Shop lights, recommendations

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holic_77

holic_77

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Location
Grove City, OH
I currently have this lighting system in T8 bulbs. They are only 32 watts. Can I go bigger? Or what's the alternative to replace them? It just feels like the shop is dark even with the garage doors open.

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Costco has 4' LED fixtures that are pretty economical. I think they were about $30 apiece if I recall correctly. They are very bright and made a huge difference. I put in nine of them and have excellent lighting all over the work area. The floor area covered in the photo is 20x40. This is one of the best upgrades I've done for my shop and well worth the money - I highly recommend them.

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halfafish said:
Costco has 4' LED fixtures that are pretty economical. I think they were about $30 apiece if I recall correctly. They are very bright and made a huge difference. I put in nine of them and have excellent lighting all over the work area. The floor area covered in the photo is 20x40. This is one of the best upgrades I've done for my shop and well worth the money - I highly recommend them.

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I have to t12ho's currently, I am tired of replacing tubes and ballasts. I'm going to led''s next.
 
halfafish said:
Costco has 4' LED fixtures that are pretty economical. I think they were about $30 apiece if I recall correctly. They are very bright and made a huge difference. I put in nine of them and have excellent lighting all over the work area. The floor area covered in the photo is 20x40. This is one of the best upgrades I've done for my shop and well worth the money - I highly recommend them.

View attachment 1715091175
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Thanks, nice and bright. My friend just also recommended direct wire LED 5000k bulbs.
 
I forgot to mention, painting your ceiling white will also make a huge difference. Here's a second shot of the shop after I had the upper walls and ceiling insulated, and then covered with some kind of a white membrane material.
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Have you considered the placement of the fixtures? Maybe simply moving them towards the wall more would help with under-hood lighting.
 
halfafish said:
Costco has 4' LED fixtures that are pretty economical. I think they were about $30 apiece if I recall correctly. They are very bright and made a huge difference. I put in nine of them and have excellent lighting all over the work area. The floor area covered in the photo is 20x40. This is one of the best upgrades I've done for my shop and well worth the money - I highly recommend them.

View attachment 1715091175
Click to expand...
I agree with halfafish on the 4' leds! We put 8 in our 30x40 shop and they made a world of difference. We got ours at Sams for about $35 a piece and they are great! Immediately bright in any temp when cut on. Don't have to wait for them to warm up to be bright!

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I had both 48 inch and 96 in florescent in my shop. Just finished converting to direct wire(no ballast) LED's. What a difference. In the 4 ft fixtures, I just removed the ballast, and change the wiring to the "tomstones". In the 8 ft fixtures it was more work. I had to modify the fixture to mount the 4 ft bulbs (96 inch LED's are expensive). I had to keep the 96 inch fixtures, as they were hard wired in using metal conduit. The bulbs I used were from Lowes Shop Utilitech 32 W Equivalent Bright White T8 LED Tube Light Bulb at Lowes.com
$7.98 each
Shop is twice as bright.
 
I switched over to 4 foot LEDs from Costco. Tremendous difference.
One of the units has a motion sensor and comes on automatically whenever I enter the garage. That is a way that I have reduced my power consumption by not turning on all units when I just dash into the garage for a short time. It also is great at night because the two bulbs on the garage door opener were always inadequate in my opinion.
 
I've replaced my old T8's about 4-5 years ago with Samsung brand LED's and hardwired them into my fixture's and they are super bright and never had an issue with them. Of coarse now there is so many companies making T8 light bulbs which brought the price down drastically compared to when I bought mine which cost me roughly around $800 or so for all the T8's in my garage. Still want to get my walls painted as well to help brighten it up more.
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Reflector hoods mounted on all these lights will increase the downward light by at least 50%. Large amounts of the light output are going up and sideways that you can redirect downward with reflectors.

The OP already has the reflectors and just needs better lights.
 
halfafish said:
I forgot to mention, painting your ceiling white will also make a huge difference.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Here's a second shot of the shop after I had the upper walls and ceiling insulated, and then covered with some kind of a white membrane material.
View attachment 1715091177

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definitely go white on the ceiling. I don`t have as many lights as u, and mine is way brighter than that. One over each work bench also. Even added a sewing machine led light to the lathe.( cheap)
 
You didn't mention which color of fluorescent bulbs you have. Cool white , warm white or daylight ?
I have found that I prefer the daylight bulb , it seems brighter. From your picture that may be what you have. That is one option but I am sure LEDS would be better along with the other suggestions posted above.
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