Who is using LED lighting in your shop?

[Chad G]

LED is the future of lighting, its efficient and lasts.

Please share your led lighting! Any and all kinds. Please let us know what you like and dislike about it, as well as a general cost. Im looking at ways ton incorporate it in my garage in new ways.

 

[Mustang51js]

I've retrofitted 4 foot. T8 lights for a friend, honestly can't. Tell the difference between them but he did it because of the interference with the radio. They use less electricity but cost like $30 a bulb

 

[rockwithjason]

we have done several areas at the plant and so far I am not impressed. I think the tech has a ways to go yet

 

[BDT/NWMN]

Small scale, but for a night light in my 28'x56' shop ; a 11watt standard base led bulb is doing the trick.. There are 2 watt standard base led bulbs throughout the house for low light needs. Those little .3 watt night lights with the photo cell;;; I have those all over the place.... Trouble light is now led....

I pick up a smaller bulb or two when they go on sale.... It's sort of a turtle pace upgrade, but the larger bulbs at their current price; and the number needed to convert to 100% led just doesn't pencil out for now...

 

[Playwme]

I'm going to fit wide beam LED down lights in mine when I get to that stage (mesh for slab went down today). We fitted them through the whole house during a recent renovation and they were so bright we had to fit dimmers on every switch. They were only about $40 each for the full unit and pull about 8w each.

 

[Falcon67]

I may use some retrofitted 4' fixtures in our enclosed car trailer in order to have minimal power drain on the supply from the RV connector on the truck. Other than that - IMHO the future ain't here yet. The payback for the average garage isn't there yet, compared to CFLs and/or T8 / T5 flo lighting.

 

[shopnut]

Inside, I put six 4” can lights in my shop and I’m pretty impressed with the output of those little guys. My main lighting is fluorescent fixtures in a number of different zones so I could use only those needed, but I created a dedicated 3-way circuit for these LED cans for when I’m just passing through the shop or running out to grab a wrench or something. They are almost bright enough to work under if there isn’t close-up/detail work to do.

Details about this in my build thread: Link

Details about this in my build thread: Link

For outdoor lighting in front of the shop, I added a down light to illuminate the covered porch and two floods to illuminate the yard. I’m really impressed with output of these three lights.

Details about this in my build thread: Link

Here is another 3-head light I added to illuminate the side yard.

Details about this in my build thread: Link

 

[autonaut]

Does anyone have any complaints about the "cold" lighting?

It seems to me LED's give off a much cooler illumination than regulars.

Regular lighting gives off a more "yellowish" flare. A more warm light so to say.

Im intriged about saving money at my shop. But working 60 hours or more in the shop, i would not like it to be more "cold and sterile" kindda light by going with the LED's.

 

[Falcon67]

Does anyone have any complaints about the "cold" lighting?

Yes. I tried some replacement LED retrofits for cans in our living room to replace the slow warmup CFLs. (4 cans total). The two problems I came up with were 1) the can's aren't made for the retrofits and 2) the 3000 color temp was not that soft and the light was too focused. The CFL (BR-30) lights are 20W and 4 of them will light the entire room - 15x24 with a 10' ceiling. I could see right off that the LED replacements would come out more like 4 spot lights, which might be why the light looked brighter than "3000" would suggest. So I took the retrofit units back. We use 2800 temp T8s in the kitchen and the 3000 temp LEDS were not even close.

 

[windward]

I just installed ten 6" cans with the Sylvania retrofits from Menards. They state they are 1400 lumens each and I went with the 3500K bulbs. (they also had 2700K and 3000K). They will be in my office area and the entry way. 9' ceilings. So far I love them. Instant start, good clean color, dimmable.

I paid about $8 per can + $20 per retrofit light. The problem I see is Menards is discontinuing them (not sure why) but replacements may be tricky to get to match.

I am half tempted to use them through the work area of the shop, but don't know if I can get the number of lumens I will need without having an unreasonable number of cans. I am also worried about creating shadows.

I have also used some 4" retrofit LEDs in the house and love them.


Matt
SE Wisconsin

 

[autonaut]

Yes. I tried some replacement LED retrofits for cans in our living room to replace the slow warmup CFLs. (4 cans total). The two problems I came up with were 1) the can's aren't made for the retrofits and 2) the 3000 color temp was not that soft and the light was too focused. The CFL (BR-30) lights are 20W and 4 of them will light the entire room - 15x24 with a 10' ceiling. I could see right off that the LED replacements would come out more like 4 spot lights, which might be why the light looked brighter than "3000" would suggest. So I took the retrofit units back. We use 2800 temp T8s in the kitchen and the 3000 temp LEDS were not even close.

Good to know. Thanks

 

[shopnut]

Does anyone have any complaints about the "cold" lighting?

You can get the LEDs in warm or cold colors, and I suspect the homeowner market will drive them warmer and warmer since everyone wants a warm, homey feel in their house. In fact, those six cans on my beams are the warmest version I have bought so far and are really a bit too warm for my liking in the shop. My fluorescents have 6500K "Daylight" bulbs so the LEDs are a terrible mis-match, colorwise, but they usually aren't on at the same time anyway. BTW, I originally had 4200K bulbs in there and didn't like them as much for a shop setting.

We are slowly switching over the lights inside our house to LEDs. We're at the age where brightness trumps all other attributes, unfortunately. The standard A10 base bulbs for the eight tracklight heads in our kitchen were a vast improvement over the 60W incandescents they replaced. They've been in for months now and my wife still comments nearly every week how much brighter it is in there (and if she's happy, I'm happy ). After a week or two, you really don't notice the color temperature difference. Next on the replacement list are the vanity lights in the bathroom - those 8 lights seem to be on a lot too. Still searching for some cheap 4" globe style LEDs though.

I would give a few LEDs a try for awhile before making a decision. Pick the warmer style if that's what you prefer and put them in an isolated area without a lot of other lighting around for a good test. You may not like them, but I bet they will be just fine. I'm never going back to incandescents or CFLs.

 

[dwm]

I have 24 Cree BR30 5000K bulbs (60W equivalent, 9.5W LED) in recessed cans in the garage. I love them and only rarely turn on the fluorescent overheads now.

In a warm climate, you really can't beat fluorescent. But I'm in Michigan and this winter has been brutal. Got snowed in again today due to 24+ inch drifts. I really appreciate that the LEDs come on instantly at full brightness regardless of how cold it is in the garage. My 0F-rated T8 shop lights come on, but take many minutes to come up to full brightness in the cold. Same thing with the overhead HO fluorescents with new electronic ballasts.

I wouldn't think of LED as a payback sort of thing. To me the advantages have been:

- no change in performance across a wide temperature range; always instant on, always full brightness
- durable
- no RFI mucking up my radio reception
- long life, and the Cree bulbs have a 10 year warranty

I wish Cree would make some 100W equivalent BR30 or BR40 bulbs, since they've become my favorite LED bulbs and I figure that they know what they're doing since they're one of the two top high-power LED producers. Maybe that's why they've not done it yet: still too many thermal concerns for a bulb that could be produced at a homeowner-friendly price. Not hard to find 1100 lumen BR30 and 1600 lumen BR40, but they're pricier and given the heatsinking I've seen, I question their longevity in an airtight recessed fixture. I'm about to put some of the Kobi Electric 1600 lumen R40's in the garage to see if they last a while. Not willing to buy 24 of them yet.

I also have 9 Cree BR30 2700K 60W equivalents in the kitchen. And another ten or so throughout the house. Recessed lighting was popular when this house was built, and I'm tired of the CFL warm-up time and replacing them (especially the ones in the cathedral ceiling). So I have been replacing CFL BR30 with Cree BR30 LED each time a CFL dies.

 

[GYPSY400]

I have them installed in my outdoor pot lights - not retrofits, just 60w equivilant bulbs.. Also above the door is an LED unit.. I priced it out to do the inside, but it's not feasible.. The ROI would be like 10 years.

 

[autonaut]

Solid advice given in here..

I never noticed the fluorescents had a warm up time though. They flicker when turned on, and buzz for some time(i just turn on the radio) but I never really noticed that they had less lighting during those 5 minutes.

I will try and notice

 

[Scud67]

I have "cold weather" fluorescent lights in my shop - they are always instant on... no flickering or buzzing. I will not change over to LED. LED is fine for low voltage landscape lighting, but not for anything inside (for my preference anyway).

 

[Minibike Kid]

I am in the process of putting LED strip light on my toolbox (in the drawers) and also under my shelving. As a sparky in the commercial food machinery industry I got the idea from fridges, Bain Marie, and salad bar applications. As you can use them on quite complex curves they are very adaptable to many uses in the garage. I am also looking at main lighting in the garage ,LED downlights or LED flouros I am unsure as of which way to go. We have Led flouros at work and I am not that impressed as they are not as bright as the tri phosphor tubes that were in use prior to the installation of the LED tubes. I have even tossed about the Idea of putting the strip lighting on the ceiling as main lighting but will need to trial them to see if they are suitable.

 

[Minibike Kid]

here is a trial run.

 

[ForceFed70]

All you guys complaining about warm up times and cold temps.... Are you running CFL's or ancient T12's or what's going on?

Have been running T8's in my garages for a decade now. Even in these cold Canadian winters with the garage unheated I have not seen any of this. My T8's come on instantly and at full brightness (or close enough I can't tell).

Unless you live in Alaska with an unheated garage, turn on times and warm up times for a modern T8 or T5 fixture should be a non issue.

 

[JordonMusser]

The majority of my house will be LED lit.. Ill make sure to post pictures when I finish (mostly custom LED, few off the shelf stuff).

Only downside to (cheap) LED lights is low CRI.

 

[Autorotica]

I was told that LED lights do not attract bugs like incandescent lighting does. Can anyone confirm this statement?

Chris

 

[ForceFed70]

I was told that LED lights do not attract bugs like incandescent lighting does. Can anyone confirm this statement?

Chris

It's going to be false. Light is light - doesn't matter what generated the light.

It is certainly possible that certain wavelengths (colors) will attract more/less bugs and certain lamps will thus attract more/less bugs based on their color temp and the spectrum produced.

Long story short - certain lamp designs may attract more or less bugs, but those lamp design differences come down to the color of light not the technology used to produce the light.

 

[aar0s]

Ive had LED's around the outside of my garage for over a year now and love the output. The CFL's I was running would dim out to almost nothing at temps colder than 25 or so. These are screw in replacements not the cans like have been pictured here. Bought some 800 lumen GE's from work and didn't realize that they were way down on the yellow side of the spectrum, turns out that they work great in the bathroom and give the look of old 100 watt bulbs. Ive run some in the past in some screw in sockets in the garage but brought them in to put in a ceiling fan.
Ive seen some of the T8 replacements and really havent been impressed with them, the output seems low for the cost.
As far as the bugs thing goes, the way it was explained to me was that LED's dont make the kind of light bugs are attracted to. I didn't have as many last summer with mine but had a **** ton of spiders and they had to be eating something so they will attract some bugs.

Like I tell customers at work, LED vs CFL is a pain in the *** question. Do you have to get a ladder out to change the bulb and is it a PITA? If yes then put the brightest LED in you can fit and not worry about falling off the ladder again, if not then go with the $2.00 CFL.

 

[DrBuick]

I'm real happy with the LED lights i bought from MOCO Enterprises in Plano Tx. I installed 18 in the 32x65 main room. They only burn 27 watts each and put out about as much light as a twin 8' fluorescent fixture. After burning for hours they are just warm to the touch. There are 72 LEDs in each tube. The light is very white. If your interested they are $90 each. They are made from extruded aluminum, powder coated black. John Killmeyer at MOCO can be reached at 214-440-5133. The only drawback was the wait time to get them.

 

[n8n]

PEPCO had some subsidy deal for my friend's shop (in MD) where they gave him an allowance for energy efficient upgrades, 100% paid by PEPCO. Contractor came in and replaced a bunch of 8 foot 2 tube T12 fixtures with 2 each 2 tube 4' LED tube fixtures. Really nice especially when shop is cold. Much more light in all conditions.

Unfortunately I can't give more details as I wasn't there when fixtures were installed so I didn't have opportunity to snap pics of labels etc. Also can't give details of program because PEPCO guy's explanation of program and contractor's conflict; basically PEPCO is mad at the contractor because according to him all fixtures should have been replaced and contractor billed PEPCO for x number of fixtures where x is the number of 4 foot fixtures he installed; PEPCO says that x should be half that number because the existing fixtures were 8 foot. Long story short there's a fight brewing that might end up with him getting the remaining fluorescent fixtures replaced which would be great as they all need to be relamped and at least one has a bad ballast or other problem (I haven't gone up on the scary tall ladder to investigate)

 

[shopnut]

I was told that LED lights do not attract bugs like incandescent lighting does. Can anyone confirm this statement?

Chris

Not true from personal experience. This link offered up by another forum member (credit to akdiesel) in my build thread helps explain it:

http://www.energycircle.com/blog/2011/08/17/correction-led-lights-do-attract-bugs

Still doesn't offset the advantages of the LEDs though.

 

[Mickster144]

I have the Cree's in my house and love them. I am remodeling my garage and want to eliminate my Fluorescent lights. And idea how many LED's I would need in a standard two car garage?

 

[ForceFed70]

I'm real happy with the LED lights i bought from MOCO Enterprises in Plano Tx. I installed 18 in the 32x65 main room. They only burn 27 watts each and put out about as much light as a twin 8' fluorescent fixture. After burning for hours they are just warm to the touch. There are 72 LEDs in each tube. The light is very white. If your interested they are $90 each. They are made from extruded aluminum, powder coated black. John Killmeyer at MOCO can be reached at 214-440-5133. The only drawback was the wait time to get them.

Nice setup.

I would love to see the technical specifications on these lights tho. I have a strong suspicion that you are completely wrong in your assumption as to the efficiency.

There is a reason why these are marketed as portable emergency shelter lighting and not as general purpose lighting. Their website says nothing about efficiency other than claiming they are efficient. If they were more efficient than florescent you can bet they'd advertise that fact all over the place. I mistrust any lighting manufacturer who publishes marketing pamphlets but doesn't publish technical specifications.

Oh, and they don't appear to be CL listed/rated - so technically it's against code to use these as permanent overhead lighting.

I've got to ask: Why on earth would you use a fixture purpose designed as temporary portable lighting to meet Armed Forces specifications as permanent lighting in a garage? So many better solutions designed for your application...

 

[ForceFed70]

I have the Cree's in my house and love them. I am remodeling my garage and want to eliminate my Fluorescent lights. And idea how many LED's I would need in a standard two car garage?

16

Talk about an open ended question!

 

[gatchel]

I have the Cree's in my house and love them. I am remodeling my garage and want to eliminate my Fluorescent lights. And idea how many LED's I would need in a standard two car garage?

Assuming a standard 2 car of about 500 sq ft...

You will need 112 of these to get 100 lumens/sq ft

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-40W...u=204084370&ci_kw=&ci_gpa=pla&ci_src=17588969

 

[DrBuick]

Hey ForceFed70, I measured the current draw with a Klein Tools CL 1000. They draw 0.19 Amps. At 120 volts that's 22.8 watts. I think Mil Spec is plenty good enough for my shop.

 

[Fueler]

Brought this back up as it was on my mind.
I have some Big Box store 4 foot cheapies that die a little too soon to suit me.
I am going to get one of these to try out. Haven't decided which one yet.
http://www.t8tubes.com/product/20w-led-t8-tube-4ft-85-285vac/

Anyone else already made the plunge?

Note: One has to rewire and bypass the original built in ballast. That's fine with me as it's not difficult and I don't have to change my fixture style. See their faq page for the installation pdf.