4' LED "shop" lights for ~ $32 at Costco

[JPRambo]

With the LED tube replacement I think the fixture must have an electronic ballast for it to work correctly. The old tar filled ballast don't work well. I have replaced the 4 foot T-8 4100k tubes with LED and when needed replaced the ballast. They have been burning for 3 years now. And I have not replaced one yet.
I think this is the grainger # 33L576.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^This was my expectation but the fixtures I did the first swap were installed in 1960...

The buzz and flicker all disappeared when I swapped the bulbs.

 

[dragoneggs]

View attachment 523164 LED is the brighter one.

Mixed fixture, T12 and LED 55watt
Double T8 fixture. 55watt
Double LED, no ballast 34watt

When i feel better, ill put the two LED replacement tubes in a ballast fixture and measure it.

Here is my result with Costco LED bulb in old ballast vs. fluorescent. LED is the dim one.

 

[JPRambo]

dragoneggs, is this picture the result of old and new tubes in a fixture that has the old magnetic or a 1st generation electronic ballast? If so I would replace it with an electronic ballast to see that difference. What is the rated lumin output of the LED tube?

 

[FTG-05]

With the LED tube replacement I think the fixture must have an electronic ballast for it to work correctly. The old tar filled ballast don't work well. I have replaced the 4 foot T-8 4100k tubes with LED and when needed replaced the ballast. They have been burning for 3 years now. And I have not replaced one yet.
I think this is the grainger # 33L576.

It depends:

- Plug and play LED bulbs require the ballast. No rewiring required, making it easier for the typical "can't wire worth crap" DIY types. It also means that now you're not only paying for the loss of efficiency (1-3 watts to run the ballast) but now your ballast is now a potential failure point.

- "Ballast bypass" LED bulbs do not require nor use the ballast. By far the better choice, IMO. It does require you to do some rewiring of the fixture, but if you can follow a deads nuts simple diagram and read one syllable words, it shouldn't be hard at all; it certainly wasn't for me.

 

[TomSeller]

I don't understand the point in leaving the ballast in place. They use current and can/will go bad in the long run. I would go straight to the 120V models. These days I would replace the fixture as well. I do have some where I reused the old fluorescent fixture but I don't think I would do that again.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

the house I just bought only had one incandescent bulb in the garage. I installed 8 of the LED 4' units from Lowes. $38, a lot cheaper than the 4' fluorescent types including the lamps. They are great, my wife calls the garage our Florida in Puget Sound. Only draw back is the lamps are part of the fixture and not replaceable. Lamp goes out-replace whole fixture. Plan that into your install. They come with a connector so you can install end to end in a long string, I think max of 8. I anticipate in time the lamps will be replaceable as they install trough a removable end cap. We change all fixture in the house to LED daylight type. We love the whir brightness, pops out colors great.

When comparing brightness remember that florescent lamps deteriorate in lumens over time. I was a facility manager for the Navy in an earlier career. Got tired of paying a minimum service call cost to change a few lamps. Budgeted for a global replacement. Did on a weekend. Monday the Sh** hit the fan. n Everyone complained about the brightness. Union forced us to remove two lamps from every 4 lamp fixture. As most of the old fixtures were were operating at 50% gradually everyone got used to the low lighting levels. What a waste of the tax dollars on people not understanding simple physics.

Ron

 

[TomSeller]

. Only draw back is the lamps are part of the fixture and not replaceable. Lamp goes out-replace whole fixture.

That is a concern without the tube LED lights having enough time to standardize, what will they be like 5 years from now? Makes no sense to replace the whole fixture even if somebody else is the one doing it (they could outlast me ).

 

[newbury]

I've posted before that I've a lot of fixtures to replace in my shops, about 40 eventually. Many are 8' dual bulb, single pin T12's with the ballasts slowly dying and they are on 12' ceilings.

After testing T8's and T5's I was about to go with a "bunch" of 4 bulb T5 fixtures's, mainly because LED's were to expensive. But they were still going to cost ~ $80+ /fixture PLUS bulbs. BUT they were going to be BRIGHT

Well, Costco had been selling a 4' LED fixture which puts out 3700 Lumens for $40 which was getting favorable reviews. And then Home Depot sold Commercial Electric 4 ft. LED Shop Light-54103161 - The Home Depot these for $25 in the Boston area (I got 5).

And now Costco is going to drop their price to $32 come Jan 29th.

For any of you "following" the price drop in LED's - is this going to accelerate? Will we see $10 4' fixtures?

Apparently not. Prices seem to have edged up slightly.

I have 4 of these LED shop lights from BJ's Wholesale in a 30 x 24 barn/garage and they are awesome. Amazing how bright it is in there! They work right off 120 and have an attached cord. I have a switched circuit with an outlet at each light, just plugged them in and that's it. Simple.

http://www.bjs.com/lights-of-america-led-utility-shop-light.product.287663

Those look nice - are they linkable?

I'm in need of another 10 or 20 4 footers. I've had another 6 of my 8 foot 2 tube flourescent fixture ballasts die and I've found it just as easy to hook up 2 linked LED 4 footers as tear the ballast out of an 8' flourescent and swap in 8' LED's.

My priorities are:
Linkable
Returnable
Lumens

In a quick survey of what's available It seems the Home Depot offering: Honeywell 42-Watt White Integrated LED Shop Light at $36@ and 4500 lumens is a winner, since I have a Home Depot nearby, making any dead ones easy to return.

/edit - and I just noticed Sam's Club had them on sale for $25 August 5th

 

[ultrarunner]

Costco flyer has the two bulb LED fixture under $20