I'd make sure you had surge protectors on any electronics on the house, that sounds like an unstable power supply.
I'd make sure you had surge protectors on any electronics on the house, that sounds like an unstable power supply.
Surge protectors don't actually do all that much. There's no reason not to use them, but I wouldn't count on them to protect anything expensive.
I agree though that it's worth checking the voltage and polarity of the outlets in your house. Electrical fires suck. Something like this is cheap and easy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081ZL5PCV
Voltage regulators, power conditioners, whatever. I would want to monitor voltage over time in this house.
It's slowly going to get rewired. Easy stuff first, which is the fuse box the shop room runs off of, then the basement that needs gutted anyway, then probably with conduit and surface mount boxes, the rest of the house. Then if we ever get really rich, properly replace the stuff in the walls.
Current suspicions are a loose neutral or floating ground.
Appleseed said: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.
That's awesome. My 26X20' garage was illuminated exactly that way when we moved in. I now have a total of 24 4' T8 fluorescents.
These LEDs look like the perfect choice for under my lift, so I can see the car below.
I also have a couple of these 48" rechargeable harbor freight work lights: https://www.harborfreight.com/845-lumen-underhood-rechargeable-work-light-63990.html. 845 lumens. I either hang them from a hood, or just lay them in the engine compartment, depending on what I'm going. They're super sweet when the power goes out too.
So, a sorta related question; are converting existing 4ft fixtures worth it?
If so, what parts are better than others?
I still have a box of tubes to use up, but if there's a good deal on some LED conversions I may not wait for them to get used up.
RevRico said:It's slowly going to get rewired. Easy stuff first, which is the fuse box the shop room runs off of, then the basement that needs gutted anyway, then probably with conduit and surface mount boxes, the rest of the house. Then if we ever get really rich, properly replace the stuff in the walls.
Current suspicions are a loose neutral or floating ground.
While I understand that replacing wiring is expensive and time consuming, the potential for fires is real. This kind of thing kills people.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:So, a sorta related question; are converting existing 4ft fixtures worth it?
If so, what parts are better than others?
I still have a box of tubes to use up, but if there's a good deal on some LED conversions I may not wait for them to get used up.
I've converted a couple of my 8' fixtures as well as 2' ones to LED using "tubes" from Hyperikon. No complaints and I've had the 8' ones for three years. You have to bypass the ballast but that's an easy enough job, even standing on a 16' ladder. They put out more light than the tubes I pulled out and light up immediately. No regrets.
More info: the reason I went this direction is because the 8' tubes were in suspended fixtures and the 2' tubes were in a ceiling box that was exactly 2' wide so there was no room for the power cord that sticks out of the end of a Barrina.
MrFancypants said: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.
Totally put one to work last night.
I actually have a pair of T5 fluorescent fixtures new in the box. That's how long they've been waiting for me to get off my ass and install them.
I also have a pair of 2x2 surface mount LED fixtures that were office lighting samples a rep gave me. They still need to be hung, too.
Keith Tanner said:Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:So, a sorta related question; are converting existing 4ft fixtures worth it?
If so, what parts are better than others?
I still have a box of tubes to use up, but if there's a good deal on some LED conversions I may not wait for them to get used up.
I've converted a couple of my 8' fixtures as well as 2' ones to LED using "tubes" from Hyperikon. No complaints and I've had the 8' ones for three years. You have to bypass the ballast but that's an easy enough job, even standing on a 16' ladder. They put out more light than the tubes I pulled out and light up immediately. No regrets.
More info: the reason I went this direction is because the 8' tubes were in suspended fixtures and the 2' tubes were in a ceiling box that was exactly 2' wide so there was no room for the power cord that sticks out of the end of a Barrina.
The Hyperkon site gave a quick run down on the bypass or dummy ballast method making it look simple. I already have nice 4' 4 bulb units built in so the retrofit is an easier way to do the job. Now to price out the bulbs.
In reply to 84FSP :
Samsung direct drop in T8 LED tubes were $8 each at home depot last year. No wiring, no worries about the ballast, just swap the bulbs. Made a hell of a difference in my laundry room at the old house.
RevRico said:In reply to 84FSP :
Samsung direct drop in T8 LED tubes were $8 each at home depot last year. No wiring, no worries about the ballast, just swap the bulbs. Made a hell of a difference in my laundry room at the old house.
When you go shopping for those, be sure to read the box. Some of them require certain ballasts to work but still try to pass themselves off as a direct replacement for tubes and hide the ballast requirements in the fine print. I wound up with a carton of those from Philips, I think.
84FSP said:Keith Tanner said:Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:So, a sorta related question; are converting existing 4ft fixtures worth it?
If so, what parts are better than others?
I still have a box of tubes to use up, but if there's a good deal on some LED conversions I may not wait for them to get used up.
I've converted a couple of my 8' fixtures as well as 2' ones to LED using "tubes" from Hyperikon. No complaints and I've had the 8' ones for three years. You have to bypass the ballast but that's an easy enough job, even standing on a 16' ladder. They put out more light than the tubes I pulled out and light up immediately. No regrets.
More info: the reason I went this direction is because the 8' tubes were in suspended fixtures and the 2' tubes were in a ceiling box that was exactly 2' wide so there was no room for the power cord that sticks out of the end of a Barrina.
The Hyperkon site gave a quick run down on the bypass or dummy ballast method making it look simple. I already have nice 4' 4 bulb units built in so the retrofit is an easier way to do the job. Now to price out the bulbs.
If you can't figure out the ballast bypass you should just put down the wire nuts and step away from the fusebox :) Hot to one end of the tube, neutral to the other, done.
Thanks to this article I am finally upping my lighting game in the garage. I'm trying out two of the UFO high bay LED lights as an upgrade to the bare 75W bulbs mounted at the 12' ceiling. A cheap LED tube over the workbench has been a huge upgrade on it's own.
I started with a single bulb, off to the side. I just daisychained 8 of the Barrina lights together and tied them back into the bulb socket.
From this:
To this:
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.
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).
I too have done this. I have two of the lights and have laid them under the car or in the engine compartment, etc. Basically big droplights. I've also stepped on mine a few times without any issues. I like these things quite a bit. I like the idea of gluing some magnets to them. I think I'll do just that. I can see it being useful for attaching them to each other, the toolbox, the car, etc. Solid idea!
I do have an old Halogen exterior flood light that my dad attached years ago to a small furniture dolly. It cranes up and down and works great under/around a car. Also, when it's chilly in the garage, it puts out heat that an LED never will.
In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :
Same in my Garage, I have 12 of the Costco led lights and have no problems with the garage door openers.
Both of these photos were taken with a DSLR on full manual (exposure and focus) on a tripod, at the same settings.
Darker photo: 2X T8 fixture down the middle of the garage, longitudinally roughly in line with the fender on the '57.
Lighter photo: 4X Koda LED lights from Costco, each laterally in line with each garage door rail, longitudinally centered on front edge of '57. The problem with this installation is that you have to reflect the remote's IR signal off just the right spot on the wall to get all four lights on or off at the same time -- most of the time, it takes 4-5 times to get them all on or off.
I also have a Koda LED light in my basement workshop, with the motion-detector set for full sensitivity. This is quite handy, especially when I'm carrying things. The only issue I have with this one is that the "off" timer often doesn't kick in, so I can see that the light is still on long after it should have shut off.
I was in the basement yesterday and also had the radio playing through the stereo on the main floor and noticed that when the LED (Barinna) lights are on in the basement there is significant interference with the radio reception. Goes away after I turn the lights off.
I replaced the original fixtures from the 1970s with 8 LED shop lights. For less than a couple hours of work and less than a couple hundred dollars, lighting has been the best improvement I've made in the garage.
I've got 8 x 8ft Barrinas in my 20x25 shop and I have 4 more that I haven't mounted due to laziness. I'm generally very happy with them for the money. The only thing that annoyed me is that i bought the first set of 6 and spaced them as far apart as their jumper cords would allow without modding, and then when I bought the second set maybe 6mo-1yr later and tried to mount them 3-across (24ft of light just fits inside my 25ft wide building) with the end-to-end butt connectors, i discovered that they had flipped the triangle shape of the connector so that all the lights on each row had to be of the same type. This annoyed me because i had to shuffle the existing lights around between locations to make that work, and I dont see any benefit to them making that running change. Other than that, very happy with my Barrina LEDs.
I ran a couple pieces of string at just below open garage door height between the side walls of my 2-car garage, then punched a few slots in each end of a pair of the barrina lights. Zip ties through the holes and around the string mean I have a pair of lights I can slide from one side of the garage to the other. There's a string that runs between the two main light runs for the cables to follow and meet at an extension with a triple socket, so I have at least one outlet right there as well.
130 lumens/sq ft is a nice level. Putting the strips laterally between cars does the best job of eliminating shadows for me in a low bay. 5 longitudinal by 4 wide LED grid in a 3 bay, wired odds and evens for 40% or 60% power at flip of a switch. Still use some task lighting, but this makes everything much easier. And tripod bulbs in the original sockets. Not as bright as fluorescent, but not bothered by cold temps.
This is a pair of the 4' from the link in the 1st post. A hair yellow but good for task lighting.
Question- can I use a socket to two prong plug and then a two prong to three prong adapter? My lights are three prong and I don't have a nearby outlet, but do have socketed bulb outlets.
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