Shop LED Lighting

Robert Rose

Member
Messages
109
Location
Florida Keys
I had a melt down of my twin bulb 40w florescence fixtures last week. First one fixture would not start - ballast shot. Then a second one and a three one had one bulb burn out and replacement bulbs would not light either. With my poor eyes straining to see I finally went looking for replacement LED bulbs for my fixtures. Before I retired, the boss decided to put some money into LED lighting so I had an idea how this would work. The only problem was the cost. Bulbs at work in a large order cost $23 buck each. I found a site (Green Light Depot.com in Norcross GA) with 18w T8 bulbs for $7.59. I could not believe my eyes. Ordered up two bulbs just to give it a try. T8 will be direct replacements for T12. Other problem is some LED bulbs are compatible with ballast or bypass lights, some are bypass only. Ones I bought were bypass only, but with the ballast burned out that is the one I ordered. Rewire required that both pins on one end are line-in and other end both pins are neutral. Simple enough and boy are they bright. They do come in 6000K, 5000K, or 4000K. Mine are the 6000K. I am impressed. Now all I need to do is save up to replace all the rest of my bulbs (8). I got to say that I would not think 2 - 40w florescence bulbs (all be it that they are cooler temperature bulbs, probably 4000K or even 3500K) could be replace with 2 - 18w LED bulbs but I am a believer. Just thought I would pass this along to fellow woodworker if you are considering new lighting in your shop.
 
Probably not a consideration for you in your location, but I would imagine the LED's would work a heck of a lot better in colder climates as well.
 
Probably not a consideration for you in your location, but I would imagine the LED's would work a heck of a lot better in colder climates as well.

Better than the old t12s at least. I haven't noticed a lot of difference between the 6 t8s I have and the two LEDs in that regard though. The LEDs seem to be holding thier color a bit better though, the t8s have gotten a bit yellower over time.

For that price it's heading on worth rebuilding the couple of defunct t12 fixtures I still have left (magnetic ballast so wire through is perfect), thanks for the heads up.
 
Not too long ago I replaced the two 8' fluorescent fixtures in my shop with six LED fixtures I bought at Costco. What a positive difference it makes! And I won't have to pay to get rid of the fluorescent bulbs anymore.
 
I had seen the LED Bulb replacements a while back and considered them, but still have about 20 fixtures with bulbs/parts in the back of the shop to use up. They've got the t8 bulbs, so had good luck with them coming on in the cold.
 
Couple of notes:

  • The $7.59 bulbs are not UL listed, which makes them a bit dubious in my book. I've heard some sketchy bits about non UL LED strips.
  • They do have UL listed bypass bulbs at the same place for $9-10 though and imho the extra couple of bucks is worth it (you can filter based on UL compliance on the web site)
  • They also sell "Warning Stickers - Bypass Installation" for $5 to put on the fixture so you don't accidentally plug a fluorescent bulb into a bypass fixture. Again seems like money well spent.
 
Probably not a consideration for you in your location, but I would imagine the LED's would work a heck of a lot better in colder climates as well.

True story I volunteer at a food bank and we have a large walk in cooler about 20x20 and some bright person decided to save money on electricity and replace the light bulbs in the walk in (temp at about 40 F) with CFL's. I got there one day and the person opening up was standing there inside the walk in scratching his head and wondering why the lights were so dim..:rolleyes:I to splain it to em.
 
According to the label on the bulb, these are the same bulbs we installed at work and they were UL listed. Of course coming from China they make all kinds of bulbs in the same factory and it is hard to say if they don't mix and match on the assembly line, just saying. The 6000k is a little blue-white but it is the far corner of my shop (all 450sqft). I think next bulbs I get will be more in the 4000K to be closer to daylight. I had them on all day and they are nearly stone cold. I can live with these in the corner for now. Probably will not get around to any more for a while as we're planning on moving. Been in the FL Keys for 40 years and just about to blow my top with the traffic every weekend, bumper to bumper from about 4 miles south of me all the way through Islamorada (about 7-9 mile of it). Makes going south just a $%#&^!*&^% in the you know what. Moving to a quieter area with fewer tourists. Can't say I didn't love for all these years but enough is enough. Well thanks for listening to my steam relief.
 
Interesting on the 6k vs the 4k. I've been using 5.2k on the t8s and generally like the somewhat brighter ones. I'm guessing that the color might be a bit different between the technologies.

I can't find the site at the moment (being on mobile is problematic) but the UL actually has a site where you can lookup the UL listed lights by manufacturer part number and I couldn't find the cheaper lights on it. I could find thier $9 and $10 lights though. Also if you select the UL filter on the green.. web site the $7.59 lights are removed. So I'm pretty sure that part number isn't UL listed. Can't say if there isn't a comparable part # that is though, the whole thing is complicated. The DLC listed bulbs also get a 5 year warranty which means they'll probably last 3 anyway ..lol.
 
Found it.

http://iq.ul.com/ssl/

It's a bit confusing because the part numbers all start with
GT-T8-18W
So I was sort of eye balling the results.

Looks like you might be right though

http://greenlightdepot.com/collecti...cts/4ft-t8-led-tube-light?variant=14462080068

is the cheap ones, which seems to match up with

http://iq.ul.com/ul/cert.aspx?ULID=102214187

Double check me there though as I've been wrong once already.

Interestingly if you add "UL" certification to the filters on thier web site those bulbs disappear, so I'm still somewhat unsure what that means.
 
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