LED Lighting Upgrade

El Toro

Member
Hi all Starting to replace old fluorescent bulbs with LED bypass bulbs. 8' single pin. Looking at 45W 4800lm 6000k lights about $11.00 a tube ( pack of 25 ). Any opinons or advise about the color range 400k 500k or 6000k These will be frosted and used in shop NOT in booth. As usual Thank You.
 
I'm not an auto body person by trade, but I do understand lighting when it comes to color temperature (Kelvin rating) and CRI.
IMO, I would go with a color temperature of 5000K-5500K, which is roughly equivalent to the Sun at noon though it is not needed for shop work, but it can't hurt especially if you have the option of getting those.
For color matching, such as in a booth, not only is the color temp (K rating) important, but so is the lights CRI rating, which is to display accurate color rendering. There is a lot of info on the web regarding this subject of Kelvin and CRI.

Mike
 
I replaced my work's office & warehouse with damar 5k bulbs from local light bulb depot chain store 2 years ago this month. If I remember right, they'll replace bulbs if entire unit fails within 5 year warranty & the quality & ratings were a little more trustworthy. Cheaper than internet listed prices with easy to setup cash commercial account.
Average fluorescents & 4k led bulbs look yellow & dingy in comparison to the 5k. The 5k damar I have at work & the 4'assembled 5k units from Sam's club at home both make area look like a bright white laboratory at night with enough of em. The damar's have a frosted tube which gives more of a uniform look compared to the others which you physically see the individual led's. At home the individual led's do reflect on my truck's black paint job, not really a shop issue otherwise as would be for a paintbooth.
not sure about the quality of the bulbs you're looking at . More lumens (output) = more $ ,4800lm on an 8' bulb ain't great. Ratings can be deceiving, particularly with lower quality stuff & led's also fade with age , as do flourescents. Personally I'd do 5k over 4 for anything but an area wanting soft light such as kitchen. Would quickly consider 6 over 5, though haven't owned any yet.

One time wiring for bypass bulbs is a minor pain, but result AND costwise with aging ballasts, I'd call it stupid NOT to switch over these days if you're able to rewire. Most 4' bulbs require a hot & ground on same end (bulb one side powered) & 8'single pin hot to one end & ground to other (either direction if I remember right). Not having ballast heat in summer, slow buzzing start in winter, & 40 something percent average energy savings is priceless.
 
Kitchen I have 4000k, nice pure i'll say white. They uplight above cabinets.
Garage I have mostly 4000k & replaced a couple that failed with 5000k. 5000k shows car paint color better.
Get frosted if you'll see bulbs or you'll see spots. CRI above 90 I've read is good.
Lower K is warmer. Old bulbs are roughly 2700K. 4000K is pretty much dead center of warm & cool.
 
Hey Thanks guys and yes father in law was a industrial electrician so sort of like a second trade to me,so wiring no problem.
 
Great timing - I held off upgrading to LED cause of the price. I read all about these 60 dollar kits to retrofit. Then I pulled up a YouTube video about wiring- EASY ! did my basement in an hour - 4 lights - can’t wait to do the garage ! Bulbs are a little expensive but the lighting in my basement is incredible now - will be worth it - no need to buy a kit if you buy the “single ended “ bulbs - they use the existing “tombstones “.
 
Great timing - I held off upgrading to LED cause of the price. I read all about these 60 dollar kits to retrofit. Then I pulled up a YouTube video about wiring- EASY ! did my basement in an hour - 4 lights - can’t wait to do the garage ! Bulbs are a little expensive but the lighting in my basement is incredible now - will be worth it - no need to buy a kit if you buy the “single ended “ bulbs - they use the existing “tombstones “.

Does this apply to 8’ tubes?

John
 
Yes John I had had the single pin 8' tubes and used the 8' bypass LED. You just take out the ballast. One end load other end neutral
 
Yup - cut all your wire away from ballast - one end of light to hot wire the other side to neutral as el toro said- you’ll new to buy “single ended” bulbs . There is another way to wire them where you would need double ended bulbs - which there are more choices and a hair cheaper- but it requires you buying new tombstones
 
i did my whole shop a few years ago . 64 bulbs ! but it is daylight and dark difference. i was buying around 2 cases of bulbs a year so they paid for themselves . i use daylight bulbs in the booth .
 
I've always encourage people to go to LED. The thing about florescent lamps is that over time (within months) the bulbs Lumens fall as well as the spectrum shifting warmer (Kelvin rating gets lower). LED's are stable and won't do that.
 
Mike, led's do loose some lumen's output with age, just not as much or as quick. Better quality bulbs , such as the Damar brand may list initial average lumens, which may be higher than their listed rating. Also individual lights in the set can fail, while the rest keep going.
Can't yet detect any drop in 24 month old warehouse bulbs at work, definitely an improvement. Would have to replace one with a brand new bulb side by side to see.
 
I have 10 double 8’ fixtures. What is the best plan of attack for those of us that have 2 pin 8’ lights instead of single pin. Do I need to just plan on changing all 40 tombstones?
 

Here you go John - easy
my lights are double pin also
I thought it was gonna be a big deal but had some guy tell me about it so I looked it up on YouTube- just need to buy the bulbs now - about $200 bucks for 25 quality bulbs
 
Research the bulbs and ask questions- this is power to one end - “single ended”- some are compatible both ways - my recommendation is to convert one light first - but a few bulbs and make sure you are getting the right ones so you don’t have to change out the tombstones
 
2 pin 8' fluorescents were the less common high output models & weren't available from my distributor 2 years ago, which they now are.
Another option available for 8'fixtures is changing/adding tombstones to the centers to make them 4 ea 4' bulbs (twin ends) , as most new 8' led fixtures come.
 
I tried 6 different brands of 4' leds before I settled with 6000K ultra hi lumens frosted from eledlights.com Best light out of all the bulbs I tried. 4 and 5k were yellow to me. I haven't saved any energy because I added a lot during the conversion. I installed well over 100 and haven't had a failure yet. Most have been installed over 2 years.

I have a few of the non frosted versions but they are a little sharp out of the corner of my eye if I'm on my back working up.
I believe they have 8' versions.
 
i just ordered a 10 pak of 6k brite white frosted for my booth. finally ran out of fluorescent bulbs . i had daylight bulbs in it but want to try these .
 
I changed my whole shop (52 light fixtures) to 8' LEDs about two years ago when I saw the first cheap ones on ebay. Some of the early ones get hot and blink (ebay seller replaced the blinkers no problem) but the later ones work great. We found that on most of our fixtures we only needed one LED tube to replace two of the old fluorescent tubes. Since the LED conversion our monthly electric bill has gone down a lot. The clear lens LEDs are terrible for inspecting and polishing because the reflection is a bunch of dots that look like orange peel so get the frosted lens ones. ~BOB
 
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