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Lighting for our garage

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scarrylarry

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Hi Fellas !

Just moved in to our new to us home here in Canada . We have a 19 x 19 X 8 foot high garage . There are two four foot fluorescent light fixtures on the ceiling on either side of the garage door opener that don't throw much light . I went to Home Depot to check out some new fixtures to replace what we have presently, for general lighting .I want to put replacements in the same spot as the old fixtures and 4 feet in length. So I saw these LED four foot long fixtures that looked good ,they seem to have some sort of light strip in them with metal housing and plastic cover . Would you go with those over regular fluorescent fixtures . How long do those LED light strips last ?

P.S. Would like to buy from Home Depot

Thanks !
scarrylarry
 
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scarrylarry

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Hi again Fellas !

Could one of you lighting experts please give me some advice ! Also I should add that the ceiling in drywall with a sprayed texture. I would like the fixtures to mount nicely against the ceiling .
Thanks !
scarrylarry
 
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Platonic Solid

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Since you want Home Depot, suggest pulling the ballast out of existing fixtures and install this lamp (link). Just ignore the 2100 lumen in HDs description as it is 2400 lumen per the manufacturers spec sheet (link). Though the lamp will work with most fluorescent ballasts, I do not recommend using it that way. Best to remove ballast and wire power directly to one unshunted lamp holder per lamp. If current fixtures have a magnetic ballast, then your lamp holders are unshunted (not internally electrically connected). If your current ballast is electronic, then your lamp holders are likely shunted and will need to be replaced with non-shunted.
 
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scarrylarry

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Platonic Solid

Thank You for your great reply ! I have questions though. Does Home Depot sell a fixture that has those LED tubes already in it and with a plastic tube cover and simple to wire to a ceiling outlet box ? I'm not an electrician but I can put a white wire and black where the instructions tell me to .
I just made a mistake replacing my kitchen counter plugs and did not know to break off the brass tab between the two wires on the hot side. Lost the high voltage to the stove and dryer ! end result electricians bill $350.00 ouch !

Or as an alternative two separate fluorescent fixtures with fluorescent tubes and lenses available from Home Depot for my 19 x 19 x 8 foot ceiling garage .

Thank You for your time !

scarrylarry
 
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trashmanssd

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I am going this route my self, this may help you understand shunted and non shunted.

shunted-sockets-illustration-2.png


shunted-v-non-shunted-marketing.png


also google search has a bunch utube videos on this procedure.
 
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Platonic Solid

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scarrylarry - You'll have to do your own fixture shopping as only you know what you like and for some reason you're limiting yourself to HD.
 
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trashmanssd

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other option is to buy new fixtures that are already built for the new style led tubes if you are uncomfortable with messing with the innards of the old fixtures. Platonic has posted it a few times for an online retail place he has used that sells them and you can find them locally now also its becoming a very common option. Platonics now his stuff on LED conversions.
 
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matt_i

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I have the 4 foot tube-ish LEDs in my shop. Costco Feit 42Watt. They claim 50k hour life, which is 25 years, used 40 hrs per week x 50 weeks a year.

I'm a little skeptical of that. Eventually we'll see. But $500 for 20 fixtures seemed like a decent price of entry.
 
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scarrylarry

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trashmanssd said:
other option is to buy new fixtures that are already built for the new style led tubes if you are uncomfortable with messing with the innards of the old fixtures. Platonic has posted it a few times for an online retail place he has used that sells them and you can find them locally now also its becoming a very common option. Platonics now his stuff on LED conversions.
Click to expand...

Would they have those new fixtures at Home Depot ? I guess I could ask them !

Thanks for your reply !
scarrylarry
 
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scarrylarry

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matt_i said:
I have the 4 foot tube-ish LEDs in my shop. Costco Feit 42Watt. They claim 50k hour life, which is 25 years, used 40 hrs per week x 50 weeks a year.

I'm a little skeptical of that. Eventually we'll see. But $500 for 20 fixtures seemed like a decent price of entry.
Click to expand...

I'm not opposed to Costco shopping I have just been thinking that The Home Depot near us has a good selection of home improvement merchandise .

Thanks for your reply !
scarrylarry
 
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scarrylarry

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Platonic Solid said:
Since you want Home Depot, suggest pulling the ballast out of existing fixtures and install this lamp (link). Just ignore the 2100 lumen in HDs description as it is 2400 lumen per the manufacturers spec sheet (link). Though the lamp will work with most fluorescent ballasts, I do not recommend using it that way. Best to remove ballast and wire power directly to one unshunted lamp holder per lamp. If current fixtures have a magnetic ballast, then your lamp holders are unshunted (not internally electrically connected). If your current ballast is electronic, then your lamp holders are likely shunted and will need to be replaced with non-shunted.
Click to expand...

Hello Again !

Okay sorry for beating this to death but want to do this right ! So Platonic if I go to Home Depot will they have a 4 foot twin tube fixture that has a lens(cover for the fixture) that will take the above mentioned tubes ( Euri tube in the first part of your post that you suggested ? I don't really want to mess around with the existing ballasts band fixtures that I have as they also do not have lens covers .I would like the fixtures to mount to the drywall ceiling nicely .
Thanks very much !
scarrylarry
 
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James-W

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I just helped a friend put in six of the LED type lightbulbs in his garage. The light output from each lightbulb is supposedly equal to a regular 100 watt incandescent bulb. He really likes them, they give off a lot of light, and if one should burn out it only takes a few seconds to change it.
 
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scarrylarry

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James-W said:
I just helped a friend put in six of the LED type lightbulbs in his garage. The light output from each lightbulb is supposedly equal to a regular 100 watt incandescent bulb. He really likes them, they give off a lot of light, and if one should burn out it only takes a few seconds to change it.
Click to expand...

Thanks James

Were they tube fixtures ?
scarrylarry
 
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cory58

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scarrylarry said:
Hello Again !



Okay sorry for beating this to death but want to do this right ! So Platonic if I go to Home Depot will they have a 4 foot twin tube fixture that has a lens(cover for the fixture) that will take the above mentioned tubes ( Euri tube in the first part of your post that you suggested ? I don't really want to mess around with the existing ballasts band fixtures that I have as they also do not have lens covers .I would like the fixtures to mount to the drywall ceiling nicely .

Thanks very much !

scarrylarry
Click to expand...



Make a trip to HD and talk to someone in their electrical dept. They will have 4' fixtures, either with integrated luminaries (like the Costco shop light) or ready for LED tubes, maybe both types. Wouldn't hurt to browse their web site before making the trip.

Cory



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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scarrylarry

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Okay Fellas
Thanks to everyone that took the time to reply to my post ! Went to Home Depot today and bought these fixtures for the garage . Lithonia WrapLite T8 model 3348 2 tube fixtures x 2 for the 20x20 x 8foot high garage . Tubes will be Philips LED T8 2100 lumens 4000K. I will put task lighting above the workbench when it's built .
scarrylarry
 
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Platonic Solid

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So you purchased a fluorescent housing and a ballast compatible LED lamp. If/when the ballast dies you'll either have to replace the ballast or rewire the fixture and replace the lamps. I suppose that may be the closest you can get off-the-shelf at HD to a relampable LED 4ft strip light.
 
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scarrylarry

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Platonic Solid said:
So you purchased a fluorescent housing and a ballast compatible LED lamp. If/when the ballast dies you'll either have to replace the ballast or rewire the fixture and replace the lamps. I suppose that may be the closest you can get off-the-shelf at HD to a relampable LED 4ft strip light.
Click to expand...

Hi Platonic

I think the Home Depots in the USA offer much more in product selection of everything than the ones in Canada. I looked at their other LED 4 foot lamps but they were LED's that had a strip of LED's in them on a circuit type board as opposed to tubes . Not sure how long those hold up . What do you know about that type of lighting ?
scarrylarry
 
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tfi racing

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scarrylarry said:
Hi Platonic

I think the Home Depots in the USA offer much more in product selection of everything than the ones in Canada. I looked at their other LED 4 foot lamps but they were LED's that had a strip of LED's in them on a circuit type board as opposed to tubes . Not sure how long those hold up . What do you know about that type of lighting ?
scarrylarry
Click to expand...

Sadly,not only do we have about 10% of the selection of LED fixtures that our friends to the south do,we also get to pay about 3x the US rate for the same Chinese/Mexican ****.We have installed several million of the Phillips 15W LED T8 lamps in the last couple of years in Canada's largest big box retail chain and are getting good results on a variety of ballasts of different ages,they will do just fine in your garage.
 
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Platonic Solid

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Unfortunately 1000bulbs shipping tends on the high side, plus they often add a handling charge on top of that.
 
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