Looking for recommendations. Getting ready to run electric inside my garage and need help on choosing what light, location, and how many. Garage is a 40x72 with 14ft tall eves. I will be doing body work and car work inside. Paint booth will not need lights above it and planning making that 15x27. I can possibly draw my layout if needed. Menards is about 45 minutes from me and would like to buy from there vs amazon, but don't mind buying online if it's a good light.
Shop lights
- Thread starter 70staged
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cvairwerks
Well-known member
You need to draw it all out, in scale. Determine what goes where for benches, cabinets, ect. Now determine what color temp you want for each area and the CRI you need. With all that, you can start searching for fixtures that meet those requirements at the hanging height you desire.
For my shops, I prefer color temps over 5000K and CRI’s greater than 89. Lots of light, and as close to daylight as possible.
For my shops, I prefer color temps over 5000K and CRI’s greater than 89. Lots of light, and as close to daylight as possible.
Innovate1
Well-known member
I think 5000K is too harsh so went with 4000K. That's a personal thing so you can choose what suits you. I have 14' ceiling and went with these:
https://www.prolighting.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=T442SSUBCXX00P0-18W4K
I like the fact that the bulbs can be replaced. No connection to them other than it was recommended by others here and a satisfied customer. They have a discount for members of this forum.
If you are doing painting you may want more light than I have. I did 12 in my 30 x 40 building and think it's fine although some here go for much brighter levels. If I was doing fine detail work I may need to provide some extra light for that but so far it has been great.
https://www.prolighting.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=T442SSUBCXX00P0-18W4K
I like the fact that the bulbs can be replaced. No connection to them other than it was recommended by others here and a satisfied customer. They have a discount for members of this forum.
If you are doing painting you may want more light than I have. I did 12 in my 30 x 40 building and think it's fine although some here go for much brighter levels. If I was doing fine detail work I may need to provide some extra light for that but so far it has been great.
I went with LED ready strip lights. I calculated out 100 lumens per sq ft. The ones I bought are sold out but I would buy these. The bulbs are separate. I bought a few extra boxes of bulbs to have on hand.
www.1000bulbs.com
www.1000bulbs.com
4 ft. LED Ready Strip Light Fixture - Requires (2) LED T8 Bulbs - TCP 88LT800044 | 1000Bulbs.com
Keep your maintenance costs low when you install the TCP 88LT800044 LED strip light fixture in your work area. Find more led ready fixtures at 1000Bulbs.com!
8 ft. LED Ready Strip Fixture - Four Lamp
Upgrade from fluorescent lighting to LED ready fixtures by using the TCP 88LT800046 LED strip light. Find this and more LED strip lights at 1000Bulbs.com!
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ng3689
Well-known member
If you get a LED light (I don't recommend) make sure the tubes/whatevers are replaceable. Nothing is worse than wasting a whole fixture (and diodes) because the driver failed.
I agree on replaceable bulbs. Why don't you recommend LED?
Busted_Knuckles
Well-known member
Not sure Id recommend this, but right now, as a temp solution in my shop, I have replaced the old 300w incandescents with really big " corn cob " Leds, its really bright in the shop. It could be a solution for someone, and I guess the beauty of it, would be just replacing the corn cob bulbs when they fail ( in lieu of changing a fixture ). I did have to get base adapters for the corn cobs ( they are meant for a larger base ).
I just bought 37 new Lithonia LED 4' commercial surface lights, likely meant for a store, or office or something nice. They sell for near $400 a fixture, I got a SMOKIN deal on them, or Id never bought anything that nice. This winter my pole barn is getting a ceiling, so Ive been getting prepared for that project.
I was planning on using the 4' retro-ish LED " shop light " that they used to sell at Costco for $20, until they went missing in and around the supply chain shortage. I have likely 10 of those units, burning around the basement shop/office and in the shop and they seem to last years, but Ive not seen them in a couple years now, they where the FEIT brand.
I just bought 37 new Lithonia LED 4' commercial surface lights, likely meant for a store, or office or something nice. They sell for near $400 a fixture, I got a SMOKIN deal on them, or Id never bought anything that nice. This winter my pole barn is getting a ceiling, so Ive been getting prepared for that project.
I was planning on using the 4' retro-ish LED " shop light " that they used to sell at Costco for $20, until they went missing in and around the supply chain shortage. I have likely 10 of those units, burning around the basement shop/office and in the shop and they seem to last years, but Ive not seen them in a couple years now, they where the FEIT brand.
racecougar
Well-known member
Particularly with your planned building usage in mind, I'll recommend more lights at lower output per light rather than less lights with higher output per light. This will reduce hot spots and shadows, which makes a real difference when you're trying to get a panel flat.
I went with the older style Barrina LED fixtures in three of my buildings. I have 68 fixtures up, some for almost four years now, with zero failures.
I went with the older style Barrina LED fixtures in three of my buildings. I have 68 fixtures up, some for almost four years now, with zero failures.
ng3689
Well-known member
Okay lemme change that up a bit, I don't recommend most LED (cus it's **** and fails) and older fluorescent is much better (though it's harder to find; GE lamps are decent). So if want easy then go LED, if you want longer lasting, go older fluro (though high quality LED is a good tradeoff (I don't know what LEDs are high quality and which ones aren't since I don't use them))
We had a bunch of fluorescent bulbs and ballasts go out in our garage at work. I have the opposite experience with LED. The good ones seem far more reliable and don't need a ballast. I hate the throw away products and used fluorescent style strip lights wired for single ended bulbs, without ballasts. About $15 each as linked above.
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Innovate1
Well-known member
Buy decent quality LED bulbs and use fixtures with sockets so they can be replaced and you should be good. I had a few "no name" LED bulbs fail very quickly early in the availability of LED bulbs for 120V and some that didn't last the warrantied 10 years from a reputable source but more recently I have had very good luck. Haven't had any of the LED replacement tubes fail and some have been in for years. But I try to go for well known brands and not buy the cheapest junk available although it's not premium stuff either.
You guys are luckier than me? Every set of LED's I have installed in my shop and house have had one or more failures. I now keep driver boards in stock so I don't have throw out the light and just replace the board. This is huge problem that never is talked about. You can see this by the massive amount of driver boards being sold. Alibaba is full of them!
Even bigger problem is the lights change so you can't ever find an exact replacement. Just went thru this in the kitchen with the under cabinet puck lighting. Got a set of 8 LED pucks installed and in 8 months 2 of them failed and no spare parts are available. Had to replace the entire set because no way to buy what I had as it has all changed again.
So they are not lifetime at all.
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Even bigger problem is the lights change so you can't ever find an exact replacement. Just went thru this in the kitchen with the under cabinet puck lighting. Got a set of 8 LED pucks installed and in 8 months 2 of them failed and no spare parts are available. Had to replace the entire set because no way to buy what I had as it has all changed again.
So they are not lifetime at all.
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I don't expect anything electronic to be lifetime. I built my house and shop and used traditional type sockets. I have no external drivers. Mostly I have recess cans and LED BR40 bulbs. I haven't had any burn out in 5 years. The shop is new, so no history on longevity of the LED fluorescent style bulbs. I did buy a case of extra bulbs. My bother made a living changing ballasts for awhile when they were popular, so I cant imagine LED being worse.
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ng3689
Well-known member
I personally don't really care about ballasts failing since I've never had a ballast fail. Preheat ballasts seem to last forever since their coils of wire though the starter does go bad eventually. I've seen LEDs fail in all ways, just today I saw a shop with ~10% of the LEDs failing, I've seen them turn purple like streetlights, I've seen them turn green like gas station lights (LED streetlights will eventually turn that color if the drivers don't fail first or the phosphors fall off) and I've seen countless driver failures that result in strobing (luckily only one on the road).
In either case I'm sure there is good and junk. Growing up dad had almost every ballast fail in time, got frustrated and put up a bunch keyless fixtures with the coiled fluorescent bulbs. They actually worked quite well. As I mentioned we had tons of ballasts fail at work, flickering bulbs, ect. Like 50% of them. I don't know enough about fluorescent to know what's good or bad.
ng3689
Well-known member
Yup there's the common **** version of everything and the higher quality versions. I had a 13w pl desklamp from 2005 and one of the plastic holdings of the screws broke essentially screwing up the fixture and I recently got a 1950's Stocker and Yale desklamp (I believe it was intended for the military) and it works like a charm (though the 1940's version is slightly better).
Back at my old house there were two 2x f40t12 tandem strips in the garage. One was running Sylvania lamps and ran flawlessly (except for a few instances where it wouldn't start but it worked soon after) meanwhile the other fixture had to get multiple relampings over the years.
Back at my old house there were two 2x f40t12 tandem strips in the garage. One was running Sylvania lamps and ran flawlessly (except for a few instances where it wouldn't start but it worked soon after) meanwhile the other fixture had to get multiple relampings over the years.
White Shadow
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2014
- Messages
- 985
When my house was built 6 years ago, I put LED bulbs in every light fixture in the house. That includes a bunch of 4' LED shop lights surface mounted to my garage ceiling (12 of them). It also includes all the outdoor lighting and the landscape lighting. So basically, every single light in my house is an LED with the possible exception of the light in the refrigerator/freezer and the ovens. And you know what? Not one of them has failed yet. Am I lucky? Maybe. I can tell you that the outdoor lights and landscape lighting is on every night from dusk to dawn. It's all still working fine.
FWIW, every LED bulb I purchased for my house is Sylvania, but I do also have two Cree smart bulbs that I use in lamps. Got those for free and they are also still working just fine. One of them is in a Family Room lamp and gets used at least a few hours every night.
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BD55
Well-known member
I bought 6 of these but haven't installed them yet in my 14x20 shop. I also have three banks of 4 T8 Hyperikon tubes in one bay of my 2 car garage that delete the ballast and I love them. Instant on in hot or cold and really great quality light. I'm hoping the Prolighting tubes are as good as or better than the Hyperikon tubes.
I bought 6 of these but haven't installed them yet in my 14x20 shop. I also have three banks of 4 T8 Hyperikon tubes in one bay of my 2 car garage that delete the ballast and I love them. Instant on in hot or cold and really great quality light. I'm hoping the Prolighting tubes are as good as or better than the Hyperikon tubes.
Is that different than an LED ready strip light and just buying whatever bulbs you want?
BD55
Well-known member
Not really, but they do have quick connects (which others probably do as well). These came recommended from this forum and looked good.
I think TechBrite makes the only 3 bulb LED ready light, so the price point is about the same buying it ready to go vs bulbs separate. I bought a 2 bulb housing from TechBrite and didnt find the quality better than cheaper options. The 2 bulb housing was made in the US, which I assume is why it was much more expensive than Chinese alternatives. I bought 20 Chinese alternatives
