LED Shop Lighting Fixtures

Robert Erickson

Robert Erickson

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
2,856
I'm in the final stages of finishing up my shop and am looking at lighting fixtures. In reading through old threads it seems that the recommendation is high CRI (>85) and around 5000K color temp lighting is ideal. Is this still the thought?
The main room is 13' X 27' X 9' where I'll have six 4' ceiling fixtures. I have a 10' X 10' clean room where I'll have two 4' fixtures.

I am finding a number of models that are high CRI but 4000K color temp. Would this do or should I hold out until I can find 5000K models?

Any recommendations on specific models that you like or have had good luck with?

Thanks!
 
I have all 4000k LED lighting in my shop and it is fantastic! No more tired eyes from bad lighting.
 
I like higher Kelvin color lamps. 5000K is good for me. It gives me better color and detail recognition.
For most folks in a general use room (office/home/etc), the lower cost 4000K are OK. Anything lower is not good enough.
 
I have one dual 4 foot 5000k in my tiny shop It provides a surprising amount of a very good white light. I would probably be happier with an additional fixture, but the quality of light, how bright this single fixture is and the fast start, regardless of how cold it gets (and it gets cold in an unheated, uninsulated 110 year old well house) is great in my opinion.
 
Kevin Wilkins said:
I have all 4000k LED lighting in my shop and it is fantastic! No more tired eyes from bad lighting.
Click to expand...
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I like higher Kelvin color lamps. 5000K is good for me. It gives me better color and detail recognition.
For most folks in a general use room (office/home/etc), the lower cost 4000K are OK. Anything lower is not good enough.
Click to expand...
Kevin McGovern said:
I have one dual 4 foot 5000k in my tiny shop It provides a surprising amount of a very good white light. I would probably be happier with an additional fixture, but the quality of light, how bright this single fixture is and the fast start, regardless of how cold it gets (and it gets cold in an unheated, uninsulated 110 year old well house) is great in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. Do you have the integrated LED fixtures or did you replace fluorescent tubes with LED tubes in a standard shop fixture?
 
I was going to buy one with 2 4000k bulbs installed until i saw a bare flourescent fixture, same spec but no bulbs in the same store. the cost of the bare fixture and 2 5000k bulbs cost $10 less than the other one. Score!
 
Kevin McGovern said:
I was going to buy one with 2 4000k bulbs installed until i saw a bare flourescent fixture, same spec but no bulbs in the same store. the cost of the bare fixture and 2 5000k bulbs cost $10 less than the other one. Score!
Click to expand...

I may end up doing something similar, thanks!
 
Robert Erickson said:
I may end up doing something similar, thanks!
Click to expand...
if you look at any pictures i have posted in my shop, they were taken at night most likely. The only lights in my shop are the one dual 4 foot LED and various task lights. So if it's a picture of a knife, most likely it's the shop light. All my pictures I take on a cell phone, so the lighting really helps.
 
I've installed these in my new shop:

https://www.menards.com/main/lighti...2133557086.htm?tid=6972383059653204623&ipos=1

I popped the covers off of them so I could screw them directly to my ceiling. lol, stupid things are just a steel reflector with LED light strips adhered to the reflector. However, for the price, I am not complaining. It was hard to evaluate which would provide the lighting I wanted in the store, with so much light already being thrown, but once I got them hung in my shop, with white walls and ceilings, and turned them on at night, they're exactly what I was hoping for. I bought 10 initially and that will cover my 30x30 shop just fine, but will probably be buying 4 more for my 9x14 grinding room. Outside of having a couple architect lamps at my benches, I don't think I'll need any additional fixtures.

The best part is at .34 amp draw each, I can run them all off a single 15 amp circuit with 14 ga wire.

I hardwired them rather than running plugs everywhere. Just snipped the cords and wire nutted them in a junction box.
 
Kuraki has pointed out one of the big advantages. In the past, a shop lighting plan could take four to six breakers to handle the load. There were separate switches everywhere. Now you can light the heck out of an entire shop on one circuit and have one master switch to turn it all on instantly. You used to have to have a big circuit and a 100 amp lighting contactor to do that.

Our church sanctuary used to have twelve big and ugly dropped light enclosures that had a 300 watt bulb in each. We changed them to more modern looking ones that had nine 60 watt bulbs in each. That was one heck of a lot of heat and current draw. It also was a pain to bring in the big ladder and change them as they burned out. I changed every one to LED and haven't changed a bulb yet. The sanctuary is cooler, and the electric bill is reduced. The light color and contrast is also much better .. which is a big deal to the old folks.
 
I just did all led lighting in my shop. I spent months researching and settled on 8ft led ready fixtures from 1000 bulbs and 500k 2200 lumin 90+ CRI 4ft led tubes. The led tubes are well worth the money. The lighting is amazing. The leds are $250 for a case of 24 and SOOOOOO worth it. I will give a link to what I used below. The fixtures I used don't have a ballest and so where really cheep. Thy have 2 types of 8ft fixtures one is wider then the other but for some reasion the narrower one was like $100 shipping and the wider ones where like $18. I think it's a glitch in the system but thy only charged me $18 to ship 12 8ft fixtures. These fixtures do need a little tweaking to work with these bulbs becaus thy supply the AC power to only one tomb stone. And the bulbs get one AC leg on each side of the bulbs. So you just wire up the other tomb stone and your done. Super simple and well worth it to have these lights. Here is a picture of my lighting.

This is standing outside in direct sunlight.
Photo%20Jun%2027%2C%202%2021%2045%20PM.jpg


I wired it up befor I inclosed it and this is it at night.
Photo%20Jun%2018%2C%2010%2038%2047%20PM.jpg


Photo%20Jun%2018%2C%2010%2041%2041%20PM.jpg



Here are the bulbs
Photo%20Jun%2011%2C%2010%2020%2047%20AM.jpg


Photo%20Jun%2011%2C%2010%2021%2018%20AM.jpg
 
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Costco has these


Item #1057373
Your Price 59.99$

Shipping & Handling: $4.99*
Features:

Feit Electric 42W
4000K Cool White
3700 Lumens
50,000 Hours
2-pack
they can be surface mounted or hung from chains, they have cords and plug in. They also have difussed lights so you don't see the individual LEDs reflected off your work.

Two packs (4 light fixtures) light up a 20 x 22 shop quite well.
Jim A.
 
JT, so the bulbs clip together to work in an 8 foot fixture? I have old school 8' T12 I need to badly upgrade.

Nervermind, I see they make a bulb just for my situation
 
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The fixture takes 4 4ft bulbs.
 
Kuraki and Stacy, that's great that LED's are so easy on the amps. I could only do 100 amp service to the shop so saving amps in lighting is a huge win!
JT looks like a great set up you've go going there, thanks for the links!
 
The lighting is really nice. I can walk in from outside in the sun and it does not seam dark.
 
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I had an alternative motive for this lighting but that's for a future announcement.
 
Robert Erickson said:
Thanks for the replies. Do you have the integrated LED fixtures or did you replace fluorescent tubes with LED tubes in a standard shop fixture?
Click to expand...
I have 60x60 cm flat LED panels throughout the shop and one lang wall is almost all glass doors and windows for natural light. They use way less energy than conventional lighting.
 
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