LED shop lights?

B

Brad J.

Oldtimer
Anyone running LED either strips or troufers in their shops? I'm converting some storage space to more work space. Gonna need some new lights and I might as well buy modern if they work and the light is good.

Currently have a combination of t12 and T-8 8' strip lights in the shop now. I replace the t12's as ballast burn out.

Home depot has some 2by4 led's for a little over a hundred bucks from Lithonia. Thinking t5's might not be bad either.

Thinking about getting away from florescents as they heat up my building during a 12 hour day.
 
my whole shop is high output t5's. 23 4 tube fixtures. they are really good on power. i cant complain there. my only complaint about fluorescents is they dim out alot over time. my ho's are probably only putting out what a brand new t'8 would. of course the t'8 would dim as well. i thought about leds for the shop for a long time as my house has been converted now for 2 years or so. for the amount of led lights to equal the output of what im getting with the t5's though its just not worth the expense right now. the t5's are efficient enough where i would never make that money back. here is a link to a led fixture i have in my computer room in my house. these would work great in a shop environment. its 4000lumen and you can find them for about 120 bucks.

http://www.cree.com/Lighting/Products/Indoor/Surface-Ambient/SL-Series
 
I'm waiting for someone to give these a try. They look like they would really go a great job at light output. For me, until I get a shop with higher cielings I'm not sure they would work for me and the fact I just put up 4 new 8ft t8's they will have to fail first.
 
funny, i got a flyer in the mail a month ago for those. they look real nice but also a little more expensive per lumen than the cree i posted above. plus with the cree you will get a more even light since you can distribute them around a little. those bigass ones are nice for real high ceilings though.
 
Thanks for the info. That bigasslight led me down a rabbit hole today. Hours reading and searching. Info I gathered is they are really bright and a nice light, but for the price your going to have shadows. I only have 12' ceilings and 1 fixture per stall is common sense that it isn't possible for it to spread the light around the edges. Their webside shows that in the garage pictures. I think they would be too bright to purchase a bunch of them and not very cost effective.

All the messing around it appears a decent way to go is pick up some cheap t12 fixtures and run samsung led bulbs through them. For around $55 total a piece I can get a 4' 2 bulb LED with 2100 lumens per bulb running on 18 watts a bulb. That allows me run them in a strip like I currently have. I can run 5- 4' long fixtures with a 21,000 lumens using 180 watts. Adjust number of rows base on brightness. I might buy a couple of those bulbs and replace one of my current t12 strips and check the quality of light before I jump in.

I'm done for the day, I've read so much iternet nonsense that my head is gonna explode.
 
Your thoughts were what I was thinking. One light that bright would cast one hard shadow IMO. Unless you had clean white walls reflecting back, and like you putting more up to help with that would be very costly so for me the standard light will have to do for now. But I would like to see one go first hand and see for myself if it could even be a reasonable choice for the average guy like myself.

I would like to know how the new lights work for ya let me know what you get and what you think. How would they compair to what I have 4-8' 2 bulb florescents. I first said they were t8's but now I'm not sure, they might be 12's I'll have to look I never really paid close attention I just bought them from Lowes and put them in I know I didn't get the hi-output lights though.
 
I think the whole green thing is bunk to an extent. Payback on these LED bulbs would probably never happen for an average consumer. I can see a large facility doing it.

If I go the led route I will have less lumens per fixture which is less light. If I go t-5 then my energy bill will go up because more watts are being used but the lights will be brighter.

I should just purchase some more t-8's with reflectors or t-5's and see how technology helps the led conversions. They will only improve and the price will drop.

I'm about a month out for starting the project.
 
They will come down in price I bet, I'm hoping...LOL I burn out a lot of 8ft fluorescent and regular bulbs along with ballasts, I've been switching out my regular bulbs with LED one by one to see how long they last.
 
Bob,

What brand led are you using, what current t8 bulb, and how do they compare?

I have 18 or so ballast's and maybe burn one a year. Same with bulbs. I replaced the bulbs in the t8's about 4 years ago and have only one that burnt out. I have 6 t12 ballasts that are 10 years old and bulbs are probably 6. So for me Florescent maintenance isn't even in the equation.

I do run Sylvania 8000k Octron bulbs and I really like the light.

I have 14 2by4 4 bulb t8 inside access LDPI paint booth lights that I'm pondering using on the project. I've been saving them for years for another booth but I don't know when that will happen and these lights just sit there.

I'm setting this part of the shop up for two service stalls and a wash/detail rack. Been doing a lot more mechanical work on old cars the past couple years. I raised the rafters and installed another hoist last summer. So I want good light over the hoist stalls and great light over the 10' high ceiling part of the wash rack. I'm kinda kicking around 4 of those bigass lights over the two stalls for repair. They have a 60 day trial and it would be nice to put up 4 lights instead of several 20' rows of florescents. For the price of those I could do a nice job lighting the entire space.

Thanks for the ideas and information.
 
With bright white walls there would be a reflective light that would help with any shadows I would think. The price of the the bigass light though has had me question if I really should pull the trigger or look for another product. The warranty looks real good too. I'm just on the fence about them when I get a new garage and what to use, mostly the price, everything else looks and sounds great.
 
The BigAss light loses me a little when they drive over them with a truck. Last time I checked, I've never witnessed a truck driving across the ceiling.
 
Brad J.;n72895 said:
Bob,

What brand led are you using, what current t8 bulb, and how do they compare?

I have 18 or so ballast's and maybe burn one a year. Same with bulbs. I replaced the bulbs in the t8's about 4 years ago and have only one that burnt out. I have 6 t12 ballasts that are 10 years old and bulbs are probably 6. So for me Florescent maintenance isn't even in the equation.

I do run Sylvania 8000k Octron bulbs and I really like the light.

I have 14 2by4 4 bulb t8 inside access LDPI paint booth lights that I'm pondering using on the project. I've been saving them for years for another booth but I don't know when that will happen and these lights just sit there.

I'm setting this part of the shop up for two service stalls and a wash/detail rack. Been doing a lot more mechanical work on old cars the past couple years. I raised the rafters and installed another hoist last summer. So I want good light over the hoist stalls and great light over the 10' high ceiling part of the wash rack. I'm kinda kicking around 4 of those bigass lights over the two stalls for repair. They have a 60 day trial and it would be nice to put up 4 lights instead of several 20' rows of florescents. For the price of those I could do a nice job lighting the entire space.

Thanks for the ideas and information.
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I have 18 florescent 8ft fixtures in the shop, can't remember what bulbs I've been using-whatever Menards sells-I'll have to look. The LED bulbs I've been installing are for the other fixtures-the regular Edison style bulbs.
 
My father's church & rec room converted from t12's to led. The guy used 6000k or 6500k temp for extra lumen per watt but i personally never would've went that cool/ugly temp.
HomeDepot had a batch of $10 4 footers come in the moment I was buying t8's. Had the guy stick one in fixture- we both said ew. Was orange & way dimmer then t8. I bought the t8's.

BUT- I will be converting my 2 car paint booth/garage & kitchen to led when price drops & color temps make me smile PLUS- dimmable a must if i'm gonna make it daylight while painting & dim for daily use. NOT all are dimmable.

Major plus- never buy a ballast again. They're direct wired, toss your old ballasts.
 
I'd like to switch to LED lighting completely for how long they last, they also don't seem to care much about power surges unlike the other bulbs I replace all the time.
 
I ran out of time to get my storage building foamed and lights installed. I did get the 14 booth lights up but I don't have them operating yet. I don't work in the cold so It will have to wait til spring.
I did have a couple 8' t12 ballasts go out over my work bench. I replaced them with some t8 8' fixtures I had lying around. I installed 8 4' James LED bulbs with 19.5 watts and I think 2100 Lumens at 5000K color. They are nice but a little yellow compared to my 8000 K t8 bulbs. They aren't bad but no better than the t12 lights they replaced. I had some nice white bulbs for them.
They killed my radio reception though. I have XM and that still works because the antenna is outside. During all my readings I found some really nice Sylvania ballasts that are brighter and use a little more energy than the cheap ones that come with the lights. I'm kinda dragging my feet to see if the retrofits will improve quickly.

As it is the leds are good shop lights but not paint prep/finish work.
 
i use the cool lights in the booth. they are on the blue side but show color better. i have one 8ft above the bench that is yellow. drives me nuts. time for a new case of bulbs .
 
Read through this thread a few times lately trying to decide what to get for a part time work area with no existing lights. The led tube bulbs seem pretty misleading when you look at the low output compared to t-5, t-8 or t-12 bulbs. Looking at what home depot stocked, the t-8 bulbs & fixtures looked to be a fair choice with 2850 lumens from 32 watts. two choices of double 4' fixtures were 20 bucks ea, a 10 pack of daylight bulbs was $40. Got a few to start & try out . Planning on running more light fixtures than I need for the majority of the time & set them up on several switches to use as needed. May get some led fixtures to go along with, but they don't seem to be the deal their supposed to be.
 
jlcustomz said:
Read through this thread a few times lately trying to decide what to get for a part time work area with no existing lights. The led tube bulbs seem pretty misleading when you look at the low output compared to t-5, t-8 or t-12 bulbs. Looking at what home depot stocked, the t-8 bulbs & fixtures looked to be a fair choice with 2850 lumens from 32 watts. two choices of double 4' fixtures were 20 bucks ea, a 10 pack of daylight bulbs was $40. Got a few to start & try out . Planning on running more light fixtures than I need for the majority of the time & set them up on several switches to use as needed. May get some led fixtures to go along with, but they don't seem to be the deal their supposed to be.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the CRI value needs to be over 85.
 
One thing to note is the ballasts that come in those home depot fixtures last 2-3 years at best. At least most of mine did anyway. The good Sylvania ones are about 30 bucks a piece on amazon. Normally they are around 60 a piece. Well worth it if your going to go with T8's as they are a 1.15 ballast factor and are brighter than the cheap ones. More energy use also.

I purchased two new styles of LED bulbs to try out but I haven't done it yet. The LED bulbs I put up are pretty good. If I had 5k or 6500 bulbs they would be the same. I'm used to those 8k Octron bulbs and they are just a great light. I have plenty of light with the 12 Led bulbs I currently have it's just a tick yellow compared to the 8k bulbs. Then again everything looks yellow compared to the 8k bulbs.

Supposedly the Lumen rating on the florescent is bulb numbers that are from a lab study with a perfect world. Supposedly a 2750 Lumen bulb wont give a true 2750 where a LED is true. Might be some truth because the 2100 Lumen LED bulbs put out about as much light as my 2750 bulbs.

I have some 4100 bulbs somewhere that I will replace a couple and compare to the led bulbs I have. More apples to apples. I will say it's nice to have no hum or ballasts to go bad. If the bulbs last what they say then it will be good.
 
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