Shop lighting, LEDs

[Glenn]

Has anyone tried the new 4 foot long LED shop lights in their shop, the fixtures that replace the old 4 foot two tube florescent bulbs?  What is your opinion of the LEDs? 

 

[Iron Poet]

LEDs are great. I have four 1600 lumen lights around my workshop and it works to my satisfaction. If I had a need for 4 foot shoplights I'd buy LED.

[Steve Sells]

daylight available too.  uses about 20 % of the power that standard florescent lighting does.  Works in cold unlike florescent, and has a 25 year life span, making the cost of the bulbs very affordable in long run, if not at installation time.    I have been installing a lot of them since last summer. One client of mine changed his entire store and warehouse over to LED, parking lot and signage too. He got a $5,000 rebate from the electrical company for green upgrade incentive.

 

 I am changing my lighting over at my home also.

[notownkid]

I've changed 75% of our lights to LED and will do  100% as $ permits.  Changed the most used to date and made major difference in Electric Bill.  Will install LED 4' shop lights in inside and blacksmith shop next then the  big shop which I have large florescent screw in. Don't have any original bulbs in use. Have a bunch in boxes. 

[ironwolfforgeca]

YES I am slowly changing out all the 4' florescent lights in my welding & fab  shop x about 35 + units

the one's I am working with run on 110 V SO that mean's you must take the old transformers & change out the end fixtuer's to the smaller T-8 size & re-wire them for 110 Volt 

Not all fixture's can be rebuilt !! & yes you can buy new ends / small that the LED fit @ electrical supply store

my bulb's are 2000. Lum - 5000 color = Daylight - 18 watts - 2 Led row strip type & Clear plastic covering = Bright !! NOT Frosted !

I have 2 - 4 bulb units over my welding table WHAT a Change !!! = Happy camper ! I can see WOW

a day or so back now I had a LED salesman @ the shop to see if there was a better way to light up the shop he had some bulb's that will work on the old electronic fixture's

like the one's I got out of cosco I have a lot of those !! & they were just a tad brighter $15.00 per they are single Led row strip type 

so you just take out old florescent & replace with Led Done mite go that way still thinking on what next ?

I built my shop as a truck shop Long time ago with 16' ceiling"I could back then bring in a Log truck to weld on & close the door's WOW not no more to much Eqt LOL

I have a 150 watt spot light Led I am testing up in the 16"' ceiling right over the anvil area  we will see how I like that Idea ??

Only down side I see is people say thats to bright to look @ Hay stupid don't look @ the light Look @ what you're working on !

there's my 4 cent worth I hope this help's someone out

Steve's Welding & Fab

Also shop celling light wire set up is 8 zone's + on/off & over wired LOL +

@ Eqt lights are on a string pull switch on/off so No light's are on in area not being used

Other than the Safety lights so you don't run into eqt & other stuff

[Daswulf]

We have LED lighting in the newly built bodyshop I work at and the lighting is great. IronWolf, sometimes when laying on your back working under a car it's natural to look up but I'm reminded right away not to lol.

In the plans for my shop are replacing my 7 8' florescent fixtures with LED  fixtures. The price has come down since they first were coming out and I think I could afford it now. same with the regular light bulbs. I've slowly been replacing the lamps in the house with LED bulbs and like the results.

[gote]

My first shop light is a 400W halogene lamp. The second is newer and similar in size and output but is LED I am happy with both except  that the led disturbs my radio but I do not use that much anyway. Here in Sweden it is now diffcult to buy a lamp of any kind that is not led. 

[bigb]

Today I was in Costco and they have their 4 foot Feit Electric LED shop lights for 29.99-10.00 instant rebate making them $19.99 each. These were $40 a year ago. I have one in my shop over the welding table and it is great.

[Kozzy]

I haven't used the 4 footers but have installed low profile high output daylight fixtures in some areas and, in spite of the extra costs, would wholeheartedly recommend it.  I am a light zealot and in work areas, I prefer so much light that you think you're at midday in the Sahara....and then a little more.  LED fixtures allow you that feature without having to worry much regarding wattage draws.  Be sure and rate the lighting choice you make on lumens and not watts.  They all guild the lily on the figures a bit but that's the only way to actually make a good comparison of RESULTS.  Not all fixtures that look the same are the same.

On a side note, back in the stone age when I did building maintenance there was a direct correlation between light and the amount of garbage/mess the public (and employees) made in bathrooms and other areas.  When areas are a little dark, people seem to think it's passable just to toss their garbage or leave a mess.  Increasing lighting decreased the amount of staffing needed to keep areas clean pretty significantly.   We saved far more money on clean up labor by changing fixtures to lower wattage, higher output than we did on electricity (that was a switch to HO fluorescents) 

[BD1]

I bought those COSTCO 4' LED shop lights too. Replaced 4 bulb fluorescent with two bulb LED'S and they are brighter. Best part is that they work in COLD WEATHER TOO ! I'm in Northern Illinois and the fluorescents would barely light in the cold. Love the COSTCO ones especially for $20.00. The first batch I too paid more , $30.00 each. 

[Bill in Oregon]

Bought two of those Feit LEDs at Costco as well. Completely changed my garage for the better as a workplace.

[Frosty]

Oh YES. I've said it here before but I'm converting all our lighting to LED, heck I bought Deb an "Atomic Light" flashlight for a stocking stuffer and the thing will light up a 100' circle a couple hundred feet away bright enough to read by on 3 AAA batteries, the specially made lithium ion battery is supposed to be 2x as bright. 

I have a couple 4' LED strip lights in the shop now and they're way better than the old lights. They were a little spendy @ $53. ea. but the price keeps coming down and I've been watching for it to get affordable to change over completely. Last week I saw a 4' 2 strip shop fixture for $43 with better than 2x the lumens than the ones I have now.

LED output is 18% per lumen of incandescent and I see a few % variance in the conversion. Even at almost $40. ea. for a 60 watt LED bulb in the porch light, it made the break even in 2 years for elec bill and broken incandescent bulbs.

Oh yeah, I LOVE LEDs.

Frosty The Lucky.

[FoxFire]

i just swapped out half the florescent tubes in my shop for 40w soft white LEDs and I'm pretty happy. I'll do the rest as money permits, but it does help to justify the cost of LEDs when you see them side by side with the florescent tubes. I paid roughly $128 for 12 tubes shipped and I think that's pretty fair considering how much I hate changing out ballasts which seem to go as often as the tubes. I have tried a few different color temperatures and i have trouble seeing markings on shinny metal with anything above soft/warm white. I got an email from the seller the day after I bought the bulbs saying that they have had more than a few customers return the soft white bulbs because they were too yellow and that they would happily work with me if I had an issue. I thought that that was decent of them considering how subjective color is. Luckily for me I'm not one of those customers.

[Steve Sells]

FYI Wholesale for 120v 5500K bulbs was about 8.00 each for Phillips  last June,  so you got a fair price at 128 with shipping

[FoxFire]

Yup, there were cheaper ones but I got to reading the reviews and went with the ones that read the best. Can't wait to get the rest swapped out. The difference reminds me of when we got our HD tv. 

[G-ManBart]

I started building my barn/shop a couple of years ago, and all of the lights are LED.  The ceilings are 13'4" so I went with high bay lights rather than the 4' long kind, and I'm really happy with how they look.  The shop side of my barn is 24x40 and I have 5 high bay lights and it's more than enough light.  The one corner has a storage room/bathroom/utility room framed out, so there's no light over that corner, or I would have gone with 6.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-2-ft-White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710

These are older pics, but give you an idea what I'm talking about...a bit dark over the utility room, but everything else is really well lit.

Much older pic looking from the other corner...this was with only two lights in place before the interior overhead door and man door were installed, and not all of the walls were covered in metal.

[Bearded Guy]

I have 2 double row 4 footers and 1 double row 2ft over the workbench inside of a 16x16 shed/workshop. Its bright.... well worth the $$$ plus you'll save it in the long run. I also just put a single row 4 footer in the forge, 12x12 with 2 walls. I can actually see every nook and cranny in the smithy. I personally cant say enough good about the led lights.

[arkie]

Whatever one does regarding LED lights, please stay away from CREE bulbs!  Those are the absolute sorryiest bulbs I have ever seen.  I put 4 over my work area in my shop and 8 in our dining/kitchen area.  The so-called 10,000 hour life is a joke; they burn out more than regular or fluorescent curly bulbs.  In the shop ones that burned out, I replaced three of the four in less than 3 months and in the house I replaced 4 of the 8.  One of the dead bulbs had overheated and scorched the bulb base and fixture; not good!  The catch with the CREE bulbs is that for a replacement, you have to provide and return the (1) old bulb, (2) original packaging and (3) the receipt.  Who the heck keeps all that stuff??  Postage is more than the cost of the bulb!  And yes, the wiring and service is new and up to code.  I have since bought LED's at Walmart and Ace and not one has burned out in over a year (fingers crossed).  No more CREE bulbs will be bought.

As a side note, I have the 4 ft. LED shop lights and could not be happier.  Come on fast in the cold and cheaper to operate.

[Will W.]

Old topic, but...

How could you make LEDs even better, one may ask?

Solar panels.

I have a solar LED light for my smithy (it's only 140 square feet) purchased at harbor freight for $30 iirc, and it's free lighting after purchase. Lights up the shop just fine. LEDs also use less power than incandescent or fluorescent, so they won't drain your battery bank if you had solar panels installed for a larger shop, or a home even. 

Also, anybody who has ever used an old metal cage drop light knows exactly how hot incandescent bulbs make them. Solution? Install a LED bulb, no excess heat. 

I'm with Frosty. LEDs are AWESOME!

[David Kailey]

I went from 6 500w halogens to 6 1600lum LED dropped my electric bill by $20 or more a month and my shop...... solong as the forge is off actually is cooler......... Lol. I had to use the heater this winter. I also really like the white light from the leds.....its just cleaner looking and brighter.