Garage/shop lights?

drkelly

drkelly

Dipstick who put two vehicles on jack stands
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Oak Ridge/Stokesdale, NC
I couldn't find a previous thread on this subject, but if there is one, then please direct me to it, and the mods can delete this one.

The standard fluorescent lights that were installed 6.5 yrs ago when our house was built are starting to fail. I bought a four pack of cheap lights off Amazon in mid-late March and installed two of them. One is still working fine, but the other took a dump within the first week. I installed the other two this past w/e. Hopefully they keep working. What and where are you installing for lights in your garage/shop?

What I bought in mid-late March:
https://www.amazon.com/Wraparound-I...d=1&keywords=Antlux+40w&qid=1592223274&sr=8-1
 
DSM Turbos said:
If you have the fluorescents why not just buy the bulbs and convert them to LED? It is really simple to do.
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Didn't know about that. I will have to look into it.
 
I have the $17 Lowe’s flourescent fixtures with Wal Mart 4’led bulbs. The bulbs are $4 each if you buy a 10 back. This combo was the most lumens without having the harsh higher range kelvins kick in. I did a write up on four or five different types and measured lumens over on Jeep-owner.com
 
I put 16 of the 5500 lumen fixtures in my building. They plug into each other. I have 4 in a string plugged into a receptacle. Very bright. Were lil pricey from Rural King in Morganton. @ $25.00 each. They have cheaper ones, but they don't plug into one another. Very happy with them.
 
Three years ago I converted the two 8' fluorescent light fixtures in my garage to LEDs. Each fixture held 2 8' fluorescent tubes. I bought a two conversion kits which converted each fixture to hold 4, 4' LED tubes. I purchased 8 4' tubes to fill the converted fixtures. Bought everything online from a company named Premier Lighting (ledt8bulb.com)

Here is what I ordered:
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I have a full basement. Had average amount of fluorescent when I moved in. I added several more, & as they old ones burned out, I upped to higher wattage. Then Harbor Freight came up with the single LED, on sale for $20. 5K lums! I put up 1, in a dark area, & Wow! Bright! When I had garage doors installed, I added 2, 8' LED's from Home Depot. Love the Brightness! I'll be converting the basement, as the fluorescent burn out.
 
4K LEDs will make fluorescents & "cool white" lamps look like they're off and casting a shadow under them!... Fawk "cool white"!

My shop has 8 UHO (dual 4' x 5/8" tubes = get pretty warm) fluorescent fixtures :(... 14" up and while bright enough, require a work light for anything under a vehicle... once the case of lamps are gone, she'll get LEDs.
Stepsons basement (had 2 incandescent) got 4 Amazon LEDs and has been just fine for the past year... may need to move a couple now that HVAC ducting is in, but more than adequate.
 
I've been buying the 3ft LED strips from Home Depot for $15/ea. They're pretty good in terms of lumens/$. I haven't had them long enough to see how they hold up. All LEDs get dim as they age, and will color shift in unpredictable ways.

A lot of the fixtures I looked at didn't actually put out many lumens, and cost a lot for what you got. If you have a fluorescent that's dying, might be best to future out if it needs bulbs or maybe a good ballast and fix it.
 
I have a ton of lights in my shop. I think I have about 18 4' 2-bulbs in my 40x26 shop. It is bright as hell. They used to be all fluorescent but I converted them all to LEDs using these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M7M5XTY/
 
upnover said:
Were lil pricey from Rural King in Morganton. @ $25.00 each.
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I picked up 6 of these on black Friday for 19.99 each and just got around to hanging them about a month ago. I just put receptacles in my ceiling to plug them into. Seem like good lights. Time will tell how long they last.
 
Blaze said:
I have a ton of lights in my shop. I think I have about 18 4' 2-bulbs in my 40x26 shop. It is bright as hell. They used to be all fluorescent but I converted them all to LEDs using these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M7M5XTY/
Click to expand...

This is a good example. These put out 80% of what a new fluorescent tube would, and they get dimmer from there. After five years, they might put out 1800 lumens or so. They're not as temperature sensitive as a fluorescent, so that's nice.
 
I went on Amazon and found some LED lights. I think I got a 6 pack for around $120 (cheaper than Harbor Freight).They can also be connected in series so you don't have to wire a plug for each one either. I believe they were 4800 lumen. I like it bright in a shop so I can see what the hell I'm doing.
 
With the better quality stuff (or at least from the bigger/reputable brands), the LED specs will usually include an L70 or L80 or whatever number, which is the lumen percentage at the rated life. So a L70 of 50k hours will be 70% of rated lumens after 50k hours, which is the system for rated life for some brands (they don't fail at 50k hour rated life, they are just 70% lumens of new).

You won't likely find that spec with a no-name China LED unit; they may have a rated life spec, but no other context about what that rated life actually means. So if a no-name China LED from Amazon is rated at 50k hours, you don't have any idea whether that's the failure life, or it's a 70/60/50/40/whatever% lumens life, or anything like that, because they're not telling you.
 
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I'm switching my fluorescent fixtures over to led ballastless replacement as the go out. Using hyperikon bulbs. So far so good. I've got 4 2' fixtures above the workbenches and just over head high on the wall for some under lift light. I also swapped out the 4' bulbs in the house garage over it's workbench. I haven't had to worry about my 8' lights in the shop yet, because I haven't run out of ballasts or bulbs I had stockpiled, but when I do they'll get hyperikon too. I'll try to get a pic of the 2' ones tonight.
 
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shawn said:
This is a good example. These put out 80% of what a new fluorescent tube would, and they get dimmer from there. After five years, they might put out 1800 lumens or so. They're not as temperature sensitive as a fluorescent, so that's nice.
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I don't know, these things are a hell of a lot brighter than any fluorescent bulb I've ever put in. They've been in the shop about three years now and look pretty much the same. One of the big reasons I went to LEDs was because of the temperature sensitivity though.
 
I bought 6 8' led's from Green Light Depot. They were about $25 each. My garage is lit up brighter than the sun when I turn on all 6. 60W 8ft V-Shaped T8 Integrated LED Tube - Clear - Clear / Cool White (5000K)

They also sell direct replacement bulbs for florescent fixtures, no rewire needed (but you can drop out the ballast and wire the tombstones direct).

They also ship extremely quick.
 
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