LED garage lights

[TH47Indy]

Looking to replace my florescent lights in my garage with new LED shop lights. Any experiences, recommendations or suggestion for the best type for a large space with higher ceilings?

[joe fxs fxr]

I went with an Amazon package of 12 LED tubes and replacement tube holders that use the fluorescent housings and removed the ballasts. Did my whole garage and were brighter and whiter than the fluorescent ones. Took a little time to rewire the fixtures, but not hard.

[Jerry Wieland]

I just did some lights in our Church recently. We used direct wire LED's - had to remove the ballasts and rewire the fixture. On a normal Fluorescent fixture the Line/hot wire is on one end and the Neutral is on the other. On LED's one prong is the hot and the other prong is the neutral and the far end is not wired and merely holds the bulb in the air and the bulbs need to go in the right way. Definitely brighter and the ladies love it but too soon to tell reliability.

[ChiefTwoKicks]

I recently replaced my two banks of antiquated 8ft. four bulb florescent shop lights. Bought 4 lites, each with two 4ft LED bulbs. Rated @5500w each lite. WOW !! what a difference ! and all less than $80. I've had those old lights for way too long. Sure brightened up my shop, my ceiling height is about 12ft in my shop, with about 400sqft. of workspace.

Check out HarborFreight.com, they have a variety of lights to choose from. I also put 2 more lites of same wattage out in the pole barn. Not as many, and the ceiling is 13ft where I hung the lights, but enough light for that, maybe not enough for bench work or something where you need more brightness. But the pole barn, I could have got away with only one LED.

I was surprized that I got so much more for so little. Simply plug them in...

C2K

[Bob W]

Harbor Freight has a coupon on occasion for $20.00 each for 10 W shop lights. I bought one and then replaced the rest of the old two light units and have brighter light with less electric use. Big box also carry them for about the same as HF noncoupon price.

[Skirted]

How high is you ceiling? Anything under 12' a standard LED fixture should be OK. The less bright (reflectivity) the surrounding area has the more fixtures you may need. I converted some 4 bulb 4' fluorescent fixtures in my garage because they are recessed and and it would have been a PITA to fit a new fixture and frame around it. As mentioned above, the ballast gets removed and sockets rewired which is not too bad but sometimes old sockets are brittle and crack and need replaced.

I have also installed new LED fixtures and in my opinion the dedicated LED fixture is brighter than the retrofit florescent-style tube with LEDS inside them and for me that is the preferred method. Also agree Harbor Freight is a good place to look for fixtures. Most all of them are made in china anyway so it doesn't matter where you buy.
Best thing to do is buy a couple fixtures and install them then you can see how many you will need based on the amount of light they make and what you are happy with.

If you have ceilings over 12' you may want to look at commercial grade fixtures with higher lumen output. Some fixtures have a diffuser which lessens the retina piercing bright LED if you look directly at them, while other fixtures do not and I prefer the latter as the diffuser will slightly lessen the light reaching the work area.....in my experience anyway

[Spag]

After replacing several ballasts for $25+, I decided to consider LED replacements because of their purported brilliance and longevity. My garage was illuminated with several two 4ft. side by side fluorescent fixtures. I decided to keep the same format when considering the change. I found a flush fitting fixture with a diffusing cover on Amazon being sold in bulk (Four fixture packages). The fixtures were sold by a company called antlux. I took a chance and purchased them. Installation was easy because the fixtures are self contained. No wiring changes. Just install them flush to the ceiling and connect the wiring to the existing power and ground source. I agree with Jason about buying fixtures with a diffusing cover. I did replace a hanging 4ft. fixture with one with just exposed LED bulbs and they are harsh on the eyes if you look up at them. That’s why a diffusing LED fixture is best in my opinion. Attached is a photo of the LED lights in my garage. It’s like having sunshine in garage all the time. These fixtures are expense. I paid $62 each one year ago but they are now selling for $75. Worth the cost because of their brilliance and projected longevity in my opinion.

[Rubone]

I put three Hazard Fraught single tube LEDs down the center of my 40" storage container and it was amazing. No more flashlights or headlights to see whats where. I also replaced the old twin tube florescents in the shop with the same and the singles produce twice as much light, no flickering, no cold startup issues, etc.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

When I moved to the new 750 sq foot shop, I installed 20, 5500 lumen LED lamps. It gives me about 125 candle feet of light per square foot or pretty close to filtered sunlight.

it’s the very best thing I’ve ever done.

instant start, no flickering, and a whopping 4.5 amp draw for a shadow free shop.

I initially bought all my lamps from Menards. But, the Menards lamps had a defect, the heat sinks were way too tiny for running them 8-12 hours. Within 18 months half burnt out with around 2000 hours of use. Only half the led failed. I got replacement credits and upgraded to the next light and have had no more failures.

I also added lights above the bench and through the loft in led and couldn’t be happier.

having no shadows is GREAT. BUT I can now see flaws really clearly.

I honestly can’t recommend doubling your fixtures strongly enough. You can run several led for the same amperage as fluorescent. More light = more happy eyes.

they also are light weight meaning it’s dead easy to hang them or mount them on the wall for side light.

[Lyle Manheimer]

I built my garage about 8 years ago and put 6 tube T8's in it. The fixtures were expensive and were a PIA to install due to a very high ceiling needed to rent scaffold to do it safely. Over time the tubes have been failing. My dilemma was either to rent scaffold and rewire and remove ballasts or buy plug and play LED's. Pricing on the plug and play LED's was competitive with the rewire LED's at Lowes. I opted for the plug and play version. What a difference! So now I will replace the T8"s as they fail with plug and play LED's.

[TH47Indy]

Thanks everyone!
Lots of great options, sounds like I'm going to regret not doing this sooner.
Now I just need to select the lights, but it's sounds like everyone is happy with their results.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

Here's a couple of photos of the shop with all 20 LEDs on . . .this photo was taken at night so there's no sunlight filtering in. Notice there's almost no shadows -- and that is what is so very nice about having multiple LED lights. Not only is it bright . . but I don't have to move my head around trying to look around a shadow. It also means I don't lose stuff that I drop on the floor.

When I did the walls and painted them white -- I swear the light appeared 20% brighter. If I ever paint the floor . . I expect even better lighting.

As we all "age" having good, bright light is often the difference between enjoying shop time and cursing a lot.

[TH47Indy]

Here's a couple of photos of the shop with all 20 LEDs on . . .this photo was taken at night so there's no sunlight filtering in. Notice there's almost no shadows -- and that is what is so very nice about having multiple LED lights. Not only is it bright . . but I don't have to move my head around trying to look around a shadow. It also means I don't lose stuff that I drop on the floor.

When I did the walls and painted them white -- I swear the light appeared 20% brighter. If I ever paint the floor . . I expect even better lighting.

As we all "age" having good, bright light is often the difference between enjoying shop time and cursing a lot.

Looks great! I am kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

I have 8) standard 4 tube lights now, and I thought it was just my eyesight getting worse in dark areas. I've been working on my '75 Fiat, and rolled it out the garage to work on it and was amazed at how much easier it was to work on it. So nows the time to upgrade.

And always chasing small stuff that I dropped on the floor. I use a large piece of old carpet under the Indian, and it keeps small parts from bouncing away when dropped.

[Steve Slocombe]

I was feeling OK about my fluorescent tubes until I found they added up to 500 watts and were on 8 hours a day. Now as much light or more by replacing the tubes with LEDs and about a fifth of the power consumption. Should have done it earlier.

[T. Cotten]

There's over 125 4ft fluorescents in my shop, Folks,...

So I gotta ask: Do the LEDs use the old ballasts?

Thanks in advance as always,

....Cotten