Garage Shop lights flourescent vs led?

Just bought a new house and the garage only has a couple fluorescent fixtures and they are old and flickering. I need to fill it with light. My old 2 car garage has 5 4’ fixtures (pretty much the width of the garage).

Are there any LED solutions that can pump in as much light as fluorescents? It’s been a long time since I bought fluorescent lights and I wasn’t as into flashlights then.

I see these led lights at Costco that have been discussed here on the forum . It looks like the latest version is 4000k and 3700 lumens, which I’m assuming is divided between the two sticks in the fixture. $30 / 3700 lumens per fixture.

I checked at Home Depot and saw that Philips T8 with 4100k temperature are 2800 lumens, so a two bulb fixture is 5600 lumens. A pair of those plus a $20 fixture are $38 / 5600 lumens per fixture.

T8 LED replacements are $25 / each and only do 1600 lumens. So a pair of those with a $20 fixture is $70 / 3200 lumens.

Is it even accurate to compare fluorescent lumens that radiate from the bulb 360 degrees to LED replacements that direct their light entirely down, where you need it?

I’m pretty handy and willing to do the work to run my own strips of lights without a fixture if it means I can flood my garage with more light. Are there any other alternatives?

Another option I saw at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pixi-1-ft-x-4-ft-Edge-Lit-LED-FlatLight-Luminaire-FLT14C40MDUP44A/205910403

4000k, 4200 lumens. 82 CRI. $139 / fixture. More expensive but it looks like it might spread light better than a fluorescent tube replacement since it’s very flat. Also they actually say the CRI of their LEDs and 82 is not so bad. I’m assuming the Feit CRI is very low or else they would say what it is.

What kind of CRI do fluorescents usually have?

I’ve helped to replace the traditional T8 & T12 tubes with direct drop in LED tubes and have found the apparent brightness to be about double of what the fluorescent tubes provided. I also helped a friend replace a kitchen ceiling fixture with one from Lowes (link below) that had 5 builtin LED strips, which appeared much brighter than the original 2x T8 tubes. In the end thoug, he returned it because it was for the kitchen and the color temperature was just too cool for the area and actually too bright for him. In the garage though, it wasn’t a problem since the walls were white and the extra brightness was much more useful.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_595696-43921-MXL2007-LED2X34K840_1z0vgb5?productId=999911229&pl=1

KuoH

Interesting that 4000k was too cool. I guess compared to incandescent that’s true. I’ll have to keep that in mind when I get to replacing the kitchen fluorescents.

That was just his opinion, but the original fixture was slightly warmer even with with Philips Cool White Plus T8 tubes and the color of the yellow walls were more muted / flat under the LED lighting. The LED looked fine to me, especially the brightness, but it was his house so his decision.

KuoH

A friend and myself just replaced all the 4’ fluorescents in both our houses, mostly cellars. Mine were all in the basement. These were 24W 2400 lumen bulbs ballast bypass direct wire. In my basement i replaced 24 bulbs and it took maybe an hour and a half with the two of us, once we got rolling we could have done it in less time. No flicker and certainly as much light, it looked like more. I did notice a slight delay, less than a second, before instantly coming to full brightness. I could not help but notice all the t8’s i replaced that had blackened ends, yuck! I had also purchased a bag of replacement tombstones and some black and white wire in case we needed it. the newer fixtures we rewired the existing ends, the older we used the replacements tombstones. Just disconected the lights from the mains, snipped the live incoming black and white lines at the ballast and rerouted to the live end of the bulb. Minimum wiring skills are all you need.

https://www.earthled.com/collections/t8-t12-led-fluorescent-replacement-tube-lights-that-bypass-ballast-rewire/products/luceco-led-fluorescent-replacement-tube-4-ft-24-watt-2400-lumens-ballast-bypass-direct-wire?variant=2403570948

Did I mention they are $10/bulb? If that sounds like too much work you can buy the direct replacements bulbs for t8 for about $4 more. they are only 2100 lumens.
https://www.earthled.com/collections/t8-led-fluorescent-replacement-tube-lights-compatible-with-electronic-ballasts/products/euri-et8-led-fluorescent-replacement-tube-4-foot-20-watt-hybrid-t8-electronic-ballast-compatible-or-ballast-bypass-dlc-qualified?variant=12561837188

Both bulbs are 4000K, look great. every time i go down to my flashlight work area I just smile all over

Ken

Just one thing- think about where the lights will be when the doors are open. I’ve seen plenty of well-lit garages go dim with opened doors blocking the lights :zipper_mouth_face:

Phil

Hmm, never thought about that. In my garage I have T5 HO because I needed more light and have them just past the end of the raised doors. My garage is 24’ wide so plenty of room, smaller garage might be an issue but the issue would be the same for either led or fluorescent.

I’ve never heard of the ballast bypass option. That’s a great deal for the existing lights. I assume that if the current light flickering = ballast going out = won’t work with an LED replacement.

BTW I spreadsheet everything. Here’s my spreadsheet in progress Let there be garage light - Google Sheets

I went the “old-tech” way two years ago.
I got 2 x 38W T8´s + electronic ballast with under 30USD a piece locally.
Its a small one car garage, I used 6 of ´em :sunglasses:

Later measured 1200-1300 Lux from floor level :sunglasses:

I wouldn’t assume that, sometimes it is the tubes that are the problem. Also the LEDs are cheap enough at only $10 for a T8 that it’s worth trying before going the ballast removal route if you’d rather not deal with rewiring. Just keep in mind that if your fixture uses T12 tubes, you will need the T8/T12 universal, which costs $20 each at HD.

KuoH

I just bought a standard LED light bulb its 12 watts i think its cool white 4000k but it is way to white which is funny because i have 5000k flashlights that are not this white!

I have two of the Lights of America shop lights that I just put in about a week ago.

They replaced two older fixtures with flickering bulbs. My summary would be this:

They put out more light than the older fluorescent bulbs.

They are REALLY white!

I had a couple of warmer T8’s that had a really nice neutral tint. It’s hard to explain how much colder these LED’s are. Now for me, they are just lights to light up dark corners, and CRI really isn’t any issue there, so they’ll work perfectly. Definitely not something I’d want indoors, though.

Aside: the ISS is removing fluorescent tube lights and replacing them with color-controllable LEDs
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2279.html

My 1 car garage has 2 old school 8 foot high output cool white fluorescent fixtures. Plus I have a couple of 4 footers as well. It’s bright as hell in there when I need it to be. I have more than enough spare tubes to last me the rest of my life. So why change? They’re only on for less than 15 minutes a day on average. My electric bill is reasonable concidering we pay just about the highest rates in the USA. That said, all the rest of my lighting is LED. I guess it balences out.