09-03-2020, 06:56 PM | #1 |
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Garage lights
I had 15 4 tube florescent lights in my 2+ car garage to give me light for working on vehicles.
A few weeks ago I decided that to convert to LEDs. After a bit of research I choose a 9600 80 watt Led light with adjustable panels to replace 4 sets of lights and installed it. I was amazed at the amount of light and ordered 5 more to replace the remainder of the florescent fixtures. The light in the garage is significantly better than before and it costs less to run them. The current joke is for the last person out of the garage is required to turn the sun off. The biggest issue was to dispose of the old fixtures and florescent 60 tubes. |
09-03-2020, 07:00 PM | #2 |
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Re: Garage lights
That sounds great!
Can you post a picture of the replacement units? R/ Roger. |
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09-03-2020, 07:11 PM | #3 |
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Re: Garage lights
What was total cost and have you calculated what electrical savings will be ?
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09-03-2020, 07:21 PM | #4 |
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Re: Garage lights
I found the best price at Costco. Their lights were made by Feit electric. Savings are dependent upon how much time you spend in the garage. I replaced all of the lights in my house and garage and the electric bill dropped about 30%.
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09-03-2020, 07:25 PM | #5 |
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Re: Garage lights
If your lamps have green end on the end of your tubes that means that they are eco friendly and can be disposed in you trash .as for the ballast if they are electronic they would not have PCB’s and also could be thrown in your trash best of luck to you
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09-03-2020, 07:36 PM | #6 |
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Re: Garage lights
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09-03-2020, 07:49 PM | #7 |
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Re: Garage lights
As part of the move to low energy use (and hence carbon emissions), our Government has been changing over any old incandescent or fluorescent lights for the low energy consumption LED replacement free of charge to the home owner. I agree - for a fraction of the energy, lightis much better. There is the cold bluish light and the warmer more yellow light. We take our pick.
In the workshop, they have proved to be a wonder but I still prefer to work on the car just inside the open roller door where I can see our resident King Parrots, Rosellas, Magpies, Kookaburras etc. It makes working on the car a pleasure.
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09-03-2020, 08:51 PM | #8 |
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Re: Garage lights
A good friend installed LED lights in their kitchen which I believe were the tube type. During an outage (we have a lot of those in CA) when his generator was running his wife called him to the kitchen because smoke was coming from several of the lights. They called the local fire department and after resolving the issue they told him some of the LED's can be a problem when using a generator. Evidently on the cheaper stand by generators the sine wave isn't very good and it causes the lights to heat up and smoke then start smoldering, etc. I haven't had a problem personally but am using a Honda generator which has a near perfect sine wave. Only saying this as an issue to consider when using LEDs and a generator and am assuming the FD personnel know what they are talking about!
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09-03-2020, 09:27 PM | #9 |
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Re: Garage lights
Do not throw ballast in the garbage. Take them to your local metal recycler.
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09-04-2020, 03:30 AM | #10 |
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Re: Garage lights
I replaced the 4' florescents in my shop with LEDs from Amazon. These were the most lumins per dollar I could find at the time. Bought two boxes of 25 and used most of them.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Current draw went from just over 27 amps, to right around 10 amps and the increase in light is amazing.
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09-04-2020, 08:34 AM | #11 |
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Re: Garage lights
I had two sets of 8 ft high output T-12 Florescents in my home garage and swapped them out for 8 4ft LED shop lights from Rural King on sale for 19 bucks each. Made a HUGE difference in light output and amp draw. Luckily I have a dumpster at work for the old fixtures and bulb disposal.
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09-04-2020, 11:44 AM | #12 |
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Re: Garage lights
Switched my shed lights over from Florescents to the LED's a few years back.
First thing I noticed is that they are much brighter, but tend to throw a different shadow - hard to explain. Second thing noticed is they start out bright, even when they are cold. The Florescents, if it is below 30, they go into dim mode until they warm up. The third and big thing I noticed with the LEDs is that I am not replacing them each year. With the Florescents they would last about a year - 40x60 shed, get out the tall ladder, work your way around the cars and toys, change bulbs. How much money am I saving? Cannot give an exact amount, but can see the difference in the electric bill. |
09-04-2020, 11:54 AM | #13 |
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Re: Garage lights
I’m replacing four fluorescent panels with four LED panels in the next couple of weeks in mine.
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09-04-2020, 05:18 PM | #14 |
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Re: Garage lights
LEDs are great, now. If someone wants good lighting during the day with the electric meter not spinning , look at solar tubes lighting.
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09-04-2020, 06:07 PM | #15 |
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Re: Garage lights
I replaced all of the fluorescent 4' lights with 4' LED's from Rural King,$19 on sale on the top floor which is where I mainly work from. I placed the old fluorescent lights in the basement level of the garage and replaced all incandescent lights in the house basement and garage. The LED's are so much brighter, start out bright when winter hits, (I heat the shop at 50 Degrees F.) and no more buzzing from the ballast.
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09-04-2020, 08:16 PM | #16 |
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Re: Garage lights
For getting rid of the old lights, if you have a local Craigslist, someone will take them off your hands.
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09-04-2020, 08:33 PM | #17 |
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Re: Garage lights
i switched over to LED in my house,garage, and shop including the paint booth. it is nice to turn on the lights and all of them come at the same time. and they don`t hum like the fluorescent`s.
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09-05-2020, 01:33 AM | #18 |
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Re: Garage lights
I have about 12 4' LED fixtures, a mixture of Harbor Freight and Home Depot house brands. They REALLY light up the garage and I can really see what I am doing. Really a blessing. Now, when I go to other's shops, they seem dark. I can also say that it can be annoying when I am under the car laying on my back looking up. If the bright light shines in my face, it's hard to see what's under the car. But I like having the light and it doesn't break the bank either for the cost of the fixtures or the power to run them.
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09-05-2020, 09:04 AM | #19 |
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Re: Garage lights
I had 8-4 tube T5 fluorescent fixture in my shop. They were state of the art in shop lighting at the time and were quite good. Several years ago I replaced them with 4-250 watt LED's. HUGE difference but in my case, no power savings. Power consumption is about the same. I had the LED guy come out with samples and I huge 1 of the 250's in the middle of the shop temporarily just to see and the one light lit up the shop better than the 8 T5's.
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09-05-2020, 12:38 PM | #20 |
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Re: Garage lights
If you want to save a little money, you can convert your current flo fixtures to LED with a simple rewire of the tombstones and no more ballasts. LED's just need power from one end like a normal light bulb. So, all you have to purchase is the LED tube.
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09-06-2020, 07:21 AM | #21 |
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Re: Garage lights
Yes as 2935ford posted, the existing lights can be converted to LED with a simple rewire and the ballast can be left in place if you want. Check the 1000 Bulbs web site for great pricing on the LED replacement bulbs.
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09-06-2020, 08:53 AM | #22 |
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Re: Garage lights
Ten years ago I renovated our old barn into a 5 bedroom lodging and event venue
(1915barn.net). I am nutso about keeping track of our energy use at the Barn via spreadsheets so the numbers used below are accurate. Three years ago I replaced every incandescent bulb with an LED one. Today I calculated the average monthly use of energy for the last three years with incandescent bulbs and compared it to the average monthly use of LED bulbs over a similar time period. Our electrical usage comparing these two averages is down 54%. The averages are 1426 kWh per month before replacement to 660 kWh per month after. The boiler and stove both use natural gas. The clothes dryer is electric. So almost all of the savings should be due to the switch from incandescent bulbs to LED ones. Now it was a considerable out lay of money to switch over to LED bulbs, even though the initial purchase was made when there was an amazing sale at Home Depot on LED bulbs. Also note that though they say the LED bulbs should last 8 to 10 years, in the last three years I have replaced about 6 to 8 bulbs out of perhaps 100. My belief was and is that in the long run we would be saving money by using less energy. I had no idea that it would be so drastic. Note: all are screw in bulbs. P.S. anyone want to buy a sh*tload of incandescent bulbs....cheap! |
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09-06-2020, 10:57 AM | #23 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
I have a big box of them also, many gone now. .
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09-06-2020, 06:59 PM | #24 |
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Re: Garage lights
I used LED bulbs from Home Depot and replaced two of the flourescents in each fixture with LEDs. They work perfectly. Did not have to rewire anything.
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09-10-2020, 01:11 PM | #25 |
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Re: Garage lights
They are good, but a friend in his garage went overboard with the LED's overhead, and it hurts your eyes to be in there. I told him 'It's like staring at a welder' and he just laughed. He could have gotten by with half of what he has.
Is there some kind of formula an electrician would go by for what you actually need? |
09-10-2020, 01:50 PM | #26 |
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Re: Garage lights
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09-10-2020, 02:16 PM | #27 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
Charlie Stephens |
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09-14-2020, 09:37 PM | #28 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
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09-15-2020, 10:59 AM | #29 |
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Re: Garage lights
LEDs run on DC, so any that are energized from AC power need a power supply the converts the AC to DC at the proper voltage.
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09-15-2020, 11:20 AM | #30 |
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Re: Garage lights
My experience is that the light output is great, the energy usage is great but the fixture throws off radio frequencies that interfere with the FM radio in our kitchen.
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09-16-2020, 12:32 PM | #31 |
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Re: Garage lights
Yes, different shadow. Or hardly any shadow at all. And no heat.
I get mine from Harbor Freight. |
09-16-2020, 12:42 PM | #32 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
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09-16-2020, 03:43 PM | #33 |
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Re: Garage lights
so all we need to do is to connect two wires into one tombstone? do you know what the colors would be of those two wires?
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09-16-2020, 06:56 PM | #34 |
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Re: Garage lights
I just switched over to these LED’s last week. I had the T12 Now they are much brighter . No wiring change plug and play.
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09-17-2020, 03:30 AM | #35 |
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Re: Garage lights
Ballast bypass bulbs are the better choice in my opinion. If you keep your old ballast it will eventually fail and you will need to replace it or get a ballast bypass bulb, In the meantime you are buying electricity to operate the old ballast.
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09-17-2020, 04:21 AM | #36 |
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Re: Garage lights
We changed everything over to LED and put solar with a powerwall battery and haven’t
Bought any electricity in 6 mos. We’ll see what the winter time brings. Before all of our outside lights alone were 1800 watts, with LED its under 100w. The garage LED fixtures came from Home Depot and Harbor freight. |
09-17-2020, 05:06 AM | #37 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
Last edited by old31; 10-29-2020 at 08:22 AM. |
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09-17-2020, 09:32 AM | #38 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
The higher quality generators have a "pure sine wave" inverter. The small Honda 2000 generator is pure sine wave and everything works with it. If you are buying a generator, be aware of its limitations. Edit to add: All modern RVs equipped with LED lighting will have a pure sine wave inverter(for running off batteries in the RV) and generator. Last edited by BillLee/Chandler, TX; 09-17-2020 at 09:43 AM. |
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09-17-2020, 09:36 AM | #39 | ||
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
Quote:
Be careful here! LED bulbs are made to simply replace an existing fluorescent with no rewiring needed, and others are made which REQUIRE rewiring. The two kinds are NOT interchangeable AFAIK. |
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09-17-2020, 09:40 AM | #40 |
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Re: Garage lights
The LED bulbs that are intended to replace an equivalent incandescent all have electronics in the base to do that conversion.
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09-17-2020, 10:01 AM | #41 |
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Re: Garage lights
A 4ft LED fixture is pretty cheap. I bought a 10 pack and they ended up costing $14. per light. Much easier taking an old light down and putting up a new one. Nothing needed re-wired. I saw some 4ft shop lights at wallmart that even had a bluetooth speaker in them. Now those were pricey at about $25 ea. and I would have my doubts about the sound quality, but it seems like a good idea. My shop radio will do the job for now just fine.
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09-17-2020, 10:03 AM | #42 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
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09-18-2020, 02:39 AM | #43 |
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Re: Garage lights
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09-18-2020, 07:28 AM | #44 |
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Re: Garage lights
Nice looking service bay!
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09-18-2020, 08:27 AM | #45 | |
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Re: Garage lights
Quote:
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