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Good shop lights for 8ft ceiling?

G

Garwood

Diamond
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Location
Oregon
I've insulated a 30'x50' area of my shop with rigid foam. I had high bay LED lights set at 12' , but have dropped the ceiling down to make it flat at 8ft. Now I need different lighting.

I can just buy the cheap LED kitchen/bath fixtures. That will work, but wanted to see if anyone can recommend a brand/model that is worth paying a little extra for or any tools to figure out spacing.

The area is for laser marking, inventory storage and shipping. I like bright, even lighting.
 
My shop is 30' x 40' with a 10' ceiling. Planned it out by looking at the lighting plan that seems to be standard for offices with 4'x2' suspended ceiling panels and have 11 - 4 tube 4' fixtures spread over the ceiling in a 4-3-4 pattern. It's well lit. You might go with 14 on a 5-4-5 pattern. With direct wire LED bulbs the fixture is only a metal box with 8 lamp holders and a diffuser so I'm not sure there is much difference between "low" and "high" quality ones.

Steve
 
50 x 75 Shop area here, 10' + ceiling height. Installed 8' double tube flourecent fixtures 25 yrs ago. In the process of changing fixtures over to LED bulbs. Great light source but you've got to be careful with fixture placement with lower ceiling. You want to be sure the fixtures are directly overhead or slightly behind at each work station or you'll probably struggle with the bright glare common with led bulbs. We've got 30--8' fixtures in place.
 
wood2steel said:
50 x 75 Shop area here, 10' + ceiling height. Installed 8' double tube flourecent fixtures 25 yrs ago. In the process of changing fixtures over to LED bulbs. Great light source but you've got to be careful with fixture placement with lower ceiling. You want to be sure the fixtures are directly overhead or slightly behind at each work station or you'll probably struggle with the bright glare common with led bulbs. We've got 30--8' fixtures in place.
Click to expand...

I have industrial T5 fixtures I gutted and installed T5 LED's into. They are terrible below 12'. My ceiling is at 8' so I can't use anything that doesn't diffuse the light.

I've been using the LED replacement fluorescent bulbs for 5 years now and they are pretty much shit. They only last a couple years before they start burning out.

That's why I was thinking maybe some name brand fixtures made for my application would make sense in the long run.
 
i've been using the horror freight 5000 lumen 50w 4' hanging led's . they have a great
color temp and not a lot of glare . i have 20 ft ceilings , but hang them at 10.
lately they've been about $16 apiece. they've held up well after 2 yrs. out of 12 none
have failed i just strapped them under the old fluorescent jobs that don't work when it's under 45 degrees anyway . i even use one outside at home as a security lamp.
my backyard and pool is about 1/3 acre - it lights up the whole place.
 
I have an eight foot, white ceiling. I can't recommend any wonderful brands of fixtures as I have simple, $20 two tube fluorescents. They are around 6 - 8 feet apart and that is part of the good light I have.

Where I did go for quality was with the LED tubes I upgraded them with. Instead of using whatever the local home supply stores had, I purchased some Sunco brand, four foot LED tubes. They are excellent and in spite of the constant trouble those cheap shop lights were with ballasts and fluorescent bulbs, I have not had one instant of trouble since the change-over to LEDs. I did remove all the old (and some new) ballasts. The LEDs are connected directly to 115 VAC.

I love them.

PS: I also changed the many fluorcesent fixtures in my house to these same LED tubes. Altogether I have 39 of them in service for over three years now and not one single problem. In many of the fixtures in the house I was able to use just two or three LED tubes in place of the original four fluorescent ones. And I have MORE light in every area.
 
A few years ago, I changed the lighting in my shop from Fluorescent to LED. At the time the best I could find were Lithonia strip lights. I had it done professionally with 2 new circuits and 18 fixtures. Both circuits are switched at the entrance of the shop. Each fixture has its own twist lock outlet in the unfinished ceiling and an 8-foot cord with a matching plug. I used 35K dual element strips.

The fixtures are hung with chains a few inches below ceiling level. I opted for this arrangement because I seem to be continually moving and adding machines. The lights can be easily moved and strategically positioned with a minimum of effort. In addition, each light has its own on/off switch. If for some reason machinery gets moved and the lighting is no longer necessary in that area, each light can be turned off individually.

Here's an info sheet on the lights I used.
 

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I am using four bulb T5 HO four foot light fixtures in my shop. I have fourteen foot sidewalls and drop them down to about 11 ft so they're just over the jib cranes. One of them blew a ballast and I replaced it with a LED Bay light fixture I got at Lowes and it is really bright. As they go south I will replace with those.
 
I replaced double T5 fixtures with the square LED panels made to slot into standard ceiling support frames. Light output is perhaps a little greater and, subjectively, things seem clearer. One panel cost less than two tubes so I wasn't shopping at the expensive end of the market. Three years in and no failures. I'm well pleased. The brand name T5 tubes I was buying seem much less reliable than of yore. Perhaps 4 or 5 years MTF.

Not the neatest installation as my ceiling joist spacings were inconvenient but the are flush and works.

Clive
 
Joe Henderson said:
I am using four bulb T5 HO four foot light fixtures in my shop. I have fourteen foot sidewalls and drop them down to about 11 ft so they're just over the jib cranes. One of them blew a ballast and I replaced it with a LED Bay light fixture I got at Lowes and it is really bright. As they go south I will replace with those.
Click to expand...
Did the same thing with eight foot lights. Remove ballast and reuse fixture.

Bought four bulbs for two fixtures. Experimented on what distance they should be from one another.
That reduced the number of fixtures by 1/3. It's still bright. And no more humming from those ballasts.
 
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May have already been said here but I found these to be a pretty good and versatile lighting solution.

We have 8 foot ceilings in our 30 x 30 garage and 9 of these lights strung together consume little power but are bright enough to blind the neighbors. Once in while they'll flicker but hey, for under $50 I'm not complaining.
 
How long will the tubes be? Four or eight feet?
What end cap connections? The single spring type or the dual element?

I use the single spring type because the fixtures were made for fluorescent bulbs.
In my opinion, keep your fixtures rather than buying new stuff that is not made as well.

I just got this a few days ago. I looks like recessed style. But I returned it and got the 5.5" size instead. Not as bright.
The LED modules that you can get in the common stores are so good now, you can't go wrong.

 
Thanks for all the input.

I have settled on a dozen 75W 2x4 LED panel lights like BugRobotics recommended. I don't feel like the LED's where you can see the indivual LED's work well at low height. They blind you. I could use any fixture style, but it seems like the 2x4 style lights are the lowest cost, probably because they're so common. You can use them as a troffer or they have brackets to hang or attach them.
 
I did a lot of fiddling around and experimenting.
The front shop was single pin 8 foot florescent.
Pulled ballasts and put in 110 volt LED tubes and played with cover types and color temps.
The nice thing here was single pin.
This allows you to aim the bulb down, sideways or up into the reflector for different types of lighting so we mix it up along with color temps.
Over some stuff direct and over say the plates more of a bright "cloudy day/diffuse" light source.

Back shop is 72 2 bulb 4ft bi-pin fixtures so no adjustment other than 180 but the ceiling is much higher.
(who in their right mind would put the new LED upsidedown in such a replacement, .....that would be me as needed)

I find the high color temps look so nice and bright at first but they sort of give you a headache over time. You do not want "harsh" light or glare for years. Do not get sucked into this.
In some places you do not want bulbs/fixtures that will make shadows. Other times you may want directional.

8 foot is not high and you do not want lights that "hit" your eyes up top as you move around in the shop or have hard spots.
Comfy and fill.

Office area now done by 2x4 led ceiling panels and that does seem very good for this use.
Bob
 
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I think my experience where I replaced around 50 fluorescent tubes in about 16 fixtures with LEDs shows that the old fixtures are just fine. And this is not just because the old fixtures are made better. Some are and others definitely are not. Of those 16 fixtures I only replaced two in my den which had broken plastic lens/covers that I could not find replacements for. It had nothing to do with the quality of the fixtures.

What does go bad and should not be used when changing over to LED tubes is the ballasts. I did remove ALL of the ballasts in those fixtures. I have had to repair a number of fluorescent lights in my career and it was almost always due to a bad ballast. On top of that, the LED tubes function more efficiently (use even less electricity) without a ballast in the circuit. Remove all the ballasts and you will be ahead in terms of light, money (electric bill), and potential problems when the ballast eventually goes bad.

The six fixtures in my shop were the cheapest of the cheap and I had constant problems with them with fluorescent tubes/ballasts. But, with the ballasts removed and LED tubes installed, I have had zero problems with them in over three years now. Not a single flicker. They just WORK when I throw the switch. So yes, old fixtures are OK. But old ballasts are not. Take it from one who's "been there and done that". (Still looking to buy the tee shirt.)

LEDs :: YES!

Ballasts :: NO!



...<snip>...

rons said:
In my opinion, keep your fixtures rather than buying new stuff that is not made as well.
Click to expand...
...<snip>...
rons said:
Click to expand...
 
Hangers if you're interested. There are 4 sheet metal tabs on the top of the panels you can hang with
 

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