For a while there, LED shop lights were a sign that someone had some cash to burn. But have you priced them lately? They have gotten inexpensive: Several outlets, including Harbor Freight, offer them starting around $25.
But a tip from the art department: You can pick up a six-pack of 4-foot-long LED fixtures for less than $45 total. …
They sure have. $80 later and I have this. A coat of white paint, and my 3 motorcycle car-hole will glow like the inside of the sun.
I have a bunch of those cheap hand size ones they give away at Harbor Freight. With the hook and magnet you can get light on pretty much anything.
In reply to MrFancypants :
That little light rocks.
I have the Barrina type lights all over the place. I installed two rows of five down each side of my one bay garage. They do a great job of lighting up the entire garage. I used the pin-pin connectors and once in awhile the contractions and expansions of my house cause them to pull apart so I have to knock them back together.
I installed 6 of them in a continuous row slightly offset in my attic. It's nice to really be able to see up there - well other than now I can really see how much crap I have up there....
In my basement I ran a somewhat convoluted routing of them starting at the switched fixture, then wrapping around the basement. Again - a plus and minus to now really see how much crap I have down there...
A discount store here in New England sells twin light 4-footers for $14.99. I have 4 of them in my one-car garage and one in my basement, and they are awesome. Wherever you get them, LED's are a HUGE upgrade.
Woah. I was happy with the single HF 4-foot strip for $20 with a coupon. If you search that Barrina type, they have a 12-pack for $80. Might have to pick that up.
How timely. I just put 2 new 4' led in the garage. I need more.
Put a bunch of Amazon 8' units on the ceiling in my last garage. Showed it to my then-gf once installed.
"Damn," she said. "It's like a K-mart in here."
We have 10 4-foot LEDs in a two-car garage. When we bought the house, the garage was illuminated with just the single-bulb fixture in the middle.
I'm addicted myself - I've put 16 of them in my two-car garage along with a 2' unit under a shelf to light up a workbench. I just put 6 around my lift like JG's, and it's a really nice improvement. Thanks for the ide.
A friend also recommended these for bigger spaces. If I was doing my shop again, I'd possibly go that way for the main lighting. It's a high ceiling.
www.amazon.com/Lighting-Dimmable-Equivalent-Industrial-Warehouse/dp/B07X23NT7P
I didn't realize led lights were so cheap! Just ordered that six-pack for my little 1.5 car garage. I figure one or two above the work bench and the other four or five around the rest of the space. I have to wear a headlamp when I do any sort of work after dark now ☹️
One side of the garage that shows the LED lights.
It sort of comes from my time designing lighting for supermarkets, but I'm a fan of running continuous rows of lights as tightly together as possible. That tends to provide the most amount of light with minumal shadows.
Have heard of some issues with some LED garage lighting. A lot of LEDs are PWM controlled at about 300mhz, so a lot of short range remote devices can be affected. Like garage door openers that operate in around the 315mhz (these usually have the purple button) and FM radios. Some local guys have found this out the hard way. One guy is experimenting with toroid filters to stop this.
Was going to install LED lighting in my garage this winter/spring but now I think I'll wait to see what the guy experimenting with toroid filters figures out.
wlkelley3 said:Have heard of some issues with some LED garage lighting. A lot of LEDs are PWM controlled at about 300mhz, so a lot of short range remote devices can be affected. Like garage door openers that operate in around the 315mhz (these usually have the purple button) and FM radios. Some local guys have found this out the hard way. One guy is experimenting with toroid filters to stop this.
Was going to install LED lighting in my garage this winter/spring but now I think I'll wait to see what the guy experimenting with toroid filters figures out.
I have four of the Costco Feit fixtures in my attached garage with a Chamberlain purple button opener. Never had a single problem. And in my barn, where I replaced 8 big florescent fixtures with 12 Feits, I use AM, FM, TV with an antenna, and Bluetooth with no issues. Ironically, the old florescents caused a lot more interference.
Props for providing an Amazon alternative. They've got enough money for now. Other businesses don't.
Funny how this thread shows up now as I've been debating the lighting in my new building. There are 20 2x4 troffer lights in the work and storage areas, most of which have either burned-out bulbs or ballasts that need replacement. I considered LED "ballast by-pass" bulbs, but that is LOTS of work wiring all of them. My brother suggested buying cheap LED lights and just screwing them to the ceiling and replace when they burn out. I spent considerable time searching for lights, reading reviews and trying to make a decision.
I decided to go with the Barrina brand mainly because of the price($7.08/light). Hopefully 48 will take care of the 3 areas I need to illuminate. Now to figure out what to do with the existing fixtures? Depower and leave in place? Remove?
In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :
I suppose it depends on how you plan to install and power the new fixtures. If you go through the effort to de-power them then I would remove them and install new ceiling tiles. Rest assured you'll eventually want to install something in the ceiling that will inevitably be right where one of the fixtures is.
My garage has always had spotty radio reception although I'm not sure if it's related to the existing fluorescent fixtures I left in place after installing the LED fixtures. I do want to figure out how to get reliable tunes into the garage, so eventually I'll think of something.
I use one as a rather extreme work light. It of course is big, but lights up a big area and since the covering is plastic, it's pretty immune to damage (I have even stepped on it a bit). I suspect with the addition of some glued on magnets, it would make a great under hood light.
For the garage above, you might consider replacing the light boxes with power outlets. You can plug your new lights into them and also have another option to getting power to the middle of the garage (which is only powered when the light are on of course).
In reply to David S. Wallens :
That bare bulb on a porcelain base in the center of the room is affectionately known as a Soviet light.
aircooled said:I use one as a rather extreme work light. It of course is big, but lights up a big area and since the covering is plastic, it's pretty immune to damage (I have even stepped on it a bit). I suspect with the addition of some glued on magnets, it would make a great under hood light.
I like this idea and I think I am going to try it.
aircooled said:I use one as a rather extreme work light. It of course is big, but lights up a big area and since the covering is plastic, it's pretty immune to damage (I have even stepped on it a bit). I suspect with the addition of some glued on magnets, it would make a great under hood light.
I kinda did that. I attached one to a 1x4 with some casters and I use it for under-car work. You can see it here under the Boxster:
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:aircooled said:I use one as a rather extreme work light. It of course is big, but lights up a big area and since the covering is plastic, it's pretty immune to damage (I have even stepped on it a bit). I suspect with the addition of some glued on magnets, it would make a great under hood light.
I kinda did that. I attached one to a 1x4 with some casters and I use it for under-car work. You can see it here under the Boxster:
That's a crazy good idea! It seems like the big portable shop lights are still quite expensive and the batteries don't last that long.
In reply to Appleseed :
I had to leave it. See also: How the 40 Watt Club in Athens got its name.
So I have a question now that some of mine are starting to hit 5-7 years old. They are all self contained pull string leds, some look like a long strip, some look like a white tube.
When we moved into the new house in May I hung a well used 4 footer in my shop room. After about a month of very infrequent use, it only started lighting about half way.
Fast forward a few months I replaced it with a slightly newer unused 4 footer, and within a week, it's at half brightness and I left it on 24/7 to eliminate any "startup"issues.
Think cold fluorescent tube in a magnetic ballast. The light's there, like it wants to come up, but doesn't.
Same brand of light I had in my exposed carport for 4 years with no problems even in winter and rain. The first light I hung was actually from the carport so it was known working when installed.
Could this be a fluke of the light drivers, or could it be indicative of a bigger electrical problem.
Possibly related, I've had an incandescent literally explode in the ceiling fan, and lost 8-9 incandescent through burnouts over a period of 10 days, all on different circuits around the house.
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