The Best Light Fixture Ever!

[isuhunter]

My ceiling is 9’ 4”. Garage is 21 x24 and I’m thinking 9 lights oriented east west in the garage like post #15.

Now go figure out my circuitry and future needs with a crowded breaker box.

Thanks for helping Platonic!


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[flynnr]

Don’t have time to search, but I had PS draw me up a plan using the max lite LSS2XT8USE4803.

I have my pre lighting / electrical walkthrough this morning for the new house and was planning on ordering them after talking over things with the electrician and builder about them. I have all of the data sheets printed off and my lighting plan to give them.

Anyways, my question is this: where should the electrician leave the wiring for these? Do they get wired in on one of the ends or the center or what? Or, if the wires need to be fed through the center but then be wired over to one of the sides of sockets I will need to know that so they can leave enough wire.

 

[Platonic Solid]

flynnr - How you run power to it is up to you. Maybe this will help - See pictorial review of the Maxlite housing in this thread (link).

 

[flynnr]

Thanks!

Looks like lightup.com are out of stock until June 1st for the 5000k... I’ll likely just wait to order until then unless 4000k is the way to go?

 

[Platonic Solid]

flynnr - Either 4000K or 5000K will work fine for your layout.

 

[8mpg]

What are you guys using for electrical boxes for the high bays and the maxlite setups?

 

[8mpg]

I got my nine 80 watt lumegen fixtures installed today. I can believe how much they light up my garage. I am very impressed and very surprised. Thanks a ton to the few people that talked me into these. It was so nice only having to wire 9 fixtures. I have a good video that shows how much light they provide but I don’t think I can upload a video from a mobile device to here.

do these lights come with the plug or did you add it?

 

[Platonic Solid]

8mpg - They are intended to be hardwired. If you want a plug-in cordset, you'll have to add that.

 

[8mpg]

8mpg - They are intended to be hardwired. If you want a plug-in cordset, you'll have to add that.

Thank you sir. I'll hardwire them

 

[whitemamba]

In the provided link to the lighting program in this thread which option I can't figure out which IBH to select for the listed best deal high bay light. https://greenlightdepot.com/collect...0w-with-lens-and-w-o-lens?variant=36041819012

 

[Platonic Solid]

whitemamba - IBH 18000LM SD080 MD OZ10 30K 80CRI is a good representative of lumen output and distribution pattern.

 

[whitemamba]

whitemamba - IBH 18000LM SD080 MD OZ10 30K 80CRI is a good representative of lumen output and distribution pattern.

Thank you much.

 

[Wallyman]

So a slight variation challenge. I've got my existing shop setup (shop is roughly 29 x 46 x 9.5) with (9) dual tube T12 96"HO cold starts. Lighting layout was modeled by some EE coworkers at the time, I think I achieved 100fc @ 36" with what I have. But I'd like to move away from the power hungry T12's and convert to LED (and increase fc a bit if possible?), but most options listed and talked about are 4'. Is there a good 8' LED bulb option that would allow me to keep my fixtures and just bypass the ballast? Single pin, 120v dual tube fixtures. I'd rather not lose the $500 investment in fixtures if I can avoid it.

Anyone have experience retofitting 96" LED bulbs?

 

[Platonic Solid]

Wallyman - https://www.prolighting.com/commercial-lighting/retrofitkits/t8retrofits/r844t8u.html

 

[Wallyman]

Wallyman - https://www.prolighting.com/commercial-lighting/retrofitkits/t8retrofits/r844t8u.html

Thanks Platonic, but I meant the lamps.

The fixtures already have the T8 single pin sockets, wouldn't I just need to bypass the ballast and wire them directly? Or do I need new sockets as well? I don't recall how those are setup, it's been 4-5 years since I installed them, but I thought I could just wire them as needed without a ballast..

 

[Platonic Solid]

Wallyman - You can do that also, but might find it more cost effective to convert to 4ft lamps. There are 8ft LED bypass lamps out there - here's one example.

 

[Wallyman]

Wallyman - You can do that also, but might find it more cost effective to convert to 4ft lamps. There are 8ft LED bypass lamps out there - here's one example.

That's what I'm trying to sort out.. on the surface it seems like it should be cheaper to retro 8' lamps. But... maybe not...?

Ignoring my 4' shoplights for now and using that 8' lamp (5k color, 3800 lm, 36w, .95 pf) in a 12 pack:

18 lamps = 2x12 = $700
3800 lm each, 68400 lm total

4' replacements

36 lamps = $273
90720 lm
18 fixtures = $278
Grand Total $551

I did find another option (which I know nothing about) here that's 5K color, 5500lm, 43W, >90 pf. $21.25 each in 10 packs, so:

18 lamps = 2x10 = $425
5500 lm each, 99000 lm total

So that works. Cheaper, and more light than 4' (on paper), and I think equal to what I have (I thought my HO's were roughly 10K lm per fixture if memory serves).

Again, "on paper", it looks like those would work (even with a potentially lower pf).. what am I missing?

 

[Platonic Solid]

Remove "18 fixtures = $278", add $8 retrofit kit from post 1454 x 9 = $72
Grand Total $273 + $72 = $345. 4ft wins price war.

No reason to buy or install new fixtures regardless of bulb chosen.

8ft FA8 style lamps do have the advantage of being able to turn to change the beam direction, which is kinda cool.

 

[Wallyman]

Remove "18 fixtures = $278", add $8 retrofit kit from post 1454 x 9 = $72
Grand Total $273 + $72 = $345. 4ft wins price war.

No reason to buy or install new fixtures regardless of bulb chosen.

8ft FA8 style lamps do have the advantage of being able to turn to change the beam direction, which is kinda cool.

Ok, NOW that makes sense to me.. Weekend cooked my brain apparently and I didn't connect the dots.

So my options for an 18 fixture retrofit:

$346 ($273 + $72) for 90720 lm, 648w @ >.99 pf (140lm/w) (Greentek Energy Systems GT-T8-18W1200 BIXX)
$360 ($288 + $72) for 95040 lm, 792w @ >.90 pf (120lm/w) (Lumegen LG-4T8-22WBB-SM)
$407 ($335 + $72) for 95904 lm, 648w @ >.90 pf (148lm/w) (GLLUSA GL07103-3M)
$447 ($375 + $72) for 108000 lm, 792w @ >.95 pf (136lm/w) (WEN-T8-4FT-22WC5000K) Is this the replacement for the out of stock 2400lm bulb?
or
$425 for 99000 lm, 774w, @ >90pf (127lm/w), but replacement 8' bulbs are $21

Aside from pure lm output, it's pretty much win-win. Of those choices, the GLL lamps would be best fit for me still under the 8' price and near the same lm output bt with cheaper long term maintenance if bulbs fail.. Thanks for leading this horse to water.

If I can manage it, I'll grab the light meter from the EE's at the office and try to do a before/after lm check as I am curious the results. Those lamps have been up there for roughly 5 years so I'm sure I am not getting the light output I once had anyhow.

 

[whitemamba]

In the provided link to the lighting program in this thread which option I can't figure out which IBH to select for the listed best deal high bay light. https://greenlightdepot.com/collect...0w-with-lens-and-w-o-lens?variant=36041819012

With Coupon code green5 these lights are down to $79.16 each, just ordered 21 free shipping still applies over $99

 

[cory58]

Finally finished interior lights!

Milestone! I finished hanging the inside lights in my garage yesterday. Many thanks to Platonic Solid, cybrdyke and others who have been patient with my questions and provided so much great info. Here are a few pictures.

First picture taken from left front corner of garage.
Finish lights 1 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Second and third picture taken from left rear corner of garage.
Finish lights 2 by cory58f5, on Flickr
finish lights 3 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Here are the details:

Maxlite strip fixtures with GLT tubes (5000k) from Bee's Lighting down the sides. They are approximately 11' high, 2.5' from the outer wall and 4' apart.

There will eventually be a small room built out in the left rear corner, which is why there are no strip lights there.

Diva Light 110W High Bay Fixtures (5000k) from Bee's Lighting down the center. They are 14.5' high and 12' apart.

So far I'm very happy with the amount of light. I have not fully moved into the garage yet and plan to use it for street/race car maintenance and light fabrication, so I'll have to report back again after using it for a while. I downloaded the free Light Meter app for iPhone to check the lumens, but it doesn't seem to be working right (between 25 and 35 lumens regardless, even when I'm up on the lift holding the phone right under one of the high bays).

Now on to the next step: Mounting the exterior goose neck lights recommended by devildog1205.

Cory

 

[benchracer1]

I am just getting ready to light my new shop. I've gone through this thread but am a bit confused or everwhemed. I understand this thread isn't about layout. What I need is someone to recommend a 4 foot led strip light for my proposed layout. Eventually the office will have its own lighting and the mezzanine will be lit underneath. Right now I am concerned about the main shop. The lights will be mounted on the purlins. I've looked at diva lights at bee lighting and such. I'm not against buying fixtures bulbs and ballast seperately and putting my own together if it is cost effective. My budget is limited but i gotta do what i gotta do. Once again I'll be working off pure recommendation. Ballast factor, lumens and such have got me confused. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. .....Steve

 

[benchracer1]

If anyone sees anything theyd change fell free to tell me

 

[Platonic Solid]

benchracer1 - take a look at this thread (link).

 

[FTG-05]

Re: Finally finished interior lights!

Milestone! I finished hanging the inside lights in my garage yesterday. Many thanks to Platonic Solid, cybrdyke and others who have been patient with my questions and provided so much great info. Here are a few pictures.

First picture taken from left front corner of garage.
Finish lights 1 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Second and third picture taken from left rear corner of garage.
Finish lights 2 by cory58f5, on Flickr
finish lights 3 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Here are the details:

Maxlite strip fixtures with GLT tubes (5000k) from Bee's Lighting down the sides. They are approximately 11' high, 2.5' from the outer wall and 4' apart.

There will eventually be a small room built out in the left rear corner, which is why there are no strip lights there.

Diva Light 110W High Bay Fixtures (5000k) from Bee's Lighting down the center. They are 14.5' high and 12' apart.

So far I'm very happy with the amount of light. I have not fully moved into the garage yet and plan to use it for street/race car maintenance and light fabrication, so I'll have to report back again after using it for a while. I downloaded the free Light Meter app for iPhone to check the lumens, but it doesn't seem to be working right (between 25 and 35 lumens regardless, even when I'm up on the lift holding the phone right under one of the high bays).

Now on to the next step: Mounting the exterior goose neck lights recommended by devildog1205.

Cory

Looks good!

I wonder why the side lights are mounted perpendicular to the was vs. parallel to it. I've never seen it done that way. Any particular reason?

 

[hemiallen]

Re: Finally finished interior lights!

Milestone! I finished hanging the inside lights in my garage yesterday. Many thanks to Platonic Solid, cybrdyke and others who have been patient with my questions and provided so much great info. Here are a few pictures.

First picture taken from left front corner of garage.
Finish lights 1 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Second and third picture taken from left rear corner of garage.
Finish lights 2 by cory58f5, on Flickr
finish lights 3 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Here are the details:

Maxlite strip fixtures with GLT tubes (5000k) from Bee's Lighting down the sides. They are approximately 11' high, 2.5' from the outer wall and 4' apart.

There will eventually be a small room built out in the left rear corner, which is why there are no strip lights there.

Diva Light 110W High Bay Fixtures (5000k) from Bee's Lighting down the center. They are 14.5' high and 12' apart.


Cory

Looks great

What is the size of your shop and door height/ wall heights?

And what year is the Challenger

I have a 70-440 Cuda and 74-360 Challenger, sold my 57 Hemi car And Mondello Built 392 pushing a V-drive boat for the Cuda.

Allen

 

[Platonic Solid]

cory58 - Looks good. I don’t expect it to make a big difference, but I would have put the 4ft strip lights parallel to the wall.

 

[benchracer1]

Thanks platonic, looking at the layout for jb garage on that thread it appears that you have a much simpler layout than I had proposed. Would I be ok rearranging my lights similar to that and using 4 foot strip lights producing 16500 lumens?

 

[Platonic Solid]

benchracer1 - 4ft strip lights are the wrong fixture for your 16' plus mounting height areas. There's much more to this than just lumen output. The 16,400 lumen GreenTek is only $85. At your height strip lights will be more expensive.

 

[Werner1111]

Thank you Platonic Solid for this thread! I bought the GLL 48" 18W LED T8s from PRO Lighting. They were plug and play and I'm really happy with the results. Lots of lumens for only 18W. I have them in a 4-bulb fixture, so I'm getting over 10,000 lumens for 72W. It feels like I'm cheating somehow. I used the GarageJournal 7% discount, too. Thanks for that!

 

[benchracer1]

thanx platonic. I think Ill go with your recomendation. In my ignorance I thought that those were refered to as strip lights. It looks to me that something similar to jb garages setup will work for mine as well. Would you go with the 2ft. or 4ft version? while i want plenty of light i dont want to look like the luxor hotel in vegas.....steve

 

[Platonic Solid]

benchracer1 - The $85 (link) 16,400 lumen GreenTek is 2ft.

 

[cory58]

Re: Finally finished interior lights!

Finish lights 2 by cory58f5, on Flickr

Cory

Thanks for the kind comments. I'll try to answer the questions.

Garage dimensions: 30w x 50d, side walls are 13', roof pitch is 4:12
Roll-up doors: 12 x 12

When planning the light layout, I read the entire Layout Collection sticky and formed my plan from layouts provided by PS. I asked a question in that thread back in 2016 about distance of the outer light rows from the walls. I ultimately decided to mount the lights perpendicular to the outer walls because I could not come up with a distance from the walls for parallel mounting that would not potentially create shadows when either working on cars or working at benches/equipment along the walls. No idea whether my concern was valid or not, but I like the result.

The Challenger is a '73. It belongs to a fellow car-addicted buddy who's moving back to Charlotte and needed a place to store one of his cars while building his dream garage. My current "collection" consists of three older Bimmers: E30 cabrio, E30 Touring (both in the picture) and an E12. I have a feeling the collection will grow once the garage is finished....

Thanks again for all the great information and responses as I've gone through this adventure for the past 2.5 years. Still plenty left to do, so I'm sure I'll be asking many more questions.

Cory

 

[Zaks]

Great info here. Ordered some maxlite fixtures and GLL bulbs from Prolighting and about to order some more soon.

 

[fourjeepin]

I bought 16 bulbs today as I have started loosing ballasts in my cheapo 2 light wraps. They have been up for a little over 6 years. Anyway, thanks Platonic for the great info. I bought the below bulbs but was unable to get the discount code to work.

Greentek Energy Systems GT-T8-18W1200 BIXX(5000K)(3000K) 48" 18W LED T8
2520 Lumens per bulb, 120° Beam Angle

 

[fourjeepin]

I bought 16 bulbs today as I have started loosing ballasts in my cheapo 2 light wraps. They have been up for a little over 6 years. Anyway, thanks Platonic for the great info. I bought the below bulbs but was unable to get the discount code to work.

Greentek Energy Systems GT-T8-18W1200 BIXX(5000K) 48" 18W LED T8 2520 Lumens per bulb, 120° Beam Angle

Got one installed tonight. Very, very happy. Almost half the wattage of my old T8s and much better light.

 

[sierradmax]

I must say I'm glad I found this site and this post. After completing my 30x30 with LED tubes, I took it upon myself to retrofit my 14,000 s.f. commercial building.

My building consists of 10,000 s.f. of manufacturing floor space and 4,000 s.f. of office. 33 T5 fluorescent 6-bulb high bay fixtures lit the manufacturing area and 34 T8 fluorescent 3-bulb parabolic fixtures lit the office. Even with florescent, my building was consuming 93 AMPS just for lighting. At $0.21/KWH, we are averaging $450 on lighting spent out of our average $700/mo. electric bill. Not to mention, we were constantly replacing bulbs & ballasts.

With commercial energy incentive programs, I wrote a letter to our electric company and we were approved for an incentive amount of $2,200.

Maxlite has ballast bypass kits that fit my T5 fixtures.
https://www.maxlite.com/products/led-linear-t5-internal-driver/G5KIT6
They also have T8 kits for the office fixtures.
https://www.maxlite.com/products/led-linear-t8-internal-driver/G13KIT3
We went with T5 single end powered 5000K Glass LED tubes w/ 10 year warranty for the shop and T8 Single end powered 4500K Glass LED tubes w/ 10 year warranty in of the office area.

Retrofit material cost, including bulbs is just under $4,000. Net investment, after incentive rebates came to $1,800.

My lighting circuits now draw 52 AMPS, average lighting output increased throughout my building by 10 foot-candles and I figure my ROI payback period will be less than 10 months.

 

[nsula_country]

sierramax,

That is an awesome success story. LED makes sense in an environment with 10-24 hr burn time.

At work Facilities has been replacing 2x4 and 2x2 fluorescent troffers with Edge Lit LED panels in the office areas.

We have about 480,000 sq/ft of manufacturing floor space here. 2011 the plant replaced about 1200, 400 watt HPS with 4 lamp T5 high bays. I have been hearing talk of replacing the 4 lamp T5's with LED. The T5's are approaching relamp time and several only have 1 ballast working.

CT

 

[sierradmax]

sierramax,

That is an awesome success story. LED makes sense in an environment with 10-24 hr burn time.

At work Facilities has been replacing 2x4 and 2x2 fluorescent troffers with Edge Lit LED panels in the office areas.

We have about 480,000 sq/ft of manufacturing floor space here. 2011 the plant replaced about 1200, 400 watt HPS with 4 lamp T5 high bays. I have been hearing talk of replacing the 4 lamp T5's with LED. The T5's are approaching relamp time and several only have 1 ballast working.

CT

We opted to retrofit the fixtures with tubes in lieu of entire fixture replacement because the new fixture, with incentive rebate would still cost us $225 each fixture. In addition, most have internal diode strips. If one goes out past the 5 year warranty period, the entire fixture will have to be replaced. With our setup, all we have to do is replace a single tube.

 

[bullnerd]

Somewhere in this thread (I think its this one, or is there a Sams thread?) I mentioned that I used the 4' LED lights from Sams club in my basement.

I don't remember the date, but its been less than a year.

Two of the 5 or 6 units have stopped working so far. One a while back and one yesterday. They work great, are easy to hand and seem well made besides the two failures.