Need some good lights for my Shop.

I have four runs of eight foot long fluorescent lights in my shop. Just regular old single pin in the end lights. I have been buying the industrial lights with heavier ballasts. They last pretty good but with 20 light fixtures I always have one or two that don't light right.

I don't want any of the sodium vapor lights. They take too long to light and I don't like the way they make things look under them.

I have seen reviews about " High intensity fluorescent" lights. What are they and how are they different than what I already have.

they work very good,we have them in our maintendance areas in our shop. not sure were we got them but the ones we got have 5 tubes and mounted in a stainless steel housing and mounted apx 20 feet in the air.

High output (HO) fluorescents are the way to go. Increased light output and made for colder temperatures, which means longer ballast life in cold temperatures. It's not as hard on the ballast during start-up.

I just put 20 two bulb T-8 fixtures in my hangar. Manards had them on sale for $15 each at the time. There are industrial versions with 4 or more bulbs each available but I found it cheaper to just add more smaller fixtures. They are low temperature jobs with electronic starters so they don't hum. At 12' off the ground they do a great job and I am very happy with them. The trick is which bulb you install. I use the more expensive 'Daylight' bulbs which I think give off more light at a better color.

Jim

You might also ask on AgTalk. I think it's T5's that alot of people are putting in their shops with good results. Expensive though.
T5

Slowly redoing the hodgepodge of lights in my shop. Going with 6 bulb T5 floresants . $220 or so from menards WITH bulbs ! I have several metal halide highbay lights and HO flor 8 ft lights . wnat to clean it up and get even lighting ,,older eyes. highbays are bright ,but seen the jump in light bill right away , and HOT ,checked with temp gun this summer ,they put out 300 degrees close to them .

Like others have said the flourescent lights are the way to go, it's just a matter of getting the right bulbs. My shop is 30x40 and has a 10 foot ceiling. I've got 4, 8 foot, double bulb fixtures running down the middle of each side (8 total) about 8 feet apart. For bulbs I just use whatever I can buy the cheapest and that seems to work pretty good for me. I also have several 4 foot light strung together and hanging at around 8 feet off the floor and maybe 20 inches off the wall over my work bench. Too I've got two 500 watt quartz lights hanging from the ceiling and aiming at the area just inside the roll up door where I pull equipment in to work on.

Too, as others have said, there are bulbs out there that will seem brighter, cause more contrast because of the color, etc, etc. I once had really a really good contact at an electricsal supply house and was able to get a few of them from a broken case as samples. I can say for a fact that they made a noticable difference in the percieved brightness as compared to a regular bulb. The only problem was that a regular bulb was say $5 each at the time and the 'special' bulbs were running something like $25 each. That being the case it was cheaper to just get a few more fixtures and make up the difference in the 'amount' of light that way.



One thing that I didn't see anybody mention is that that you need to keep the bulbs on the flourescent lights clean. I used to work in a shop that had a fab shop that had high ceiling and numerous flourescent fixtures for lighting. We never really had a problem with having enough light but once a year we'd get a manlift and clean all the bulbs and replace those that were burned out. You'd be amazed how much difference just cleaning the bulbs made in the amount of light in the place. You didn't really notice as they got dirty because it happened gradually, over time, but from dirty to clean in a few minutes made a VERY discernable difference. I know in my shop and in Dad's shop we've always cleaned the bulbs every year or so and, again, it does make a huge difference.

we put 9 6 bulb T5 units in our 40x40 shop a few years ago, i couldn"t be happier... great light.

I went with the high efficiency 4 ft fluorescent lights. Around $10 at Menards. They have electronic ballists. Work in cold weather. I think the bulbs were 25 or 30 watts each. Cheap bulbs. Connected them to my garage opener's lights with an extension cord. Can turn the lights on with the garage door opener. Also have 2 ft light panels down the side of barn. Really no need for lights in the day time. Perhaps a work light or a light over the work bench.

The most common ones now are T-5 and T-8's. These numbers come from the diameter of the tubes. Flourescent tubes are measured in 1/8" increments, so a T-5 is 5/8" diameter, T-8 is 1". If you have a electrical supply house in your area (I mean a actual supply house where contractors go, not Homedepot,lowes,menards)go talk to them. Give them your shop specs (size, height, interior wall surface type) and they will give you a layout of how many of what type fixture will work best. May be t8's or t5's.....just depends. I like the T5's myself. IF you do put them in your shop, I suggest getting ones with a lense. This helps keep the dust out of the reflector. IF your reflectors get dirty, the light output will drop dramatically, but it will be over time so you wont notice. Also, order clear plexiglass reflectors, the prismatic ones also cut down on light emmitance. Also, make sure they give you the highest color rendering number avaliabale. Dont know what the latest/hightest is off top of my head, but this is important also.

If you go with flourescent specify welded ends .It is a fixture and a cover but no sheet metal stamped parts to put the fixture together.It is already one piece.

just for input, the new "led" four footers give an excellent light and color [ white and easy on the eyes] they are 120 with no ballast[ convert old fixtures easy] we use them in the freezers and enginerooms with no replacment scheduled for 12 years.
Use half the power of what a ballast current draw but they are about $90.00 ea canadian
Turn on time is less than a second but full instantly.
have a good one.

I just put in a bunch of T5 light in my shop..made a big defference....night and day!!!

I can give 1st hand experience on several levels. T12 is a magnetic ballast, T8 and T5 are electronic ballast lights.

1st.
I changed my T12 lights to T8 lights in my shed. Huge difference in cold weather and improved performance overall.

2nd.
I put 8', T8 strip lights under my tractor shed. Same cold weather performance and improved light quality over T12 overall. 8' fixture uses (4) 4' T8 bulbs.

3rd.
I'm and electrical engineer at our plant. The facilities engineer was wanting to upgrade the HPS lighting currently in place. I had experience at another plant on T5 lights. I helped him find T5 lights to replace the 400W HPS (orange high bay) lights. We went with 4 tube T5 fixtures. Our plant is about 11 acres under roof. There is almost 1200 HPS fixtures. Most have been replaced with T5 fluorescents.

The quality of T8 or T5 lights are indescribable. When I build my shop in the future it will only have T5 fixtures. No comparison. T12 units are years behind in technology and quality.

CT