The Official 356Talk Forum

I've been thinking of retrofitting my T8 lights in my garages to Led. It doesn't help that 1000 bulbs keeps sending me offers.
But there are so many choices and prices. Of course I think the brighter ones 2000 lumen 5000 kelvin seem like they would give me good light. They also cost more $22-24 But then there are degree choices 120-180. I have 74 bulbs to replace not to mention replacing the tombstones with non shunted ones. (about $2000)
So has anyone gone through this change and do you have any tips, sources etc? Was it worth it?

Thanks Jerry

I've been going through the same thought process, and looking at the Cree website doesn't seem to help much, as most of the applications for the 96" fluorescents I have are commercial. It'd be helpful to have a consumer version to price it against, I'm not quite sure how much a conversion is going to cost. Searching LED garage lights isn't all that helpful, they are all smaller fixtures.

Jim, Converting the fixtures is pretty easy since you will bypass the ballasts and the end pieces are easy to replace. The end pieces have to be separated and not hooked together like the ones you now have. If it were me I'd probably replace yours with 4' standard ones that could be converted in 10-15min. and then installed. They are pretty cheap. The cost is in the Led bulbs. I heard that Rich Peters in our group has done a lot of research on this conversion. Maybe I can get him to chime in. If yours are hanging that could be a different story.

Jerry

I recently had my attached garage at the house fitted with LED fixtures.

The brightness and intensity of LED lights is truly amazing.

One thing you have to consider on this type of retrofit is the actual light output you will end up with. A typical T8 flourescent produces approx. 2900 lumens, and with the ballast loss figured in (typical instant start ballast is .88) you will have 2552 lumens per lamp. The LED retrofit lamp is more directional in its output, but there will still be a reduction in light levels. If the existing fixtures barely do the job, you may have to add more fixtures. I've been in the lighting business for many years, and have seen a number of retrofits that had to be completely redesigned. You may be better off to replace the fixtures with new LED fixtures designed for a shop application.

FWIW, temperature only impacts color of the light, not the intensity. My son works for Cree. I know it is counterintuitive. Don’t pay more for higher temp bulbs.
Conrad

We are more old school at our shop, the place came with these huge bulb lights. I had to replace one for the first time ever this week so handling the bulb I got to see how big they really are. They put out an amazing amount of light, you can't look at them.

The bulbs are about the size of a human head, so you need high ceilings.

I replace my fluorescent bulbs in the garage with 4' LEDs. It was twice as bright. I put in the 5000Ks so they are nice and white. Then I have two LED flood lights for the bench. For our new vacation house we bought two 8000 lumen bulbs from HD. They are only 4000Ks so not quite as white, but much less expensive than the florescent bulbs. We'll wait to see how bright they are. We may need four (big garage). They are going to be installed in about two weeks. I'll let you know how they turn out.

If you haven't checked out LEDsuperbrightlights.com, check them out.

Chuck

We have waited 2 years to get back from losing our house with cars in a fire, so good heating and lighting was on the A-list in this next garage. These are 8 ft long LED lights, 5000K illuminating it so no sprung circlip goes undetected

Last Spring I finally got fed up with the three sets of 2 x 4' florescent lights mounted on my garage's ceiling. I cut in half the number of units with three new 4 'LED lighting units in, and positioned each where the old units were mounted. Each unit is a 44-watts, instant-on 5,380 Lumens Utility shop light. What a difference! I now don't have to go through the flickering, and warm-up time.....it's instant, and super bright lighting at a flick of the switch.

I purchased these lights through ebay (seller rated #1 LED seller on Ebay....for what it's worth) at a cost of $90/unit......and worth every cent! The shipping was free....woo-woo! Carries a 5-yr warranty. The seller's info: longhorn426 with a 100% feedback.

Frank Earle
#927

For those people that have lower ceilings in their garage or workshop, mine are 9 foot, you might want to check into the Walmart Hyper Tough 4 foot LED fixture.
They are $19.97 and have a 5 year limited warranty.

They are a huge improvement over the 4 foot florescent fixtures they replaced.

David:

I too suffer from a low ceiling, only 9' like yours. I will certainly look at these lights that you recommend. Too bad that they are plug-ins with unit switches; I would prefer hard-wiring and running all from one light switch.

Roland,

There are no switches on the fixture if that what's you mean.
In my case I cut the plug off and wired them into a junction box that is wired to a wall switch that turns on all the lights at once.

The day I bought the first one at Walmart there were about a dozen of them in the display. The next day when I went to get more there was only one left.

I got some 4 foot LED light tubes that directly replace 4 foot florescent tubes, no need to change the fixture. I believe I got them at Costco but might have been Home Depot. Maybe not as good as a LED fixture, but super easy and a big improvement in lighting.