LED Bulbs for Fluorescent Lights?

[BadDog]

Let us know how it works out over time. I've been considering this myself for some replacements, but have been reluctant to pull the trigger after some of the less than stellar feedback I've seen. Most seems to be great, but there's enough bad to make me cautious.

Also, what heat rating? I absolutely do not like the "cool white" that most seem to be selling. And the notorious bluish cast of the cheaper white LEDs seems to be resolving itself. But I really like the "Daylight" 5000K+ bulbs for most stuff including kitchen, shop, and most anywhere where there is work that needs visibility and is not a location primarily for relaxing. Getting those in LEDs proves a bit more problematic, but I did order some 5000K LED incandescent socket replacements for my shop work lights (on machines) recently, looking forward to trying them.

[SteveHGraham]

We're talking about China here, so caveat emptor. The bulbs I bought are rated "5000-5500K."

The color is really nice. Extremely sharp. Not unpleasant at all. Much, much nicer than the gloomy pink of the old tubes. I thought the old ones were cheery and bright, but these are on another level. You just feel better in this light.

They consume 20W each. How much of that is heat, I could not tell you. They feel much cooler than fluorescents.

Now let's hope I'm not bombarding myself with gamma rays or something else that slipped by Shanghai QC.

I don't know if I would want these boogers right over my head. Thirteen feet up, they are very pleasant.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IMQ ... ge_o01_s00

[hammermill]

steve i would like a report on you depth percetion/ hand eye cordination after a couple months working with these.

[Rex]

I bought some 8-ft tubes from a local importer to try on one fixture. WOW! That one pair of bulb lit up the whole 30x25 shop area! Since then I've bought a dozen more, plus some 4-ft tubes. All are double-row - two rows of diodes. 8-ft cost $28 each, 4-ft were $14 each. No more flourescents for me.

[SteveHGraham]

What if I didn't have those things to begin with?

steve i would like a report on you depth percetion/ hand eye cordination after a couple months working with these.

[Rex]

I can't answer for Steve, but my detail working area is directly under my LED tubes. There is a small amount of fill lighting from lower-temp incandescent and CFL spots over the bench behind me.
Yesterday I spent several hours working on a wiring harness for a small scooter - cutting, untangling, stripping, cleaning, soldering, insulating etc. I also worked on the carburetor, using pin gauges to compare OE jet and orifice sizes to those of an aftermarket replacement. I think depth perception and hand-eye coordination were essential to those tasks. I had no issues with either.
However, I do think some amount of lower temperature incandescent or similar lighting helps to mitigate the harsh blue-white of the LEDs. The same could be set about use of HO flourescents too. I have some halogen tak lights that suit this purpose, as well as providing heat during the cold months.

[Mid Day Machining]

I bought 4 2 tube LED fixtures at Costco and put them in my garage. I don't think I could get more light if I opened up the roof and let the sun shin in. AND, there's no shadows.

[hammermill]

Where I am conning from is many folks have trouble seeing detail with the led lights with narrow color frequency.

Mixing some other temps/ broad spectrum lamps help greatly with fine detail depth perception

After cataract surgery I got a bold lesson on the mental process we call sight.know I understand 50years ago I would be. Blind.

So that is my question how well do you see detail with led only light? Now that you have I installed them

[NP317]

The COSTCO "LEIT" brand LED twin-tube light fixtures work well and are BRIGHT! Cost is ~$38 per twin-tube fixture.
I installed 12 fixtures in my new 24' x 52' garage/shop, and will add four more over the machine shop end.
It feels brighter inside than outside! The attached picture shows the machine shop end of the building, without the four additional fixtures installed.
So far I find no issues with eye fatigue or focus, other than my normal ones (age related).

I also installed four of the new COSTCO "LEIT" brand LED tube-only replacements in existing 4' fluorescent fixtures, and they are also BRIGHT!! I recommend them. Cost ~$36 per pair of tubes.
~RN

[SteveHGraham]

If we're going to discuss problems with LED lights, it's important to mention the temperature. My lights are nominally 5000-5500K.

I love these things.

[reggie_obe]

Where I am conning from is many folks have trouble seeing detail with the led lights with narrow color frequency.

Mixing some other temps/ broad spectrum lamps help greatly with fine detail depth perception

After cataract surgery I got a bold lesson on the mental process we call sight.know I understand 50years ago I would be. Blind.

So that is my question how well do you see detail with led only light? Now that you have I installed them

All of the mass produced LEDs suffer from this, lots of green in the output spectrum and deficient in other areas. They all have a poor CRI, usually less than 90.

[SteveHGraham]

I had no idea what "CRI" meant, so I looked it up. Turns out it's not important unless you run an art gallery.

Good old Wikipedia says CRI ("color rendering index") is "a quantitative measure of its ability to reproduce the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source."

Apparently, LEDs typically score below 90, but the crappy bulbs they compete with (fluorescents) score around 60, so you may very well get a much better score by switching. I wonder if CRI is why human beings look like fish filets under fluorescent light.

Also, CRI scores may not mean much when it comes to what you actually see. Wikipedia continues: "However, CRI is a poor indicator of the perception of light produced by LEDs, and scores as low as 25 can produce vivid-appearing white light, while high-scoring sources can still be very poor at rendering reds, including skin tones."

I can't tell you how well I see detail with LED lights because I use reading glasses. In other words, I cheat regardless of the light source. I almost always use additional light when I'm trying to see little things.

I can tell you this: the fluorescents were hopeless in this regard, because they were much dimmer.