Is there anybody else who really doesn't like flourescent lights?

[fergus]

I've never enjoyed it. It gives me headaches. I've been this way since high school, only I didn't know it back then, just thought the teachers were driving me nuts!

Anyway, I've got a couple cheap flourescent fixtures out in the garage and I hate em. Yeah, I know, get what ya pay for. I temporarily hung a couple strands of string lights out in the garage over my bench tonight - just to see how it looked. I really liked the soft warm glow.

At any rate, I need to put some more light out there and I'd really like to put incandescent lighting in. Anybody else done likewise? I don't care about efficiency since I only run em a few times a week at most. Maybe I'll just hang some cake pans over my bench like Jack Olsen did. I don't know.

 

[harvero]

I keep a table top lamp on my desk with an incandescent bulb. I prefer the color of the light too.

Kind of similar to.

 

[tractor man]

I had flourescent lights in my shop when I started out but it didn't take me very long to get rid of them. (couldn't stand the slow start time and the flickering in cold weather) I put in more light fixtures and 200 watt bulbs works great I can see no matter where I'm looking in the shop.

 

[BigWil]

If you want to keep using your cheap flourescent light, switch to expensive full spectrum bulbs. It makes a world of a difference.

 

[Falcon67]

If you are sensitive to the subtle flicker, you may want to move to modern electronic ballast lights. Older T-12/mag ballast fixtures flicker at 60hz and some people really pick up on that.

"An electronic lamp ballast uses solid state electronic circuitry to provide the proper starting and operating electrical condition to power one or more fluorescent lamps and more recently HID lamps. Electronic ballasts usually change the frequency of the power from the standard mains frequency of 50 - 60 Hz to 20 000 Hz or higher, substantially eliminating the stroboscopic effect of flicker (a product of the line frequency) associated with fluorescent lighting (see photosensitive epilepsy). In addition, because more gas remains ionized in the arc stream, the lamps actually operate at about 9% higher efficacy above approximately 10 kHz. Lamp efficacy increases sharply at about 10 kHz and continues to improve until approximately 20 kHz.[3] Because of the higher efficiency of the ballast itself and the improvement of lamp efficacy by operating at a higher frequency, electronic ballasts offer higher system efficacy for low pressure lamps like the fluorescent lamp."

 

[ert01]

I too prefer incandescent lights.

I had a few T5 fluorescent lights with electronic ballasts available to me when I built my shop and I decided not to use them and instead went with some restaurant "Chinese hat" pendants with incandescent bulbs. 100W and 300W.

I prefer the light output and the color and dispersion pattern. Plus, it helps warm up my garage in the winter. Haha

Yes it draws more power but I'm not that fussy.

Sorry for the poor picture but it shows the idea.

 

[cderalow]

You could go to solid state lights as well, expensive but energy efficient. (LED lighting)

 

[mtne]

There are people who have allergies to fluorescent lights. One of the girls in highschool way back when had a noticeable reaction and you could see the impact as the school year got on.......

So pay the higher bill and get something that works for you. Or, pay loads up front and go LED............. Either way it's good to know what doesn't work for you.

 

[rlitman]

There are people who have allergies to fluorescent lights. One of the girls in highschool way back when had a noticeable reaction and you could see the impact as the school year got on.......

Yeah, right. And people have allergic reactions to radio waves.
Although it's been tested, and they have the same reaction to an antenna, whether or not the radio is on.

 

[BigWil]

Yeah, right. And people have allergic reactions to radio waves.
Although it's been tested, and they have the same reaction to an antenna, whether or not the radio is on.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6527973_fluorescent-light-allergy.html
You are right, it's not technically an allergy...but people do have reactions to flourescent light.

 

[Gary S]

I for one love florescent lighting. I grew up on the dark incandescent lighting where you either worked in the dark or burned enough power to buy your own power plant. I totally switched over to florescent about 10 years ago and love it.

I'm running 6 outdoor dusk to dawn florescent lights on photocells, and I live where they have to light at dark at temperatures of -20 or lower, and stay lit through the night at -45. They WORK, and they take so little power that I can have my entire yard and buildings lit every night all night.
And, the lamps last sooooo much longer than incandescent, so I'm not spending my life out there maintaining my lights.

 

[ddawg16]

The old style lights with magnetic ballasts could have a 120 hz flicker....but the electronic ones?....no flicker....

My wife used to say the same thing....until one day I put a CFL in a floor lamp....6 months later I told her about it....she couldn't tell the difference....

 

[Charles (in GA)]

As noted above, the headaches, and other reactions to "fluorescent" lights is due to magnetic ballasts and poor quality bulbs.

Get some quality T8 or T5 fixtures with electronic ballast and bulbs that are either 4000K (bright white) or 5000K (daylight color rendering) and it will in almost all cases, eliminate the problems you are experiencing.

Charles

 

[slidehammer]

I've never enjoyed it. It gives me headaches. I've been this way since high school, only I didn't know it back then, just thought the teachers were driving me nuts!

Anyway, I've got a couple cheap flourescent fixtures out in the garage and I hate em. Yeah, I know, get what ya pay for. I temporarily hung a couple strands of string lights out in the garage over my bench tonight - just to see how it looked. I really liked the soft warm glow.

At any rate, I need to put some more light out there and I'd really like to put incandescent lighting in. Anybody else done likewise? I don't care about efficiency since I only run em a few times a week at most. Maybe I'll just hang some cake pans over my bench like Jack Olsen did. I don't know.

I prefer the spectrum from incandescents too, but consider that quality fluorescents have improved a lot in past decades. Check out the pricier ones with CRIs over 90%. (At low CRIs, the whole notion of "color temperature" is meaningless.)

It's also going to get harder to find incandescent bulbs in coming years as many of them are being phased-out by federal law. 100W bulbs, for example, may no longer be manufactured starting this January.

 

[rocco]

LED industrial light is here now, but its still quote expensive, we sell these highbays and strips from Lithonia and the strips are around 140.00$ per 4ft section (ZL series http://www.lithonia.com/commercial/ZL.html?pt=Commercial & Industrial Fluorescent ) and the highbays start around 900.00$ for the smallest lumen package (PTN Series http://www.lithonia.com/commercial/PTN.html?pt=Fluorescent High Bay ). LEd is becoming the norm in commercial specified jobs for parking lots, wallpacks and canopy lighters as well as indoor downlights and accent lighting. The reduction in wattage is amazing, we've been replacing 400w Metal halide shoeboxes(parking lot fixtures) with LED luminaires that consume around 140w with improvement in overall lighting levels. Quite a fun time to be in this industry if you ask me.
I'm going to be doing LED wallpacks on my garage, all LED downlights in the house along with some LED undercounter lighting in the kitchen, i'll post it up once i'm done .

Check this out, they show some case studies with photo's:
http://www.ruud.ca/gallery/case-studies


I may just try a few of the highbays out in my new 30 x 40 x14 later this winter, depends what my sample policy looks like...

 

[kbs2244]

The is a “strobe light” effect.
And it can affect some people strongly.
I consider it more a safety thing as it can make a spinning saw blade look stationary.
I do not know if it is an old vs. new ballast thing.

I have a mix of mostly old ballast fixtures.
But I do not get the strobe light effect that I have seen in other shops.

I give credit to my also having incandescent bulbs interspersed with the fluorescents.
They seem to cancel the flicker out.

 

[djdavelong]

I have some new T5 fixtures with 6 52W 4 ft. lamps.
Incredibly bright and no perceptible flicker.... also work even when the garage is very cold.
They replaced some old T12's.

 

[BFBOB]

Yeah. My wife. She's heavily into instant gratification.

With LIGHT!! I was talking about LIGHT!

 

[klhitman]

i want to put 2 or more metal halide lamps in my garage. i think 2 will work good but you can never have enough light. the ones that we put up at work only pull like 2 amps at 240v. and its like 3 amps at 120v.

i think it will light the place up a lot. the down fall is the cost of the fixtures.

kinda like this but the globe is different and that ballast is enclosed.

 

[StaggeringGoat]

As noted above, the headaches, and other reactions to "fluorescent" lights is due to magnetic ballasts and poor quality bulbs.

I agree. I used to "hate" fluorescents too. Then technology got better and I learned how to pick the right bulb for the application. Color temp is a big deal, and you can get fluorescents these days in about whatever color you want. It's important not to just buy whatever bulb is on sale, get the correct color.

One thing that can be done to help with flickering, besides using modern ballasts and tubes, is to split your lighting into two circuits, and put half on one phase, half on another. They will flicker interchangeably, always leaving one set on. Sometimes offices are wired with 3 phase and lights scattered across the phases for this reason.

 

[KF5LCH]

Love my fluorescent lights. I have three older 6 foot T12's in the middle of the shop & three 4 foot T5's over the workbench. The T5's are the new electronic ballast & so far they're doing good in 30-40 degree temps. No flickering at all.

The older T12's, now that's a different story. They'll get down on some flickering when it's cold out. They knock it off once I fire up the heater & the shop gets nice & cozy.

 

[ktmben]

I can't stand older florescent lights with the flicker and hum. I installed HO t5 light in my garage and all is good. Instant on, no flicker, super bright, and a very nice white color. You for sure get what you pay for.

 

[thorbj0rn]

I have always had a problem with fluorescent lights as well; flickering caused mandatory headaches in no time. When I needed more light for detailing cars, I tried full-spectrum fluorescents, and, lo and behold, no more headaches.

 

[medailleon]

It could be the flickering and it could be that he's sensitive to the electromagnetic waves put out by the ballast.

 

[porcupine73]

I haven't really had trouble with the fluorescent lights, but when tube monitors were popular before flatscreens came out, I couldn't even look at one of those if the refresh rate was set at 60Hz. It looked to me like the screen was flashing on and off and made my head hurt.

 

[Pneuking]

Fluorescent is incandescence silly cousin that got into politics and somehow did really well. No, I do not like fluorescent lighting.

 

[6768rogues]

Personally I like working with fluorescent lighting, the higher the temperature rating the better.
I retired from being Director of Buildings and Grounds for a large school district. We had a couple of classrooms with complaints about the lighting. We put in bulbs with a warmer color temperature and the problem was solved. All our lighting had T-8 bulbs with electronic ballasts.

 

[fergus]

All right, well maybe I'll have to try out some newer tubes with a good ballast. I did some more research and found out how many options there are.

 

[TireTracks]

I for one love florescent lighting. I grew up on the dark incandescent lighting where you either worked in the dark or burned enough power to buy your own power plant. I totally switched over to florescent about 10 years ago and love it.

I'm running 6 outdoor dusk to dawn florescent lights on photocells, and I live where they have to light at dark at temperatures of -20 or lower, and stay lit through the night at -45. They WORK, and they take so little power that I can have my entire yard and buildings lit every night all night.
And, the lamps last sooooo much longer than incandescent, so I'm not spending my life out there maintaining my lights.

As an amature astronomer this makes me sad.

We have 3 8ft florecents in our shop, I like them, very bright, but they give my sister migraines ( the flicker).

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

OK guys, I've got a question about the old style fluorescent fixtures.

Awhile back, I scored a dozen or so T-12 8' magnetic ballasted hard-wired fixtures for free off of C.L.. I haven't installed them as yet in my shop. The outside temperature stays fairly mild in winter here; shop temperature right now is 51 F. and I haven't turned the electric heaters on yet this season.

My question is this - has anyone here seen fit to try to update old fixtures with modern electronic ballasts and/or T-8 tubes? Is it even worth trying, or should I go through the hassle of installing the freebies to see if I can live with any flicker, buzzing and inefficient old technology? I'm trying to add more light to my shop (70' x 30' x 12') on the cheap and would hate to see these surface mount fixtures going to a landfill.

 

[StaggeringGoat]

My question is this - has anyone here seen fit to try to update old fixtures with modern electronic ballasts and/or T-8 tubes?

Yes, it is quite common. T8 and T12 tubes fit in the same sockets. You just need a new ballast, about $15. I just converted a 4 tube T12 to electronic T8 a few days ago...

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

StaggeringGoat, thanks for the reply, much appreciated. Not to highjack this thread, but do you recall the details of the ballasts and where you sourced them? Are you happy with the results?

 

[StaggeringGoat]

StaggeringGoat, thanks for the reply, much appreciated. Not to highjack this thread, but do you recall the details of the ballasts and where you sourced them? Are you happy with the results?

I used Sylvania Quicktronic ballasts from Home Depot, simply because they were cheap. I am very happy with them, good quick startup with little/no flicker. The ballast comes with a wiring diagram on top, just hook up a couple wires and mount the ballast in place of the old one. It's really quite simple.

 

[BFBOB]

Yeah, me. I really dislike the usual 4' or 8' fluorescent tubes, though I do use a few just because they were what was handy. I much, much prefer a more directional light (but NOT those deadly, dead-overhead can lights). I've been happiest with semi-directional fixtures loaded up with CFL's or MH's for the sake of efficiency. Yes, higher initial cost than standard twin 40 "shop lights" but well worth it in my opinion.