Garage Lighting

[TimberXX]

I have florescent garage lighting, 2 two bulbs 4 footers. It's not bright enough. I am looking at these from northern tool, adjustable between 30000 to 10000 lumens.

Thoughts?

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200758586_200758586

Any other suggestions?

 

[Roadworthy]

If it was my garage instead of depending on one fixture I'd spread the job out to several fixtures spaced around the garage. I get the two bulb LED fixtures at Costco for under $20 apiece and they're brighter than my old two bulb fluorescent fixtures. But I don't know the size of your garage so maybe one fixture is adequate.

 

[nbking]

I second the Costco lights, I have 8 in a detached 2 car garage/shop. Lots of light for a nice price

 

[California]

I'm happy with the HF 5,000 lumen lights. $20 each, with coupon. These are much brighter than a 4 ft two-tube fluorescent fixture.

Here's what two of them look like (one is above the camera), quite sufficient for this barn stall. I later added one above the workbench on the left to throw light horizontally under the tractor for oil changes etc.

YMMV.

 

[fatjay]

Bought at costco for $17.99 each on sale, dual LED bulbs. I have a couple in my current garage and these are for the new garage I'm building.

 

[Monster5601]

A while back I bought two of the Costco LED fixtures as a test. After a trial period, I decided this is the route I want to take. I wanted to replace all my fluorescent fixtures (tubes are starting to fail) in the garage over to LEDs. Low and behold I went back to Costco and they did not have the same 4,300 Kelvin fixtures, instead, their inventory was all 4,100 K. I bought one to try but I am not happy with the color temperature. This may be subjective but the Costco 4,100 Kelvin lamps are too warm for me for workshop usage. The color temperature difference really shows when comparing them next to the 4,300 Kelvin lamps.

After considerable research and watching a few YouTube videos plus reading the Amazon reviews, this is what I'm going with.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RKZFD5...olid=2MHRI27S01408&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

[dodge man]

My shop is 28’ x 30’ and I have something like 18 4’ fluorescent twin bulbs in it. As they have burned out I have switched to some cheap LED that look the same as 4 foot fluorescents that I got off Amazon.

 

[mikester]

I replaced my high bay T8 fluorescent bulbs with the T8 LED bulbs at Costco and have been very pleased with them. They use half the energy, are brighter and instant on. $15.99 a pair.

 

[shooterdon]

I added lighting for a reloading shop and used 4' 5000 lumen dual LED's from Amazon. You can string up to 10 together so less hassle running wires. My buddy was so impressed he purchased 12 of them for his larger 3 bay garage. Less than $225 delivered.

 

[KennyG]

I've had a number of different shop lights and I will second Monster's recommendation of the V-Shape lights from Amazon. They come in several sizes, are very reliable and distribute the light very well. The Northern Tool light originally mentioned is probably OK but way overpriced.

Select a light size and number that can be distributed over the area to prevent shadowing.

 

[downsizingnow48]

I have Costco LEDs in a couple buildings and the HF LEDs in a third. They are all fine but the HF lights are cheaper and brighter and weigh almost nothing.

 

[DJ54]

I have 10, 5,000 lumen in my 32'X40' shop. With the garage door up on a sunny day, it will literally be brighter in the shop, that outside, right at the door. Got there at Rural King, when on sale for $14.99. Bulb life was supposed to be 35,000 hrs. 6 of the 10 don't light anymore, after 6 years or so. I don't know if the 35,000 hrs is continous, and would last longer, or just using them 6-8 hours a day, or less, turning them on and off reduces bulb life or not.

Seeing that 50,000 hr. bulb life on the one's from Northern, I'd be disappointed if they only lasted as long as mine did, at that price. $14.99 ea. is a little easier to accept. They ran a sale on them last summer, so I picked up 10 more, to replace what I have. And as soon as I get some projects out of the shop, I'll be replacing them. Amazing how just 4 light it up. And, bright enough, they fool my auto-darkening welding helmet.

 

[David Wayne]

As my 4' shop lights go bad I remove the ballast and go with direct wire LED bulbs.

 

[grsthegreat]

As my 4' shop lights go bad I remove the ballast and go with direct wire LED bulbs.

thats what i did with my 8' HO florescent fixtures last year. i purchased a retrofit kit to make housing into tandem 48" tombstone instead of 8'. these kits only took a few minutes per fixture and cost a few bucks. the fixtures are chain hung and hard wired and didnt want to mess with replacing. got LED non ballast lamps for free from retrofit job i did. had purchased a pallet of lamps. 5,000K rated. super bright

shop is way brighter than the old HO florescent. the existing lamps were nearly 15 years old and had dimmed quite a bit. Its more labor intensive to remove the ballast than to get leds that work thru a ballast, but if the ballast fails so do the lamps.
i wish i had enough lamps left to replace the barn, but i didnt. some day ill have to swap out the 5 - 8' fixtures in barn to leds also. but i need the free lamps...im cheap.

i have 10 more 8 foot fixtures in carriage barn, but those lights are not used too often, so have no intention of swapping those out.

 

[California]

One surprise - To avoid breaking the tubes, I carried a pair of old fluorescent tubes to the county Hazardous Waste Disposal still mounted in the rusty fixture I had taken down. Unexpectedly, they wanted the fixture. The guy said the ballast is also hazardous waste that needs to be diverted from the garbage landfill.

 

[grsthegreat]

One surprise - To avoid breaking the tubes, I carried a pair of old fluorescent tubes to the county Hazardous Waste Disposal still mounted in the rusty fixture I had taken down. Unexpectedly, they wanted the fixture. The guy said the ballast is also hazardous waste that needs to be diverted from the garbage landfill.

only the real old oil filled ballast. The electronic ballast are not. I ended up leaving ballast in the fixture, just cut off all wires. No need to actually remove the ballast. Swap out also ended the 24 years worth of humm from the old lights

 

[airbiscuit]

As my 4' shop lights go bad I remove the ballast and go with direct wire LED bulbs.

I have 4' T8 fixtures with 3 bulbs each. I just tried the GT-Lite 3000 lumens each bulbs from Menards

Bright and Light

https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/light-bulbs/led-light-bulbs/high-lumen-ballast-bypass-t8-bulb/gt-t8-h4b-5000/p-1550302356747-c-7482.htm

Easy to do

 

[countrybumpkin]

Really need to know the mounting height of the lights, shop size, and the type of work your wanting to do, then use a lighting calculator to get the correct FC and fixture layout to minimize shadowing.

 

[TimberXX]

thanks for the feedback. those costco lights got expensive! https://www.costco.com/feit-electri...XcKHvsbXQde+/h83+O+QJtKxD4AUnKNOkrdwPdUdIqrT1

great call on the light calculator

 

[Bullwinkle123]

I have your basic poorly lit garage with a few sporadic sockets (11' ceiling), I've been wondering if these are worthwhile.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X2R421...olid=2U7KH3WJG16M0&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Anybody tried these?