Shop lights

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Spike188 Canada
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Spike188 »

Laying all jokes aside, lighting has always been a sore spot with me. Over the past 30 years, every year there has been a new flavor. Just install this one and you will save $$$$ in electricity. High Pressure sodium was the first big push. What the sales personal did not say was that in the first 2 years of operation the bulbs lost 1/2 of the lumens output. Then came T12 fluorescent push then to T8, then to T5. With each push came a calculated payback, while nothing was said about the color spectrum. Now the push is to LED. I feel that changing to LED may be worth looking at.

An old standard was the 60 and 100 watt light bulb rated at 800 and 1600 lumens, and a color spectrum of 2700K and 2870K respectively. In the 70's only grow lights and very special bulbs would deviate from off the shelf spectrums. Even the high pressure sodium lamps and mercury vapor bulbs were very consistent in staying below 3000k. Most lighting changes in late 90's to 2010 required rewiring complete areas, changing fixture placement and creating a lot of headaches for limited gain. (my rant) The energy payback often came at a cost and driven by government rebates in Ontario.
The problem now is what to chose when wattage is no longer the method for making a fixture choice. There are two factors that need to be looked at, intensity and color. The intensity is measured in Lumens and the color is rated in Kelvin. Lumens are the amount of light needed for comfortable viewing. As one ages the amount of lumen's needed increases. Kelvin is usually between 3000K to 5000K and now up to 6500K. 3000K is known as warm and has a yellowish glow where the 65000K is referred to as cool and is closer to natural sunlight.

Fast forward to 2021. Led fixtures are now available in configurations to directly replace old fixture layouts without rewiring or reconfiguring lamp layout.

My mothers home has 12 fluorescent dual 4 foot lamps hidden in a recessed celling that was installed in 1980. They all had their original ballast and were in very poor condition. In March while visiting her, all of the ballast were pulled out of the fixtures, feeds to one end of the tombstones were removed, and the other end of tombstones was supplied with 110V AC. For $14.00 per fixture and 20 minutes of time the lighting was upgraded to 4200K, 20 Watt Led lamps. This was the lamp of chose after testing 5000K LED lamps because they kept the lighting color and contrast near the level of the 1970 configuration.

The 120v T12, 8, and 5 LED conversion bulbs are not available in Canada due to shock hazards. When converting a US fixture to 120V LED lamps one end of the fixture gets 120 volt powered tombstone's. When a tombstone breaks during bulb replacement a serious hazard occurs. Canadian code require LED retrofit lamps to be driven with existing fluorescent ballast, defeating the the energy savings on retrofitting old fixtures. Often the fluorescent ballast is the energy consumer in old lighting.

Well even I can rant sometimes, Its best not to get me started.
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Eugen Canada
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Eugen »

But it's a great rant @Spike188! This is good info.

By the way, I forgot to say, these lights that I just got are 4000K. I find the colour white enough to be good for work, but not as white toward blue as to bother me. I prefer warmer colour inside the house, but when working a little bit cooler seems to help me see some things better. I'm sure it's not the best solution for everyone. :114:
Last edited by Eugen on Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Shop lights

Post by DavidBarkey »

Good rant Spike
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Jancoe United States of America
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Jancoe »

Thanks @Eugen for making me want more lighting. Was looking at a harbor freight flyer this morning and they have https://hf.tools/coupons/2022/11/180026-64410 these for $17.. 4ft led 5000 lumen. They are not motion sense but for that price I think I'll stop up there and grab a handful. I've been trying to get my pole barn built and covid messed building prices up badly here. So I've been stuck working out of my attached garage. I never updated the lighting much in my attached garage other than these 3 pod led screw in bulb socket lights that are adjustable. They work great. I also installed a 4' 4 bulb t5 light. Which is very bright. I also need alot more light in my current situation. I find led lights work great as long as you install them all over the place to eliminate shadows. We updated our lights at the dealership I work for a few years back. We went from metal halide bulbs to led and we ended up having to double the amount of lights. The leds casted so much shadows that we could no longer work under a rv without a flashlight. Corners became dark and tall rv's made the shop dark. So more led lights were installed on the ceiling and also added outdoor led flood lights about 9' up the walls in beween the bays. Those also made a difference. Once the barn is eventually built it will get leds. I wish I didn't buy 12 4' 4 bulb t8 troffers on clearance a few years ago. I got a great price on them and was initially going to use them but I don't want to deal with florescent lighting anymore than I already do. So marketplace here they come.

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Re: Shop lights

Post by keith »

I'm with Noel using a headlamp most times. The nice thing for me is the light is always where I'm looking instead of repositioning a trouble light that gets in the way. Eugen, I have almost the same work/storage situation by the looks of it. Your lights make a big difference. :cool:
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Harry United States of America
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Harry »

Jancoe wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:22 pm Thanks @Eugen for making me want more lighting. Was looking at a harbor freight flyer this morning and they have https://hf.tools/coupons/2022/11/180026-64410 these for $17.. 4ft led 5000 lumen. They are not motion sense but for that price I think I'll stop up there and grab a handful. I've been trying to get my pole barn built and covid messed building prices up badly here. So I've been stuck working out of my attached garage. I never updated the lighting much in my attached garage other than these 3 pod led screw in bulb socket lights that are adjustable. They work great. I also installed a 4' 4 bulb t5 light. Which is very bright. I also need alot more light in my current situation. I find led lights work great as long as you install them all over the place to eliminate shadows. We updated our lights at the dealership I work for a few years back. We went from metal halide bulbs to led and we ended up having to double the amount of lights. The leds casted so much shadows that we could no longer work under a rv without a flashlight. Corners became dark and tall rv's made the shop dark. So more led lights were installed on the ceiling and also added outdoor led flood lights about 9' up the walls in beween the bays. Those also made a difference. Once the barn is eventually built it will get leds. I wish I didn't buy 12 4' 4 bulb t8 troffers on clearance a few years ago. I got a great price on them and was initially going to use them but I don't want to deal with florescent lighting anymore than I already do. So marketplace here they come.

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You must be reading my mail Jancoe. I went to HF yesterday to take advantage of their Black Friday sale and purchased 15 of the 5000 lumen LED shop lights. My shop is 40' X 30'. Eight will go on the ceiling which is 12' off the floor. Four will go under an overhang which is four feet from the wall and eight feet off the floor, which is on one end of the shop. The last three will go in the lean to which is on one end of the building. It's 30' X 16', 12' high on one side and 8' high on the low side. Now to get busy and hang them up. I'll invite David over to get a suntan when it's done.

Keep the :peace: :cop:
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Gordy United States of America
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Gordy »

For the headlamp, the best I found for wide area lighting, I picked up one of the COB units from the Dollar store. It has high, low and flashing modes.
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The LED's in the house have been disappointing. The individual LED's may be good for 30,-50k hours, but the electronics that drive them NOT so much :cuss: What should be a 20 year bulb too often turns into a 2 year bulb :headbash:

I have done the 48" bulb replacement in my outbuildings and the rec room in Mom's basement (bad balists) and garage. It is simple to rewire the fixtures. And in the out building I like that they just come on full power with none of the flickering and slow warmup of the old fluorescents in the winter time :thumbsup:

:cheers:
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Timj »

I have replaced quite a few of the incandescent bulbs in my buildings with this style of led bulb. I have been happy with how much brighter they are and easy replacement for a standard bulb. There price has really came down over the last few years too.
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Harry »

My lighting project is a work in progress. It's moving along nicely and adding a few more than I realized the first time. The light is much brighter than the old fluorescent bulbs. The ones I purchased for the lean to I've already used in the shop. So, I'm thinking I should have purchased more! Today in my email I see HF has extended the Black Friday sale until Sunday. So, I'll be heading over there today to pick up five more.

Keep the :peace: :cop:
Harry
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Re: Shop lights

Post by Jancoe »

Harry wrote:My lighting project is a work in progress. It's moving along nicely and adding a few more than I realized the first time. The light is much brighter than the old fluorescent bulbs. The ones I purchased for the lean to I've already used in the shop. So, I'm thinking I should have purchased more! Today in my email I see HF has extended the Black Friday sale until Sunday. So, I'll be heading over there today to pick up five more.

Keep the :peace: :cop:
Harry
Harry, I was able to get 11 of them. My local HF did not have any in-stock. Luckily last week my sister came in for the save. She lives 50 miles away and her local HF had the 11 in-stock. Phoned her just as she was leaving to head my way and she made a pit stop. Just checked my local store again and they are still out. I would like 3 more to finish what id like to do. I've only hung 2 so far and I really like them. Why I waited so long to brighten things up????

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