Brightest ceiling shop lights

middle.road said:
I've got (4) really neat dual 4'ers from a Western Electric plant - they have great reflectors on them.
Time to retro fit them.
The question I've got for you guys that have gone LED - is what 'color' should I go with?
I've been over to a friend's auto shop where they have re-done the 8' tubes with LED Daylights.
They're hard on my eyes.
Should I go with something lesser temp? My ceiling is only 8.5'
Also I have to convert these and they have oddball 'push' type sockets in them.
I'm trying to figure out which bulbs to purchase from the big box stores, so if anyone has any suggestions...
-or- do the big box stores even carry 'conversion' type bulbs?
Click to expand...
Regarding temperature -- that's going to be a personal choice. I myself prefer the highest "temperature" I can get - 5000ºK or higher. Don't like the "warm white." But it's a personal preference.

Regarding the pin style - You may well be out of luck as far as commonly available "conversion" LED lamps are concerned. The only 4 foot LED retrofits I've ever seen in stores are bi-pin units (two small pins on each end) that are direct replacements for T8 fluorescents. I do have fixtures in my shop ceiling that take lamps with a single (~5/16" diameter) pins on each end, but they're 8 footers. To retrofit LED tubes, you remove and wire around the ballast.

Don't know what to tell you about retrofitting your fixtures. They do look like they have great reflectors!
 
You could buy the cheapest led fixtures and remove led and drivers and mount to your fixtures. I did this to 2x4 fixtures in my shop.
Jay
 
All 12 of the 8' fixtures in my picture above were converted from florescent to LED.
 
hman said:
Regarding temperature -- that's going to be a personal choice. I myself prefer the highest "temperature" I can get - 5000ºK or higher. Don't like the "warm white." But it's a personal preference.

Regarding the pin style - You may well be out of luck as far as commonly available "conversion" LED lamps are concerned. The only 4 foot LED retrofits I've ever seen in stores are bi-pin units (two small pins on each end) that are direct replacements for T8 fluorescents. I do have fixtures in my shop ceiling that take lamps with a single (~5/16" diameter) pins on each end, but they're 8 footers. To retrofit LED tubes, you remove and wire around the ballast.

Don't know what to tell you about retrofitting your fixtures. They do look like they have great reflectors!
Click to expand...
Retrofitting them should be doable I believe.
Luckily they have the standard T8/T12 pin arrangement. Just that the socket is spring loaded on one end.
One fixture has been converted to T8 and I've got a half dozen ballasts laying on the shelf, but it's time to go LED.
The bulbs at Lowes appear to be of the type that work with a T8 ballast, but I'm wanting to cut out all the ballasts.
In reading over information I think I'll go with daylight over the machines and cool white in general area.
 
Our local WalMart has LED 4' shop lights with a pull cord that put out somewhere between 5000 - 5500 lumen for 35W of power. Cost around $17. They also sell 4' LED replacement bulbs for florescents, drop into the existing fixture with no wiring changes. Don't recall the lumens on those, but the 5000+ is a lot of light.

Bruce
 
I've converted a bunch of fluorescent fixtures around the house to LED's over the past couple of years. I always buy the 5000K
ones: they seem a little harsh at first but you get used to them and the light is SO MUCH better. I've bought mine from Home Depot
as conversions of my existing fixtures. The last time I purchased some, the price had dropped to $18.00 for a pack of two.
 
Nogoingback said:
I've converted a bunch of fluorescent fixtures around the house to LED's over the past couple of years. I always buy the 5000K
ones: they seem a little harsh at first but you get used to them and the light is SO MUCH better. I've bought mine from Home Depot
as conversions of my existing fixtures. The last time I purchased some, the price had dropped to $18.00 for a pack of two.
Click to expand...
Did you take the ballast out of the circuit or were they the 'linear' type?
 
Eliminating ballasts reduces power consumption by a large amount on LED upgrades to fluorescent fixtures. That saves significant money over time, and also takes away the humming noise of fluorescent lights.
 
middle.road said:
Did you take the ballast out of the circuit or were they the 'linear' type?
Click to expand...

Ballast is bypassed or removed with the ones I've used. They burn 16W per tube instead of 40 and put out more light.
I actually started replacing them when ballasts started failing in the old fixtures in my garage. At that time, they were about $30.00 per pair, but the ballasts were about $35.00. Easy choice.
 
Last edited:
I just bought these to put in my new shop: https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Inte...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B07F2WMCP2

My buddy saw mine (mine aren't installed yet) and bought some for his shop. We also replaced all the 4 foot florescent lights in our fire station with these. They are MUCH brighter than the dual-tube 4 foot florescent lights were. And, at $7 a light you can't beat the price.

Oh, we cut the diffusers off the lights and it made a fairly big difference in brightness. Depending on the height of your ceiling you may or may not want to do that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top