LEDS and cold temps?

[mikhett]

A friend of mine put up 12 utillitec 4 ft led shop lights in his garage and now that its 18 degrees here they wont come on.He said they started blinking last night.Im looking to start my lighting in my 32x32 and was gonna get 12 4 footers but now.....Im confused,.My flouros used to always blink in cold weather and I wanted to get away from that.ANY ideas?

 

[Bert_]

LED's shouldn't have any problems in the cold. Sounds like your friend got some ultra cheap (low quality) lights. Most of the "shop light" type plug in fixtures are built as cheap as possible and it shows, both LED and fluorescent. Maybe the ballast is not liking the cold, I doubt it's the LED's themselves.

 

[cybrdyke]

Sorry for your friend's luck. A couple of thoughts....
First, they're junk. But at least they're cheap. There is no such company as Utilitech. It's a house brand of Lowe's where the product is contracted out to the lowest bidding manufacturer. A ghost company, if you will.
Second, it may have nothing to do with the cold. If they started blinking last night and dont work today, I would suspect something else. It would be highly unusual that ALL the fixtures dont work just because its kinda chilly. LED's arent very much affected by cold and the drivers aren't either. Certainly not 18 degrees.
My crystal ball says loose electrical connection (blinking) that has gotten worse. I'd try to find it quickly in case you have an unprotected hot wire somewhere.
But, hey, my crystal ball is kinda wonky, so...
Good luck,
CD

 

[TOOL MASTER]

just swapped this summer...no problems..my old 4 fters didn't like the cold...use the same bulbs outside..25 below and bright...walmart specials ;-)

 

[macdabs]

I have Lowes Utilitec outdoor floods and they will not work in single digit temps. All kinds of complaints and they offered a full refund but no replacement.

 

[LMS]

just swapped this summer...no problems..my old 4 fters didn't like the cold...use the same bulbs outside..25 below and bright...walmart specials ;-)

Can you give more info on the brand / part number etc? And is it 25 below measured in C or F?

Thanks.

 

[laser3kw]

my 40 watt equivalent led bulbs in my outside fixtures have lit solid in -10º (f) every time.
In my shop my T8's florescent tubes lite even at 10º (f), although they are dim for the first few minutes.
No blinking.
Like cybrdyke said, look for a wiring problem.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Install Costco Feit 4' LEDs in my garage. Worked fine in single digit weather.

 

[ToddW]

Install Costco Feit 4' LEDs in my garage. Worked fine in single digit weather.

I use these too, never an issue in the cold.

 

[MikeF2316]

12° F, -11° C in my garage. My one 4 foot LED shop light works fine. Back in the day, I had a couple of 4 ft florescent fixtures and a single 60 watt incandescent bulb. The bulb was for when it was too cold for the florescents to come on. But it's got to colder than this, even all the florescents came on today.

 

[American Locomotive]

LEDs should be just fine in the cold, although they tend to undergo a slight color temperature shift. Full-power fluorescent (32w for T8, 40w for T12) are generally fine into the negative temperatures as long as they have an outdoor/low-temp rated ballast. They may take a couple of minutes to come up to full brightness though. The low power T8 and T12 bulbs (28 and 34 watt respectfully) tend to do very poorly in the cold, and will often sit there dim and flickering.

 

[xjfish]

Install Costco Feit 4' LEDs in my garage. Worked fine in single digit weather.

I will confirm that they work fine at -25 F. Damn MN weather...

 

[TheOtherChris]

I will confirm that they work fine at -25 F. Damn MN weather...

Same here.
Sam's Club 4' LED shop lights in the barn came on just fine at -28°F

 

[LMS]

Dang - now I have to buy a Costco membership....

 

[BD1]

COSTCO 4' LED shop lights, Northern Illinois and they work well. Had them over a year and no issues in the cold .
I had to buy a few more last month when they had a sale price of $20.00.

 

[mnoeltne]

Sorry for your friend's luck. A couple of thoughts....
First, they're junk. But at least they're cheap. There is no such company as Utilitech. It's a house brand of Lowe's where the product is contracted out to the lowest bidding manufacturer. A ghost company, if you will.
Second, it may have nothing to do with the cold. If they started blinking last night and dont work today, I would suspect something else. It would be highly unusual that ALL the fixtures dont work just because its kinda chilly. LED's arent very much affected by cold and the drivers aren't either. Certainly not 18 degrees.
My crystal ball says loose electrical connection (blinking) that has gotten worse. I'd try to find it quickly in case you have an unprotected hot wire somewhere.
But, hey, my crystal ball is kinda wonky, so...
Good luck,
CD

I gotta agree with cybrdyke on this. All 12 fixtures aren't going to suddenly quit working. Your friend has a wiring problem, in a leg that supplies all 12 lights. Could even be a switch, but I've seen wire contract with the cold and loose connection, so probably a wire nutted connection somewhere, or a loose screw terminal.