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Thread: Shop lighting......

  1. #46
    Technology rules here, LED strip lights have it hands down. I cannot see another option?

  2. #47
    Jim and everyone,
    I did the same thing, but I have one question. The circuits I have are all 20 amp and are wired with 12 guage wire to the light fixture. The wire inside the fixture is 14 and sometimes even lighter to the tombstones. Is that heavy enough, or would all the wire whips and jumpers between the tombstones have to be 12 guage as well?
    thanks,

  3. #48
    Quote Originally Posted by stevo wis View Post
    Jim and everyone,
    I did the same thing, but I have one question. The circuits I have are all 20 amp and are wired with 12 guage wire to the light fixture. The wire inside the fixture is 14 and sometimes even lighter to the tombstones. Is that heavy enough, or would all the wire whips and jumpers between the tombstones have to be 12 guage as well?
    thanks,
    You only need wire large enough to support the current running through them. So if you daisy-chain lights, the wire in the first fixture needs to be large enough for the load downstream. Since #14 is good for 15 amps in the distances we're talking about, that would be a LOT of lights.

  4. #49
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    I found this interesting article.

    https://www.mouser.com/applications/..._calculations/

    I am building a new shop and need to decide on lighting. Seems that LED is the clear choice, but what format given I own no fixtures today, I want as low profile as possible, I will be lighting 2400 sq ft well so I need a lot of fixtures, and I worry about form factor obsolescence.

  5. #50
    Well, now I have my bedtime reading.

    On form factor, so much of our lives is ruled by ancient form factor and user interface limitations these days. A shop light *probably* only has that shape because of the shape of fluorescent tubes. But the shape probably remains so people will not reject something that looks different. In tech, we have so many silly skeuomorphs that that have no current relevance, but we have to keep them to make humans happy. Like VoIP phones do not have or use dial tone, but they fake it. I constantly have to explain that, and just because the phone made the fake dial tone does not mean you have valid service. Silly.

  6. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carlos Alvarez View Post
    Well, now I have my bedtime reading.

    On form factor, so much of our lives is ruled by ancient form factor and user interface limitations these days. A shop light *probably* only has that shape because of the shape of fluorescent tubes. But the shape probably remains so people will not reject something that looks different. In tech, we have so many silly skeuomorphs that that have no current relevance, but we have to keep them to make humans happy. Like VoIP phones do not have or use dial tone, but they fake it. I constantly have to explain that, and just because the phone made the fake dial tone does not mean you have valid service. Silly.
    I agree completely. I love these "new form factor" lights but I doubt that I will be able to buy replacements in that form factor in 10, or even 5 years. If I use them I would have like 160 four foot fixtures, many connected end to end.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #52
    I just clipped the wires short to the ballasts before I removed them, then used those wires to rewire the fixtures. LED bulbs take less current than the original fluorescent bulbs, so that should be fine. Have not had a single bulb fail since changing them out, so would consider that a WIN! And the light in the shop is great.

  8. #53
    Quote Originally Posted by Joe Jensen View Post
    I agree completely. I love these "new form factor" lights but I doubt that I will be able to buy replacements in that form factor in 10, or even 5 years. If I use them I would have like 160 four foot fixtures, many connected end to end.

    Joe those are basically what I bought for my shop and garage. I bought direct from China and made sure they were UL compliant. They are 5' long about 1 1/2" wide and high. 4000 lumen, 40 watt equivalent, 6000K. I put 16 in a 625 square foot shop, in four rows linked together. My ceilings are 9' to 12' high but if taller there are lots of higher output fixtures that would light the space with fewer fixtures. Just because we had replaceable bulbs for the last hundred years doesn't mean we should still use them now when the LED's may last 20+ years. If the fixtures already exist then replacement bulbs make sense. If starting from scratch then the new units make sense. At $17 each one can always buy a few extra to keep as replacements.

  9. #54
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    Jun 2015
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    Just thought Id post there here too, to see what others thought about this conclusion Ive come to. Maybe Im missing something:

    I kicked around the idea of converting the shop lighting to LED for a bit, but honestly when I really thought about it I just couldnt figure out how to justify it. Most of the bulb and fixture options out there are produced by no name brands and that concerned me regarding the longevity and quality of the product. Then there was the issue with color temperature, I like my work light at 5000K and not all LED solutions offer that. Some dont even state what color temp they are. And lastly there was the issue with the amount of lumens they put out. I bought a box of Phillips 5000K 2600 lumen T8 bulbs (LINK) and use them in 2x4' fixtures. Two of those is 5200 lumens per fixture and the only cost was the bulb replacement since the ballasts I had were already 32W T8 compatible. I dont think I have seen a 4' LED fixture or two 4' LED replacement bulbs that went up that high in lumens AND was 5000K color temp. So for me, for approximately $60 shipped I was able to light up my shop like the sun with a full spectrum bulb and at the color temp I wanted. I'd suggest considering that route unless you are dead set on saying you have the shop lit with LEDs or reeeeeeeally have to save that extra power.
    If at first you don't succeed, redefine success!

  10. #55
    Having actually started to move to LED, my experience will be different from yours. I've seen that they are better in so many ways. The energy savings depends on how much you use them, and we tend to run them a lot. Then there's longevity, I have had a lot more time between failures on LEDs than fluorescents. In winter, even good tubes start up with less light and a different spectrum, while LEDs don't visibly change. None of those are major things, but they add up to me being happy with LED.

    Oh, recently I thought some rigid LED strips were going bad after five years of hanging on my garage door. I used 12v lightweight LED strips on the door, because I *always* have it open when I'm in the shop, and the door is over the assembly area and table saw. I was disappointed. Glad my brain kicked in and I decided to test the power supply. It was the problem, and I've got a lot of 12v power bricks laying around.

  11. #56
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    A couple of years ago, I replaced the 4' fluorescent bulbs in 9 fixtures, each with 4 bulbs, with LED bulbs.

    These bulbs do away with the ballast.

    They are 2340 lumens, 5000K. Very easy to install.

    The light is much better in my 30' x 30' x 9'H workshop.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

  12. There is a good article in this month's edition of "Wood" magazine that discusses shop light. The hi-lights of said article (which focuses on LED lighting)....

    "75 lumens per sqft of shop space." I just recently lit up my shop. I bought six 8 foot Envirolite shop lights. I knew nothing of this article until after the fixtures were purchased. I got lucky. My shop <cough> garage is about 580 sqft. Each of these 6 lights generates 7200 lumens (1800 lumens per bulb). Now I have a total of 43,200 lumens in my shop. 580 sqft x 75 lumens per sqft = 43,500 lumens required. I pretty much nailed it on instinct.

    Another major factor is the amount of Kelvins the bulbs put out. This was all new to me as far as any lighting goes and was very interesting. They have a nice chart in the article. You want to be in the 4000-5500 K range for "pure white" light that's best for a shop. Apparently, anything higher can distort vision making it difficult to discern wood tones. At the 3000 K range is where you'll find the lighting warm toned.

    My light fixtures came with 5000 K bulbs. My shop is now wonderfully bright. Even the natural daylight (also 3000K - as a point of interest, an overcast sky is at 7500K) coming in the garage windows doesn't stand up to what my new light can do. At night, the outside of my house looks like there's a lighthouse in my garage. It brightens the street.

    FYI. I didn't know Envirolite existed until I went shopping. I'm not a rep. It's just what a chose after research. They are expensive at $80 per light. But, I'm happy.

  13. #58
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    I bought some 4 ft and 8 ft tubes from Green Light depot and really like them I got the bypass ones and my shop is so much brighter that I cut back from 10 to 8 fixtures and it is still a lot brighter then it was before. I also like that they don't need to warm up in the winter time.

  14. #59
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    McDonald, PA
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    Anyone know of any similar information for LED lighting?

  15. #60
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    Ron, the original article was written for Fine Wood Working by Jack Lindsey who is a retired lighting engineer. I don't see Jack post much here these days but maybe he could rewrite the article to include information for LED lighting.
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

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