Who likes LOTS of Lumens? An 8 foot florescent shoplight mod. Now with 32,000 lumen

Other Types of Lights LED Light Bulbs
1

A couple of days ago I was checking out a ReStore just over the State line in Westfield, MA. I am not up that way often, but when I am I check out the triad of my favorite stores. Home Depot, Ocean State Job Lot and the ReStore. In Westfield, those 3 stores are within a few hundred yards of each other!

This trip, outside of the store in a covered patio area I came across this pile of boxes. The boxes themselves were in very poor shape and were very dirty. I opened one up to find that each box was a case of 6 light fixtures.

If you were remodeling your bathroom in the 70’s or 80’s you might have chosen a multi bulb fixture such as this and hung it over the sink cabinet mirror. These fixtures are 5 feet long and have 10 - E27 sockets!

There was no price on them so I went inside and found the manager. I brought him outside and showed him the lights.
I mentioned the condition and he said yeah, they were in a warehouse for a long time and then they were donated to us. They have been out here forever. He agreed to let me have them for $2.50 per fixture. I bought 3 cases (18 fixtures)
It was a gamble, I had an idea that I could use them. If I couldn’t, ReStore would be happy to take them back
As a donation :smiley:

My gamble was, from the looks of them, that I could use them to mate up to an 8’ florescent light fixture. It looked like they were the same width, and after stripping out the ballasts and tube sockets, I could replace the cover with these and use the existing “box” of the old fixtures.
Not only was I right, I was lucky.

This is what an 8 foot fixture looks like with the bulbs and cover removed. At each end are the bulb sockets and in the center is the ballast.

I was thinking the new fixture would fit right in the old fixture still on the ceiling.
Not only was I right, it’s a perfect fit!!!

And the chrome cover is the same exact width as the old cover for the florescent!!!

Here is a 5’ strip, 10 bulbs mounted in the stripped out box. What remains is a 3’ section that can be cut off a second fixture.

A closeup of the fit.

Both sections installed, 1 5’ section and a cut 3’ section totaling 8’

If you were to count the sockets, hard to do, you would come up with 16!
All that was left to do was install the chrome cover and fill’er up with bulbs.
Here it is with 16 - 60W equivalent LED bulbs, 800 lumen each.

That modded fixture now puts out 16x800 lumens, for a total of 12800 lumen.
The 2 other 8’ florescents are at around 7750 lumen, 3875 per bulb.

An HO fixture with HO bulbs would be more, possibly as high as 16,000 with high end HO bulbs.

BUT, I can go brighter!
On the second fixture I upgraded, I went with 16 - 100W equivalents, 1600 lumen each for an astounding 25,600 lumens.
Lights in this picture, left to right, 12,800 lumen mod, 8000 stock florescent, 25,800 lumen mod.
It is not possible to judge just how bright this room is lit up from this picture as the cell phone camera is over whelmed.

So I had to use 2 - 5’ fixtures for each mod, at $2.50 each.
The 60W and 100W equivalent bulbs I used where these.

If you really want to know what I actually paid for them, read this.

EDIT:
August 14, 2017
Changed title to include a lumen number

2

Way to put that to good use! I’m kicking myself now, because I just threw one of those multi-bulb fixtures away a few months ago. Pulled it out of our bathroom.

3

Well, I took my mod to my brothers garage. Previously he had been using 4, 8 foot HO Florescent fixtures.
We thought we would upgrade his garage with even more light.

Overhead doors on both ends, and 4, 8 foot HO fixtures.

This time instead of using 2, 5’ lengths of sockets and cutting one down to 3’, for a total of 8’, we used 2 - 5 footers for a total of 20 sockets each fixture. 80 bulbs!
Fill them up with 100W equivalent bulbs, 1600 lumen each and you get 32,000 lumen per fixture
That’s a mirrored surface under each bulb.

Multiply that Lumen per fixture by 4 to get 128,000 lumens in that garage!
The camera doesn’t do it justice as it is overwhelmed by the brightness, and compensates.

One way to appreciate the output is this night shot. From outside the garage, in real life, it looks ungodly bright.
Once again the camera compensates to the point where the surrounding yard is pitch black in comparison.

4

This reminds me of two kids in a playground. You can light up my shed any day you like. :slight_smile:

5

Nice work! One way to make LEDs less efficient is to add lots of them! Probably uses 1200w of power for all those. I assume he has the option to turn some off when not needed? What is it like walking outside after being in there, like walking into a pitch black room?

6

Yeah, for the day we were kids again :slight_smile:

“How much to light up the neighborhood” was the first question from his wife when she finally found out what we were up to. :laughing:
We already knew that we were dealing with 1200 Watts. We were smart though, we showed her the box that states each bulb costs only $1.81 per year to run. Times that by 80 and you get about $150 a year. $12.50 a month ain’t bad, right?
What we didn’t tell here is that is based on only 3 hours per day usage, and 11 cents per kWh. It’s much more in Massachusetts. :innocent:

These bulbs are dimmable, presently looking for a 1500W dimmer switch. :stuck_out_tongue:

Last resort, partially unscrew every other bulb. Half the brightness, and a convenient place to store spare bulbs for 22.8 years when they will be needed. :smiley:

7

What about this, i wonder if it would make the lights flicker a bit. Also it is designed for 220v so might only use the last half of the switch.

Would make you able to turn it down to a VERY DIM but just usable 30,000 Lumens.

8

Thanks for the link. I ordered one.
Some descriptions of that unit at other vendors describe it as 110-220V input. My take on it is that it can pass 20A with a fan.
So with a 110V input it can supply up to 2000W.
Too big to mount in a switch box, but in a garage surface mount is not a problem.

I have already tested one of those bulbs with an autotransformer and those bulbs first begin to turn on at 20VAC. With that autotransformer I have continuous control of brightness from 20-140VAC
The dimmer circuit doesn’t work the same way, I will have to wait and see how these bulbs respond to it’s output.
About 20V output.

9

Just out of curiosity:

Did you measure any Lux-numbers from floor level?

10

Make a video going in and out and similar so we can see the brightness compared to outside better.

My fears are that you are going to replace a lot of bulbs in the upcoming months. :slight_smile:

11

Nice job—— I put 12 Feit 60w bulbs 3k (best I’ve found for tint) in our masterbath —-lots of light but in the morning can’t put the light on anymore—too bright

Your brothers garage reminds me of when I first installed (12) 4 bulb T8 fixtures in my 26 x 34 shop—-It’s brighter than a sunny day outside

12

Yeah I like those bulbs too. That 3000K tint is perfect.
And your setup is outrageously bright too! :+1:

With a total of 80 bulbs we will be witnessing a “times 80” test of the longevity of these bulbs. It will be interesting to see what happens. Prior to this installation I have already had one fail on me. The LED board was not screwed tightly to the sink and it over heated. The board got so hot that the solder melted at the socket in the middle of the board.
I took the globe off, resoldered the connection and tightened the screws and all was fine.

With a total of 80 bulbs, every time one fails there will only be a 1.25% drop in output. :wink:
Here is a look at that failed bulb after I repaired it.

When I figure out how to make a video that doesn’t adjust to the light I will try that.
Actually my brother will have to do that, he is out of State.

I have no way to do that. But I can imagine that a lot of light is lost in that unpainted sheet rock on the ceilings.
Also the walls are non reflective, all adding to the need of a lot of light in the first place.
Another unfortunate situation in that those garage doors, probably 9’ high each, cover up much of the fixtures when open.

If it were my garage I would add more fixtures closer to the walls, out from under the opened doors and reduce the output on the 4 existing fixtures. Just remove every other one and install those in the additional fixtures, or switch them all to 800 lumen FEITS.
In case no one knows, those 80 Maxlite 1600 lumen bulbs cost me the sales tax on 99 cents each. Got an instant gift card for the purchase price at the register. I also got plenty of 800 lumen bulbs at that same deal.
This conversion, unbelievably cost me less than $30 :slight_smile:
And at only $2.50 per 10 socket 5’ fixture, I went back and got them all. A total of 48 of them. I still have 31 left for other projects.

13

dark glasses optional!

14

2 month update.
I ordered that 4000W, 220V light dimmer from Banggood.

I had read at some sites that would also work at 120V. I figured it could control 2000W at that voltage. What I didn’t know was how inflated those wattage figures were. Turns out it works, only problem is that the control only works for the last 1/4 turn. That’s still enough to be able to dim the lights to suite the mood.

BTW, even though it has been 2 months, NOT ONE of the 80 bulbs had blown. :+1:
Also, all 48 of the bulbs I had used in the OP mod have survived so far. 128 bulbs over 2 and 3 months is excellent, IMHO

15

Another update:
It’s been another 6 weeks or so since we installed the 4000W dimmer. That dimmer control is wired in series with an ordinary light toggle switch. That way the dimmer can be set and left alone. Lights are then turned on and off with the ordinary light switch.
A couple of weeks ago my brother called me from his basement. At the time, he was concerned with a very distinct buzzing sound he could hear coming from his breaker panel. He wanted to know what my opinion was and whether or not he should be concerned.
First question I asked him was whether or not the garage lights were on. They were. :laughing: I told him yep, 1200W of pulsing LED’s will do it. Turns out the buzz is most noticeable when the dimmer switch is set for full on. In other words, it’s not the dimmer switch.
BUT, there is something else going on that IS the dimmer switch. Get a load of this picture. The dimmer module is located inside the 3 gang electrical box behind the wall, the knob is on the right of the triple gang switch plate cover. There is a VERY noticeable circular discoloration around that dimmer knob on the wall. My brother and his son weld and cut metal out there so there would be metallic dust in the air from time to time, but I just can’t believe that could have anything to do with this. Also the dimmer control unit does not get that hot, only about 10 degrees hotter than it’s surroundings and it gets it’s hottest when full on.
Also we checked moisture content in the sheetrock. It seems to be dry inside and outside the ring.
There is a circle in pencil that my brother drew using the knob as the center, for comparison.
That mark on the wall was not there until AFTER we installed the dimmer, that we are sure of.
I’m stumped. Any ideas? Anyone?
And all 80 bulbs are still working, none have quit. :+1:

16

^
Ten degrees warmer may be enough to make the drywall around the device dryier. I would verify the drywall is not picking up some moisture from something like the surrounding air. He can pick up a Hygrometer pretty very little money.

17

ImA, moisture is the first thing that came to mind too. That ring looks like wicking, but what is strange to me is that the center of the ring is lighter in color than the outside.
Yep, now that I am typing this I think I see what you mean…………
I am used to seeing wicking moving from the center outwards. What could be going on here is that the wicking is traveling inwards, towards the dryier area around the dimmer!
I’m glad he drew that circular line. I will ask him to take another picture tonight and see if the ring has moved, and in which direction :wink:
Oh, and the reason it is lighter in the center is because the sheetrock is a little drier due to the heat.

EDIT:
Virtually no change.

18

Another 2 month update on the 128 bulbs in these 2 mods. Not one has failed so far!!!

And a correction on the buzzing sound coming from my bothers breaker panel. I misheard what he told me.
It is most intense when the dimmer is set for half brightness, not when it is full on.
So it IS caused by the dimmer circuitry.

19

i always wonder why the light can produce such as large amount of lumens