Shop Lighting

This may be a stupid question, and I am sorry if it has already been addressed, but does anyone use incandescent lighting in their shop? What is the down side of this? It seems that everything that I have read regarding shop lighting is flourescent... why is this? :dunno: :huh:

Thx...Jamie
 
For me it's the amount of light I get per the cost of running it, plus the coverage that one fixture gives. Now if you have tall ceilings, another type of fixture/light may be better. But for 8 to 10 foot ceilings, I don't think anything is more effecient than flourescents. I do have some incandescent task lights for each machine area fpr safety, but haven't found a reason to use them yet. Glad they were 75% off when I bought them!!
In a few years, we'll probably all be switching over to LEDs. Nice bright light, small package, low cost of operation. Not to mention they will be harder to knock around with a 2X4!:doh::doh: Jim.
 
The downside is that incandescents are less energy-efficient than fluorescent. Watt-for-watt, fluorescent lamps will yield 2 to 2-1/2 times as much light output (lumens) compared to incandescent. If you replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, you won't have to change them as often. A typical CF bulb will last up to 10,000 hours, compared to around 1,000 for most incandescents.

Cheers,

Kevin
 
I have all flourescents, for the same reason as others, electrical use compared to light output. The good side to incandescent compared to flourescent is that incandescent does work in low temps.
 
One other reason is the clor of lighting. With flourescents you have a large selection of lumens(output) and type lighting, such as daylight,cool white full spectrum amongest others. This will allow you to adjust the light that works best for you.
 
I worked in the stores part of the university I went to part time, we had all of these large incandescent flood light type of fixtures all over the place. This area was the basement, and in the summer it was so hot in there, we had to keep the candy bars in the fridges, or they would melt. One day, my boss noticed that they were tearing out all of the fluorescent lights in a near by building and tossing them in the dumpsters, he asked it we could have them, they said yes. We hung them from chains and ran a wire up to the box that had held the incandescent light fixture. The old flood lights were 150w and as I recall we got about 75w of light and 75w of heat from those floods, the new fixtures were also 150w (two 4' tubes, IIRC) and we got 140w of light and only 10w of heat, or something like that.

There were 65 flood lights in this enclosed space they ran 24/7 so it was like having a 5000w heater on all the time. With the new fluorescents we just about doubled the light, and reduced the heat output to the point it was no longer a factor.

One thing to remember about lighting for your shop is to have too much, you can put them on two circuits so you don't turn them on all at once, but I've been told that as you get older, you will need more light to see by, and it is much better to be up on a ladder installing lights when you are younger than when you are older and need them, just what I was told by those older than me :rolleyes:

I've got 25 of so of the 4' fluorescent tubes in the Dungeon, and I could really use a few more, but task lighting takes care of any dark spots.

Cheers!
 
I have flourescents in my shop for the large amount of shadow free light output and low cost of operation. But, that said, several professional turners I have heard demo and speak simply cuss at flourescents claiming that it gives an incorrect image of your work, or something like that. They use only incandescents. That's wat they said, I dunno that it makes a difference to me. :dunno:
 
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