Garage lighting question

[HALLETT BOY]

I have 24 regular F32T8 fluorescent bulbs in my garage , can I replace them with LED’s ? The ones on Amazon say will work with ballast or no ballast . Does this mean I just replace them , plug and play ? How much brighter will they be ? And what brightness is good ?

 

[Buster]

Yes, they are direct replacements. The higher the Kleven Rating the brighter the light, Try and find 6500K bulbs for a bright daylight color.

I've done two houses and the garages are pretty bright now..

 

[hallett21]

I have 24 regular F32T8 fluorescent bulbs in my garage , can I replace them with LED’s ? The ones on Amazon say will work with ballast or no ballast . Does this mean I just replace them , plug and play ? How much brighter will they be ? And what brightness is good ?

You can either get ones that work with the ballast or you can bypass the ballast and wire them directly to 120v. However I’d suggest being comfortable with electrical wiring before attempting bypassing the ballast. Typically they come with a wiring diagram anyway.

I like bypassing the ballast so that you never have to deal with them again.

Amount of light will be measured in Lumens. More lumens = more light.

Color tempature 3k,4k,5k is the color of light they put out. I think 4k is perfect for a garage as that is just a hair whiter than sunlight. 5k is too blue imo and 3-3500 is more of a residential kitchen color. 2700 is way too yellow

 

[hallett21]

Yes, they are direct replacements. The higher the Kleven Rating the brighter the light, Try and find 6500K bulbs for a bright daylight color.

I've done two houses and the garages are pretty bright now..

Kelvin temp does not equal brighter. It’s a sales tactic.

What are Lumens and Kelvins?

What are Lumens and Kelvins? Lumens are a measurement of how much light is generated - or brightness - each lumen emits approximately the same amount of light as one candle. Kelvin represents the

bioluzled.com

 

[SPFRONTMAN]

Took down 4-2 tube and 1-4 tube fluorescents and installed 5 of these in my garage. You do have to change to screw in type fixtures. Its like daylight in my garage now, you can't even look at them there so bright.

 

[hallett21]

Your existing fixture diffuser (the plastic cover) plays a large factor in how bright they’ll get as well. Overall though they will be significantly brighter than before.

You can make a light fixture so bright you cannot look at it without seeing stars. But then you have to walk around with your head down all the time.

The idea is to get the most amount of light to the floor and workspaces.

 

[ka0tyk]

Costco sells led strip lights that work great and chain together.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

These are great. They make them in 8 and 4 foot strips. They connect together and come with all the hardware needed.

Barrina LED Shop Light, 8FT 72W 9000LM 5000K, Daylight White, V Shape, Clear Cover, Hight Output, Linkable Shop Lights, T8 LED Tube Lights, LED Shop Lights for Garage 8 Foot with Plug (Pack of 10) https://a.co/d/5bAU7eL


I have 4 in the front area of my garage and have another one in the back of each bay of the garage I can switch on if needed. The rear bay lights are not on in this picture.

 

[Taboma]

Your existing fixture diffuser (the plastic cover) plays a large factor in how bright they’ll get as well. Overall though they will be significantly brighter than before.

You can make a light fixture so bright you cannot look at it without seeing stars. But then you have to walk around with your head down all the time.

The idea is to get the most amount of light to the floor and workspaces.

Oh bless you, your three posts have saved me a butt-load of typing.
I will add one thing, if the fluorescents have a diffuse lens, I used the clear led ballast by-pass 4' tubes in 5K and they're a bit brighter than the frosted.

 

[TimeBandit]

I saw two types of tubes advertised. Type A you keep the ballast. Type B you remove the ballast and wire direct to the tombstones.

I just ordered 25 LED's from Amazon to replace the 20+ year old T12 bulbs in my toy garage. I went with direct wire type.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LYXGYFF/ref=twister_B0BJNPMJVT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

These draw 24 watts each and claim 3200 Lumens with a color of 6000K, the place should glow with 20 of these installed in 10 shop light fixtures.

 

[Taboma]

I saw two types of tubes advertised. Type A you keep the ballast. Type B you remove the ballast and wire direct to the tombstones.

I just ordered 25 LED's from Amazon to replace the 20+ year old T12 bulbs in my toy garage. I went with direct wire type.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LYXGYFF/ref=twister_B0BJNPMJVT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

These draw 24 watts each and claim 3200 Lumens with a color of 6000K, the place should glow with 20 of these installed in 10 shop light fixtures.

The nice thing about 6,000K, you can more easily inspect all your blood vessels, really makes em POP, or Glow if you prefer. I do greatly prefer the ballast by-pass type as no worry about future ballast problems.
Here's a tip, when you cut the ballast wires, leave them all as LONG as possible, in most cases actually rewiring the tombstones is no longer necessary, if that's the case, it's a very straight forward job which will be facilitated by re-using those long tombstone wires.

 

[77charger]

I’ve just used direct wire led tubes for mine. Simple to bypass the ballast with some electrical skills but you can always get the ones that work with ballast if you don’t want to bypass ballast too.

I also wrote on outside of light which are direct wired led tubes as a reminder.

 

[77charger]

You can either get ones that work with the ballast or you can bypass the ballast and wire them directly to 120v. However I’d suggest being comfortable with electrical wiring before attempting bypassing the ballast. Typically they come with a wiring diagram anyway.

I like bypassing the ballast so that you never have to deal with them again.

Amount of light will be measured in Lumens. More lumens = more light.

Color tempature 3k,4k,5k is the color of light they put out. I think 4k is perfect for a garage as that is just a hair whiter than sunlight. 5k is too blue imo and 3-3500 is more of a residential kitchen color. 2700 is way too yellow

Agree on kelvin I find 4k-4500 at most to be great white light after that gets too blue and distracting to my eyes.

 

[DLC]

If you go to bright, you might want dimmers or separate switching

 

[HALLETT BOY]

Thanks for the replies , I think I’ll go with direct replace as I don’t want to rewire a fixture 14ft high in RV garage .

 

[hallett21]

These are great. They make them in 8 and 4 foot strips. They connect together and come with all the hardware needed.

Barrina LED Shop Light, 8FT 72W 9000LM 5000K, Daylight White, V Shape, Clear Cover, Hight Output, Linkable Shop Lights, T8 LED Tube Lights, LED Shop Lights for Garage 8 Foot with Plug (Pack of 10) https://a.co/d/5bAU7eL


I have 4 in the front area of my garage and have another one in the back of each bay of the garage I can switch on if needed. The rear bay lights are not on in this picture.

View attachment 1199290 View attachment 1199291

40 cents a foot delivered is pretty damn good. If the OP has J boxes above the fixtures other than ceiling paint not a bad way to go

 

[dspracing]

So one problem I’ve found with the LED bulbs is that they have a much more focused light. I’ve tried a ton of different options while converting several warehouses and garages. The garage overall may feel darker as the bulbs may not wash the wall with light like their fluorescent counterparts. Overall I wouldn’t recommend the LED replacement bulb option unless perhaps it has a lens that will diffuse the light more. If it’s the clear type where you can see the individual led, you probably won’t be happy.

I will also add that there is a certain learning period once you make the swap. It will feel really weird for a week or two then you forget and it feels normal.

 

[WTR&PWR]

All good info. My issue is I like to work with the garage door open but therefore block half my lighting. I’ve thought about 100 ways to fix it but nothing would look as clean as I’d like.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

All good info. My issue is I like to work with the garage door open but therefore block half my lighting. I’ve thought about 100 ways to fix it but nothing would look as clean as I’d like.

Yep.. that’s a problem. Possibly som wall mounted LEDs.. still not super clean though.

 

[hallett21]

All good info. My issue is I like to work with the garage door open but therefore block half my lighting. I’ve thought about 100 ways to fix it but nothing would look as clean as I’d like.

I got you

https://www.carguygarage.com/accessories/lighting/led-garage-door-lighting?gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy544-jaCb0uFeIRD25OCbywlnF6FLSO-Fnn1R_8PCEnrSILFwG6AVbRoCGHcQAvD_BwE

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

Something to think about is fluorescent bulbs seem to not turn on at full brightness when it’s cold in the garage. LED on the other hand are full bright immediately. Sometimes the LED is a bit blinding if you’re used to fluorescents warm up period.

 

[4Waters]

Here is what I learned Changing out my bulbs to LED.

I bought LED bulbs that used the existing ballasts, 4 bulbs worked and 4 turned off after 20 minutes. Turns out that the bulbs would only work with certain ballasts and while I bought the fixtures at the same time there were 2 different ballasts . I returned the bulbs and bought bulbs that required the removal of the ballast and have had zero issues, it's been almost a year and a half.

We ended up using Toggled bulbs

48 in. 16-Watt Daylight Deluxe T8 Dimmable Linear LED Tube Light Bulb (2-Pack)

www.homedepot.com

 

[hallett21]

Something to think about is fluorescent bulbs seem to not turn on at full brightness when it’s cold in the garage. LED on the other hand are full bright immediately. Sometimes the LED is a bit blinding if you’re used to fluorescents warm up period.

Always buy dimmable LEDs lol.

 

[coolchange]

These are great. They make them in 8 and 4 foot strips. They connect together and come with all the hardware needed.

Barrina LED Shop Light, 8FT 72W 9000LM 5000K, Daylight White, V Shape, Clear Cover, Hight Output, Linkable Shop Lights, T8 LED Tube Lights, LED Shop Lights for Garage 8 Foot with Plug (Pack of 10) https://a.co/d/5bAU7eL


I have 4 in the front area of my garage and have another one in the back of each bay of the garage I can switch on if needed. The rear bay lights are not on in this picture.

View attachment 1199290 View attachment 1199291

Do those have a full length mounting adhesive? I have an outdoor application for 1. But the normal tombstone 8’ lamps sag.

 

[Ziggy]

I replaced the std 1x4 florescent fixures with flat panel 1x4.
Couldn't be happier.
I no longer gash my head or back when cleaning or loading my boat in garage.

 

[LargeOrangeFont]

Do those have a full length mounting adhesive? I have an outdoor application for 1. But the normal tombstone 8’ lamps sag.

These have metal clips that you can use to mount them. I use 3-4 clips per light to mount them. The backs of them are metal, they won’t sag.

 

[Mikes56]

Took down 4-2 tube and 1-4 tube fluorescents and installed 5 of these in my garage. You do have to change to screw in type fixtures. Its like daylight in my garage now, you can't even look at them there so bright.

Who makes these and where did you get them?

 

[Outdrive1]

I bought the type that you keep the ballast, from Home Depot. I want to say I bought them three years ago or so and I’ve yet to have a failure. I’ll take a pic of the box later.

 

[Havaduner]

Costco sells led strip lights that work great and chain together.

I went with these as well. Costco had them for $29. Replaced all my fluorescents and added a couple more. Damn things are bright, even during the day with the garage door open!

 

[hman442]

I just received 42 T8 led bulbs yesterday. I have 21 fixtures, 14' up. I'm bypassing the ballasts, as it seems 1-2 of those fail annually l (fixtures are 24 years old).) Sounds like some serious ladder time in the near future, or I might rent one of those electric scissor lift deals. New bulbs are 5k, 5500 lumen

. I'll post when they are in action

 

[Taboma]

All good info. My issue is I like to work with the garage door open but therefore block half my lighting. I’ve thought about 100 ways to fix it but nothing would look as clean as I’d like.

With LED strip fixtures being so light, I've considered spanning my two garage doors with 1 5/8" depth Uni-strut suspended on each end by 3/8" threaded rod. The single door is easy, but since strut is available in 20' lengths, even my Xtra wide double is doable without splicing the strut.
Just needs to be suspended low enough to allow the arm to clear which should still keep it above the top of the opening.

 

[HNL2LHC]

I replaced the std 1x4 florescent fixures with flat panel 1x4.
Couldn't be happier.
I no longer gash my head or back when cleaning or loading my boat in garage.
View attachment 1199352

Did the same with the garage addition. New ones int eh RV section and replaced the old one in the origianl garage. All flat panels from Lowes.

 

[Outdrive1]

Maybe I got them at Lowes.

 

[Chili Palmer]

If you're replacing all the lights in your garage, you might as well put a screw-in socket in your garage door opener light socket and plug a connectable LED strip or two so when your garage door opens you have some decent light. Garage door operator lights suck.

 

[Taboma]

So one problem I’ve found with the LED bulbs is that they have a much more focused light. I’ve tried a ton of different options while converting several warehouses and garages. The garage overall may feel darker as the bulbs may not wash the wall with light like their fluorescent counterparts. Overall I wouldn’t recommend the LED replacement bulb option unless perhaps it has a lens that will diffuse the light more. If it’s the clear type where you can see the individual led, you probably won’t be happy.

I will also add that there is a certain learning period once you make the swap. It will feel really weird for a week or two then you forget and it feels normal.

Any ability to observe even a single non-diffused LED chip is obnoxious and blinding. Cheap LED fixtures are especially prone to this.

Fluorescent lamps transmit light uniformly the entire circumference of the tube allowing for relatively even horizontal and vertical distribution.

LEDs by design are a strip of individual chips, so light is focused primarily in the direction the chips are facing. Using a diffused lens or frosted LED tube helps, but mounting led tubes in fixtures previously designed for fluorescent tubes will always result in fewer lumens distributed horizontally. The net result is more "Hot Spots", increased shadowing and generally an uneven distribution.

This same difference makes direct comparison of lamp lumens more challenging. In most all cases if the rated lumens are the same, the LED will give the appearance of being brighter simply as a result of fewer lumens being dispersed.

Want to play a fun joke on your wife ? Replace a lamp over the bathroom mirror with a 6500K replacement and sit back and wait for the reaction, just be prepared to duck.

The Army did a study back in the early 70's and that cooler lamp temperatures while having the benefit of creating invigoration and increased productivity, also increased aggression.

So if you get your shop lighting to 'Cold' you might be more inclined to break shit if something goes wrong.

 

[Taboma]

If you're replacing all the lights in your garage, you might as well put a screw-in socket in your garage door opener light socket and plug a connectable LED strip or two so when your garage door opens you have some decent light. Garage door operator lights suck.

Might want to read this ---- this happened to a good friend and neighbor when he installed an LED lamp to replace the one in his opener.
After having opener problems, the garage door service tech came out and explained the following.

After replacing all my 48" fluorescent tubes in my garage, I've not had any opener problems, but my fixtures are not very close to the openers.

How LED Lights Cause Interference With Your Garage Door Opener

If you've noticed that your garage door opener stopped working it may be due to LED lights in and around your garage. Read more here!

www.allstyledoor.com

 

[bonesfab]

The benefit of getting rid of the ballasts is the power bill and fire hazard. Ballasts get hot and I have had them smoke on me before. I have the ones LOF is talking about at my house. Amazing amount of light. I did the 8 ft ballast deletes at the shop and its plenty bright.

 

[Chili Palmer]

Might want to read this ---- this happened to a good friend and neighbor when he installed an LED lamp to replace the one in his opener.
After having opener problems, the garage door service tech came out and explained the following.

After replacing all my 48" fluorescent tubes in my garage, I've not had any opener problems, but my fixtures are not very close to the openers.

How LED Lights Cause Interference With Your Garage Door Opener

If you've noticed that your garage door opener stopped working it may be due to LED lights in and around your garage. Read more here!

www.allstyledoor.com

But if the lights are off, no power running to them, the garage door should still work as it should, correct?

 

[Yoshiro]

I built my shop a couple years ago. In my years of being around shops, I had never seen one that was so bright I couldn't work, they were always in need of more light in my opinion. Challenge Accepted.

These are the 8' Barrina brand 5000k from Amazon.

 

[Taboma]

But if the lights are off, no power running to them, the garage door should still work as it should, correct?

Often the light is on when you go to use your vehicle's remote to close the door behind you. This is when my neighbor encountered the problem.

 

[Taboma]

I built my shop a couple years ago. In my years of being around shops, I had never seen one that was so bright I couldn't work, they were always in need of more light in my opinion. Challenge Accepted.

These are the 8' Barrina brand 5000k from Amazon.

Evenly distributed bright illumination isn't the problem, such as you've achieved. Noted by the lack of dark shadows, that's a good thing.

Although I'm not in your shop, I'm only looking at a picture, I'm unable to tell just how troublesome the glare when you gaze upon those bright side lights. If I were designing those into a system, they'd be considered "Task" lighting, and switched separately from those providing " General" illumination.
Where the glare of bright lights can be problematic, follows after you've gazed at one, and then immediately return to working in a darker space, like an engine bay or boat bilge, until your eyes re-adjust.
This is consequence that's hard to design around with side lighting that's at eye level.

The good thing is, those LED lamps are frosted, that's one attribute that's contributing to the even distribution you've achieved.
I'm not a fan of the wiring method, but that's burden of performing this work for commercial shops and garages where compliance with codes is required.
I'm certainly not suggesting it's a terrifying sin, or an unsafe hazard, it's just not something I'd be comfortable with in my own shop or garage.

 

[~JM~]

Another vote for the Barrina 8' 5000K fixtures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RKZFD5Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

Simple installation. Able to plug directly into each other. Five fixtures can be linked.

Best shop lighting I've ever worked under.

 

[Yoshiro]

It's funny Taboma, I kept adding more lights so I could see better. But what's really going on here is my eyes are getting worse with old age and I'm trying to compensate with higher power glasses and more light!!

 

[Racey]

Yes, they are direct replacements. The higher the Kleven Rating the brighter the light, Try and find 6500K bulbs for a bright daylight color.

I've done two houses and the garages are pretty bright now..

6500k is BLUE as fuck....

5000k is bright is super white daylight.

4000-5000k is the sweet spot for a shop.

Less than 4000k is gonna start to look like incandescent, with that warm hue, and over 5000k is gonna start going blue.

I accidentally bought some 6500k ones one time, they are horrible, i put them up in my mezzanine where i rarely go.

I built my shop a couple years ago. In my years of being around shops, I had never seen one that was so bright I couldn't work, they were always in need of more light in my opinion. Challenge Accepted.

These are the 8' Barrina brand 5000k from Amazon.

View attachment 1199496

I have a bunch of Barrina 4000k bulbs in my shop, 4 footers. Replaced t-12s that were in my low ceiling areas under the mezz and in one of the storage rooms.

They work well and aren't too expensive. Easy to mount and very light weight.

 

[Racey]

Edit, I also agree with bones,

Ditch the ballasts. Especially the old heavy magnetic ballasts.

Either rewire the light fixture so the Hot and Neutral land at the appropriate lamp pins, or just remove the entire fixture and put Barrina tubes up.

 

[Cobalt232]

I ordered and installed these. The conduit, wire, and J boxes cost more than the lights. I do want to put one strip on the garage door with a coiled cord so when the door is open the light is more even.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RX5K6S1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Waterjunky]

I built my shop a couple years ago. In my years of being around shops, I had never seen one that was so bright I couldn't work, they were always in need of more light in my opinion. Challenge Accepted.

These are the 8' Barrina brand 5000k from Amazon.

View attachment 1199496

Because the RV is so close to the roof of my RV garage, I am considering doing something like this in that room. With the beast in, there is little lighting reaching down to a reasonable level. I have been considering basically just running a row down each side tight to the walls.

 

[Taboma]

It's funny Taboma, I kept adding more lights so I could see better. But what's really going on here is my eyes are getting worse with old age and I'm trying to compensate with higher power glasses and more light!!

I hear ya man In my late 40's thru 60's, it was 1.5X readers. By 70, no longer needed readers but now my cataracts are so foggy I'm wearing coke bottle lens to drive and watch TV. Get the cataracts replaced with some trick lens, and I can now see a gnat's ass at 50', but I'm wearing readers again.

 

[Taboma]

Another vote for the Barrina 8' 5000K fixtures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RKZFD5Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1

Simple installation. Able to plug directly into each other. Five fixtures can be linked.

Best shop lighting I've ever worked under.

I see, so there's one LED driver that will power up to 5 lights, so the cords are low voltage

 

[Sharky]

Costco sells led strip lights that work great and chain together.

Yea, got some of them. . . they are really nice!!!!!! Would like to get some more but they are out.

Hopefully, they re-stock them soon