LED Garage Fixtures
I built my shop 18 years ago, and I installed 20 4 tube 4 ft florescent units. The old style , with two oil filled ballasts in each unit. They worked ok for maybe 6-7 years, but the bulbs and ballasts would go out regularly. A commercial construction buddy of mine gave me a trash can full of the smaller T8 bulbs, so I removed all the old ballasts, and installed 1 electronic ballast in each unit, and the T8 bulbs. Again, this was fine for about 7 years. I started looking into LED because the elect. ballasts and bulbs were going out. I use my lights every day. At first I just bought 4 Hybrid bulbs, that they claim would work with the existing ballasts, or hard wired. Well they didn't work in the unit I tried, with the ballast. So I pulled the ballast and direct wired the unit. Bingo, worked. But the Hybrid bulbs are about $2 more than the direct wire Led's. So I bought 80 direct wire 5000k ,2000 lumen bulbs from a Texas co. ( 1000 Bulbs ). Paid $6.50 each for em. So I went back into each unit and pulled the ballasts and hard wired them all. Huge,Huge difference in lighting, I even have 2 units mounted on the wall in my lift bay. Makes a big difference working under a vehicle. I'm very happy, and expect these bulbs to last a very long time..:thumbsup:
I built my shop 18 years ago, and I installed 20 4 tube 4 ft florescent units. The old style , with two oil filled ballasts in each unit. They worked ok for maybe 6-7 years, but the bulbs and ballasts would go out regularly. A commercial construction buddy of mine gave me a trash can full of the smaller T8 bulbs, so I removed all the old ballasts, and installed 1 electronic ballast in each unit, and the T8 bulbs. Again, this was fine for about 7 years. I started looking into LED because the elect. ballasts and bulbs were going out. I use my lights every day. At first I just bought 4 Hybrid bulbs, that they claim would work with the existing ballasts, or hard wired. Well they didn't work in the unit I tried, with the ballast. So I pulled the ballast and direct wired the unit. Bingo, worked. But the Hybrid bulbs are about $2 more than the direct wire Led's. So I bought 80 direct wire 5000k ,2000 lumen bulbs from a Texas co. ( 1000 Bulbs ). Paid $6.50 each for em. So I went back into each unit and pulled the ballasts and hard wired them all. Huge,Huge difference in lighting, I even have 2 units mounted on the wall in my lift bay. Makes a big difference working under a vehicle. I'm very happy, and expect these bulbs to last a very long time..:thumbsup:
