Shop lights

I replaced all my 8’ shop lights last year with a similar product. The difference in light output was unbelievable, especially for those of us who are youth challenged.... I went for a 4.5-5k bulb as I don’t care for the higher tints, just personal preference. No more hum, brighter, less power, just do it!
It also caused my wife and I to change fixtures throughout the house after realizing how much we could see with a better quality light. The big negative is you can really see where you need to clean..... ;) grind on
 
I have changed al the lights in the house to LED. They range from 5000-5500K in most spaces to 6500K in the kitchen and jewelry room. My wife made me put 3500K in her bathroom (women rarely want to see their faces in high detail;) )
I can't believe that I ever put up with 3500K yellow incandescent bulbs for so many years. My older eyes certainly see much better with the LEDs.

As with any lighting, remember to buy about 25%-50% extra bulbs for replacements as they go bad. The same bulbs may not be available when these ones start to fail. You want as close to the original ones as you can when replacing bulbs in a mass lighting setup like a shop.

You can forget the hours of life posted on most bulbs. Most are rated around 30,000 hours (3.5 years), but that rating is calculated in a very misleading way … sort of like the HP rating on shop vacs. Expect about half the rated life in reality. One thing about the rating method is many manufacturers use a 50% standard, a few use 70%. That means that they start 100 lamps, and when 50 have failed, they use that number of hours as the life. Some may have failed after 100 hours, and others may last longer, but they quit counting at 50%.
The other method used is light output ( L50 and L70). This was a bigger concern in the early lamps. The lamp gives off less light as it ages, so when the output is 50% less that is the life rating. In the early LED lamps, they often had 50% output at less than a year … it is much better now.

BIG CAUTION:
Not all LED replacements for Fluorescent fixtures are the same. Some are ballast rated, and have to have the ballast in place. These are direct replacements for standard Fluorescent bulbs. More and more you see bulbs that are rated "ballast by-pass required". This means you need to move the hot wire to one end and the neutral to the other. The ballast can be left in place or removed. Putting the wrong one in a fixture usually ends the bulbs life in 1/100 of a second. The instructions for doing the re-wiring are with the bulbs usually, or just look them up online. It is very simple, and the fixture probably already has enough wire nuts to do the job. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHICH YOU ARE BUYING.
 
 
I will recommend getting the led bulbs from htm lighting solutions - had really good experience with their color spectrum, quality, and customer service.
 
J. Keeton said:
I've been using 5000K Daylight bulbs and loving them... Coupled with those cheap clamp lights and they work great. I also got some LED strips that are 5000K.


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I like that double bulb Y, but they don't fit inside desk lamps


I have also see UFO style, and dropped ceiling panel LED lights

Pricey but interesting.
2_ee1f5859-3763-4e46-8459-0dfc1d89e7a6_1024x1024@2x.jpg


Panel%20Light.jpg


When the local utilities install LED streetlights, they buy them bigger than dim them down.

It allows them the ability to crank it uip as they age to get the same output
 
The advances in the incandescent/CFL replacement LED bulbs has been amazing. I bought one about 3 or 4 year back for a clamp light in my garage. It seems like it weighs like a pound and was very pricey. i have already replaced most of the CFL's in my house with the newer ones and they don't weight a whole lot more than regular bulbs and are much cheaper than that original one. I recently saw some nice flashlights that use the Cree COB chips. Those are amazing. The LED technology is developing very rapidly.
 
The UFO lights would probably be great if you want to grow some weed in your shop. Not sure how they work as shop lights. :D
12345678910 said:
I like that double bulb Y, but they don't fit inside desk lamps


I have also see UFO style, and dropped ceiling panel LED lights

Pricey but interesting.
2_ee1f5859-3763-4e46-8459-0dfc1d89e7a6_1024x1024@2x.jpg


Panel%20Light.jpg


When the local utilities install LED streetlights, they buy them bigger than dim them down.

It allows them the ability to crank it uip as they age to get the same output
Click to expand...
 
One issue with many round and odd shaped LED cluster lights is they have power converters built into the bulb. That is why there are fins and open places at te base.
In a knife shop, these are places that trap dust … especially metal dust … and short out.

Use closed fixtures as much as possible and avoid bulbs that have open fins for cooling. The LED fluorescent replacement tubes are sealed tight, and won't get dust in them.
 
LOL. And who says that gunmint is all bad? :D
12345678910 said:
They have different angle spread, used as high bay lights
There are charts for angle spread vs ceiling height.

We just order our weed over the internet now. Govt sells it.
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The larger passively cooled COB lights that i have seen have those "pin heat sinks" but the drivers are in a sealed unit above the heat sink.
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
One issue with many round and odd shaped LED cluster lights is they have power converters built into the bulb. That is why there are fins and open places at te base.
In a knife shop, these are places that trap dust … especially metal dust … and short out.

Use closed fixtures as much as possible and avoid bulbs that have open fins for cooling. The LED fluorescent replacement tubes are sealed tight, and won't get dust in them.
Click to expand...
 
jdm61 said:
The UFO lights would probably be great if you want to grow some weed in your shop. :D
Click to expand...
Well I dont have another 30 grand to buy books for school kids so I now have to buy mine from somebody else :( :p looking forward to the future though ;)

I took 3 of the old plain ceramic light fixtures and wired them above my work table and put led bulbs in it and they do a good job.
 
One thing to look at when investing in LED bulbs is CRI. CRI is color rating index which 100 is sunlight. So you want bibles that get as close to 100 as possible. When I built my shop I spend months researching led tubes and settled on a 93cri rated tube. I have been really happy with them. I installed 48 of the 4ft bulbs in my 20x40 shop and it’s nice. I still want more but it’s nice as is. I would steer clear of any bulbs that don’t give you the CRI. Most Walmart bulbs won’t give you that info and trust me thy are not worth the time it takes to go pick them up. I would rather pay what I did for bulbs then use Walmart bulbs even if thy where free. Most of your big over head high bay led figures will be in the 85-90 CRI. But you have to look and make sure. I was looking at some thy installed at work and asked to see the box, Thy where 74cri. Thy spend like $350 per light. But in there defense thy wanted lights guaranteed to last X years and thy are not a CRI snob like I am. So with that said I would not even consider any led that’s less then 85cri.
 
I recently (2 months ago) replaced my cabinet shop fluorescents with a 6 pack purchase of 5000K LED 2 bulb shop lights.

Delivered price was less than $ 22.00 each. These are outstanding in all respects! Super bright, super inexpensive, came with 3 hanging options and EXTRA hardware and they are rugged as can be. I heard a crash boom bang one night shortly after I hung them and the next morning I found one fixture laying across my wood stove. The bulbs were unbroken even though the metal reflector was dented on two opposing edges. :eek: I dropped another one on my bandsaw later as I was hanging it :oops: :rolleyes: - that one came away unscathed too :cool:

BTW, all this hanging difficulty was because I was using the key hole slot method to hang these very close to the ceiling (rather than chain or cable). As you can imagine locating 4 pan head screws spaced precicely, side to side and 4 feet apart and also set down from the ceiling just right, was a bit of a challenge. I made up an 1/8" ply jig (story stick) and managed pretty well except for the one by the wood stove. That one needed some rework.:)

Here is a link if you care to look - SUNCO LED 6 pack

I understand Britt_Askew Britt_Askew that you are asking about bulbs to replace in your existing fixtures but this worked so well for me that I offer an alternative for your consideration. Maybe buy a 6 pack AND a 4 pack. You will find that the LEDs will light up sooooo much better than your flouros that you won't need as many. My 2 ¢

Ray
 
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