 1/3rd brighter than the aged T12 Fluorescents they replaced. Nice in that no matter how cold the shop/garage gets I seem to get full brightness.

Time will tell whether the LEDs will continue as bright with continued use. A relatively little appreciated fact is that high output LEDS "age" - hence the 1990s CD boom box that no longer will follow the CD and skips where when new it was rock solid.

OBTW, I have not had stellar luck with electronic ballasts for T8 or T12 florescent units.

I have replaced first the electronic ballast and later the entire unit in a 4' T-8 fluorescent in my laundry room. Its gets a LOT of use being the light of choice on entering the room, and is usually left on.

A local pre-school counts on me to keep their 8' and 4' fluorescent units running and one by one the 50 year old single pin 8' units are going out and being converted. An electronic ballast in this identical application lasts about 5 years whereas the original oil filled ballasts went 40-50.

The electronic ballasts do yield a brighter light - perhaps on a lumen basis they are cost effective?

Joe K

[rrich1]

I'm actually in the process of I stalling LED lighting right now in my garage. Found some on Amazon 6pk for $120 or 12 for $240. Good way to upgrade to more lights as/if needed. Got two up so far and really happy with them. 5000k.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Smog Tech

I use 4 foot LED shop lights from Harbor Freight. 5000 lumens, very bright. My old eyes love them. $20 ea. on sale or with 20% off coupon.

Yes, I just bought one this morning to try it out, and that light really puts out a nice bright white light.
I'll go back and buy some more while the sale lasts.

[Keith True]

Right now I am getting the 4 foot LED tubes from Batteries Plus for just under $10.each.A couple of years ago they were about $30,but the same bulb.I get that price because I have a commercial account,but anybody can get that price.Pay for them online,to be picked up at the store,and the discount you get will bring the price down to the commercial account level.I believe they are German,they are Werkers.Those are the ones you have to wire around the ballast's.I will never use a ballast again,and the new electronic ballast's seem to be junk.I tried to find a quality starter at a lighting store,the salesman said demand for them was nearly zero.

[Joe K]

Originally Posted by Keith True

Right now I am getting the 4 foot LED tubes from Batteries Plus for just under $10.each.A couple of years ago they were about $30,but the same bulb.I get that price because I have a commercial account,but anybody can get that price.Pay for them online,to be picked up at the store,and the discount you get will bring the price down to the commercial account level.I believe they are German,they are Werkers.Those are the ones you have to wire around the ballast's.I will never use a ballast again,and the new electronic ballast's seem to be junk.I tried to find a quality starter at a lighting store,the salesman said demand for them was nearly zero.

Check out https://www.batteriesplus.com/light-bulb/led/tube/g13

MANY differing grades, K value of LED shop bulbs both in "bypass install" and "ballast compatible" versions.

Looks like $6.99 for a bypass 4000K bulb.

K value refers to the "warmth" of the light. 5000K looks "blue" and industrial to my eye. 3500K is the classic "warm" fluorescent favored by housewives who do laundry and need a good read on "daylight color." 4000K is a kind of "average" and IMHO a better all round bulb.

Joe K

[Merc Cruzer]

Has anyone checked to see where the LED bulbs are made? Good to know they should last at least 36 years (that means I won't have to change the bulb again until I am 108). You can guess where the ballasts were made. I was replacing the old large ballast with the newer smaller ones, as they died.

[Keith True]

I doubt any of them are made here.I never looked at the German company Werker bulbs I bought,but I doubt they are really made in Germany.Before I changed my garage lights over to LED I had 16 of those ballast's in my garage.When those little ballast's get some age on them they get hot.REALLY hot,as in,blister the paint on the fixture they are bolted to.A hardware store I go to has one lonely little ballast on the shelf.He had always kept a half a dozen there,and they were sellers.He thinks the one he has has been there for a couple of years now.

[katy]

I have not had stellar luck with electronic ballasts for T8 or T12 florescent units.

An electronic ballast in this identical application lasts about 5 years

and the new electronic ballast's seem to be junk.

FWIW, I redid the fluorescent lighting in my shop to electronic ballasts and T8 lamps 11 years ago and they're still going strong with lots of use. 10 4 foot fixtures w/4 lamps each.

[WTSHNN]

I bought these from Costco over the weekend and installed them the past couple days.
https://www.costco.com/Feit-4'-Linka...100462723.html

They were singles and I paid $19 a piece for them. Am very happy with them so far. I liked that they were linkable which was important for my setup.

I know they were good because as I was looking at them a guy walking past commented that he loved them. Then in the checkout lane another guy told me he's a carpenter and uses them on jobsites and they get beat up a lot and still work.

I had previously been using some motion-sensing/timer LED shoplights in my garage but wanted to expand my the number to get inot to some dark corners so I went with the new ones. The old ones worked great and I have plans to relocate them into my in-law's garage soon.

-Tim