Garage lighting 16'x21' w/ 8' ceilings - T8 or LED

[Rockuf8]

It's time for me to start thinking about lighting for my garage reno. Originally I was going to run 5-7 4' T8 4 bulb light fixtures, but I'm concerned about the flickering associated with fluorescent lighting.

Was at Home Cheapo last night and saw the same light fixtures I was considering in integrated LEDs. Not as bright as the 4 bulbs T8 fixtures and almost double the price, was wondering if anyone has tried these, they're brand new. I wasn't sure if I wanted to install the T8s since they are slowly phasing them out for LEDs.

Would the install be the same as the T8s? I already got a price from an electrician who said he would install 5-6 T8 fixtures for around $450-500. Would 5 of these be bright enough for my sized garage?

 

[Rockuf8]

Anyone?

 

[toolman82]

Interesting. I have just started looking into different lighting options myself. Saw this yesterday...

http://gizmodo.com/5994418/philips-...luorescents-and-save-the-us-billions-annually

 

[Fortress68]

What makes you think the LED type is not as bright? They may very well not be, but I just haven't seen anything indicating that, and would like to know if it is documented somewhere. my dad has slowly been changing everything in his entire house and both shops to LED, and loves them. They are especially good at starting up in cold weather versus the ten minute flicker from the older style bulbs.

 

[Icky1911]

Rumor has it that florescent lighting may slowly be discontinued. Go with the LED current technology. I have 6 8ft florescent lights in my garage (28x30) that I did not hardwire on purpose due to this potential reason. If I cant get florescent light bulbs in the future I will have to change out my fixtures with LED.

 

[pmiranda]

I'm happy with the "65W" soft white LED flood bulbs I put in the kitchen. Philips, I think. Starts up fast and isn't a weird blue.

The key is to compare the lumens and color temp to the bulbs you have now.

Had to pull down a piece of the garage ceiling for a leak and thinking of wiring in a few new fixtures to replace the one big, slow, dim fluorescent that's there now. Gotta make room to lift a car to the ceiling one day anyway, right?

 

[Rockuf8]

Interesting. I have just started looking into different lighting options myself. Saw this yesterday...

http://gizmodo.com/5994418/philips-...luorescents-and-save-the-us-billions-annually

Pretty cool to think what lighting will be like 5-10 years from now.

What makes you think the LED type is not as bright? They may very well not be, but I just haven't seen anything indicating that, and would like to know if it is documented somewhere. my dad has slowly been changing everything in his entire house and both shops to LED, and loves them. They are especially good at starting up in cold weather versus the ten minute flicker from the older style bulbs.

At HD they have those graphic representing the brightness of the light, the LED was supposed to be as bright at a 2 light fluorescent fixture and was rated at 5/10, whereas the 4 fluorescent fixture was rated as a 7 brightness.

They're guaranteed to have a cold start down to 32 degrees F.

Rumor has it that florescent lighting may slowly be discontinued. Go with the LED current technology.

I heard the same thing.

I'm happy with the "65W" soft white LED flood bulbs I put in the kitchen. Philips, I think. Starts up fast and isn't a weird blue.

The key is to compare the lumens and color temp to the bulbs you have now.

I like the cool white light of the LEDs.

 

[matrix311]

It's time for me to start thinking about lighting for my garage reno. Originally I was going to run 5-7 4' T8 4 bulb light fixtures, but I'm concerned about the flickering associated with fluorescent lighting.

Was at Home Cheapo last night and saw the same light fixtures I was considering in integrated LEDs. Not as bright as the 4 bulbs T8 fixtures and almost double the price, was wondering if anyone has tried these, they're brand new. I wasn't sure if I wanted to install the T8s since they are slowly phasing them out for LEDs.

Would the install be the same as the T8s? I already got a price from an electrician who said he would install 5-6 T8 fixtures for around $450-500. Would 5 of these be bright enough for my sized garage?

How much was this LED lighting? I'm doing my garage lighting soon and looking at LED lights as well. Just curious the cost of this and what the part number was from home depot?

 

[sailcat]

I just completed by garage (35x40) last fall and I installed 24 - 8 foot sections with 2 fluorescent tubes each at a cost about $500.00 with the commercial grade T8's fixtures and bulbs. I purchased them at the local electrical supply house. The new commercial grade fixtures have digital ballasts and there is no flicker or delay starting cold. My garage is so bright I can get a suntan laying under the truck.

 

[CULLY]

I just completed by garage (35x40) last fall and I installed 24 - 8 foot sections with 2 fluorescent tubes each at a cost about $500.00 with the commercial grade T8's fixtures and bulbs. I purchased them at the local electrical supply house. The new commercial grade fixtures have digital ballasts and there is no flicker or delay starting cold. My garage is so bright I can get a suntan laying under the truck.

That looks great. I never heard anybody complain because they had too much light in the garage.

 

[shannonw]

wow 4000 lumens, can't help with the strips but i just put the jbox mount kinda recessed looking ones all around my garage soffits I built, 900 lumens each. I have a couple of old florescence in the middle..but my garage is just typical 2 car. I was pretty skeptical but man they're pretty nice. Amazing to think there's essentially 600w of light using 1 traditional bulb worth of power. On mine the boxes said each fixture is about a 70w light bulb and that looks about right to me...they're pretty bright.

My only concern was the cost, i put in 6 in the soffits to light the perimeter and walls..those little jokers were 40 bucks a pop. They better damn last or i'll be pissed. They give you an average lifespan based on X hours a day so might want to check that out. Like mine said last 25 years based on 3 hours a day (or something like that)

But yeah from what i read when choosing what pmiranda says, compare lumens to what you have now and you can figure out an equivalent and roughly the area that gets lit up, what i did was buy one due to the cost, install it, then see how many i'd need for the light i wanted.

I like em! except the price. I'll absolute hate em if they're dead in 2 years...i'm pretty skeptical but decided to go with them as i had no choice, i wanted some recessed looking things in the soffits and I had framed them years ago with 4x4s so I didn't have enough height for cans.

 

[Rockuf8]

How much was this LED lighting? I'm doing my garage lighting soon and looking at LED lights as well. Just curious the cost of this and what the part number was from home depot?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...Wraparound-Light-LBL-4/203839057#.UXpz0pXqJUM

$129, versus $58 for the T8 equivalent which got bad reviews about ballasts going bad within a year a d complaints of radio interference.

I just completed by garage (35x40) last fall and I installed 24 - 8 foot sections with 2 fluorescent tubes each at a cost about $500.00 with the commercial grade T8's fixtures and bulbs. I purchased them at the local electrical supply house. The new commercial grade fixtures have digital ballasts and there is no flicker or delay starting cold. My garage is so bright I can get a suntan laying under the truck.

Nice and bright, wow.

wow 4000 lumens, can't help with the strips but i just put the jbox mount kinda recessed looking ones all around my garage soffits I built, 900 lumens each. I have a couple of old florescence in the middle..but my garage is just typical 2 car. I was pretty skeptical but man they're pretty nice. Amazing to think there's essentially 600w of light using 1 traditional bulb worth of power. On mine the boxes said each fixture is about a 70w light bulb and that looks about right to me...they're pretty bright.

My only concern was the cost, i put in 6 in the soffits to light the perimeter and walls..those little jokers were 40 bucks a pop. They better damn last or i'll be pissed. They give you an average lifespan based on X hours a day so might want to check that out. Like mine said last 25 years based on 3 hours a day (or something like that)

But yeah from what i read when choosing what pmiranda says, compare lumens to what you have now and you can figure out an equivalent and roughly the area that gets lit up, what i did was buy one due to the cost, install it, then see how many i'd need for the light i wanted.

I like em! except the price. I'll absolute hate em if they're dead in 2 years...i'm pretty skeptical but decided to go with them as i had no choice, i wanted some recessed looking things in the soffits and I had framed them years ago with 4x4s so I didn't have enough height for cans.

Have any pics to share?

 

[matrix311]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...Wraparound-Light-LBL-4/203839057#.UXpz0pXqJUM

$129, versus $58 for the T8 equivalent which got bad reviews about ballasts going bad within a year a d complaints of radio interference.

So did you end up buying the LED or going with the T8 fixture?

 

[Rockuf8]

So did you end up buying the LED or going with the T8 fixture?

Haven't bought anything yet, probably leaning towards LED. I just hate the fact that more options will be available in the next few months and well as prices coming down to earth.

 

[readhead]

If cost is an issue I would go with the T-8's. They are not going to dissapear in our life time. There are just to many already in place. Nothing wrong with LED's either.

 

[matrix311]

Haven't bought anything yet, probably leaning towards LED. I just hate the fact that more options will be available in the next fe months and well as prices coming down to earth.

Why do you feel the leading edge of price falls is within a few months? Is there something in the market giving signs?

 

[LutzTD]

Why do you feel the leading edge of price falls is within a few months? Is there something in the market giving signs?

agree with this unless you just have to be an early adopter (someone has to pay the developement return) these will be mainstream once they catch on and the price should drop. I have no issue with my 4 bulb commercial T8's, but I got them for a song years before I needed them and stored them for a couple years.

 

[Rockuf8]

Why do you feel the leading edge of price falls is within a few months? Is there something in the market giving signs?

agree with this unless you just have to be an early adopter (someone has to pay the developement return) these will be mainstream once they catch on and the price should drop. I have no issue with my 4 bulb commercial T8's, but I got them for a song years before I needed them and stored them for a couple years.

That's the norm with any new technology. Hell, I paid $5,000 for my 42" plasma 8 years ago, now you can get the same size plasma (although not as common as LED TV's) for a fraction of that.

 

[911Dave]

It's only a $129 fixture and by the time the bulbs need to be replaced, someone else will be living in your house. I wouldn't wait 6 months or a year for the price to come down to $119. LEDs are becoming less expensive but not that fast.

 

[matrix311]

So the lumen output is 4,000 for this LED fixture, whats the average lumen output of the equivalent T8 system? I would prefer LED as I have switched most of my light bulbs in our house to LED from CFL and all my flash lights are LED including all the offroad lights on my Jeep are LED light bars which are insanely bright and draw very little amp.

My garage is 27ft wide by 21ft deep 3 car garage with 8ft ceilings. What would be a good amount of light coverage for in my garage? I was thinking of going with 6 T8 fixtures that are 4ft long with 2 bulbs. Is that overkill on light or is that a good amount of coverage. If I went with the LED setup linked above maybe I could drop that down to 3 fixtures instead of 6?

 

[Rockuf8]

It's only a $129 fixture and by the time the bulbs need to be replaced, someone else will be living in your house. I wouldn't wait 6 months or a year for the price to come down to $119. LEDs are becoming less expensive but not that fast.

I was planning on buying 5-7 fixtures, so $71 x 5 (the difference between LED and T8 in the same sized/style fixture) is $355. I also wasn't going to wait, planned on doing this in 1-2 weeks, whatever I decided on would be what I would run going forward.

I would say they would come down a lot less than $10 to $119 in 6 months.

So the lumen output is 4,000 for this LED fixture, whats the average lumen output of the equivalent T8 system? I would prefer LED as I have switched most of my light bulbs in our house to LED from CFL and all my flash lights are LED including all the offroad lights on my Jeep are LED light bars which are insanely bright and draw very little amp.

My garage is 27ft wide by 21ft deep 3 car garage with 8ft ceilings. What would be a good amount of light coverage for in my garage? I was thinking of going with 6 T8 fixtures that are 4ft long with 2 bulbs. Is that overkill on light or is that a good amount of coverage. If I went with the LED setup linked above maybe I could drop that down to 3 fixtures instead of 6?

I have a 16x21 garage and planned on running at least 5 fixtures, don't want shadows with dim lighting.

 

[shannonw]

Have any pics to share?

Just snapped some, here's just my normal 2 car 19x21 thereabouts, it's trashed atm as i have 10 house projects going on at once and am trying to get around to enclosing the soffits and make a workbench. Not all of my leds are installed yet i still have 3 to put up,

so not sure how accurate these are depends on camera exposure but they look about right to me how i see it.

pic 1 (from the left) is from the outside with just the perimeter led's so that's 5 of the sylvania 70732(?) 70w equivallent 900 lumens. Keep in mind when the door up several of the leds are blocked as they're built into the soffits.

pic 2 is with the leds + 3 old 9.99 strip florescencts supplementing hanging around the center of garage. Again door is up, imagine if the doors weren't blocking 3 of them and i still have 2 or 3 of those perimeter ones to put in. In real life lol standing outside the garage it's pretty well lit up, the pic i think is a bit underexposed representation wise.

pic 3 is just the leds on, no supplemental. door is closed. So that's 5 of the led spots around the garage right there, but at that particular spot in the garage right there the nearest is 10 feet away and on the other side of the garage.

Again it's tough with pics as it all depends on exposure but i'm happy with these, i figured they would just kinda highlight things but with they did a pretty nice job of lighting the perimeter and walls, with a few strips lights in the center everything is pretty evenly lit except right at the garage door tracks, i didn't install there as i knew it would just throw a huge shadow as it would be mounted over the track.

 

[shannonw]

just to clarify where the strips are, there's 2 plain jane ones hanging where the garage door opener would be. there's 1 close to the workbench...all of those are doubles (so 2x40w flor bulbs / fixture). I'm going to replace those eventually i'm still getting the perimeter ones in.

 

[waggie]

I got me some T5HO (High Output) and have been extremely happy with them. they're so bright guarantee you can't stare at them for more than 5 seconds without hurting your eyes. These bulbs are perfect if you have high ceiling.

 

[911Dave]

Would T5HO be too bright for a 10' ceiling?

 

[jasonvt]

I just ordered 2 of these for my garage

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...T5HO-MVOLT-1-4-GEB10PS/202516724#.UXvT_rUqaRw

havent installed yet tho

 

[Rockuf8]

Just snapped some, here's just my normal 2 car 19x21 thereabouts, it's trashed atm as i have 10 house projects going on at once and am trying to get around to enclosing the soffits and make a workbench. Not all of my leds are installed yet i still have 3 to put up,

so not sure how accurate these are depends on camera exposure but they look about right to me how i see it.

pic 1 (from the left) is from the outside with just the perimeter led's so that's 5 of the sylvania 70732(?) 70w equivallent 900 lumens. Keep in mind when the door up several of the leds are blocked as they're built into the soffits.

pic 2 is with the leds + 3 old 9.99 strip florescencts supplementing hanging around the center of garage. Again door is up, imagine if the doors weren't blocking 3 of them and i still have 2 or 3 of those perimeter ones to put in. In real life lol standing outside the garage it's pretty well lit up, the pic i think is a bit underexposed representation wise.

pic 3 is just the leds on, no supplemental. door is closed. So that's 5 of the led spots around the garage right there, but at that particular spot in the garage right there the nearest is 10 feet away and on the other side of the garage.

Again it's tough with pics as it all depends on exposure but i'm happy with these, i figured they would just kinda highlight things but with they did a pretty nice job of lighting the perimeter and walls, with a few strips lights in the center everything is pretty evenly lit except right at the garage door tracks, i didn't install there as i knew it would just throw a huge shadow as it would be mounted over the track.

Thanks for the pics, looks great, I like cool clean lighting.

just to clarify where the strips are, there's 2 plain jane ones hanging where the garage door opener would be. there's 1 close to the workbench...all of those are doubles (so 2x40w flor bulbs / fixture). I'm going to replace those eventually i'm still getting the perimeter ones in.

I got me some T5HO (High Output) and have been extremely happy with them. they're so bright guarantee you can't stare at them for more than 5 seconds without hurting your eyes. These bulbs are perfect if you have high ceiling.

Yeah, my ceilings are only 8', way too low for those.

Would T5HO be too bright for a 10' ceiling?

It's better than 8', might still be too low though unless you want a suntan.

I just ordered 2 of these for my garage

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...T5HO-MVOLT-1-4-GEB10PS/202516724#.UXvT_rUqaRw

havent installed yet tho

Nice, should be super bright.

 

[akjose]

I picked up some regular t5 4' fixtures which included the bulbs in the box. They are pretty bright I only had 1 light bulb on one side of my 16x22 garage and have only installed one 4'. Fixture thus far and it is amazing. I was going to put in 9 fixtures but I think I will put in 3-5 now

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rockuf8]

Hmm..interesting thanks for the info.

 

[sailcat]

Would T5HO be too bright for a 10' ceiling?

My electrical guy recommends 13 ft ceilings min.

 

[Rockuf8]

My electrical guy recommends 13 ft ceilings min.

I figured 10' would be rather low, do the HO bulbs generate heat?.

 

[waggie]

HO bulbs do not generate any more heat than t8. If T5HO are too bright, get the regular T5 bults. I have them above my mill and lathe, about a foot higher than the top of the milling machine, they're not too bright.

 

[jasonvt]

Installed the lights I posted above yesterday. Wow, the garage is bright now! they are T5HO bulbs and I have 10' ceilings. I love them so far! I am using 8 bulbs in a 630sf garage

 

[Rockuf8]

Installed the lights I posted above yesterday. Wow, the garage is bright now! they are T5HO bulbs and I have 10' ceilings. I love them so far! I am using 8 bulbs in a 630sf garage

Awesome, now post some pics please.

 

[littlebritishcar]

I was looking at lights at Home Depot yesterday and I like the T5. 20,000 lumens per fixture (4 bulbs) versus 5,000 lumens for the LED fixture make it somewhat of a no brainer. Obsolete or not, a box of bulbs and maybe an extra ballast stored in my attic will last longer than my lifetime.

 

[Rockuf8]

I was looking at lights at Home Depot yesterday and I like the T5. 20,000 lumens per fixture (4 bulbs) versus 5,000 lumens for the LED fixture make it somewhat of a no brainer. Obsolete or not, a box of bulbs and maybe an extra ballast stored in my attic will last longer than my lifetime.

I'll have to look at that one and give it consideration for sure. Getting rid of flourescent bulbs is kind of a hassle though.

 

[NUTTSGT]

When I dropped the ceiling in my garage and replaced the lighting, I didn't go overboard but I wanted more light. I replaced the T12 with some new T8 fixtures and they work fine for me.

The only problem I had was radio interference. I moved the radio to the other side of the garage and it's no problem now.

This is what I bought, since I had the ceiling painted white, I chose strip lights over shop lights.

http://www.menards.com/main/lightin...dem-t8-fluorescent-strip/p-1385175-c-6354.htm

 

[911Dave]

Installed the lights I posted above yesterday. Wow, the garage is bright now! they are T5HO bulbs and I have 10' ceilings. I love them so far! I am using 8 bulbs in a 630sf garage

Yes, pics please. I was thinking of 3 of those in my 400 sq. ft. garage but maybe 2 will be enough.

 

[jasonvt]

1 Before and 2 After

 

[jgoodhart]

No pics, but Home Depot has a lothonia fixture that takes 2 46" t5HO bulbs and has a clear defuser that takes care of the glare from the bare bulbs, makes it real bright but not over bearing.