LED shop lights

Re: LED shop lights

Jim Dillon

JL, while replacing your entire fixture is certainly one option, I decided to replace my 64 fluorescent tubes with LEDs that have a built-in ballast. I went that route mainly because it would be a PITA to remove my fixtures. Pitch the current ballast, install new tombstones and LEDs, and throw the switch. The light is truly amazing. Here are a couple of links to the products I used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S5TTT0K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S638E6A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope this helps,

Jim

Re: LED shop lights

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

I used Sunco units in my new shop

I got a 16 light set and they're set at 8' and are connected so they turn off with one switch of each line. I can turn them off individually with the pull chains. Lines are 8' apart and, as you can see, there are very few shadows

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D2L8HHX/ref=dp_prsubs_2

My garage *LINK*

Mike L

I got these for my garage. I have them installed right into the ceiling and wired into the switch.

I had florescent lights I had pulled out and gave away. I went from 7 florescent 8 footers to 6 LED 8 footers and one 4 footer in a small walking area. The lighting is so much better and quiet.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TTFMDYV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Re: LED shop lights

Henry (Raleigh NC)

No links, but re-wiring fixtures is something that's very achievable. If you have 2 prong bulbs now there's not likely any need to replace the tombstones (I never have). Remove ballast? Yes.

Henry

Re: LED shop lights

Garthfromsandiego

Disconnect the ballast and install led in existing fixtures. Bought mine from 1000bulbs.

Re: LED shop lights

Pete in Holland MI

Just put some new LEDs in my basement shop. Menards had a 2 for $24 deal with "4 foot" 5000 lumen lights. My shop is 12' x 25' long and open joist ceilings of only 6'8". 8 four foot florescent fixtures were replaced with these guys. They are bright. REALLY bright. Almost too bright. If I had the option, I might drop to a 4000 or 3000 lumen fixture. For the high bay shops, I did see that Menards even had a 12,000 lumen fixture too in the same configuration.

Which ever way you go, you might want to ease into the project to ensure you have the amount of light that you are used to.

My experience....

Pete

Green Light Depot

Henry (Raleigh NC)

is where I bought (and buy) my LED bulbs.

Henry

Re: LED shop lights

Barry Irby

Lots of good ideas. I replaced some of mine with Plug and play ones that did not require removing the ballast.

One additional thought. Check the CRI (Color Rendering Index) and get one that is 85 or higher. The closer to 100, the better. A few years ago cheap ones were down around 80, but the industry may have moved on.

Re: LED shop lights

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Rather than replace bulbs and ballast,

At the current state of LED technology this choice makes technical and economic sense.

Choosing LED light is no different than choosing any other kind. You are buying lumens of the quality you need, directed to a target, to provide foot candles of illumination where you want it. Lumen output, spectral distribution (color temperature), light quality (CRI), and the light directing efficacy of the fixture are the factors that are important to achieve your lighting goal.

For a garage where the objective is to have enough light to keep from stumbling over the bicycle in the dark, anything will do. Shop by price. For finishing, all the factors enumerated above are important.

Re: LED shop lights

Walt

I too removed the ballasts from typical shop lights. Mine are powered on one end, the other end is just to hold the tubes in places so they're pretty simple to wire. There's no need for the extra 'kick' that ballasts provide to get fluorescents going, ballasts just use electricity for no benefit except for simplicity of installation. LED lights all use 12 volt DC AFAIK, I've powered some LED tape lights with a 12 volt 'wall wart'. The circuitry to get from 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC might be the weak point of LED lights. LEDs might be good for 50,000 hours, the circuitry that powers them may not be.

Tombstone Caution

Bill Howatt

You should check with your LED lamp installation instructions for proper wiring. A shunted tombstone has both pins connected together and applying voltage to them is applying voltage to a dead short.

If your LED tube wants the power applied to one end only then it must be inserted in a non-shunted tombstone.

Bill