LED garage lights

[bobs409]

Was wondering if anyone is using any type of LED lighting in their garage? Looks like the in ceiling can type lights aren't too expensive and going from 220 watts per shop light I have now down to 10 watts each sure sounds good to me!

Not sure on how many watts or how many fixtures to get though. Not sure how can type lighting would look in a garage. Wouldn't want them to look like spot lights but rather light up the whole area.

Let's talk!

 

[wrench]

What he said. When you put LED bulbs in the flourescent fixtures do you bypass or use the ballast?

 

[chevy man]

I think you by-pass the ballasts !

 

[bobs409]

What he said. When you put LED bulbs in the flourescent fixtures do you bypass or use the ballast?

Found one for a 4' shop light and you rewire around the ballast. See more info here:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/TOGGLED-...near-LED-Tube-Light-Bulb-D416-50311/206723425

 

[droptop62ss]

There are some T8 led's that still use the ballast . I converted some of my lights over to led's last spring they are 8ft fixtures . I bought the bulbs off ebay and they bypassed the ballasts . what a difference a lot brighter and whiter .

 

[ragtp66]

Was wondering if anyone is using any type of LED lighting in their garage? Looks like the in ceiling can type lights aren't too expensive and going from 220 watts per shop light I have now down to 10 watts each sure sounds good to me!

Not sure on how many watts or how many fixtures to get though. Not sure how can type lighting would look in a garage. Wouldn't want them to look like spot lights but rather light up the whole area.

Let's talk!

Im going to grab some of these and see how they work 5000 lumens is close to a 300w incandescent.

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/970834-keystone-led-lighting-5000-lumen-shop-light.html

Price is right.

 

[rstreet]

Bob, I have been wrestling with this issue for about a year. I have a building full of T-12 34 watt cool white fluorescent fixtures and with all of them on I can barely tell whether I am working on one of the 61's or the red 62! Since I have purged the 64 Sport Fury and the 75 Corvette my confusion has gotten better. Seriously I work with 500 Watt quartz lights on a spreader system and they get hot but they produce the light I need.
I was advised by knowledgeable people to visit other shops as there is a dramatic difference in the K factor of LED'S and also there is an effect that the diffusors create if used.
I probably will convert to LED's this winter and might go with a high K number but not the highest available. Wattage doesn't seem to be as big a factor as I thought after visiting. One thing I have noticed is the heat created by my old shop's HO bulbs doesn't seem to be a concern with LED's.
Robert

 

[Tom Kochtanek]

Bob:
In the street level garage portion of the new Manshed I had to provide light for 900 square feet (20 by 45).
I went with three rows across with five LEDs deep. I did the first row of three using those "can LEDs" and the remaining dozen were four foot LED units.
The can LEDs are not nearly as good as the four footers, I guess that's to be expected. I figured I'd try them out in the first row across the two car garage door since they tuck up level with the sheetrock ceiling and that's where the garage door rolls up to.

I'm glad I didn't go "all cans" as I don't think they provide proper illumination. They are less expensive though, and they're better than the standard can lights with 65W bulbs that you see in residential buildings.

Cheers! TomK

 

[rstreet]

Tom, Your experience with "cans" is exactly what I have been cautioned about not enough "lumens". But a LED tube can produce a very high brilliance factor know as the K factor and those very high numbers sound good and that is why I was advised to look at other shops because some say that brightness is too much. My main area is 30 X 50 with existing 18 T-12's on an approximate 10.5 height.
Robert

 

[LMBRJQ 60]

The can fittings you are talking about I am assuming are a recessed fitting into the ceiling or similar?
The tube type do produce more light as there is more surface area of led .
They are also getting reflectance off the roof etc and as such give more area light.
Recessed filling can only illuminate in the one direction and over here are referred to as down lights for that reason.
Tube type fitt8ngs will give good light in a workshop situation ... Unless the inside of your shop is Matt black that is

Grub will be able to shed more light on this (Did you like that) as he is a lighting engineer

Steve

 

[real61ss]

Bob, I have been wrestling with this issue for about a year. I have a building full of T-12 34 watt cool white fluorescent fixtures and with all of them on I can barely tell whether I am working on one of the 61's or the red 62! Since I have purged the 64 Sport Fury and the 75 Corvette my confusion has gotten better. Seriously I work with 500 Watt quartz lights on a spreader system and they get hot but they produce the light I need.
I was advised by knowledgeable people to visit other shops as there is a dramatic difference in the K factor of LED'S and also there is an effect that the diffusors create if used.
I probably will convert to LED's this winter and might go with a high K number but not the highest available. Wattage doesn't seem to be as big a factor as I thought after visiting. One thing I have noticed is the heat created by my old shop's HO bulbs doesn't seem to be a concern with LED's.
Robert

Robert,
You know it might be cheaper for you to just go by the drug store and get you a pair of glasses.

 

[IMBVSUR?]

Thanks Bob for starting this thread. While I don't have the man sheds of some here, I do have a 3 car garage. I am running 6 dual 4' T12s bulb fixtures, and have never been happy with the lighting. Tried some different bulbs with little effect. I have thought about LED's but was very concerned with low lumens.

 

[61BUBBLE348]

Here goes, don't waste your money on retrofit tubes, all that I have seen use cheap LED chips and frankly are junk.

You are far better off using a proprietary fixture designed with LED boards in mind.
ignore reference to the old T12, T8 or even T5 wattages, what is important is the Lumens per watt that the fitting produces.

For example an old 2 x 36 watt T8 fitting has a rated lumen package of approx 6000 lumens ( approx 90 lumens per watt, once you take losses and inter reflections into account this drops by half, with LED some quality boards are in the vicinity of 170 - 180 lumens per watt but again there is losses. As a guide if you can get a fitting that has 100 lumens per watt exiting the fitting or higher you will be definitely improving the installation.

The key with LED is EXIT lumens and SYSTEM watts.
A warning on LED chips, the Candela (intensity or brightness) is extremely high, high output very small surface area, looking at these intense light sources CAN cause retina damage. When we manufacture our LED fittings we test each fitting, this test includes wattage and if all the LED chips are functioning, to do this we use a heavy blue filter ( blue perspex) over the fittings to ensure our employees do not suffer any damage.

In relation to output and mortality at the end of life, some LED products have similar numbers to the Fluorescent lamps, these are usually the cheap stuff, we only use the higher quality products, that are rated L80-L90 at B10, the L rating is Light out put at end of life, L90 means 90% of original light output, B10 means only 10% of failure at end of life, these are conservatively rated at 60,000 hours,
using the same principle for a fluoro, most standard tubes are rated L65 B50 at 24,000 hours at best.

So in summary, buy good quality LED and you can't go wrong, buy cheap shit and you will be getting them again in 12 months to 2 years time.

 

[bobs409]

This is gonna be a lot tougher than I thought!

 

[bobs409]

What he said. When you put LED bulbs in the flourescent fixtures do you bypass or use the ballast?

Tom, looks like both kind are available. Just found one that uses the existing ballast:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-Ele...PIPHorizontal1_rr-_-206036837-_-206036836-_-N

Not saying any of these I'm showing are any good, just letting you know.

Edit: Might be a good idea to eliminate the ballast anyway. That ballast will be sucking wattage so why have it? Reviews for ANY of these lights are all over the place (typical)

In short, I'm not jumping in for a long while!

 

[DonSSDD]

One issue with LEDS using an existing ballast is those ballasts burn out too. The cost of replacing the ballasts can be as much as the LED tubes. LEDS made to run with a ballast will not run without them.
Before buying LED tubes, make sure they will work without the ballasts if you are putting the tubes in the existing floro fixture. I'd recommend buying from a local commercial lighting supplier, and bring an old tube with you when you go to buy. Buy only one tube setup to test as they won't take them back.

Don

 

[bobs409]

What scares me is the many reviews of those that got only a few hours out of them. That would be real nice investing money into LED's only have to them burn out in hours, days, weeks, months....

Think I'll buy a big box of candles.

 

[bobs409]

As you may know, the wheels are always turning in my head. Out on a ride I thought, hmmm, what about LED car headlamps for your garage? If they don't require a high wattage, you could run those off of a 12V power supply for practically nothing! I currently have some LED strip lighting under my cabinets that run off a 12 volt supply that require very little wattage.

Now the question is, can these run off a 12v power supply? I know there are many different sized supply's available.

I'll research this further...

 

[DonSSDD]

Its a slippery slope Bob, first you run the shop lights off a battery, next you're trading that 63 on a Prius..............

 

[bobs409]

Its a slippery slope Bob, first you run the shop lights off a battery, next you're trading that 63 on a Prius..............

No need to insult me.

I didn't mean a battery, I meant a 12 volt supply that plugs into an electrical outlet. They would make great flood lights for the back yard at the very least!