LED T8 shop light bulbs

[DJ3100]

Good info DJ3100. My wife has been after me for the last couple of months to fix the "dim light issue" in my basement. I kept blowing her off saying "it's just a couple of bulbs out." After I read you r post I went downstairs and took a good look around. Yeah I had a couple of lights out but the ones that were on were very dim. All of my shop and basement lighting were sourced used units from commercial building rehab projects. Even the bulbs were stock piled used units! I replace 4 florescent fixtures in the laundry room with 3 recessed LED can flood lights. Big difference! Now I told the wife "hey, I can see now, and it needs cleaning in here." [cl (P.S. I don't recommend sarcasm to the wife...)

Had almost the same issue with the wife. Closet has 4 bulbs all that worked intermittently - bulbs were good, contacts cleaned, dielectric grease on the pins. Nothing fixed it. Replaced all 4 with LED's (and eliminated the crappy solid state ballasts). Laundry had 3 bulbs, one working, replaced those with LED's. Big difference - I can actually tell what color T shirt I'm putting on.

 

[jfg455]

Best change for the money I've done to my shop by far. Big thanks to DJ3100 for posting this. Before I thought these bulbs were just urban legend and I wasn't able to find any. I will document how I swapped out 5 light fixtures worth of florecents for 5000K frosted T8 LED bulbs. I used ones that were direct power units meaning you have to remove the ballast from the fixture. I also picked the unit that has both the hot and neutral (black and white) on the same end of the bulb. Makes it super easy to convert.

Here is the light minus the florecent bulbs


On this style you remove the shield that sits over the bulbs. That exposes the ballast and wiring


Next cut the wires on the cord end away from the power in and the contacts for the bulbs. Leave enogh length to slice back together. Oh, make sure it is unplugged!



Because I used the sigle end styule LED bulb simply cut the wires off the other end. They are not needed.



here is the empty fixture after removing the ballast


Next wire nut one side of both contacts to the black wire or hot side. Connect the other 2 wires from the contacts to the white wire or neutral. This unit is switched at the light but others will simply have the power cord coming into it.


Assemble the fixture again. I label the power end as well as LED only because I will forget down the road


Now you can see how truely messy and dirty my shop is...seems I have some cleaning to do![cl

 

[jfg455]

I used the Hyperikon bulbs that are direct power (remove the ballast from the fixture), 5000k color, frosted with both hot and neutral on the same end. They were 15.82 ea when I bought a pack of 10 bulbs on Amazon with free shipping. Maybe 10-15 minutes per fixture to convert. I will be getting another 10 soon to do the rest of the lamps in the other side of my shop. At this cost it is cheaper than replacing the fixture, same labor to replace a ballast, and the lighting is far superior with less power usage. I think it is a no brainer.

 

[sgtpontiac]

Great post jfg....

Seems easy enough......nice that you did the blow by blow ....might even have convinced me to try a few.....

 

[DJ3100]

Yup, that's what I did. I used LE brand bulbs in the shop and Hyperikon bulbs in the house. Both install the same way. The ones in the house are clear because the fixtures have a diffuser. The shop uses the frosted ones.

The Hyperikon bulbs I got have a start delay of about 1 second. The LE bulbs come on instantly.

 

[Bamamav]

I may have to check into these! [cl

 

[jfg455]

The Hyperikon bulbs I got have a start delay of about 1 second. The LE bulbs come on instantly.

Funny, a bunch of people bashed the Hyperikon's for the delay start but I think it is minimal (I mean really, you can't wait 1 sec for the lights to come on??) and it is ten times better than waiting for the cold florescent to finally heat up and give off bright light...if ever...

 

[DJ3100]

Funny, a bunch of people bashed the Hyperikon's for the delay start but I think it is minimal (I mean really, you can't wait 1 sec for the lights to come on??) and it is ten times better than waiting for the cold florescent to finally heat up and give off bright light...if ever...

Ditto. Someone even quibbled about the .9 seconds saying it was really 1.1 seconds .... say what?

 

[soltz]

WOW

Lot's of light in the day light, got a be bright in the dark. [cl
Amazon 4 pack $77.90 delivered. Lowes wanted $24.99 each =(
Might have to get more [S

 

[Skip]

Wandered into Costco the other day for supplies. Tripped over a stack of LED shop light fixtures. $39.99 each. Ended up getting four.

Plug and play. Tested one in the kitchen. Instant "blinding" light! Now to make room for a ladder to install the things.

 

[sgtpontiac]

Wow...nice score....

Price was right....money well spent I'm sure...[cl

 

[DJ3100]

Thanks, I need a couple more

 

[dowoplover]

I work for an unnamed government owned mortgage institution as a building engineer. I just convinced my Boss to do a complete building changeover from flourescents to LED's (75,000sf). We buy from a national electrical supply business, but it still cost us over 25K total. It is worth the cost from a few standpoints. 1. payback, the bulbs have a life expectancy (warranty) of 50,000 hrs. Divide that by 8 - 10 hours per day of run time...over 14 yrs.
2. labor, no more changing bulbs two to three times per year at $30./hr.
3. they either work or they don't. No ballast to contend with. (However, they do make a "drop-in bulb" where you do not have to wire around the ballast) I could go on....

 

[sgtpontiac]

I was wondering about the costs saving

And how long it would take to recoup the additional cost....but they sure are bright...we just redid our department and part of the remodel was going to LED's and getting rid of the florescent tubes....got a tax credit I know ....that and something from our energy company too....my office is like daytime at 11pm...lol..
I like it bright but others are complaining about how bright they are...now we are looking into dimmer switches.....the drama continues... We were told that they need some kind of fancy dimmer to work properly....so a few were ordered up...

 

[8literbeater]

Dimmers:

Last year they took six fluorescent light fixtures out of my office, and replaced them with four LEDs. They are bright. I find it much harder to sleep now.

 

[DJ3100]

Dimmers:

Last year they took six fluorescent light fixtures out of my office, and replaced them with four LEDs. They are bright. I find it much harder to sleep now.

Does that mean you have more time to chase parts on Ebay?

 

[Ratrodjunkie]

They switched all the t8 fixtures in the shop I work at over the last year, it does make quite a difference on the brightness. Will be switching my old t8's over to LED's when they start giving me fits

 

[Sam_Fear]

Dimmers:

[cl[cl Perfect for a cop-shop. State troopers would need the mirrored version.

 

[Country Misfit]

Thax for posting this, I"m going to try some.

 

[joedoh]

I have been moving from my all seasons garage™ (the driveway) into the actual 2 car garage. it has one pitiful CFL in the center

so I did some searching and Home Depot sells commercial electric LED 4ft shop lights for $40. you have to get them online, at least as far as I saw because both HD were out of these but had a similar one for $10 more. free shipping online though

Ordered 6, they showed up today. I plugged one in and held it up to the ceiling and it was almost enough for the whole garage, so 6 oughta be outstanding. They are linkable, and come with a short cord, so no wiring mess. they also have the pull chain in the center, a nice feature.


the way I figure it, I could have found some fixtures on cl for half the price and estimating needing 1/2 the bulbs replaced immediately and the other 1/2 in the next 6 months, these were a no brainer. they have great reviews, the negative reviews are based on the lack of a surface mount. regarding that, they are so lightweight that I bet you could mount them with some 3M velcro.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-4-ft-LED-Linkable-White-Shop-Light-54103161/205331022