I'm retrofitting ten 2x4 troffer lights in my woodworking shop with LED bulbs. No more ballasts! Yippee! The troffers have frosted prismatic plastic diffusers, but I'm thinking since the LED's have more intense light, a more diffuse panel would make a more pleasant light, less harsh. More like a photography soft box effect. Anyone got a source for these? Material I should spec? Tips appreciated.
Frosted diffusers for 2x4 troffer---where to get em?
- Thread starter Leemaj
- Start date
Worsedog
Well-known member
I've seen both styles at Home Cheapo
The LED put out less light than a decent new T-8 but in almost all LED retrofit bulbs, it is put out in a much narrower pattern. It is typically states as 120 degrees and a fluorescent is 360 degrees, of course.
I changed a bunch in some 4 bulbs troffers in a 10' ceiling and they were fine without any changes.
In one large office where half were 4 t-8 bulbs in clean fixtures with clean lenses and the other half were 4 LED 18w retrofits it was not really noticeable except for color temperature that changed a bit even though everything was supposed to be 4000K color. Both looked good, just a bit different.
I changed a bunch in some 4 bulbs troffers in a 10' ceiling and they were fine without any changes.
In one large office where half were 4 t-8 bulbs in clean fixtures with clean lenses and the other half were 4 LED 18w retrofits it was not really noticeable except for color temperature that changed a bit even though everything was supposed to be 4000K color. Both looked good, just a bit different.
Platonic Solid
Well-known member
If you use frosted lens LED bulbs (like those recommended in post 1 of best light fixture sticky - link in sig below) you can keep existing fixture diffusers. Most 2x4 troffers use clear prism acrylic - I haven't seen frosted prism acrylic. If you opt for non-frosted LED bulbs, they will look really bad behind clear prism acrylic.
Crazyjake8493
Well-known member
You should be able to get the diffuser lens at any Home Depot or Lowes. They’re often by the ceiling tiles and grid, not with the troffers.
Yep, those are the bulbs I'm using. I'll give them a try with the prism diffusers and see how I like them. Thanks for the feedback!
