48x39x14 shop build

countrybumpkin · Jan 9, 2019

I did check mine today, 180 ft with or without the lights on. I have the Type B bypass bulbs with 11 4 ft, 2 bulb fixtures with 18 watt bulbs.

ovrszd · Jan 10, 2019

Thanks Bryan. I'd be very, very happy with that.

Rustyiron · Jan 14, 2019

ovrszd said:
Dang it.....

Eric do you know whether your lights have ballasts or not?

Thanks for you guys' help.

I believe they do, click the link and see if you can tell from the pic. They are simple lights that have a built in reflector and screw into a regular porcelain fixture. I bought 6 of them for an experiment, (test actually) before I dicided on them for the whole shop. I got them from Northern Tool and they have 4400 lumens each and at 16' they work very well for my vision, not so much for the FM signal.https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200679033_200679033
I see the price has gone up about $5 since I bought them. I would recommend them for a shop still at this price.

countrybumpkin · Jan 15, 2019

Haven’t seen those before, I might look at something like that for my cold storage area. I have a 40 x 50 area that has 8 porcelain sockets.

ovrszd · Jan 15, 2019

I ordered conversion bulbs yesterday that will eliminate the ballasts.

I called the company that Bigtiller recomended. They were confident changing the frequency of the openers would solve that problem. They were also confident that I'd still get no FM radio signal inside the building. Suggested I try the bulb conversion first.

I'll report my findings.

bindian · Jan 16, 2019

Here is a question from way out in left field. Can you make the lights wireless? That way you can open the door, then turn on the lights.
hugs, Brandi

ovrszd · Jan 16, 2019

bindian said:
Here is a question from way out in left field. Can you make the lights wireless? That way you can open the door, then turn on the lights.
hugs, Brandi

I thought about that. Could have wired a remote controlled switch on the light circuit. Could have even ran it from my phone. Would have allowed me to turn off the lights so the door opener would work from outside.

The turn off (pun intended) was having to dig my phone out of my pocket in the Winter time.

Ford850 · Jan 16, 2019

Rustyiron said:
I believe they do, click the link and see if you can tell from the pic. They are simple lights that have a built in reflector and screw into a regular porcelain fixture. I bought 6 of them for an experiment, (test actually) before I dicided on them for the whole shop. I got them from Northern Tool and they have 4400 lumens each and at 16' they work very well for my vision, not so much for the FM signal.https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200679033_200679033
I see the price has gone up about $5 since I bought them. I would recommend them for a shop still at this price.

I came across these lights in Menards last night. I happen to see it, and thought "that looks familiar". Then I realized I had looked at it on here the day before. Menards sells them for $29.99 in case anyone is interested. I probably should have bought one since the box would have fit in the 15% discount bag promotion they have this week.

Fallon · Jan 16, 2019

ovrszd said:
I thought about that. Could have wired a remote controlled switch on the light circuit. Could have even ran it from my phone. Would have allowed me to turn off the lights so the door opener would work from outside.

The turn off (pun intended) was having to dig my phone out of my pocket in the Winter time.

I have my house setup for SmartThings. The hub is about $200 & switches or outlets (mostly Zwave) are in the $35-60 range. It's a mesh network & in theory each hop can be up to 300', but that's in open air with line of sight. I had to put a Zwave outlet outside the shop 150' from the house to act as a repeater (but again a metal shop kills signal).

It's nice to be able to light up (or shut off) everything outside my house & shop from my phone. House lights near the hub generally respond within half a second to a second. Stuff in the shop can take a few seconds due to the number of hops & the range with lesser signal quality. Sometimes operating the main switch in the shop fails to trigger the other switch in the adjoined barn as its suppose to, likely due to poor signal quality & range again.

I also have a standard 120v zwave light switch connected to a 220v relay running my 5hp Quincy air compressor. My previous compressor killed itself when running for days after the tank started leaking. Now turning off the lights in the shop will turn off the compressor. Want to add a controlled valve to the outlet of the compressor so it doesnt leak down due to leaky lines when it's off too. Have a remote controlled linear actuator on the chicken coop too.

It can be a lot of work to set it all up & a bit to maintain it. You can overcome some of the poor signal quality issues you get going in or out of a metal building, but it takes time, money & some understanding of RF to get it done.