Lighting

[Machspeed]

As I've grown older, I find an incredible need for light. In fact, wifey gets on to me sometimes because I'll have just about every light in the house on. Below are a few things I purchased that I really feel are worth mentioning.

[FuzzFace2]

One thing I did not see on the over head shop lights is the working temp they can be in.

My garage is not heated and the old school over head lights were installed to work at low temps. It takes a min. or 2 to come up to full light out put but they do come on where some will not if to cold.

It can also get over 100*, was 98* yesterday so the working range would be say 30*f to 100*+f.

I also don't remember seeing what type of light, day light / cool white / etc.?

If you do a lot of painting and color matching you want day light so it should match better when out in day light.

Being my lights are 5 years old I am not going to change them out any time soon.

Beside they are a little to high for me to be comfortable doing any re-wiring. Had to do 1 bal. and that was not fun at all!

I have given up on the old drop light. besides getting hot and burns you, you drop it, even with ruff service bulbs, they blow out and you are now look for a new bulb. I do have a LED I picked up at HF a while back and works great. Has a hook to hang and a magnet and if you drop it, it keeps working!

It also has a plug outlet so I can plug something into it like a drill, etc.

That is about all I have for lighting in the garage.

Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

John - Good info. And based on your recommendation I just purchased 12 of the Hyperikon 5000K LED bulbs for $90. That's $7.50/ea instead of the $10/ea for 4 of them - and Amazon didn't have them in the 4-pack.

Something to note is that Amazon pushes their Amazon Basics LED bulbs for fluorescent replacement. But I did a bit of reading and theirs uses the existing ballast instead of being direct-wired. However, in my shop, which is ~8 years old, I have as many ballasts failing as I do fluorescent bulbs failing. So the Amazon bulbs won't solve that problem. Plus, why run ballasts when you can wire directly? That's just one more thing to fail, and since they run warm they are using power.

As for portable lights, I have a little Dewalt 12v LED light, below, that I love. But the battery is failing and it is the only Dewalt tool I have. In fact, I'm into the Ridgid tools big time, but they don't make a light like the one I have and all of theirs take the much bigger 18v batteries. I guess I'll just have to buy a new battery.

[Gary Lewis]

One thing I did not see on the over head shop lights is the working temp they can be in.

My garage is not heated and the old school over head lights were installed to work at low temps. It takes a min. or 2 to come up to full light out put but they do come on where some will not if to cold.

It can also get over 100*, was 98* yesterday so the working range would be say 30*f to 100*+f.

I also don't remember seeing what type of light, day light / cool white / etc.?

If you do a lot of painting and color matching you want day light so it should match better when out in day light.

Being my lights are 5 years old I am not going to change them out any time soon.

Beside they are a little to high for me to be comfortable doing any re-wiring. Had to do 1 bal. and that was not fun at all!

I have given up on the old drop light. besides getting hot and burns you, you drop it, even with ruff service bulbs, they blow out and you are now look for a new bulb. I do have a LED I picked up at HF a while back and works great. Has a hook to hang and a magnet and if you drop it, it keeps working!

It also has a plug outlet so I can plug something into it like a drill, etc.

That is about all I have for lighting in the garage.

Dave ----

Dave - The ones I ordered, which I think are the same that John bought, are 5000K. And if you look at the pdf on them, all of them have an 85+ color rendering index (CRI), which is very good.

But, the only thing I can find that might relate to temps is the statement of "Suitable for damp locations as well as outside". Outside in Alaska? The Sahara? Dunno.

[Machspeed]

Dave - The ones I ordered, which I think are the same that John bought, are 5000K. And if you look at the pdf on them, all of them have an 85+ color rendering index (CRI), which is very good.

But, the only thing I can find that might relate to temps is the statement of "Suitable for damp locations as well as outside". Outside in Alaska? The Sahara? Dunno.

Glad I was able to help you out, Gary. Think I owe you a few! Yes, I spent a ton of time looking for the right bulbs. I hope to paint in my shop in the not too distant future and wanted light that best represented color as if outdoors. Also, I wanted to remove my ballast, which I did. Awesome light with cheaper utility bill, can't beat that!!!

[Gary Lewis]

Glad I was able to help you out, Gary. Think I owe you a few! Yes, I spent a ton of time looking for the right bulbs. I hope to paint in my shop in the not too distant future and wanted light that best represented color as if outdoors. Also, I wanted to remove my ballast, which I did. Awesome light with cheaper utility bill, can't beat that!!!

Mine won't be here until next Friday, but I'm looking forward to installing them. The fixture directly over my work table is out and both bulbs went out at the same time so I'm pretty sure it is the ballast. So that's the one I'll start with, and hopefully it'll make a big difference.

[FuzzFace2]

Mine won't be here until next Friday, but I'm looking forward to installing them. The fixture directly over my work table is out and both bulbs went out at the same time so I'm pretty sure it is the ballast. So that's the one I'll start with, and hopefully it'll make a big difference.

You guys put a mojo on me

Sunday when in the garage I saw I have 4 lights together out, cant remember if it is 1 or 2 ballast for that light and I got 1 bulb out on another.

And of course it is between the 2 bays and not at the wall of the bay I don't use.

I guess not bad for 5 years and the temp can get up pretty high during the summer and cold in the winter and that cant be good for the bulbs or ballast.

Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

John - Good info. And based on your recommendation I just purchased 12 of the Hyperikon 5000K LED bulbs for $90. That's $7.50/ea instead of the $10/ea for 4 of them - and Amazon didn't have them in the 4-pack.

Something to note is that Amazon pushes their Amazon Basics LED bulbs for fluorescent replacement. But I did a bit of reading and theirs uses the existing ballast instead of being direct-wired. However, in my shop, which is ~8 years old, I have as many ballasts failing as I do fluorescent bulbs failing. So the Amazon bulbs won't solve that problem. Plus, why run ballasts when you can wire directly? That's just one more thing to fail, and since they run warm they are using power.

As for portable lights, I have a little Dewalt 12v LED light, below, that I love. But the battery is failing and it is the only Dewalt tool I have. In fact, I'm into the Ridgid tools big time, but they don't make a light like the one I have and all of theirs take the much bigger 18v batteries. I guess I'll just have to buy a new battery.

Ok, I got my LED bulbs in today and started to install them, only to realize I should have ordered the non-shunted tombstones. It took me a while to figure out what I had, but once I did it was obvious I needed those. They'll be here on Saturday.

If it would help anyone else I can scan in the instructions and explain what I found and why I needed those.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Ok, I got my LED bulbs in today and started to install them, only to realize I should have ordered the non-shunted tombstones. It took me a while to figure out what I had, but once I did it was obvious I needed those. They'll be here on Saturday.

If it would help anyone else I can scan in the instructions and explain what I found and why I needed those.

I've been buying a bunch of Wal-Mart shoplight fixtures.

The 3500 lumen has no switch for $16.97 and the 5,000 lumen has a 'bronze' housing with a pull chain for $21.

Both are 5000K color IIRC

I will never buy a florescent tube or LED replacement again.

For almost the same $ I get a new fixture and no futzing around.

No warm up.

No bulbs to replace (in what's left of my lifetime)

Much less heat, running single volts instead of 20,000(?) V

[Gary Lewis]

I've been buying a bunch of Wal-Mart shoplight fixtures.

The 3500 lumen has no switch for $16.97 and the 5,000 lumen has a 'bronze' housing with a pull chain for $21.

Both are 5000K color IIRC

I will never buy a florescent tube or LED replacement again.

For almost the same $ I get a new fixture and no futzing around.

No warm up.

No bulbs to replace (in what's left of my lifetime)

Much less heat, running single volts instead of 20,000(?) V

I think that's a good approach, Jim. Unfortunately that won't work very well for me. My fixtures are hard wired with conduit between them and then each one is screwed to the ceiling joist. So there'd be a lot more work changing the whole fixture out than this approach.

I'm anxious to get the first one done. I'll be able to lay the camera on the work table, probably directly below the joint between the new LED fixture and the old fluorescent one, and see if it shows us the difference.