changed my lights to led's

[jerry_stanek]

I just switched my 8 foot fluorescent lights and boy are they nice and bright. I went from 10 strips to 8 and I get about twice the light. I just bought the bypass bulbs and used the old fixtures but spaced them out. I got them From Green Light Depot for $ 17.99 a 8 foot tube and I have some 4 foot tubes coming for over the Shopbot that is in another room.

















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[James M]

Jerry,

What wattage and kelvin rating did you get?

J
















'[/QUOTE]

[Xray]

I switched to LED a few months ago, glad I did.
Brightest was too bright for me [daylight I think], "warm" did the trick for me, I don't want it as bright as an operating room in my garage.

Outside of the extra brightness and clarity and small savings on electricity, they seem impervious to the cold unlike the fluorescents which would struggle and flicker in freezing temps and sometimes stop working all together.

[jerry_stanek]

I got the 36 watt 6000k as they were sold out of the 5000k

[Ajcoholic]

I got the 36 watt 6000k as they were sold out of the 5000k

I just changed all 70pcs of 48” fluorescent to 5000k led in the main part of my shop... wowee!

It was literally like night and day. I was thinking of it for a while. I bought twenty to try it and changed the rest a week later.

[Brady Watson]

The 5000k ones are nice...I'm rockin T8s with 5000k 'sunshine' bulbs in the shop right now; LEDs in the scanning lab. It's really nice having enough light not to cast a shadow when doing precision work with older eyes :cool:

Although not top quality, these are really bright for $55: 6x 4' LEDs Via Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HBT3BVM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) They can be used individually and come with plug & play wiring....if you want to 'try on' LEDs before you pull the trigger for the whole shop. They're great for under-counter lights.

-B

[jerry_stanek]

I liked how I didn't have to use a ballast I wanted 5000k but they were sold out so I ended up with 6000k really nice to go out to the shop and turn on the lights and be able to see in the winter time no warm up required. The place I ordered them from shipped really fast also Ordered on Tuesday and installed on Thursday.

[Tom Bachman]

I changed out the 30 bulbs in my shop a couple weeks ago. Eliminated the ballasts went with the 36 watt (equivalent) 5000k bulbs. When my wife came in the first time she says "How many more new fixtures did you install?" "None, just swapped out the bulbs, Dear" It looks like twice the light, crisp and clean light.

They are so nice, I bought 30 more to swap out the lights in the garage and basement.

[gundog]

I replaced the ones in my shop a couple years ago. I had a mix match of fixtures in my shop installed by the previous owner what a mess. There were extension cords ran through the attic with some electric boxes mixed in facing up in the attic with no covers. I rewired the whole mess and swapped out the mix match of fixtures some 8' and some 4' fluorescent I bought 4' LED fixtures from Costco. Now they are evenly spaced and light up the area much better than before. My calculated power usage went down to about 1/3 what it was before and I got rid of all the dark spots in the shop. I am going to add some where my firewood storage is and in my barn the ones Costco has now have motion sensors which will be ideal for these new locations.

[dlcw]

Very interesting thread. Few questions:

I've got the T8 chroma correcting bulbs with the fixtures that have 4ea 4' fluorescent bulbs with the ballasts. How does one convert from that setup to running 4ea 4' LED bulbs?

Is the cost worth the savings in electricity and the better/more consistent lighting/supposed longer life then fluorescent bulbs and ballasts?

Is there a chroma correcting LED bulb that fits in these fixtures?

Do the ballasts all have to be taken out and the fixtures rewired to use the LED bulbs? Two banks in my shop require an 8' ladder to get to and the other two banks require a 12' ladder to get to.

My shop is heated with radiant floor heating so I am lucky to not having the flickering fluorescent bulb issue, so is it worth it to change to LED, considering the cost of making the conversion?

Thanks in advance!!

[curtiss]

dlcw

I believe you will find two types at the Lowes & Home Depot... one LED that will run off the ballast and one that do not require the ballast..

I think most do away with the ballast, I put in a few 4 footers without the ballast and they are great...

I think you will find you only need one LED for every two of the old style you replace.

[Tom Bachman]

The ones I installed gave you a choice, with the ballast or remove the ballast. I chose to remove them as they are part of the energy consumption. You have a choice of LED bulb type as well, one has a wire at each end the other (the ones I chose) has load and neutral at the same end. The swap is easy. Disconnect the power, Remove the ballast (i cut the wires pretty close to the ballast), I then disconnected the power lines into the fixture. Then look at the "tombstones" the ends which hold the bulb at each end. there are two types of connectors one wire to each tombstone or two wires. If you have the type that has two wires clip them off with about (at least) 6-8" The wire colors could be red and blue/black and red whatever- I tied the like colors together and then attached power to one and neutral to the other and wire-nutted them. The other end of the tombstones I cut the wires as close to the tombstones as possible as that end is no more than a holder for the far end of the LED tube. If you have the type of tombstones which has just one wire running to it clip the wires off close on the far end just like the other method, then on the power end take those tombstones clear out and throw them away and use the tombstones that came with the LED bulbs (at least mine came with them) these have the two wires (red and black) then just wire it up like the other way. My bulbs came with good instructions explaining it all to me. After you do one of each it is a breeze. By the way, the brand I bought, on Amazon.com, were Hyperikon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXKZVH0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

[bleeth]

As part of my work I have been making the changeover from traditional lighting (typically fluorescent or fluorescent and metal halide combo) in my companies branches all around the company.
Make sure you check out your local rebate incentives if you are a licensed business location. Sometimes the government has them and sometimes the electric power supplier. For our locations amortization comes within the first 12 months very often.

[dlcw]

Thanks Guys!! I'm going to call my utility company today to see if there is a rebate for making the switch to LED.

[Brady Watson]

So...How many shopbotters does it take to screw in a light bulb? :D

-B

[jTr]

Worth mentioning are the LED "corn" bulbs. Old shop ran roughly 3,000 watts in 8' tubes. New building I've achieved slightly more lumens in a larger space with only 8 fixtures. They are an acrylic canopy, running 100 watt corn bulbs. Well worth considering , as the fixtures are ~ $50 each. Yes, the bulbs are spendy, but I found true 100 watt bulbs just under $50 each. Absolutely love the quality of light, and $100 a pop for low bay fixtures is a screaming deal.

jeff

[jerry_stanek]

I did drop back to 8 fixtures where before I had 10 but If I would have known how bright they are I would have cut out 2 more but I don't want to go out and rehang them again.

[curtiss]

Remember however, if one starts to "save too much energy" with improvements... the power company will have to raise your rates.

You will be allowed to save energy, being allowed to save money is a separate issue.:)

The worst light bulb ever are those small mercury spiral ones... if you break those anywhere you will be walking around in mercury for years.

[Brian Harnett]

The 5000k ones are nice...I'm rockin T8s with 5000k 'sunshine' bulbs in the shop right now; LEDs in the scanning lab. It's really nice having enough light not to cast a shadow when doing precision work with older eyes :cool:

Although not top quality, these are really bright for $55: 6x 4' LEDs Via Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HBT3BVM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) They can be used individually and come with plug & play wiring....if you want to 'try on' LEDs before you pull the trigger for the whole shop. They're great for under-counter lights.

-B

Thanks for that link Brady, I bought a pack put them up in my darker areas brightened up nice.

[Brady Watson]

Thanks for that link Brady, I bought a pack put them up in my darker areas brightened up nice.

Oh good ~ I've been using them for propagating plants on the farm. They were so bright compared to the 4x 2' T5s that I only need to run 2 of them.

Hoping to successfully clone some Thuja Green Giants via hydroponics...month in so far, only 2 of 100 rooted... ;)

-B

[curtiss]

Saw this little LED set at Menards today that runs off a USB port.. a lot of lights for about $5

These are to back-light a wall TV screen

https://www.menards.com/main/p-1523514370374-c-7490.htm?tid=408747110489258012&ipos=2


(https://www.menards.com/main/p-1523514370374-c-7490.htm?tid=408747110489258012&ipos=2)