Shop lighting advice

[Zach Dickason]

I read the sticky, my eyes glazed over.

I have a basement shop that needs lighting. There are currently 4 single bulb lights each with a pull chain. I would love to add 6 or 7, 4’ flouresent lights into the shop but not knowing much in the way of electrical work I think it will be easiest to just swap out the 4 lights with 4’ shop lights. My question is; I can’t add numerous lights so I need the 4 to be pretty bright. I assume this means led. Can anyone recommend 4’ lights that will fit the bill here.

It would be great if they were inexpensive as well, thanks

[Carlos Alvarez]

If you use 12v rigid LED strip lights, you can just deal with non-dangerous low voltage wiring. I wanted lights on my garage door since I always work with it open, and my TS/assembly table are just under it when it's open. I put three 4' LED strips on it, and ran a 12v wire through a loom with enough slack to let the door open/close. I'd consider that too dangerous for 120v lighting.

The ones I bought are no longer sold, but there are plenty out there.

[Zach Dickason]

I’m comfortable wiring things but I’m wary adding lines and messing with the breaker box. That’s why I thought I’d just replace the pull chain fixtures with 4’ lights. If I link 2 lights per fixture I’ll have 8 total which would be awesome. I’ll probably just buy whatever led fixtures I find at Rural King

[John K Jordan]

I read the sticky, my eyes glazed over.

I have a basement shop that needs lighting. There are currently 4 single bulb lights each with a pull chain. I would love to add 6 or 7, 4’ flouresent lights into the shop but not knowing much in the way of electrical work I think it will be easiest to just swap out the 4 lights with 4’ shop lights. My question is; I can’t add numerous lights so I need the 4 to be pretty bright. I assume this means led. Can anyone recommend 4’ lights that will fit the bill here.

It would be great if they were inexpensive as well, thanks

Zach,

When building my shop a few years ago I carefully considered lighting. Many were installing LED fixtures then and most seem fine, although some cheaper fixtures have insufficient heat sinks and I wouldn't be surprised if they died after a few years.

I decided on T5 fluorescents in fixtures with four 4' bulbs. They are brighter than T8s which are brighter than T12s. The brightness is amazing - some shop visitors joke they need sun glasses. (In my 24x62 shop I installed 9 fixtures with 4 bulbs each, advertised at 4000 lumens per bulb) The ballasts in them can be easily wired so just two bulbs in each fixture come on when the fixture is switched on. You wire a second switch to control the other two - I mount those switches higher on the wall above the primary switches. Most of the time I just use 1/2 the bulbs but the others are ready if I'm doing close work and want more light.

Home Depot sells 4-bulb fixtures and bulbs and around here they always have some turned on so you can see how bright they are. They are a little pricey as are the bulbs but I'm very happy with them.

Some fixtures hang down from the ceiling. If ceiling height is tight there are others that mount directly to the ceiling, still four 4' bulbs but those fixtures are 8' long.

JKJ

[Randy Heinemann]

If you simply want 4' shop lights and have enough outlets, Rockler has some LED that, when on sale, are not that expensive. Also, Menard's was selling them for awhile. Sam's Club (if you're a member) has them also. The prices on these keeps decreasing. I bought my first 4' LED shop light for $40. Now I commonly see them for $30. If you do buy LED, you should be sure they are 4000 lumens (maybe some are higher now). At this stage there probably would be no point in buying fluorescent anymore. LED give off much more light, use less electricity, and are less likely to break if bumped by a board in the shop. I just saw the other day that Rockler even sells 10000 Lumen LED stoplights which are linkable (meaning they can be chained together, requiring less outlets). Depending on the size of your shop, a few of those might be enough. They are about $80 apiece though. I'd wait for a sale.

[Zach Dickason]

Thanks for the advice. I’m planning to swap the bulb fixtures for outlets and then just plugging in whatever lights I buy. I’d like to purchase 4 lights at first and then link others if I find I need more light. So linkable is kind of a must for me. Are there any brands to stay away from? Amazon has hundreds and they’re hard to tell one from the other as far as quality.

[Peter Christensen]

You haven't said how big an area you need to illuminate.

In this thread there is some info that might help you. I'm not going to write it out again.

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?262824-LED-Lights-Power-Draw-Measured

[Zach Dickason]

It’s around 1000-1500 sq ft

[Jim Becker]

It’s around 1000-1500 sq ft

That's a significant area to light and to get the coverage you'll likely want for shop use, you'll need quite a few fixtures and probably an additional circuit or two...

[Tim Janssen]

It’s around 1000-1500 sq ft

You are going to need more then 4 fixtures. My shop is in the basement, about 350 sq.ft. White walls and ceiling, light grey floor and I have 8, 2 tube(4ft) fluorescent fixtures mounted on the ceiling. I don't consider that too much.

Tim

[Zach Dickason]

Whoa fellas, let’s take a step back here. I am what is commonly referred to as “poor”. Lights are expensive. I’m gonna start at 4 and add more when I can. I believe the lights are on two different circuits.

[Randy Heinemann]

Zach,

4' LED shop lights will put out much more light than fluorescent. However, the problem I found is that, if you don't have enough there will still be shadows, LED or not. If you are starting out with 4 fixtures you will need to strategically place them. I would guess, though, that you won't be satisfied with the result. The square footage in my shop is less than yours and I have more than double the number you are starting out with. I constantly feel that I don't have light in exactly the right spots even though, overall, the room is lighted well.

[John K Jordan]

Zach,

4' LED shop lights will put out much more light than fluorescent.


The 4' T5HO bulbs are rated at over 4000 lumens per bulb (some manufacturers claim 5000 lumens). Each 4-bulb fixture I use is then perhaps 16000+ lumens. The brightest 4' LED fixtures I found were advertised at 4000 lumens, much less than 16000 lumens.

These fixtures are used for high-bay lighting. I also bought several good quality LED fixtures for comparison and I like the T5s better for the shop. I put the LED fixtures in the barn.

JKJ

[Bryan Lisowski]

I would go with something like this for your shop.

https://www.amazon.com/Sunco-Lighting-PACK-Equivalent-Integrated/dp/B0748YTDMK/ref=sr_1_12?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1522236850&sr=1-12&keywords=led+shop+light

[Zach Dickason]

The Sunco brand seems to be about the best deal I’ve found. They have several bundles. I have no idea on the quality though.

[Jim Becker]

Zach, clearly the cost will be a challenge to equip your shop with enough light to effectively work safely, so if you have to start with four, then figure out "where" to most effectively use what you can initially afford. Pick a work area to do first, in other words. My shop is about 660 sq ft and I have approximately 18 4' LED "two tube" fixtures currently installed over two circuits and there is one area where I may add two more to fill the light in better. Yea, I like a lot of light, but it really does make a difference. I took advantage of sales on the LED shop lights from Costco and retrofitted over a period of time from older T12 fixtures to a mix of new LED fixtures and direct replacement LED "tubes".

BTW, and I'm sure you know this, but two switches doesn't mean two circuits...be sure you understand how your ceiling lamps are currently wired if they are switched, say...two and two. I suspect it's unlikely they are on separate circuits for just four lamps.

[Paul F Franklin]

Costco has, or had, 4 foot LEDs that are bright and also have the ability to be daisy chained. You plug one into outlet, and then plug the next one into the first, and so on. They came with two connectors, one that lets you butt the lights tight together, and the other that lets you space them up to several feet apart. A good solution for adding lights when you don't want to deal with running additional circuits. Because they are LED you can plug quite a few into one circuit.

[Jim Becker]

The ability to daisy-chain LED fixtures is very convenient and I used that to advantage in my shop. But there's a limit to the number of fixtures that can be daisy chained together and that's independent of the number of circuits required. I believe that the Costco units I have with daisy-chain capability can go no more than five in a chain. But you can have more than one chain on a given circuit up to the rating limits of that circuit. (I believe that's 80% of the circuit amperage rating, but could be mistaken on the number)

[Zach Dickason]

Is the plug to daisy chain lights together fairly universal. Meaning can I hook together lights of different brands? I only ask because I will be adding more lights to this setup in the future and it would be nice to just plug lights of a different manufacturer together.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Is the plug to daisy chain lights together fairly universal. Meaning can I hook together lights of different brands? I only ask because I will be adding more lights to this setup in the future and it would be nice to just plug lights of a different manufacturer together.

They vary, but most I've seen have a standard N5-15 household receptacle at the end opposite the input cable. I've seen some with the C5 (Mickey Mouse) type receptacle and plug, so while not proprietary, you need to use a male to female C5 cable to go between them. And in the 12v range, you usually get a barrel connector on both ends. Oh, the under-counter types seem to often have a Molex two-pin, again not proprietary but not something you'd just have laying around, probably. So you really need to check the one you're considering.

I have never seen a truly proprietary cable on one.

[John K Jordan]

Zach, clearly the cost will be a challenge to equip your shop with enough light to effectively work safely, so if you have to start with four, then figure out "where" to most effectively use what you can initially afford. ...

What I did was temporarily mount one fixture overhead then look at the light dispersion at working height. Based on that I decided the placement and how many fixtures to install. (I was also careful not to put a bright fixture where glare off my shiny table saw table wouldn't annoy me.)

[Zach Dickason]

Well I purchased 4 from Rural King (on sale). They are extremely bright and the color is spot on (5000k). I’m happy but I’ve been doing some research about diy shop lights using led strips and it looks extremely easy. I think for the rest of the lights I may just make them. The area directly over my table saw can’t fit a 4’ light anyway. I could just make a 2-3’ that would fit perfect.

[Pete Staehling]

I bought Feit 4' LED fixtures from Costco. They worked out very well for me. They were inexpensive and have been holding up fine for going on three years now.