Garage lighting

[boomer12831]

When I built my 24 X 32 ft shop in 2008, I put in 3 rows of fluorescent lights. There are 5 4' lights with 2 bulbs in each light in each row, total of 15 lights. I put each row on a separate switch. They are the type that start when it's cold. Out of 15 lights, I have brought back at least half of them in the first year because they stopped working. I have 4 of them not working now They were purchased at Lowes and were quite expensive. I have seen LED replacement lights at BJ's but I'm not sure I want to invest in cheaper LED replacements and be in the same boat as I am with the ones that I have now. I am thinking about just replacing them with a porcelain fixture and a screw in LED bulb. I don't have a lot of extra cash right now to replace them with more expensive ones. I only heat the shop when I am using it so I'm wondering if the lights will work if it is cold and also will it be enough light. I always had enough light when all 15 fluorescent lights were working (which was rare). Has anyone on here done this and did it work out for you? Thanks.

 

[happy2rv]

I've done the keyless fixtures with CFL's in my 26x32 detached and it has worked pretty well for me. You can see a picture in this thread. I did 21 ceiling boxes fairly evenly spaced. I have 6 4' fluorescent fixtures at one end, 2 LED floodlights and the rest are 100W equivalent CFL's. As they burn out, I will replace them with LED bulbs.

The CFL bulbs do have the cold weather dim startup. The LED bulbs shouldn't have that issue though.

It's not going to give you nearly the same amount of light, but it is a workable and affordable solution if you aren't doing anything requiring extreme lighting. I have 12' ceilings, so lower ceiling height might make it brighter.

 

[dfiler2]

Just ran across these the other day.

 

[happy2rv]

That's looks pretty impressive. Not necessarily cheap, but much brighter. You could put up the keyless fixtures with a mixture of cheaper 100W equivalent LED bulbs and a few of these mixed in and have really decent lighting. Then, as money permits add a few at a time as/where needed.

The reviews only go back to around May of last year, so there's not a long track record to show durability/longevity. They also have the same type bulb in 2500 lumens for about 2/3 the cost.

I've book marked these and will definitely be thinking about them for the next project.

 

[boomer12831]

Thanks Happy2rv. I think the one thing that will benefit me is my ceiling is painted white and my walls are a very light gray. I think that will probably work for me when I can change them out. I could run a row down each side and salvage 5 lights to keep in the middle.
Thanks also Dfiler2 but a little more then I can go for right now. It won't be for a couple months or so until I can do this so I'll keep it in mind.

 

[happy2rv]

I think CFL bulbs are still cheaper than LED in higher lumen output. For instance, I think a 100W equivalent CFL at Lowe's is around $7 while the same thing in an LED is around double that. It looks like they also have 150W eq CFL for around $10.

I don't know how they would do in extremely cold weather, but my experience has been that they warm up pretty quickly, maybe a minute or so, once you turn them on even without heat in the building. I've only used them down to around freezing though.

I much prefer LED for many reasons, but for the price difference, it might be worth considering. Especially if you have a mixture of fixtures...

 

[boomer12831]

Thanks again happy2rv, I will check them out.

 

[American Locomotive]

If your fixtures are T8, you can find replacement ballasts very cheap on line - around $12 or less.

 

[boomer12831]

Thanks ALCO. I'll look in to that also.