LED Garage / Shop Lights?

mopowers said
Damn that shop looks awesome!!! Just curious- Did you noticed the reduced light output (105,200 vs 112,000 lumens)? Is the quality of light better than the HID's?

No as a matter of fact, HID drop to about 70% efficiency very soon after they are first fired up, meaning that HID is really putting out about 78,000 lumens. LED is way brighter, holds its lumen output longer, and has better beam spread. Not to mention there are no damaging UV rays from this style of LED. It looks like I increased my lighting output

Also, how'd you figure the 4 yr payback? Using your scenario (1 hr/day), I got about a 9-1/2 yr payback- $880 / (2.32 kW savings * 365 hrs/yr * $0.11/kWh)

I made an error in my original calculation where I mixed 8 hours and 1 hour together in my calculation. See below for a better explanation. Your close on the 9 years though, if only used an hour a day.

A 400 watt HID lights would draw 465 watts each. That includes the ballast loss factor.
8 x 465 = 3720 watts.
3720/1000 = 3.72kw
3.72 x $0.11 x 8 hours = $3.27/day cost to operate

LED Lights are 220 watts each with no ballast loss. (4 220-watt LEDs = 8 400 watt HIDs)
4 x 220 =880 watts
880/1000 = .88KW
.88KW x $0.11 x 8 hours = $0.77/day to operate.

Every day you use them for 8 hours, you save $2.50, or $0.3125/hour.
2.50 x 88 days = $220.00. So if you use them every day for 8 hours, payback is 352 days (LESS THAN A YEAR) for 4 lights.

You would have to use them 7.7 years at an hour a day to pay back the lights. Sorry for the calculation error.

The reality is most people are in their shops more than an hour at a time. This exercise is to show the dramatic savings you can achieve with LEDS.