Much improved shop lighting

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ref772

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2015
Messages
17
Location
Central Texas
My shop has 11 8 ft. fluorescent fixtures that were getting dim over the years. The old style T12 bulbs are getting harder to find and are now priced at $8-$12 each. I ended up replacing the bulbs with 8 ft. T8 LED bulbs.I expected an improvement - but Wow! These bulbs are much brighter and the color is like daylight. They also did not use the ballast. So I was able to take the balasts out of the fixtures and hook the LED's directly to 120V. The old bulbs were 75 watt and the new ones are 36 watt, so the electricity used should be about half. Plus, they are so bright, I can turn on only half of the lights and still have more light. These things are great. The only downside is that I have to sweep the floor more often now.
 
I replace all my 4ft florescent lights with LED

Wish I had a picture....they are daylight bulbs...5000 if I remember correctly...I ordered them from Amazon...boxes of ten for 149 a box....so eventually want to replace all the florescent in the house garage and basement as well...after you get the knack of the rewiring....you can bust them out pretty quick....I'll try to dig up a pic if I can find one....
 
Lights on one side finished

There are only three lights done at the time...only the one side....still had to do the other side...better than twice as bright....picture came out darker than it really is...contrast off when I downloaded it to the site...
 

Attachments

  • lights in barn.jpg
    lights in barn.jpg
    107.8 KB · Views: 46
The lumens were 4800 and the color was 5000K. I should have taken a before and after picture, but forgot. Its like daylight now.
 
What I like is the temp doesn't effect them, hate a cold shop and the lights wont come on.
 
We have been hanging some LED lights at work. Replace those 8 ft lights now. Word on the electrical street is that industry is phasing out all 8ft light fixtures and going to 4 ft. Or dual 4ft to replace the 8ft. They are also going to phase out the 8ft florescent bulbs. It will take a while thought. But if you notice all the 100w and 75w incandescent bulbs are gone from the shelves.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top