Shop light suggestions

[Haoleguy]

Timswi - Those LEDS light up the space super well and makes the truck shine. Do you have these plugged into receptacles that are switchable?

 

[timswi]

They are plugged into swtchable recepticals.

 

[ning]

I've got a small shop (2-car garage) and recently added a few of the 2@4' LED fixtures as well (Costco); I also got some of the tube LEDs that you can put into an old fluorescent fixture (they work just as well).

Personally I like the tubes because instead of there being a small incredibly bright sources of light (which will blind you from an errant glance), the light comes out of the long strip and so there's less intense glare and no shadows.

My advice: You can't have too much light; In my shop I now have 8 of these fixtures for the ~24x24 space and it's literally as bright as day inside (honestly a bit much to come into at night at first, but there's no worry about eyes tiring due to insufficient light any more). Install them on multiple circuits, either by zone and/or interspersed so you can turn off every other one if you don't want as much light (n.b.: most of these are non-dimmable) but honestly I haven't thought to myself "it's too bright". The LED lighting is high quality and I don't get any notion of flicker at all (I'm terribly sensitive to that and most fluorescent makes me nauseous after a while).

To fully light a 30x60, I'm guessing on the order of 20 of the 2@4' fixtures.

 

[Raspy]

ning,

Your experience is the same as mine. There is no way i'm going to line the ceiling with a bunch on incandescent bulbs that waste 90% of the energy as heat. And I am so done with fluorescents too. Buzzing, strobing, slow warm up, etc. But for those with conventional light fixtures, the LED screw in bulbs are about the same price as incandescents.

Tube LEDs are very nice.

How do you install the LED tubes in the old fluorescent fixtures? Do you have to re-wire them to get away from the starting capacitor and transformer? Is it reasonable to do that when a whole new LED fixture with bulbs and cord is only $30.? And do the electrical connections on the LEDs match the ones on the Fluorescents?

When I go out to the garage/shop at night to get something, I turn on a smaller light with a switch near the door. I actually have five lighting circuits in there, so it's easy to just get enough light to get something without blasting myself. I also have some night lights in there too. They draw next to nothing but make a small glow throughout the area and then come on brighter during power failures.

 

[dragoneggs]

I have six of the Costco 4ft LEDs installed in my two car garage. I decided just to replace the fixture and all and gave the old fixtures bulbs away to my son for his garage. I bought four more for me addition coming hopefully this summer. I have two fixtures on one switch and the other four on another switch. Gives some options. Probably put the rest on another switch for the addition. They mate up nicely with the ceiling. Not quite flush but no more chains and hanging fixtures.

 

[ning]

There are 4' LED tubes which go right into a ballasted fixture with no mods, and others which require you to disconnect the ballast - I believe the latter is the better way to go if you're not replacing the entire fixture. I bought a pack of the "simply replace the tube" types to see how well they work with an old tired ballast (works great even in the cold) and also bought some new 4' LED fixtures as my shop had insufficient lighting. I haven't bought any disconnect-the-ballast type; they're probably slightly less work to install than replacing the entire fixture so price-for-price I'd probably go that route when replacing otherwise unless I disliked my current fixtures.

For what it's worth (and off the shop-light topic), I've replaced lots of BR30 and BR40 can light bulbs with LEDs. Quite happy - they've got a good color and tons of light; I never had good luck with CFLs (they died on me faster than incandescents and had lousy light).

ning,

Your experience is the same as mine. There is no way i'm going to line the ceiling with a bunch on incandescent bulbs that waste 90% of the energy as heat. And I am so done with fluorescents too. Buzzing, strobing, slow warm up, etc. But for those with conventional light fixtures, the LED screw in bulbs are about the same price as incandescents.

Tube LEDs are very nice.

How do you install the LED tubes in the old fluorescent fixtures? Do you have to re-wire them to get away from the starting capacitor and transformer? Is it reasonable to do that when a whole new LED fixture with bulbs and cord is only $30.? And do the electrical connections on the LEDs match the ones on the Fluorescents?

When I go out to the garage/shop at night to get something, I turn on a smaller light with a switch near the door. I actually have five lighting circuits in there, so it's easy to just get enough light to get something without blasting myself. I also have some night lights in there too. They draw next to nothing but make a small glow throughout the area and then come on brighter during power failures.

 

[bdog]

My shop is 50x50 and I have 20 regular screw in fixtures on the ceiling. When I built it 7 years ago I put 85 watt (actual - not equivalent) in them that are about 10" long. They have worked well but have recently started making noise and seem to take longer to warm up. I plan to replace them with LEDs but am still searching for the right ones.

I am a big fan of installing the screw in sockets because it is super easy to replace bulbs as needed and as technology evolves. Those costco 4' leds are slick but in five years I bet there is something much better and with the screw in sockets your upgrade path is limitless.

 

[RNeumann]

My shop is 50x50 and I have 20 regular screw in fixtures on the ceiling. When I built it 7 years ago I put 85 watt (actual - not equivalent) in them that are about 10" long. They have worked well but have recently started making noise and seem to take longer to warm up. I plan to replace them with LEDs but am still searching for the right ones.

I am a big fan of installing the screw in sockets because it is super easy to replace bulbs as needed and as technology evolves. Those costco 4' leds are slick but in five years I bet there is something much better and with the screw in sockets your upgrade path is limitless.

85 watt what....? CFL, LED ETC

 

[bdog]

Sorry - CFL. They are huge though and I have been pleased with them but there are better LED options now. They were about $20 a pop when I got them. Not a single one has failed in 7 years but like I said there are some that just recently started making a buzzing noise and they seem to take longer to warm up and get bright than they did when they were new.

 

[joeu235]

I installed x2 of the RuggedGrade LED lights I bought off Amazon. I plan on installing two more.