LED shop lights

grsthegreat · Sep 18, 2020

Different companies get different build qualities. Sylvania leds are usa manufactured.

k0ua · Sep 18, 2020

KennyG said:
My impression is that LED lights have gotten very reliable. I started getting them some years ago and had a few failures, but I don't think any have failed in the last couple of years. I have a lot of them at home and supervised putting in about 50 at my church.

I too believe the reliability has improved in the last few years.

Oldpath05 · Sep 18, 2020

What I need is Beyond Bright, neve enough light in garage and they last a live time too, but wait theres more.......... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2qinhAeg8g

ruffdog · Sep 19, 2020

I have three quality 8 foot florescent fixtures in a 2 car garage and at some point will get replaced. They light great and I've only replaced the bulbs 2-3 times in 25 years so they have done me good. Would 3 of those screw-in LED lights be the way to go in a all white finished garage? All I would have to do is remove the old fixtures and install 3 of those bulb fixtures where the wires come out of the round light boxes.

dragoneggs · Sep 19, 2020

I have a 24 x 28 shop. Thirteen Costco LED 4ft lights. Love them. 4000K. Also a bunch of various LED bulbs of various styles all though out the house now. Only a couple of incandescents left anywhere. Those will go soon. Where's the wood because I need to knock on it... I have yet to have an LED bulb fail.

I also have several fixtures in my basement/utility room where I simply swapped the fluorescent with an LED bulb. Didn't mess with the ballast and they work fine.

Oaktree · Sep 19, 2020

dragoneggs said:
I also have several fixtures in my basement/utility room where I simply swapped the fluorescent with an LED bulb. Didn't mess with the ballast and they work fine.

That's all I've done...left the ballasts in place, just replaced the tubes. No problems. If the ballast had failed I replaced the whole fixture.

Can't comment on the Cosco fixtures...they don't seem to have much of a presence in this part of the country, but I've (so far) had good luck with the $15 ones at Ocean State Job Lot, a regional overstock/discount chain.

grsthegreat · Sep 19, 2020

Problem with leaving ballast inplace is the old ballast becomes the weak link. Failing and aging ballast are the prime reason florescent lamps fail. I like to eliminate them.

WranglerX · Sep 19, 2020

There are LED tubes you can use that you can disconnect ballast, and don't have to replace whole fixture....

How to Bypass a Ballast | 1Bulbs.com

Replace fluorescent tubes in 3 of my shops 5 fixtures and now have to wear dark glasses in shop (well not quite)...

Dale

ultrarunner · Sep 19, 2020

Only good to say about the 4' Costco fixtures and 4' bulbs installed years ago... not a single issue and ended up buying a lot for friends.

Moms garage/workshop was wired in 1959 with 4ea 3 bulb floresent metal fixtures... very heavy construction.

Dates back when they had starters and getting all 12 bulbs on the same page never happened... some would start, some flicker and some had to be replaced... bulb, starter or ballast... big heavy ones.

I took out all the bulbs and put 2 ea Costco 4' LED in each... so 12 40W bulbs removed and replaced with 8 LED.

I still like going into the garage and turning on the lights... instant on, silent, no flicker and the best light ever... just right illumination and color... this is what sold the neihborhood.

Not typically an early adopter as still have a rotary dail and rabbit ears and DSL... but the change has been great for the garage.

I left the ballasts in so it was as simple as R and R.

In Olympia the garage shop had 8 foot bulbs and always issues... just buying new and bringing home a problem and the cold weather meant poor light until everything warmed up.

Replaced the two each 2 bulb 8' fixtures with two 4' Costco fixtures... perfect for parking and storage and no more cold temp issues.

Mat4644 · Sep 19, 2020

For two storage barns I'm replacing the florescent fixtures with common screw in bulb fixtures. Im using a combination of 100w equivalent LED bulbs and the 6,000 to 8,000 lumen triple lights. Easy to replace or increase levels since they use standard household bulb sockets.

For the workshop with a higher light level I haven't decided what LEDs to go with. Some early ones I've bought gave already burnt out.

KennyG · Sep 19, 2020

ruffdog said:
I have three quality 8 foot florescent fixtures in a 2 car garage and at some point will get replaced. They light great and I've only replaced the bulbs 2-3 times in 25 years so they have done me good. Would 3 of those screw-in LED lights be the way to go in a all white finished garage? All I would have to do is remove the old fixtures and install 3 of those bulb fixtures where the wires come out of the round light boxes.

I would replace them with 8 foot LED fixtures. Not expensive and would be equivalent to what you have.

grsthegreat · Sep 19, 2020

All i did was to convert my 2 lamp 8 foot HO light fixtures with 4 of the 4 foot led lamps. I used a retrofit kit sold on ebay.

. I didnt feel like removing all my fixtures, and they were in good shape. I just trashed the lamps and ballast and replaced center section with the retrofit kit. Came out nice

GeneV · Sep 19, 2020

First thing I did in my shop, tore out the couple fluorescent lights the previous guy had, and hooked up a strip of led's running the length of it. Love em!

Oldpath05 · Sep 19, 2020

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The white walls help too...........

GeneV · Sep 19, 2020

Oldpath05 said:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The white walls help too...........

Mmm hmm.

Oldpath05 · Sep 19, 2020

GeneV said:
Mmm hmm.

The walls look white to me, white reflects light, I'd like to have my inside shop painted white..

dragoneggs · Sep 19, 2020

Oldpath05 said:
The walls look white to me, white reflects light, I'd like to have my inside shop painted white..

mudding and white paint is on my ToDo list for my shop. It will be a monumental effort to move everything out to get at the walls and ceiling though. Probably have to set up a tent in the driveway for temp protection of my tools/equipment while I tackle it. Means a summer vs. winter project as well unless I do it one wall at a time.

Oldpath05 · Sep 19, 2020

dragoneggs said:
mudding and white paint is on my ToDo list for my shop. It will be a monumental effort to move everything out to get at the walls and ceiling though. Probably have to set up a tent in the driveway for temp protection of my tools/equipment while I tackle it. Means a summer vs. winter project as well unless I do it one wall at a time.

You wore me out just reading that, no way in this life time will I sheet rock my garage let alone mud on 14' walls, I seriously doubt I'll get enough gumption to get white paint on bare wood, maybe if I was 40 years younger with nothing else to do.

dragoneggs · Sep 19, 2020

Oldpath05 said:
You wore me out just reading that, no way in this life time will I sheet rock my garage let alone mud on 14' walls, I seriously doubt I'll get enough gumption to get white paint on bare wood, maybe if I was 40 years younger with nothing else to do.

The rock is up and partially taped. Lousy job done though so it will be a lot of sanding and still won't be a quality finish job. Might pull everything out and have some mud it and I will paint if I can find some poor guy that wants to do it.

Oldpath05 · Sep 19, 2020

I talk to some at my work and to my surprise they dont mine doing mud, so there are some out there that like playing in that stuff, it drives me crazy and I dont have far to go.