Replacing Old Lights Looking For Recommendations

[timbyrnes]

Hi,

I am looking to replace the current lights I have in my shop with LED's and I could use some help with how many and what to replace them with.

The shop is 30x40 with a 17ft sloped ceiling. Right now there are 7 8ft T12 fixtures in there with 2 bulbs per fixture.

I've attached a photo of the current setup to give you a better idea.

I was thinking about just getting a bunch of 4FT LED's and linking them but I wanted to get some opinions.

What kind of setup would you guys recommend?

 

[BillK]

Tim,
No recommendations from me but. . . . . make sure to check with your local utility and make sure there are not rebates available for uprading. I am getting ready to swap out the lights in my shop and the rebates are making it ridiculously cheap.

 

[Ben Buck]

Tim, do your 8 ft lights have instant on electronic ballast ?

I have several that do and I replaced the fluorescents with T 8 Led bulbs from Menards. Two pack of bulbs around $24.97 I believe. What a difference these made.

Just my 2 cents, YMMV

 

[timbyrnes]

Tim, do your 8 ft lights have instant on electronic ballast ?

I have several that do and I replaced the fluorescents with T 8 Led bulbs from Menards. Two pack of bulbs around $24.97 I believe. What a difference these made.

Just my 2 cents, YMMV

I believe they are instant on but they are T12's

 

[timbyrnes]

Tim,
No recommendations from me but. . . . . make sure to check with your local utility and make sure there are not rebates available for uprading. I am getting ready to swap out the lights in my shop and the rebates are making it ridiculously cheap.

That's a good idea. I will definitely check on that!

 

[txvwnut]

I just replaced my eight footers with these,
https://primelights.com/shop/items/the-bolt-2-lamp-led-shop-light-5700lumens-pl-blt44wcl

I went one to one and they are just as bright if not brighter than the eight foot fluorescents I had.

 

[Ben Buck]

Tim, the T 8's will work, only difference I know of is the 8's are 1/2 inch less in diameter than the 12's .

Oh well, I tried.

 

[cybrdyke]

I believe they are instant on

The term is "Instant Start", and it will say it on the label.

You need to verify this before you try anything that will use the ballast for power. Dont guess. You can tell me the model number and I'll verify for you.
Most 8' T12's have magnetic ballast, unless they were installed within the last couple of years. This really limits the availability of products you can use.
If you choose to keep the ballast installed, then understand that you'll need to be sure that your new LED tubes are compatible with the ballasts you have.

A better plan would be to just bypass the ballasts. Once you do that, you can either install 8' LED tubes or, with a new socket kit, 4' LED tubes. Either way, you'll notice a vast improvement.

The linkable fixtures you see on ebay and in the discount stores are junk. But...they're cheap.

Good luck,
CD

 

[penright]

My boss used these and he was happy with them.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/ETi-White-LED-Retrofit-Kit-5000K-Bright-White-Daylight-LED-Tubes-with-Sockets-54296168/303435474

The third square down has a video on how to do it.

 

[Dagny]

I think you would be happier with hi bay fixtures 17 ft. is pretty high. I also recommend getting rid of the ballast.

 

[gandyj]

I have a 24 X 31 garage with six 8 ft T-12 fixtures with two bulbs each. When the bulbs started to burn out I decided it was time to upgrade. After researching and spending a considerable amount of time on youtube I decided to upgrade to LED's. It was going to be expensive to change out the fixtures so I found out how to convert my fixtures to LED. I cut the wires to the ballast and left them in place, I didn't see the need to remove them, rewired the fixtures to accept T-8 LED's. It takes just a couple of minutes to rewire the fixtures and the only thing I had to buy was the new bulbs that I found online.