Shop Lighting with Flourescent Floods

[Bob Aquino]

When I put new ductwork in to go with the new dust collector I had to move the old double 40 fixtures. Lighting had always been a sore spot in the garage/workshop so I used the opportunity to change the system. I have slowly been converting the house incandescents to the small compact flourescents (CF) and decided to go the same route here. I wanted bright task lighting and I wanted the electric bills to go down. I picked up 4 double packs of 65w equivalent CF bulbs that draw 14 watts apiece. I used some of the exterior floodlamp fixtures and mounted them on pvc boxes and used conduit to hold the wiring. The result is a shop that is very bright and draws about 100 watts for all the bulbs. I also wired in an automatic sensor switch that turns the lights on when somebody walks in automatically. I was forever finding the lights on in the morning after being left on all night. All told I think the whole conversion cost around 100 bucks including the lights which were about 7 bucks each at HD or Lowes. Only downside to the lights is that they take about 2 mins to come up to full brightness. Overall, the space is much brighter and there are no dark corners anymore.

[Tom Hintz]

Bob,

This is very interesting to me. I am fed up with the traditional 4-foot tubes and look forward to the day I can smash all of them to bits.
I like your idea of the flourescent floods and think I will give them a try.
Have you had them long enough to get a feel for their life span?

[Jim Becker]

My only concern with these bulbs would be "color"...you don't have the choices available that you do with tubes. But for general lighting that's easy to deal with other overhead things, this is a great idea!

[Chris Padilla]

Interesting, Bob. I recently (~6 months ago) installed these halogen fixtures in my garage/shop.

Since I had nothing in my garage save for my garage door opener light for a while, the halogens were an enormous improvment. However, they get hot and therefore waste a lot of energy in the form of heat. The heat doesn't bug me since I have a half-vaulted ceiling in my garage (yes, that is an air compressor mounted on the ceiling so to speak) but they suck the juice. Now you've got me thinking a bit.

I picked up 5 of these fixtures for $80 plus shipping.

[Bob Aquino]

These lights are on the warm side for color temperature. Much closer to an incandescent. That doesnt bother me a bit since I don't really care for the much cooler temp of traditional 40w tubes. As to longevity, its way too new to tell, but they are rated in thousands of hours.

Halogens are good for the light output, but they do suck juice. In the winter months you probably wont have to run any heaters with a few of them burning. Like I said, the whole set of 8 lights draws a bit over 100 watts total.

[Michael Campbell]

Bob,

This is very interesting to me. I am fed up with the traditional 4-foot tubes and look forward to the day I can smash all of them to bits.
I like your idea of the flourescent floods and think I will give them a try.
Have you had them long enough to get a feel for their life span?

Fluoros typically last a really long time.

What don't you like about the 4' tubes?

[Chris Padilla]

Personally, I don't like the tubes due to the buzzing I always seem to hear around them. I dunno if the F floods are any different.

[Larry Browning]

I have the t8 fixtures with electronic ballist. There isn't any buzzing and cold temps don't affect them. They are great! Thay are also much more energy efficient that the older, fatter t12's.

Larry

[Mark Stutz]

Larry,
All this electrical jargon is Greek to me. I didn't know the were flourescent fixtures the didn't hum! Can I retrofit the ones I have? Any info would be appreciated.

Bob, sorry if I'm hijacking this thread.

Mark

[Larry Browning]

I got mine at HD for about $48 each for a 8' fixture. I think it's the electronic ballast that stops the humming. Check with HD or any lighting supplier for all the info.

[Jim Becker]

All this electrical jargon is Greek to me. I didn't know the were flourescent fixtures the didn't hum! Can I retrofit the ones I have? Any info would be appreciated.
Many folks only have experience with the inexpensive "shop lights" that are sold at the home centers. These are not quality fixtures and generally hum like the dickens and don't like low temps. Even the $24 low temp units are an upgrade and are largely silent. (What I have in my shop)

You may or may not be able to retrofit, but unless you have the more expensive fixtures, it's probably not worth it...buying a new T8 fixture may actually be less expensive. The quality of the fixture itself is something included in the price!

[Steve Hepditch]

Bob,
I'm interested to hear how the new fixtures act in low temps. I'm the prototypical 4' shop-light guy with the buzzy fixtures that don't agree with winter work. Ironically enough, since I listen to a lot of AM radio in the shop, when the lights are on, it plays heck with the reception. Since your system seems like a pretty cost-effective way to upgrade, I'm wondering if they have cold temperature issues?

Steve

[Frank Pellow]

I have the t8 fixtures with electronic ballist. There isn't any buzzing and cold temps don't affect them. They are great! Thay are also much more energy efficient that the older, fatter t12's.

Larry

Larry, I am planning on using T8s in my new shop. What brand and model of fixtures and tubes have you got? Even with T8s, there seems to be a lot of variety out there and I am looking for reccemendations from satisfied users.

[Bob Aquino]

I have a couple of these bulbs outside on the back porch. In winter temps, they take about 2-3 mins to come up to full brightness. They would not be a good solution for a motion detect system since they would take too long to illuminate the area. For lamps that are on for a while, they are very cost effective, using about a fifth of the energy.

The best part of this whole upgrade is that they are BRIGHT! Cause they are floodlamps, they focus the light on the work area and are not as diffuse as typical 40w tubes. The fixtures I use let you point em where you want. They don't buzz and installation is very straightforward. I have 8 of them in my 20x24 shop and I have no dark corners anymore.

I've also found smaller 5w r20 CF bulbs to retrofit in the track lighting in my kitchen. Initially there were 50w r20 bulbs in each fixture (6 all told). I found a blister pack of bulbs at HD that were rated for 50w light output but draw about 5 watts each. So instead of drawing 300 wats, I'm down to about 30. I think the blister pack of five bulbs was about 15 bucks.


Bob,
I'm interested to hear how the new fixtures act in low temps. I'm the prototypical 4' shop-light guy with the buzzy fixtures that don't agree with winter work. Ironically enough, since I listen to a lot of AM radio in the shop, when the lights are on, it plays heck with the reception. Since your system seems like a pretty cost-effective way to upgrade, I'm wondering if they have cold temperature issues?

Steve