Free LED lighting for woodshop?

[tealetm]

Hello- I’m in the middle of building a 20x36 woodshop. Walls are 10’ high, and the scissor trusses yield a sloping ceiling from 10’ to about 15.5’ in the center.

I picked up (for free) a bunch of light fixtures which we took out of a supermarket. There are 12x of them, all 8’ in length. I’m wondering if putting all these fixtures in my shop will be blinding or create shadow issues? I’m thinking of doing three rows, each running lengthwise (4 fixtures long totaling 32’ in the 36’ dimension of the Shop)- a row mid way up the ceiling and a row at the peak of the ceiling. I can add task lighting above work benches etc as needed.

What do you guy think? I’m new to the LED world and these types of fixtures.note that the specs I found and have shown are for a 4’ fixture.

thanks!

 

[mark-NJ]

Both my shop & my garage (my "other" shop...it hasn't seen a car in years!) are 100% LED, and I love it! Lamps are either 5000K or 6500K...bright, white & glorious! I'd never go back to anything else.

 

[infinkc]

Wire one up and see how you like it. I’d say 5k lumens is quit a bit. Plan to put them all in, maybe wire every other on a separate circuit to half the light output.

 

[sparky 1971]

At only 20' wide, I don't think you need a row down the center. Put the two rows up about 6' off the side walls and keep the others for bench lighting or spares. Also, I would hang them off jack chain so they shine down rather than mount them to the trusses where they will be shining towards the sides.

 

[Shiftless]

With no diffusers, those fixtures will produce plenty of light but plenty of glare too. But your ceilings might be just high enough to make the glare tolerable. As said already, try them…put one up at your 10 foot level and your 15 foot level to see how you like them. But I understand that it’s hard to pass up “free”.

 

[The Cobbler]

nice score on the free lights.
I would experiment some as others have said, and put them on at least 2 switches, alternating every other fixture. it's nice to have a lot of light for some projects, and be less light for others.

 

[nadogail]

With FREE fixtures, you should be able to experiment.

 

[walta]

I see one defuser in the photo did you get a defuser for every fixture?

Were the LED driver circuit included?

Two rows will be more than enough.

If you are short on defusers paint the ceiling white and point the fuxtures up making it impossible to see the LEDs directly and all the light will deflect off the ceiling giving you shadow free light.

Have you tested one yet?

Do you think they came out of the freezer cases?





Walta

 

[tealetm]

Great responses, thanks all.

Yes all fixtures have both the lens as well as the metal fin diffusers.

I'm thinking just two rows as well, alternating the lights on different switches so I can go from bright to super bright as needed.

Hanging off a jack chain is a good idea to prevent them from light being cast at an angle, but I think it'd be better suiting if I mounted them on angled blocking so they shine straight down (just for rigidity really).

I have to look at the wiring for them again. Some appeared to have male/female connectors to link them together, others had pigtails for the power. I'm not sure what you mean about the LED driver circuits?

Thanks again guys.

 

[cybrdyke]

Use the diffuser lenses and scrap the finned louvers, if possible. You dont need them in your application. Put them on one circuit linked together and use a dimmer for control, such as Eaton SF10P, or similar, not two circuits.
Good luck,
CD

 

[walta]

CD How likely is it that the LED drivers will work with dimmers being that the fixtures are most likely early LEDs made to fit a certain make and model of freezer case?​

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tealetm Please post some photos of the LED driver boxes.​

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​

Walta​

 

[cybrdyke]

CD How likely is it that the LED drivers will work with dimmers being that the fixtures are most likely early LEDs made to fit a certain make and model of freezer case?​

​

tealetm Please post some photos of the LED driver boxes.​

​

​

Walta​

Whoa! That's some big bold font there!!
I'd say the chances are nearly 100%, as long as that fixture is less than 10 years old. But, knowing that they're from a grocery store, they are likely well past their L70 and no longer bright enough for the store. But for salvage use in a garage, they're probably still plenty bright.
If it's really the fixture that the OP shows above, then it's just a standard shelf item from Acuity, not anything special. The driver will likely have a date code stamped on it.
CD

 

[tealetm]

Sorry- for some reason the response I posted never actually posted...

Attached is a photo of the LED drivers.

I like the dimmer idea for everything. My new question is... how many of these 8' lights can I chain together and put on one 15amp or 20 amp circuit? All of them?

 

[Max]

The driver says .7A at 120V. 12 of those is 8.4A which is well under 85% of 15A, so the answer is a single 15A breaker can drive them.

The drivers also say 0-10V dimmer, so like @cyberdyke says standard 0-10V dimmers should be fine.

 

[walta]

It looks like your LED drivers require 0-10 volt dimmer one dimmer could control all the lamps.

If Cyberdike is correct as seems likely the LEDs have been operated for enough hours that the LEDs are consider burned out in that they produce less than 70% of the light they originally did while still using the full rated power.

Sorry about the bold type I am not sure why or how that happened.

Walta

 

[cybrdyke]

I'm thinking just two rows as well, alternating the lights on different switches so I can go from bright to super bright as needed.

Get yourself a Lutron Vive Powpak. Your black, white, and green wires all will run to it. So will the purple & gray dimming wires.
Then you can have remote, wireless switches on the wall, or on your bench, or in your pocket, etc. That way, you dont have to run a bunch of different circuits.

 

[tealetm]

Just an update: finally got one row mounted and temporarily wired. Two rows should be plenty bright!

 

[alfredeneuman]

There are 12x of them, all 8’ in length.

The link says 4'. Are they 2ea-4' linked together?

 

[tealetm]

They are actually 8’ fixtures. I’m using two rows of four (32’ per side). I may use the left over 4 in the lean to portion but it may be too bright there

 

[nadogail]

I don’t recall hearing anyone complain about having too much light, on the other hand what was a lot of light in my youth is too little today.

 

[alfredeneuman]

The remedy for "too much" light is multiple switches.

 

[dave*99]

I have 8 LED panels in my shop. 6000lm 2x4 flat panels with 0-10V dimming.
The dimming works great. Since your drivers have that feature - be sure to use it if it's too bright in there.

 

[tealetm]

Yes- the 0-10v dimmer switch arrived on my doorstep yesterday.

 

[RPH]

Use two separate circuit breakers for lights. Don’t want to be plunged into darkness while working due to a fault. Cheap insurance against bad things happening.
Look like a nice light though.

 

[35k0]

I picked up 8 4' Lithonia double led lights from a local grocery store, they replace them whether they need to be or not.
My garage is 30x40, I wired them on a dimmer. I never use the dimmer and the lighting is phenomenal.