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LED's again

S

stu senator

Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
373
Likes
199
Location
Delray Beach, FL
I am in the process of converting a one car garage into a shop/part time garage and have to upgrade the lighting.

There is one florescent fixture located in the middle of the space.

As a start I removed the T 12 bulbs (2) and replaced them with 2000 lumen, 18 watt, 5000 K bulbs.

Before I removed the T12 bulbs I used my cell phone to measure the light output 6 feet below the center of the fixture. The test was done at night with no other light on and repeated the next night after the conversion (done the next day in daylight).

T12 225 Lux (these were not new bulbs but a bit dark on the ends but not near end of life black).

T 8 LED 325 Lux

Seems very bright and I like the white light. They also offer a 4000 K bulb. They are $10.99 each with free shipping.

The phone is a Nexus 5 and the app is Andro Sensor and uses the built in sensor that controls the screen brightness.

The bulbs are Thinklux LED Fluorescent Replacement Tube - 4 Foot - 18 Watt - Ballast Bypass - DLC Qualified - Shatterproof - 5000K from EarthLED.com

On the site they have a write up of how to replace, and if required rewire the fixture. It took about 20 minutes to rewire and I removed the ballast for the one I did (my first). I have 2 more T12 fixtures I removed from other parts of the house that I plan to rewire and install.

https://www.earthled.com/blogs/ligh...-t8-and-t12-led-fluorescent-replacement-tubes

Stu
 
just my opinion......as long as you do not have a bunch of shadows in your new shop you are ok if you have moveable light on lathe.......there are a lot of choices that have magnetic bases to clip attached........when you really want to look at your turning I will stop the lathe and hand turn adjusting the light to see what's what
 
charlie knighton said:
just my opinion......as long as you do not have a bunch of shadows in your new shop you are ok if you have moveable light on lathe.......there are a lot of choices that have magnetic bases to clip attached........when you really want to look at your turning I will stop the lathe and hand turn adjusting the light to see what's what
Click to expand...

Yes but this is for general lighting. For the bench work and when (not if) I drop something I can find it.

Stu
 
There's no such thing as too much light in the shop. I do like the LED lights that I have used so far in our home. Mostly they are recessed flood lighting, but also we are gradually replacing the regular incandescent lights with LED light bulbs with the same form factor. Inside the home, we are using lights with the same color temperature as the incandescent lights which is 2700K to 3000K.

In my workshop I did a comparison of light output between the current fluorescent lighting and drop-in replacement LED lights. Although I like the cleaner look of the LED lights, the total light output doesn't provide the same amount of lighting if I don't increase the number of fixtures. However, watt for watt, the LED lights provide more output than the fluorescent lights. I have four fixtures and each fixture has four 32 watt 4' T8 bulbs, approximately 4000K color temperature. I also have lots of track lighting with low voltage halogen spot lights for task lighting as well as some floods on a track, plus some Moffatt lamps and miniature Ikea LED lights on magnetic bases. My tiny shop really glows when all the lights are on. 🙄
 
LED lights

As to my conversion to LED lights, the company that sold me my bulbs just sent this shop light ad. It is a 2 bulb 4 foot lamp for
$30.00 free shipping.

See

https://www.earthled.com/collection...976825156&mc_cid=ffb670a868&mc_eid=22b76224b7

One fo my 4 foot tubes that I retrofitted stopped working and the company sent a replacement within days, no questions asked. Seems like a good company to do business with.

Stu
 
When I built my new shop I put in all LED lights. As near as I can tell the 2 bulb LED lights that I put in are as bright or more so than the 4 bulb Flourescent fixtures. I didn't do a scientific reading but simply turned them on a stood a certain distance away. The LED's were noticeably brighter. Several people who have visited my shop commented on how bright it is.
 
john lucas said:
When I built my new shop I put in all LED lights. As near as I can tell the 2 bulb LED lights that I put in are as bright or more so than the 4 bulb Flourescent fixtures. I didn't do a scientific reading but simply turned them on a stood a certain distance away. The LED's were noticeably brighter. Several people who have visited my shop commented on how bright it is.
Click to expand...

I, on the other hand, used T8 fluorescent bulbs (you can get LEDs that fit on T8's, but I chose T8's)--Phillips F32T8/ALTO/5000K. The color rendering index is better than LED's; the bulbs are 2700 lumens, and less expensive per bulb.

Yes, the LED's will probably be brighter (lumen rating is actually not what you want, but that's what the manufacturers give you...). In my shop, I put in quite a lot of overhead 2x 4ft long bulb fixtures. That, combined with the windows, make the shop well (and uniformly) lit.

I still use LED spotlighting on the lathe, to help with finding torn grain, visualizing shape, etc.

Hy
 
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