LED shop lights - Bulbs or integrated

[CharlieC]

Just finished a garage addition and getting ready to light it up.

Doing a series of (8) 4ft LED's. I like several of the designs I see (Lithonia and Hyperikon lights for example), but I'm hung up on the integrated/throw it away principle. What' my chance of getting an exact match or two say five years from now when one fails?

Option two is to get regular fixtures and convert them using LED replacement bulbs.

Comments on the integrated fixtures?

Thanks,
Charlie

 

[EdT]

I have some of the FEIT units sold at COSTCO. Been in about a year now w/o any problems. Did have one DOA unit that I had to swap out. I'm very happy with the performance and the amount of light compared to the old t-12 stuff I took out. If one fails in the future and I have to replace it with one that doesn't match it's not a big deal to me. It's a shop, not a showroom and I'd hardly expect large groups of people stopping by to see the mis-matched light fixtures. In fact, it'd be a surprised if anyone noticed at all. The same issue exists with fluorescents as the manufacturers make them cheaper and cheaper their appearance changes over time. It is also pretty likely that it will get harder and harder to find fluorescent fixtures in the future. I think LEDs are going to win that battle quickly.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have some of the FEIT units sold at COSTCO.

I put up my first one last week. So far it has been GREAT ! Too cold to do the others !

 

[merc66rkm]

CharlieC: I have the same thoughts as you. I'm hesitant to buy any of the integrated LED fixtures. I recently was given ten 4' fixtures without ballasts. I bought T8 LEDs to fit, and couldn't be happier.

 

[ghlkal]

What' my chance of getting an exact match or two say five years from now when one fails?

slim to none

I'm happy with these integrated units - http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=325105

 

[ddawg16]

I have 6" recessed cans. I do a lot of wood working....I don't want to be hitting any fixtures.

And....I have a lot of flexibility on bulbs, both wattage and color. Currently, I have 18 23w CFL's. Going on 8 years and none have failed yet. If they do, I'll swap in LED's.

 

[James-W]

I have 6" recessed cans. I do a lot of wood working....I don't want to be hitting any fixtures.

And....I have a lot of flexibility on bulbs, both wattage and color. Currently, I have 18 23w CFL's. Going on 8 years and none have failed yet. If they do, I'll swap in LED's.

I am using CFL's as well. They work VERY well and none have failed yet. When I first turn them on it takes a minute or so to get up to full brightness because I turn the heat down to 50 degrees when I am not working out there. But after a minute or so they are at full brightness and all is well.

When a CFL fails I am not sure if I would switch to an LED or not. LED's are getting better and cheaper all the time, but still, the CFL's work quite well and I am happy with them.

 

[firworks]

In the span of about a year I've added 6 LED lights to my shop. I now have 3 different colors of LED in there. If you're worried about consistency go for the standard fixtures and LED bulbs. There are a ton of LED shop light manufacturers and they all are slightly different color temperature.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

CharlieC: I have the same thoughts as you. I'm hesitant to buy any of the integrated LED fixtures. I recently was given ten 4' fixtures without ballasts. I bought T8 LEDs to fit, and couldn't be happier.

I've got a few integrated LED fixtures from BJ's, and although they've been good, I did have one go out within the first year. BJ's was great about swapping it out even without a receipt. Those lights are over my benches, all of my general lighting is old 2x4 troffers with ballast-bypass LED tubes. I feel a lot better about those, if I ever needed to replace a tube.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I have strip lights and they had T8s in them, I switched over to LED. Not being able to find a matching unit is one reason for me to just "swap bulbs" rather than fixtures.

 

[cybrdyke]

Standard colors for used for interiors in the lighting industry are:
Incandescent bulbs 2700k
Fluorescent tubes and CFL's: 2700k, 3000k, 4100k, and 5000k
LED tubes: 3000k, 3500k, 4000k, 5000k
6500k is a less common color in fluorescent and LED, but it's made.


If you see enough of them, you'll notice that even the large manufacturers of fluorescent tubes were never able to get them to exactly match each other. Different manufacturing processes, materials, etc...
The thing about all these new no-name LED manufacturers is that they dont even try to make their products fit the norm. They'll use diodes that didn't pass QC for one of the standard colors. Sometimes, they'll advertise it honestly. You'll see in their specs that their fixture is 4300k, or 2900k. In the future, you'll definitely never be able to match this.
The less honest manufacturers will not tell you the Kelvin color at all. They'll use bogus terminology like, "natural white" or "bright white", which dont mean anything at all. This allows them the ability to use the bogus diodes, with no consistency, even in the middle of a production run. Then there's no liability or accountability on them. You'll never be able to match these. Ever.
Finally, just like all light sources, LED's fade over time. When you replace an older fixture with a newer one, even if you can get color match, you might notice the difference in brightness.
Hope this helps.
CD

 

[billgreenwood]

I initially put one in my house garage and I liked it so I put up 12 (3 rows of 4) of the costco LED twin tube shop lights in my 30x40x16 shop. They are pretty damn good for the price.






Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[Crusarius]

I had piles of 4' fluorescent fixtures laying around. Finally just decided to buy led replacement tubes that are power one end and eliminated the ballast. I couldn't be happier.

I did also rig some lights together using 18 gage wire and terminals. They are just hanging from the garage ceiling with 12" long pieces of romex. Makes for awesome drop lights when I need them

Work especially well where I cannot hold a light and fight with whatever underneath a vehicle.