Shop lighting LED to replace fluorescent

[crazyphil]

Had a 2 bulb florescent in the laundry room. The ballast went bad, so I
went to Home Depot to get a new ballast or the whole new fixture.
The old gent who helped me, convinced me to get a conversion kit to
eliminate need for the ballast, and two new LED bulbs. I'm glad he did.
It is an easy conversion, and much better for all the reasons previously
mentioned above.

 

[Frank46]

I have 4 4' 4 flourescent fixtures in my garage. I will be swapping them out for LED fixtures. The test will be over my work bench. 4000 lumens worth of light. If it works the way I think it will, then the other 3 fixtures will also be replaced.Will have coverage like this, workbench, two over the lathe and one or two along the side of the garage. Told the wife today that the light over the dining table stinks and that will be the first to go, then the double incandescent light is next. Almost like sitting in a dungeon. Frank

 

[BigBoy99]

I put an addition on my shop, same size as the old shop. The old shop is light by six 4' long, two tube conventional florescent light fixtures. I put four 4' long, single bulb LED fixtures in the new shop and there is much more and better light available in the new shop! I'm seriously consider replacing the old two tube conventional florescent light fixtures in the old shop.

 

[muddocktor]

I have 4 4' 4 flourescent fixtures in my garage. I will be swapping them out for LED fixtures. The test will be over my work bench. 4000 lumens worth of light. If it works the way I think it will, then the other 3 fixtures will also be replaced.Will have coverage like this, workbench, two over the lathe and one or two along the side of the garage. Told the wife today that the light over the dining table stinks and that will be the first to go, then the double incandescent light is next. Almost like sitting in a dungeon. Frank

Hey Frank, if the fixtures themselves are still in good shape, you can just change out the bulbs instead of the whole fixture. Home Depot in Broussard has the kits that change out a regular florescent fixture to LED. The kit has 2 LED bulbs and 2 wired bulb holders and 2 dummy bulb holders. For a 4 bulb fixture you would need two kits; about $40 per light fixture. They have good instructions on installing if you are unfamiliar with wiring also.

 

[mtgianni]

Costco has a great LED shop light with a two hour motion sensor on it then it shuts down. I would consider that in a shop I left lights on as you can instantly tell if someone gets in there. Cost is around $30 per light on sale $40 regular price.

 

[DWalt]

"Home Depot in Broussard has the kits that change out a regular florescent fixture to LED. "

Why would one buy a kit? You don't need anything other than the new LED tubes to convert an existing fluorescent fixture to use them. And you normally don't need any new "Tombstone" tube sockets, unless some of those on an old fixture are broken or missing. But having a wire stripper is handy, especially if you are changing out numerous fluorescent tubes.

 

[mckenney99]

Fluorescent to LED - cons

Since this old thread had already been started I didn't see any need to start a new one.
In my reloading shop I have 3 banks of 2-4ft fluorescent fixtures. For various reasons I am looking at a conversion over to LED but I keep seeing warnings about EMI from the LED's effecting other electronic devices. I am particularly concerned with the LED/EMI effecting my electronic scales. Out in the attached garage would not pose the issue.
Has anyone experienced any ill side effects from converting over to LEDs?

 

[pennzy]

I converted my kitchen light and my grolights to LED and it was the best thing I did. Last longer, less juice, no ballasts.

 

[DeathGrip]

mckenny99

I've replaced just about every light in my house with LED.

My garage is my home. I was in Lowes one day and they had 16 count boxes of T-8 LED replacement (for use with ballast) bulbs in the discount bin for almost a couple of bucks. (maybe 5 or 8, can't remember)

These bulbs require no rewiring and are 32w using only 14w. The light is brighter and whiter than the regular fluorescents. I went back and bought another '4 fixture and hung it over my work bench.

I work on guitars out there and have several vintage tube amps and unshielded guitars and thus far haven't had a hum with any of them yet.

I gave my pal a couple of bulbs and have enough left for a life time.

LEDs are great!

 

[Kinman]

Without reading all of the replies I will say that I have a nearly identical building that used to have two double fluorescent 8 footers for a total of 300watts, had them for decades and always dealt with cold weather flickering. This past year I decided to swap them out for L.E.D.s and could never be happier. Twice the lighting at half the wattage expenditure. They come on instantly and never flicker, it is a different kind of light, much brighter. I did my research and found that for around $250 I could get six double sets on Amazon, they are each guaranteed for 5000hrs, the bulbs cannot be replaced you must replace the entire unit, wire them in series if you like, I got a six pack that lit my shop up like daylight. I should have done it years ago but the prices have just started getting cheap enough to justify it for convenience if nothing else. The units with replaceable bulbs are quite pricey, cheaper by the 1/2 dozen.

 

[DWalt]

Yes, there is a pretty good payback on switching to LED tubes. I think their price has come down significantly in the past several years. I also have nine recessed ceiling lights inside, the kind of those that use screw-in reflector bulbs. Early this year the local WalMart had lots of LED reflector bulbs in the markdown area for $2 each so I bought enough to replace all the filament bulbs too (plus several spares). I think they are much better.

 

[Bugkiller99]

Put all LED lights in my wife's She Shed. Worked out extremely well. Little or no heat. If she turns them all on at once, place is lit up like a Christmas tree.
I would not install anything else.

 

[rwsmith]

Had that Amber........

Had that 'amber' lighting in a warehouse where I worked. I never could figure out how it could be so bright and still not be able to see anything.

 

[FlyTyinFool]

Glad to see this thread revived!
I meant to add to it a few weeks ago.

I replaced 4 8ft dual-bulb and 4 4ft dual-bulb florescent lamps in the shop.

Price on Amazon was less than $17ea for 12 4ft dual-bulb LED lamps.
(I posted in another thread about wanting to but local, but couldn't come close at the major box stores)
It was going to cost me more than that for bulbs and ballasts in the existing lamps.

They're not grounded and one plugs into another (up to 5, I think).
4 rows of 3 lamps, no wiring, light weight and easy to mount, 50K estimated hours of life, 4.8/5 star rating, and daylight color.

When all the lamps are on, it looks like the garage doors are open on a sunny summer afternoon!
And there is no buzzing (from the new lamps) on AM or FM radio.

I got 2 single-bulb lamps to go over the workbench, for task lighting too.


Best shop improvement ever!!

 

[Oracle]

We replaced the fluorescent lighting fixtures at the steel building archery club indoor range with commercial LED fixtures. Holy Hannah what a difference!

I was in Costco recently and they had LED fixtures including the tubes for a very nice price.

 

[STCM(SW)]

Costco has LED workshop lights that are shaped like fluorescent work light fixtures, maybe around 48 inches long by 10 inches wide (reasonable guess), not very expensive either. And they put out a lot of light.

That's what I replaced the bulbs in my garage with.
What a difference! Bright light the old one's would never do.

 

[mmb617]

In my reloading shop I have 3 banks of 2-4ft fluorescent fixtures. For various reasons I am looking at a conversion over to LED but I keep seeing warnings about EMI from the LED's effecting other electronic devices. I am particularly concerned with the LED/EMI effecting my electronic scales.

Has anyone experienced any ill side effects from converting over to LEDs?

I have a 4 ft LED light fixture over my reloading bench and I've never seen it affect my electronic scale.

 

[jughed440]

Nothing but LED in my garage/shop.

Only downfall is that lightning surges can ruin LED lights. This may have been mentioned already, but I didn't read through every post.
I just replaced a kitchen LED, and a plug-in shop light that were zapped during the last storm. They were on different circuits too.

 

[Puller]

A doomsdayer buddy told me that LEDs are the way to go until the EMP goes off and fries all solid state electronics. You'll be hoping you saved some of those incandescent and fluorescent fixtures at that point.

Anyway, I really like my LED lights I put in my shop last year.

 

[pennzy]

Nothing but LED in my garage/shop.

Only downfall is that lightning surges can ruin LED lights. This may have been mentioned already, but I didn't read through every post.
I just replaced a kitchen LED, and a plug-in shop light that were zapped during the last storm. They were on different circuits too.

I have a whole house surge protector in the circuit breaker box.