LED Shop Lighting

[warmstrong1955]

I've been having more & more of my fluorescent lights bite the dust, both 4' and 8'. Some by bad tubes, others by bad ballasts. So, I decided to repair with LED tubes, which also eliminates the ballasts.
Some data, I did a little measuring, for those interested:

4' (2) tube fluorescent light fixture, tubes rated @ 40 watts each) measured: 50 watts (25 watts per tube), 215 LUX.
4' (2) tube converted to 18 watt rated LED tubes measured: 28 watts (14 watts per tube) 301 LUX

8' (2) tube High Output fluorescent light fixture, (tubes rated @ 110 watts each) measured: 220 watts (110 watts per tube) 398 LUX
8' (2) tube converted to 36 watt rated LED tubes measured: 60 watts (30 watts each) 462 LUX Note: I did not go with the high output 8' LED tubes, but rather installed new tombstones for single pin LED tubes. I didn't like the reviews of the high output ones.

All tubes mfg by Hyperikon. US Company selling (probably) import LED's. No mfg origin on the tubes or info that came with them.
LUX measured at night, and with only the light being measured turned on. Light is cumulitive, and if I flip on another light next to the one being measured, the LUX goes above 500.

Impressive lights! No more ballasts, and humming, and a substantial power savings.
Now.... if they last as long as they say.....


Bill

[NP317]

Welcome to a brighter world.
I built my shop 2+ years ago with all-LED tube lighting. Excellent in actual use.
~RN

[John Hasler]

LEDs don't burn out at end of life like incandescents and flourescents (unless they are defective). Their output decays along an exponential curve that reaches zero at infinity. "End of life" is defined as the output dropping to some specified fraction of rated output. Thus initial output is always above rated output. The rate of decay depends primarily on how hot the LEDs themselves get. This depends primarliy on the size and effectiveness of the heatsinks. Heatsinks cost money, take up space, and have little effect on initial output. I think you can see where this leads with low price LEDS.

LEDs are great for unheated spaces such as the barn I feed my horses in, though. CFLs don't work at all well at low temperatures while the LEDs actually work better. Since the lights are only on for a an hour or so a day I can get away with using cheap LEDs.

[warmstrong1955]

Perhaps that is why the LED replacements for the high output 8-footers are not rated well. Too much heat, and they decay faster? I was wondering.....
The ones I got, not the cheapest available, not the most expensive either, and if they were any brighter, I'd need sunglasses!


Bill

[SteveHGraham]

I replaced the neandertubes in my old garage with cheap LED's from China. I bypassed the ballasts and threw them out. The LED's were much brighter than the fluorescents when I installed them, and they were much brighter when I moved out of the house almost 2 years later. If the intensity decayed, it was not enough to notice, and they were still much brighter than the old tubes. Total power: 120 watts. The LED's are completely reliable, they turn on instantly, and unlike the old tubes, you don't have to climb on a ladder every 6 months to replace them. No hum, as warmstrong says.

Someone tried to tell me I wouldn't be able to distinguish colors under LED's. Never happened. And the light quality from fluorescents has always been bad, so it would be hard to do worse. You can always find an Internet expert who will tell you what you want to do is impossible, even after you've done it.

Fluorescents are inferior to LED's. It has been quite a while since we passed the point at which LED's should have become the default option. I saved myself a ton of work and improved the shop immensely.

My new home has a shop with LED's already installed. Sweet! Now I need to put them in the bathrooms and overhead fixtures. I have a number of worthless squiggly Gore bulbs that have gone out since I moved here in August. I hate those things. They take two minutes to turn on. By the time they start to work, you're ready to leave the room, and they only last a short time, contrary to what the global warming hysterics say. I wonder how much mercury I've put in landfills, throwing out extinct snowflake bulbs.

I thought I needed to stock up on incandescent bulbs, but LED's keep getting better and cheaper, so I'm a convert.

[earlgo]

I got a couple of 4' double tube lights from Costco to replace fluorescent lights in the laundry room and garage. Both work well. However the one in the unheated garage doesn't flicker in cold weather: a decided plus. The fluorescent 4' work light flickered badly until it warmed up.
--earlgo

[John Hasler]

SteveGraham writes:

> I replaced the neandertubes in my old garage with cheap LED's from China. I bypassed the ballasts and threw them out.
> The LED's were much brighter than the fluorescents when I installed them, and they were much brighter when I moved
> out of the house almost 2 years later. If the intensity decayed, it was not enough to notice, and they were still much
> brighter than the old tubes.

How many hours a day did you run them? I'm putting the cheapest LEDs I can get in the barn: they'll last forever there. I'll put high quality ones in the office, though: those are on 12 hours a day. It's probably also better to use a larger number of lower wattage lamps. Running dimmable LEDs at 3/4 rated voltage should approximately double their lifetimes.

[SteveHGraham]

I don't know how many hours I put on the tubes, but I spent a lot of time there.

[warmstrong1955]

Since I bought a LUX meter, just cause I like to measure things and put a number on 'em, I will take a re-measure next year, and see what, if any, degradation is happening to the LED's.
I can tell ya what degradation is happening to the fluorescents....and I'm tired of forkin' out 38 bucks for ballasts. Part of their demise, I am told, is starting & shutting off. I also don't much care for Nevada Energy....for good reasons which I will spare.....
The two shop lights I changed to LED first, are the ones that I use the most, so those two would be a good indicator. I shuffled around a couple ballasts to other ones that bit the dust to put the LED's where I use them the most. (I had a rash of failures of late) One is a 8', and the other a 4'. I have pull switches on all, so I light up only what I need to, but those two...on most of the day.

Agreed with Steve. I think we are down to 3 or 4 of those pigtail-algore bulbs left. Hate 'em. No more of those. Brand name LED bulb prices are dropping, and that's what I have been buying for a while. Only LED bulbs that have failed in 4 years, were bad out of the box, and not name brand, and I returned those for replacement. (Thank you Amazonians)


Bill

[John Hasler]

I've had little trouble with ballasts, perhaps because my fixtures are mostly salvaged commercial ones. The lamps are pitiful in the cold, though. Even the ones in the arena in the fixtures with low-temperature outdoor ballasts are feeble when it's down near zero.

I've been cautious about LEDs because CFLs never lived up to their published specifications, let alone the hype. In my experience they have only recently improved to the point where they roughy equal the lifetimes of incandescents (and they still don't work in the cold).

[Inspector]

If you already have fluorescent lights getting LED conversion bulbs makes a lot of sense. If building new then LED fixtures are the way to go. I needed 22 for my garage and woodworking shop and bought direct from China as most are made there anyway. Saved at least half over buying locally. I would do the same if I needed lots of the conversion bulbs. Needless to say I'm happy with mine.

[warmstrong1955]

When we bought this place, the then garage had two 60 watt incandescents. When I started adding lights and building benches....T12's were the thing still. I kind of added a light here...a light there.... I installed a built in solvent sink and pump....so I added a 4' light. Put in a kitchen sink....another 4' light. A bit of a hodge podge of lights.
The fixtures I've done are easy enough to convert, even the $10.00 cheapies from Walmart. (Lights of America brand) I had to take the one I did down to rewire it, as the ballasts are built into both ends in the plastic housings, and you have to pry them apart, carefully, to remove them. The industrial 8 footers are a piece of cake.

So now I'm trying to change the more 'important' lights to LED, but keep some of the old T12's, so I can use up my inventory of bulbs. (I have a bunch)

Bill