Bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

[Big Bird]

If you were to need lighting in a new shop or garage, what would you use?
Led..
Florescent..
Incandescent...
What's the best? And why...
I plan on installing lighting in a new 30x45x14 steel building within the next 3 months.
What should I be looking for?
Initial cost would be a concern, some lights are very expensive. but if it would be offset by energy savings.. say within 4 or 5 years, it's a no-brainer...
So, what kind of lights should I be looking for?
:idea:. " Think bright ideas". :idea:
All input will be appreciated.

 

[Gasenginegangster]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

I use LED lamps where ever I can. Save big money and they now work very good. We are in the process of changing out everything at work also. We are using Led lamps there as well. They do cost more, but are worth the extra money IMO.

 

[George Andreasen]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

LED's without a doubt. We've switched to LED bulbs throughout the house and they provide much nicer lighting at a significant savings. My shop has four 8' double fluorescent fixtures and those will be next despite the cost. I already have LED bulbs in all the single bulb fixtures over my machines and do better work because of them.

As a side benefit, my standby generator will run many more lights due to the lower power requirements .

 

[Vanman]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

To really make the *best* decision, you'll want to consider:

Where your power comes from and how much it costs. IE do you have your own private hydro electric plant with plenty of capacity, a solar electric plant with limited capacity, or are you a slave to the astronomical rates of the public utilities like most of us?

How many hours per year you'll expect to be using the lighting equipment?

In the case of fluorescent, how many hours per start? And what is the minimum expected temperature in the building?

I know that it seems that folks tend to jump on what ever is new, instantly forgetting how *good* what they had last week was, but personally I think LEDs are too new and not adequately proven. Rushed to market due to government meddling, etc. I jerked all of the junk CREE A-19 LED lamps out of my facility in favor of halogen lamps. It costs me ~$10 per month more, but the place looks MUCH better. Money well spent.

For the quantity of light you'll want / need in a large shop, I'd likely be looking at either T8 fluorescent or low bay metal halide, maybe 250 watt or thereabouts, with the idea that *someday* either fixture can easily be converted to LED, if it makes sense at that time. In both cases some incandescent lamps, switched separately, are ideal for short periods of lighting.

That is an advantage to LEDs- it does not matter how often you switch them on and off.

There *probably* is some good LED equipment out there, but I would only really consider it if you're going to be using the shop A LOT (like commercially) AND your power is currently expensive or will likely become expensive.

Is your roof insulated? I'd expect LED fixtures mounted up high under a hot roof to have an even shorter lifespan.

Keith

 

[Big Bird]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

I'm a slave to the grid...
Shop will be insulated,
Will probably running lights 8 to 10 hours a day.
planning on Air conditioning... When $$ allow.
I only want to do this once and
This is probably The only chance I'll have to do it right.
And I need to get the "best bang for the Buck"

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

I only want to do this once and
This is probably The only chance I'll have to do it right.

If you have high ceiling think about how you are going to change bulbs, or whole fixture in the future. To get to my shop lights to change them we are going to have to pull a whole lot of stuff out of the shop.

 

[dependable]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

I recently built a shop/garage, and put a lot of standard screw in fixtures, porcelain bases in ceiling, side sconce caged bulbs all around the sides.

I put in Cree LEDs as soon as I got around to ordering them. The trick is to use plenty of fixtures. I should have put more in the ceiling. The LEDs save a lot of power and are getting pretty affordable, plus, they last a long time.

 

[Big Bird]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

there are a lot of choices out there..
I want something dimmable, some times all that light can bother your eyes.
I think The Caged glass wall sconces look cool and really add a lot of light along the side of a car when you're working on it. Overhead lights just can't do that.
I would like to get away with 3 overhead fixtures in each 15 x30 bay. Along with a wall sconce here n there...
Still looking to see what is available... But,
Leaning towards high- low bay dimmable LED lights in the 3500- 4000 range (like a cool white florescent) I can't stand the 5000 kelvin LEDs, the light really screws with your eyes.

 

[Ronald E. McClellan]

Re: bright idea's. "Lighting that is"

You most likely will not need all of the lights all of the time. Run one or two lights on one switch , then more on a second switch , the rest on a third switch. You can choose an area you want lit and how much light you want. There will be more wiring involved but will get you away from the dimmer. Ron

 

[dependable]

As Ronald stated above, my lighting circuits are split up pretty well, as is the wall socket load. On the walls, I have a combo 120V socket with light switch spread out along the wall above work table height. Each switch controls two of the caged sconces.

 

[MarkBillesbach]

My 30 x 35 shop has 10 ft ceilings and I installed 9 four bulb T5 fluorescent fixtures. These are HO fixtures and are super bright even in super cold conditions. I just switched out all the 400watt Metal Halide high bay lights in the gym at the college where I work with high bay LED fixtures and they are even brighter. I wish now I would have waited a year to put the lights in my home shop as I would have installed the LEDs.

 

[Expediter]

Initial money being an issue, I would get Home Depot's (100$)2 lamp T-5 HO fixtures given 8' ceiling height, and if the ceiling was higher, the (150?)t-5 HO 6lamp ones.

Money not being quite the issue, I would go with LED highbay replacement type possibly with the motion sensor built in. Not sure of the prices on these. The payback compared to T5 HO will really depend on how much you use the lighting.

 

[Frank DeWitt]

We had our church business meeting. The building houses a church, and a K-12 school and is in use 7 days a week. The budget for utilities next year is considerably lower. The reason given is that based on our bills for the last few months after converting most of the place to LED we don't need any where near the old amount. It does matter.

 

[uglyblue66]

I made the mistake of using can lights in my shop and for a few years I stayed busy swapping 100 watt bulbs. I went all led 100 watt equal bulbs and good light is the result with less heat.
We have put led's in the house and to be honest a reduction has resulted in the power bill.
Since i put the little window unit in my shop it may counter act that reduction a bit but it is worth it not to burn up trying to work.

 

[b7100]

I would deffinately recommend leds. They use less electricity, when you turn the switch they come on (maybe 5 secknd delay), theres no balasts to burn out, they last a long time, cold weather don't bother them, they are more rugged to handle. They do sem to lose some of thier brightness over tims. As to what type or how you configure them would depend what you are doing. Dimmable might work best for your situation. Putting every other or every third light on a seperate switch might be simpler, cheaper and less to go wrong. Its hard to give advice on your application when we aren't the ones working there.
Glad to see your still OK. Thought you might have gotten ate by a gator or caught up in a swamp peopla feud.

 

[Frank DeWitt]

We had our church business meeting. The building houses a church, and a K-12 school and is in use 7 days a week. The budget for utilities next year is considerably lower. The reason given is that based on our bills for the last few months after converting most of the place to LED we don't need any where near the old amount. It does matter.

BTW The difference is next year we think we will use 67% total electric of what we used last year.

 

[Vanman]

Frank, what did they have before, and what LED replacements were used?

Keith

 

[Frank DeWitt]

A conglomeration of stuff. A LOT of 4 ft fluorescent. Those were changed to 2 X 4 drop in fixtures with built in LEDs PAR lamps in the sanctuary changed to screw in LED replacement PAR bulbs. HID lights in the parking lot and gym replaced with new LED fixtures. And on and on. Our building was built in 1969 and added on to 6 times with the most recent one in 2015 so we had everything you can think of.

I still have a couple of 10W quartz lights in the sound booth but he has his eye on them and I suspect they will be gone soon.

BTW all our emergency lighting and Exit lights are LED and run off a single off the shelf UPS. It was the cheapest way to do it even though instant transfer is not needed.

Our maintenance guy is now an expert. If you have specific questions, I can pass them along.

 

[Bill Sherlock]

All the LED lights that I've installed including 4' units to replace similar fluorescent lights, come on instantly at full brightness. Not like the CF twisty bulbs that either have a delay after you hit the switch or the ones that come on instantly but take several minutes to come up to full brightness.

I make sure that I buy only Daylight bulbs (5000K) as the soft white should be called dull yellow. Problem is a lot of stores only seem to stock the dull yellow LED's so they don't get my business.

Bill

 

[Vanman]

See, I call "dull yellow" bulbs "normal" and " natural". And "daylight" bulbs "blue, cold, harsh, uninviting, and unnatural". :O

Keith