NA Garage lighting

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
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Location
west Texas
Display Name
Dave Taylor
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KMRF
I want to blow up my garage.
25'x25', 9' ceiling.
unheated
Right now there are ten 200W standard incandescent bulbs.
Thinking I want:
-brighter...certainly not less lumens, candlepower or whatever the measure is
-I don't mind a bit cooler color but not seizure-inducing, Institution White.
-LEDs or CFs? (it gets down to freezing in there and I can't wait for a day to have light - do these both accommodate low temps?)
-standard base
-longevity bonus points, getting kind of difficult to get on pail on box on chair to reach bulbs
12ga wiring throughout, 5 on one switch, 5 on the other, separate circuits but not completely dedicated.
No covers or impingements; lots of bulb space available.
Need some sideways light, not pointed down.
 
Get LEDs, the prices are falling rapidly. I replaced all of my can lights with LED bulbs at about $8 each, much cheaper and quicker than replacing the whole can. My new house had 11 of them, each with 75 W floodlights! But be warned, the LED lights are pretty bright. You may want to use about 3 bulbs on each side and leave the other two empty.

I want to replace the stupid 48" fluorescent fixture in my garage, sometimes it comes on the 2nd or third time I flip the switch, sometimes it takes 8-10 times . . . It's not worth the time for me to troubleshoot again up there in the 10' ceiling. But I don't want to pay what the Big Boxes charge for a 48" LED fixture, generally >$50.
 
I did the 8' florescence tubes use as many as it takes. My garage is 22'X25' and two did it fine.

And yes, I do change them about every 2 years
 
Hank S said:
I want to replace the stupid 48" fluorescent fixture in my garage, sometimes it comes on the 2nd or third time I flip the switch, sometimes it takes 8-10 times
Click to expand...
That's a switch problem
 
Maybe not what you want to hear, but I rewired my two car garage to accept four $35 LED fixtures I found at Sam's Club:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/4ft-led-shoplight-shoplight-led/prod16460030.ip

My wife tells me the garage is now as bright as the face of the Sun. I'm very happy with the bright, diffused light.

The downside? They are shop lights and dangle 6" from the ceiling with exposed cords running to switchable outlets in the ceiling.
 
kyleb said:
Maybe not what you want to hear, but I rewired my two car garage to accept four $35 LED fixtures I found at Sam's Club:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/4ft-led-shoplight-shoplight-led/prod16460030.ip

My wife tells me the garage is now as bright as the face of the Sun. I'm very happy with the bright, diffused light.

The downside? They are shop lights and dangle 6" from the ceiling with exposed cords running to switchable outlets in the ceiling.
Click to expand...

I lit my 36x50 workshop with those exact lights. They're awesome, I want to put them everywhere now.
 
LED. They work fine in the cold. Waiting for CFLs to warm up in the winter sucks.

Right now I have a mix in my garage. The one mistake I made was not using recessed cans instead of the cheep fixtures mounted to the ceiling.
 
Another one for LEDs. They pull lower power and put out more light with less heat. You will not be unhappy with the light they produce.

LED "color" is measured in Kelvins. 3000k will be a yellowish light, 5000k will be a blue white light. I personally prefer something 3500-4000k.
 
Yup, go with LEDs in the 4K range if you can, it's a good spot in the light spectrum to mimic natural sunlight. Stay away from CFLs for new installations simply because they suck in cold weather and take a minute to get to full brightness. LEDs are still a good bit more expensive but they draw less power than CFL and are instant-on regardless of room temperature. You won't likely have to replace a bulb in your lifetime anyway.


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24x24 workshop and I have 8 wall mounted LED 100W equivalent bulbs (2 on each wall) - incandescent replacements - and it's bright enough that a trouble light doesn't even cast a shadow.
 
spray the walls ceiling doors and g door white base than 4 of those 4 foot led shoplites should work .i got mine from the home deeep .and they go on when it is humid unlike the old florescent sh.. i replaced .put /replaced a 6 foot track lite over the workbench with 4 led spots . went from 1300 watts to 280 and more light .
 
Well, our 30x50 shop has 8 T5 fluorescent fixtures that have no trouble firing up in freezing temps and make the shop seem like daytime with no shadows. However, LEDs were prohibitively expensive a 4-5 years back when it was built, so it wouldn't have been worth the investment at the time. I wouldn't be surprised to see CFLs go the way of the dodo in the next few years as LEDs continue to drop in price.


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I'll go against the grain here and say your best value will be T8 fixtures with digital ballast. The cheapest way is to find some cheap used T12 lights and upgrade the ballast for T8 bulbs. They use the same mount as the T8.
 
Depending on what you are doing in the garage, you want to watch the color temp of the bulbs. Since I have to color match at times, I went with T5 HO 6500K bulbs. Plenty bright and excellent color rendition with them. The bulbs are not cheap when you have to get them in under case quantities is the only problem.
 
It is really hard to beat the 4' LED shop lights Sams club sells for $35/fixture. If you consider the lower energy consumption and the fact you'll probably never change a bulb they're probably the cheapest option.
 
Hank S said:
... I want to replace the stupid 48" fluorescent fixture in my garage, sometimes it comes on the 2nd or third time I flip the switch, sometimes it takes 8-10 times . . . It's not worth the time for me to troubleshoot again up there in the 10' ceiling. But I don't want to pay what the Big Boxes charge for a 48" LED fixture, generally >$50.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this thread, guys. In looking at LED shop lights triggered by this discussion I discovered that there are also LED direct replacements for my 4' fluorescent tubes. Bought 10/package they are $8 at Home Depot. Singles are as low as $10. From the catalog descriptions it sounds like they basically ignore the ballast. A good thing since I have a couple of fixtures with bad ballasts.

Has anyone tried these?
 
airdale said:
Thanks for this thread, guys. In looking at LED shop lights triggered by this discussion I discovered that there are also LED direct replacements for my 4' fluorescent tubes. Bought 10/package they are $8 at Home Depot. Singles are as low as $10. From the catalog descriptions it sounds like they basically ignore the ballast. A good thing since I have a couple of fixtures with bad ballasts.

Has anyone tried these?
Click to expand...

I think you would be better off rewiring the fixtures to remove the ballasts altogether and get the LED tubes. You need to compare lumen-output on any of them or you'll be disappointed. T5 fluorescents put out a ton of lumens, so find an LED solution that meets or exceeds that value.


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SoonerAviator said:
I think you would be better off rewiring the fixtures to remove the ballasts altogether and get the LED tubes. You need to compare lumen-output on any of them or you'll be disappointed. T5 fluorescents put out a ton of lumens, so find an LED solution that meets or exceeds that value.


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Click to expand...
So you haven't actually tried these?
 
I installed these T5HO a few weeks ago. Could not be happier. Super bright.
garage_zpsjnflzel5.jpg
 
airdale said:
So you haven't actually tried these?
Click to expand...

Nope, however it seems inefficient to run 120V through a ballast and then use LED bulbs designed to ignore the ballast. Why not just spend 5 minutes per fixture and eliminate any ballast issues altogether?


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SoonerAviator said:
... Why not just spend 5 minutes per fixture and eliminate any ballast issues altogether?
Click to expand...
Because the lights are troffers in a suspended ceiling, hard-wired to junction boxes. It would be 1/2 hour of PITA work per light, not 5 minutes. All things are easy to he who does not have to do them.
 
airdale said:
Because the lights are troffers in a suspended ceiling, hard-wired to junction boxes. It would be 1/2 hour of PITA work per light, not 5 minutes. All things are easy to he who does not have to do them.
Click to expand...

Well the OP was referring to lighting in his garage, not in suspended ceiling troffers. Simply removing the ballast as opposed to waiting for ballasts (that aren't even needed) to fail is just silly. Most of those LED bulbs that are designed to ignore the ballasts are 2K lumens or less. T8 bulbs put out about 3K lumens, so it'd be a downgrade in light output to move to LEDs from standard t8s. T5s put out 5-6K lumens for comparison, so it makes little sense to spend more money to convert a ballasted fixture to LEDs unless you want lower lumen output.


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SoonerAviator said:
Well, our 30x50 shop has 8 T5 fluorescent fixtures that have no trouble firing up in freezing temps and make the shop seem like daytime with no shadows. However, LEDs were prohibitively expensive a 4-5 years back when it was built, so it wouldn't have been worth the investment at the time. I wouldn't be surprised to see CFLs go the way of the dodo in the next few years as LEDs continue to drop in price.


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Click to expand...


Freezing temps in Oklahoma != Freezing temps in the Great Lakes/North Central.
 
Hey. Not sure I mentioned, I have A series bulbs ie your everyday (pre-2000, that is) incandescent bulbs. Not linear fluorescent bulbs. WTH is with this software?!
Is using ordinary screw in type bulbs (like the ones I have used for 50 years, but LED) a reasonable alternative?
Otherwise I am wirenutting and attaching T-x lamps to the ceiling; less easy.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Waiting for CFLs to warm up in the winter sucks.
Click to expand...

Many decent quality CFLs are "instant on" these days. A post I made three years ago:

Sylvania micro-mini 'instant on' CFLs

I've been looking for low wattage replacements for our runway lights to reduce the voltage drop since our system is 120v. No CFL I've ever tested could fire adequately in cold temps...until I tested these. Straight out of the freezer at -20dF, they're at 70% illumination in the amount of time it takes me to grab my light meter. They're at (essentially) 100% in less than 30 seconds. I have one in the house that I'm leaving one on 24/7, it has over 300 hours on it. I just tossed it in the freezer for an hour and tested it. Still the same results.

Finally a cost effective solution...only $2.25 each at @ Lowes...I was loath to consider well over $10 each for LEDs.

And, BTW, it never gets down to -20 here and, if it does, I really don't think we'll be flying off of our little grass strip.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that CFLs are a good option today, especially with how far LEDs have progressed in the last couple of years. Rather, I'm just saying that "waiting for them to come up to full brightness" is a thing of the past.
 
EdFred said:
Freezing temps in Oklahoma != Freezing temps in the Great Lakes/North Central.
Click to expand...

Lol, water freezes at a different temp up north does it?!

Yeah it doesn't usually get down to single digits here for more than a week at most, but CFLs cease to function at about the same temperature nonetheless. We had a CFL in place of a casndecent bulb in an outdoor patio light. Usually it will cease to turn on around 20-degrees, and very dimly at that. We have LEDs flood lamps that don't care how cold it is.


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SoonerAviator said:
Lol, water freezes at a different temp up north does it?!

Yeah it doesn't usually get down to single digits here for more than a week at most, but CFLs cease to function at about the same temperature nonetheless. We had a CFL in place of a casndecent bulb in an outdoor patio light. Usually it will cease to turn on around 20-degrees, and very dimly at that. We have LEDs flood lamps that don't care how cold it is.


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Click to expand...

No, but "freezing cold" to you guys is like 40F, while "freezing cold" up here is like -20F - and when I finally put on a winter jacket.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Hey. Not sure I mentioned, I have A series bulbs ie your everyday (pre-2000, that is) incandescent bulbs. Not linear fluorescent bulbs. WTH is with this software?!
Is using ordinary screw in type bulbs (like the ones I have used for 50 years, but LED) a reasonable alternative?
Otherwise I am wirenutting and attaching T-x lamps to the ceiling; less easy.
Click to expand...

I've used LED replacement bulbs for these in lamps and wall fixtures; even did some ceiling fans last fall, and they're still working now. Love the ones I replaced the floodlights in can fixtures in the kitchen ceiling--much brighter, and much much less power, no heat buildup in the summer, etc.
 
EdFred said:
No, but "freezing cold" to you guys is like 40F, while "freezing cold" up here is like -20F - and when I finally put on a winter jacket.
Click to expand...


Nobody here flinches at 40-degrees. There are plenty that still walk around in t-shirts and a jacket depending on the wind. Get into the low-20s and people start talking about it being cold. Freezing weather has a pretty distinct definition, no matter how far below freezing it gets.

We don't like getting too cold down south, but we don't whine when it's over 90-degrees like you Yankees, either.

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