Shop lighting

I bought a whole box of them on sale at Home Depot for $40. As my florescent bulbs die I replace them with cooler and brighter LED bulbs. BTW some older LED bulbs require removing the ballast and rewiring your fixtures. These newer ones do not and are direct replacements.
 

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I've been following the progress of LED replacement bulbs for a few years now.They are a lot cheaper than they were just a year ago.The direct replacement ones are pretty cheap,just plug and play.BUT,my main goal is to get rid of the ballast's.They are hot all the time,and that means sucking up juice.I tried the little starter cans,but it seemed like I was always up on a 12 foot stepladder replacing them.To get the bulbs that you wire around the ballast,eliminating it,you have to buy bulbs that are 'toggled',whatever that means.Between all my buildings I have 64 four foot bulbs.The ones that were $49.each a couple of years ago are now $30.
 
The retro fit bulbs would be the best but as Doug from NJ stated you must have a t8 lamp . the size of aT8 are a little over a 1/2" round ,if your lamps are about 1 1/8" round they are T12 both t8 &t12 tumb stone are the same size ,but Ballest are different .If you have the fatter lamps you must remove the ballast and install a driver hope this info help
 
Try a fixture with T-5 High Output lamps and you will be happy. From a person who has been an electrical contractor for 40 years.
 
I replaced 4 - 32 watt t8 4-ft bulbs with one retrofit led 4 foot. The one bulb is brighter than the 4 bulbs and a whole lot cheaper to run.
 
Tacoma Bob,
Put a plug on one of your old fluorescent fixtures & lay it upside down under your car, lights up EVERYTHING!
If anyone has a cement pit, paint it APPLIANCE WHITE & you won't ever need a drop light!
Bill W.
 
I got the eBay ones and removed the ballasts. and I love them good light and les power. But they do interfere with the shop radio when they are on. but I can live with that. And they light up faster and quieter. No regrets.
 
Bill's Auto Works said:
The term retrofit is kind of a misnomer. All you do is buy the proper LED bulb that will fit your fixture, then remove the ballast & starter, then wire directly to the ends.
I would like to thank the O.P. for this post, I had been wanting to start upgrading my shop to LED's for a while & this post gave me the kick in the pants to do it. I just ordered a 10 pack of 8ft 48watt 240 led 6500 lumen bright white bulbs for $289.00 from a company on ebay. Unfortunately this is only about a quarter of what I need!
Click to expand...


I received these bulbs as well as a 10 pack of 8ft 36 watt 194 led 6500k bright white clear lens bulbs @ $21.00 per bulb. I have installed some of these in the main part of my building & some of the 48 watt bulbs in my paint booth. They are amazing, much brighter than florescent bulbs @ 60 watts.
Please keep in mind these LEDs come in a variety of colors (6500k is the brightest), different lenses (I bought clear) & different watt ratings. So if you see very low prices, you might not be getting bulbs that are as bright as you may want.
Bill
 
Try to consider this option. Ordered here for your garage, with the help of the review picked up the right ones. I have a large garage shelf for two cars, so I needed special lamps Hyperikon Shop Light to fit perfectly.
 
I looked at installing led's but went with T-5 High Output lamps. Only because the lumen output was higher.

Yes, they will use more electricity but the brightness was my priority.
 
I bought these from eledlighting.com:
Ultra High Lumen 4FT LED Tube T8/T12-Frosted-Cool White (5000K)

SKU 4UHLT8X020UN50F-P50 (50 pcs sku)
the color is 5000K and each tube puts out 3000 lumens.
They really light up my shop.
They also have 8ft single pin tubes that put out more light than a "HO" tube
 
mike657894 said:
this link is what your looking for. I have put led screw in bulbs and lamp holders around as my lighting. I look for the name brand ones when on sale for $2 the off brand ones that sell for $1 have a high fail rate.
https://express.google.com/u/0/prod...MI04vwle3h4wIVBZ-fCh0dWQtJEAQYBCABEgJrpPD_BwE
Click to expand...

I replaced my 4' fluorescent tubes with similar LEDs as these. I just bypassed the ballasts and installed the LEDs in my existing fixtures. Bright, instant on, no flicker.
 
I have nothing but led in my house. At the time led shop lights were not cost effective. They make more sense now. They are rated as putting out less lumens, but for some reason I can see better with them. We replaced the bulbs in four fixtures and unhooked two, and the light seems better. These we unhooked the ballasts. I replaced four more in the shop, with plug and play bulbs. My only issue is one fixture blinks brighter and dimmer from time to time.
Like Carl, I have a whole box on T8s to use up before I but any more.
 
I went to Home Depot today and bought just the 8' Double Ended Ballast Bypass bulbs, they come two to a pack. It is a new item for them. Eliminated the ballast, then the black wire from the wall switch was wire-nutted to the two wires on the left end of the light and the white wire from the wall switch was wire-nutted to the two wires on the right end of the light. Re installed the covers on the light. Then installed the two bulbs and all can say is WOW, what a difference! The two bulbs cost $43 and a new 8' LED strip unit cost $92. Wonder if I can find these on e-bay for less. Total time to do the project, around 20 minutes. One light down and two more to go for that stall. The Utube video (not mine) below shows how to do it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRZdN5KtG8k
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Another Ford Barn thread on the same subject:

https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=266830
 

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Upgraded half of my garage with sunco 8 pack of 4’ led complete fixtures for 190.00 on Amazon. old fixtures had bad bulbs and or bad ballasts just threw them all out, the new ones are 4500 lumens 5000k daylight bulbs super bright now!
 
I retrofitted 10, 8 foot flourecents with the Home Depot LED bulbs...super upgrade...no ballast change, just popped out the old T-12 and replaced with 5000k LED bulbs, super easy improvement.


Also, I added several 4 foot LED fixtures from Harbor Freight to fill in some dull spots over the work area.
$19.99 ea. fixture with 5000 lumen, 5000k LED bulb. super bright and weigh about 2 lbs. each if that is an issue. Check their sales, the $19.99 comes up often.
 
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