Brightest ceiling shop lights

[chips&more]

The LED technology is still getting better, almost weekly. And the pricing is also coming down. If you can wait. LED lighting will be better and cheaper very soon. But if you need today, 100Lm/W or better for today’s advancement is good…Dave

 

[woodchucker]

I've searched this site and googled all over the place. I find a lot of facts, figures and double talk (not here of course!) but never a direct answer. (note: the search engine here ignores "LED" because it does not have enough letters - so a search is a little hard. I think this has been answered, but I can't find the thread.)

A little trick using search engines:

led:www.hobby-machinist.com in google search or (my preferred search engine duckduckgo.com what google used to be and is no more).
yes LED is short, so try adding led light:www.hobby-machinist.com
the :www.hobby-machinist.com points it to search in hm.

 

[Holescreek]

I have six 8 foot fixtures in my shop, I should say had because I was in the process of removing the 8' units and replaceing each one with two 4' LED fixtures. I was down to my last 3 8' fluorescent when I saw the 8' replacement LED's on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SUMEGSC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 for about the same price as two 4' LED's so I bought 4 to retrofit two fixtures.

These new tubes are so bright they make the previous LED lights look yellow. It took some getting used to but it helps that I wear a ball cap in the shop. The only problem I'm running into at the moment is since I installed these tubes I get static from the FM radio across the room, and I also get random horizontal static lines on the shop TV. Both the radio and TV are on a completely separate circuit from the lights. Flick the lights off and the static goes away.

 

[Bob Korves]

These new tubes are so bright they make the previous LED lights look yellow.

The color is from the "color temperature" of the light. Color temperature can be different across brands and models. 5000K starts to get blue., 3000K gets a bit yellow, and somewhere in between there it looks white. Actually, they all look pretty much white until you compare them to directly with others. Generally lower color temperature/degrees K are considered more relaxing and soothing, higher color temps more active and awake (those are terms that I thought up, probably not really correct descriptions.)

 

[Groundhog]

Thanks all.

The lighting in my shop is pretty well lit except for 2 places where I just didn't have enough light fixtures. The shop is 20'x24' and I have 13 fixtures (all 2 bulb T8). Distribution is 5 down the center and 5 on the north side. Only 3 on the south. So you can figure where the dark areas are. Two more fixtures should eliminate the dark areas and make for even and ample lighting.

I just needed a little push to get over center on the LED-florescent thing. So now I have 2 LED light fixtures (2 strips each) sitting in the shop waiting to be hung and wired tomorrow.

If I like them I will pat myself on the back for making a good decision. If not it will be all you guys fault!

 

[mikey]

If I like them I will pat myself on the back for making a good decision. If not it will be all you guys fault!

Mike, have you been hanging out with Tom (@higgite)?

 

[wileel]

That should take care of it! We have almost the same space (I'm 24x28) but I have a different fixture layout.....3 rows of 3 plus one on each end of each bay and I don't have any perceivable shadow areas

- -
| | |
| | |
| | |
- -

 

[Tozguy]

Thanks all.
If I like them I will pat myself on the back for making a good decision. If not it will be all you guys fault!

Careful, you could get illuminated for saying things like that!

 

[higgite]

If I like them I will pat myself on the back for making a good decision. If not it will be all you guys fault!

Mike, have you been hanging out with Tom (@higgite)?

I don't know Groundhog personally, but I like the way he thinks.

Tom

P.S. @Tozguy: Groan!

 

[magicniner]

Avoid "Integrated" units, it just means if any part of it fails you need a complete new unit.