Shop Lights
 

What type of lighting are you guys using for your shop? I need something that offers bright light...too many dark areas and shadows.

Thanks,

JimR

Re: Shop Lights
 

Cheapest way to go will be florescent. The newer lamps that are smaller in diameter are much brighter and more efficient. Not sure how big your shop is. 8 ft 2 lamp shop type fixtures are available at the big box home improvement stores. That's what I have in my shop. I have more in the working bays than in the storage bays.

Re: Shop Lights
 

In my "typical" attached 2 car garage I have 4, 4 foot Sylvania T-5 fluorescent. Purchased them from HD when I renovated the garage last year. Gives me plenty of light. I painted the walls and ceiling bright white from Sherwin-Williams to help with "bouncing" more light around the garage.

Re: Shop Lights
 

Know you are in the south, but it gets cold. Get an 2 tube 8' HO (High Out put) fluorescent fixture. It will not flicker when it gets cold and plenty of light. They are more expensive, but well worth it....

Can be purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot...

Re: Shop Lights
 

A lot depends on how high your ceiling and how much electricity you have. With high ceilings you can go with the quartz lites you see in warehouses and gyms. Some of them also have a wider area they light. They also will work on multiple voltage. The higher the voltage you hook the lights up to the lower your monthly cost. For the fluorescent light definitely get the T5 or T8. I like the 8 foot fixtures that take 4-4 foot bulbs. I have been told they are going to quit making 8 foot lamps. Skylights also help and provide the best kind of light- free.

Re: Shop Lights
 

I have had some really good luck with CFL from 1000 Bulbs in TX https://www.1000bulbs.com/category/6...nt-grow-bulbs/ I have 23W,85W and 105W they are the best lights I have ever used.

Re: Shop Lights
 

The company that sells "Big *** Fans" now has Big *** shop lights. They are LED.

I have not been able to find out much about them, especially how much they cost.

I have some LED lighting inside my house and I like it a lot. I would like to switch my shop florescent lights to LED as the ballasts fail.

Bill

Re: Shop Lights
 

The lights that Painter is talking about are called H.I.D. (High Intensity Discharge) lighting. Metal Halide are the white lights. The big drawback for these types are the warm-up time and if you turn them off, it will take 15-20 min before they come back on. They have to cool down before they will light-up again. Stay with the T5 or T8 fluorescents. Also if you buy the polished reflectors you'll get 20%-30% more light on the floor area. They are worth the extra price.
Dan

Re: Shop Lights
 

If you decide with fluorescent,go with the T-5 or T-8 electronic ballast fixtures. The HO magnetic stuff won`t be available much longer.

Re: Shop Lights
 

I agree with most here on fluorescent lighting...probably the cheapest and most reliable in the long term. At a minimum at least have the ceilings painted bright white...wooden walls really kill lighting.


Cold weather ballast's are stupid expensive...I generally leave my lighting on 24/7 in the winter months. If it's that cold in your shop to require cold weather ballasts you are not going to do much work out there. Once the shop is warmed up there really isn't a need for special ballast's, right?

Re: Shop Lights
 

Some Metal Halide lights have 120V-480V multi tap transformers, I sell them in my store, they draw the same wattage regardless of which voltage you run them on.

Re: Shop Lights
 

To clarify. The H.I.D. lights put out the same wattage but require more amperage to operate the lower the operating voltage. Amperage is what spins the meter....
Dan

Re: Shop Lights
 

Amperage times voltage =====Wattage Wattage is what spins the meter not amperage, which is why your electric bill is read in KW not KA. 120V x 10A = 1200W 240V x 5A= 1200W 480V x 2.5A=1200W.

Re: Shop Lights
 

That is Ohms law. Watts/volts =amps

Re: Shop Lights
 

I thought Ohms is what you did when you crossed your legs and closed your eyes.

Re: Shop Lights
 

For High Output cold weather lamps and ballasts make friends with your local sign shop that specializes in illuminated signs. If they have a good relationship with their sign materials supplier the cost is much less than electrical supply house.
There are also LED lighting systems used in signs that put out more white light than you can imagine, if you like to build your own stuff.

Re: Shop Lights
 

Times 2 on that.

They may even have some fixtures that are practically scrap to them.

Look for the HO T12 rectangular pin lamps, at a minimum.

Re: Shop Lights
 

I use the T5

Re: Shop Lights
 

We spent a lot of time and probably too much money on this when we built our shop, but the results were great and I wouldn't change a thing.

40' x 52' shop with 96 4' T8s. 24 8' fixtures with 4 4' bulbs each. White ceilings and walls. After not finding anything to suit us at the big box stores, we spec'd these fixtures from an online lighting and design site. Our electrical guy ordered them at his supplier. The shades have perforations to get a percentage of the light on the ceiling and dispersed to help eliminate dark spots. We have them switched so that we can turn on as much as we need, where we need it. The front and rear rows are shaded toward the front and rear walls and the ends of the rows are near the side walls. Lighting on the benches and areas at the walls is excellent.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&sz=w1244-h482

Re: Shop Lights
 

I constantly get fliers from Harbor Freight with coupons for these little flashlights, FREE! ( http://www.harborfreight.com/27-led-...ght-67227.html ) So I go in and redeem the the coupon... I think when I get to a couple hundred units, I will put them up in my "race car bay", for lighting.... It will be a pain in the *** to turn them all on and off, but WTF? They were free....... All this cold N. Illinois weather, gives me way to much time to think about this stuff...... ;-)

Re: Shop Lights
 

In my last 2 shops, I used high output's with great results.When I looked at home depot the last time their h/o lights were 4 4ft bulbs rather than 2 8ft bulbs.They looked to be even brighter