Someone mentioned Barrina LEDs as shop lights. I was in the middle of building up my home garage workspace (for doing house projects and electronics and "clean" projects, as opposed to my shop, where I do car stuff) and I figured I'd give them a shot. I picked up an 8-pack of 5000k lights from Amazon for $55 shipped.
Before, using two 4' LED lights from Sam's Club that replaced the two 4' tubes that were there when I moved in.
Today I put a couple of coats of white primer on the plaster wall and the ceiling above the work area, added a ceiling fan and mounted shelves on the wall. I also put the new lights up, which went really quickly and easily. I dig these lights a lot, they were simple to install, flexible on mounting styles and put out mondo light with no shadows. They're controlled by a newly installed motion sensor, so as soon as I walk into the garage everything lights up. The level of illumination kinda shocked my wife, but we all know that you can never have too much light.
That's $55 worth of lights in there. I can reach up to the power cord on the ceiling and turn off half of the "tubes" if I want, but that's goofy. I'll spend a bit of time on cord management to make it all purty later. The picture does not do justice to the level or the quality of illumination, it's going to be a great work area for messing around with circuit boards.
As an added bonus, they make really good work lights. You can plug them into an outlet and just kinda scatter them around to provide light where you need it - say, when you're wiring in a new light fixture so you've got the power off but the outlets are still supplying juice. To pick a random example.
So, whoever recommended those lights - thank you.
Nice. I missed the brand in the original thread so I'm glad you posted this. I really need to do something with the lights in my shop, but any improvements out there must take a back seat to some work in the actual house.
What did you use for motion sensors? that sounds like a good idea as well...
That's a pretty impressive difference! I'll have to keep these in mind for the garage.
I've been pushing those for a while now because they blew me away too, so it might have been one of my posts. That said, I'm sure someone else posted them too because how else would I have heard of them, right? The oldest ones I have are about 3 years old and have never skipped a beat.
That 8 pack is in my cart, just have not ordered them yet.
Duke
MegaDork
10/5/18 8:46 a.m.
I have a couple of 4 ft T8s that have been waiting for me to hang them for about 8 years. I also have a couple of 2x2 LED lay-in fixtures with surrounds that I scored free from a lighting rep. There's really no excuse that I haven't done this yet, except that I'm a lazy bastard sometimes.
That looks great and I'm envious.
Toebra
HalfDork
10/5/18 9:31 a.m.
You can see the depth of the shadows to appreciate the level of illumination
I bought two 6 pack sets... putting them up Sunday
so excited
I haven't found any LED lights that don't hurt my eyes yet, but I'm the guy that closes the sunroof panel in a car to drive it from the front of the building into the shop. I presume I'm a bit unique in my level of light sensitivity, though. Ceiling fixture in the living room? No. Lamp anywhere near the TV? No. Turn the light on when going for a pee in the middle of the night? Hell, No.
I actually really liked the thing everyone else hated about the CFL bulbs- They come on slowly.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Maybe mount them behind a filter in a standard "lensed" florescent fixture? Maybe the color and frequency are disagreeing with you. You may be able to filter the hue and disperse it to create a better situation.
JmfnB said:
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Maybe mount them behind a filter in a standard "lensed" florescent fixture? Maybe the color and frequency are disagreeing with you. You may be able to filter the hue and disperse it to create a better situation.
This is a good call, at the beginning of the year they installed new LED fixtures that were painfully bright in the office. Until they received the diffusers, we were wearing hats in the office to cut down the brightness.
Those lights look great! Apparently, my searching skills need improvement, because I can't find the 8 pack on Amazon. Keith or someone, could you please link us?
Cooter
Dork
10/5/18 11:39 a.m.
I bought one six pack, and already replaced the light above the washer and dryer. The other ones will probably end up in the crawl space and attic, since I hate burned out light bulbs.
But I would like to find a similar deal on something that is easily hardwired.
Toebra
HalfDork
10/5/18 11:52 a.m.
You can put something to reflect the light up and bounce it off the ceiling if exposed LED light gives you the painful brain. Piece of frosted glace or something will diffuse it. There is a product that comes in a roll that changes regular windows into privacy glass that might be useful too.
oldopelguy said:
FooBag said:
Those lights look great! Apparently, my searching skills need improvement, because I can't find the 8 pack on Amazon. Keith or someone, could you please link us?
Linky
Here's an 8 Pack I found
8 Pack Barina LED - 6500K
8 Pack Barina LED - 4000K
ultraclyde said:
What did you use for motion sensors? that sounds like a good idea as well...
They're Lutrons from Home Depot. I really like motion sensing lights in the garage, because there's a higher-than-average chance I've got my hands full when I walk in.
Cooter, you can hardwire these. They come with a collection of wires - including a couple of pigtails that could be patched in to the circuit. I had the ceiling outlets already so I chose to use the plugs, but it would have been a bit cleaner to just put a cover over that and have the wires spliced straight in.
Toebra's right, you can see the difference by looking at the shadows. Obviously the camera cut down the exposure with the new lights so it doesn't look as bright, but it's spectacular in person. More importantly, it was really easy to install them with a lot of options. I'm a big fan, obviously 
In reply to Keith Tanner :
The only way to power this is with a plug that goes in the side of the fixture, which isn't "hardwired". I don't want exposed wires, nor do I want to use Wiremold to hide the cord.
It just looks tacky.
In reply to stuart in mn :
I really like that "Plub and Play" feature shown in the second image of the link! LOL.
i need to replace my old fluorescent lights in the garage...
Cooter said:
In reply to Keith Tanner :
The only way to power this is with a plug that goes in the side of the fixture, which isn't "hardwired". I don't want exposed wires, nor do I want to use Wiremold to hide the cord.
It just looks tacky.
Ah, sorry, I didn’t have the correct definition of hardwired. If the plug on the side is a no+go, then maybe you get a standard tube fixture and install LED tubes. I’ve tried that, I wasn’t as impressed with the value or the results or the ease of installation.
No worries.
It's tough to be an anal retentive electrician with OCD and ADHD.
My mother in law saw the lighting in the garage yesterday, and now it looks like I'll be installing some of these LEDs at her place to throw a little more illumination in the kitchen. That'll give me the chance to take another look at wire management, as it'll be a lot more important in her application. Cooter, I'm thinking it may be possible to drill into the backside of the tubes and run a hidden wire straight into the wall. Should make for a really clean install. The tubes do come with little flush fitting caps so you can hide the unused sockets.
Cooter
Dork
10/7/18 11:53 a.m.
I have a 6 pack of the lights. There is no way that I can hardwire them that will be up to Chicago code here.
Thanks for pointing these out guys. Much appreciated. My new rental home is a cave when it comes to garage lighting. 1 single bulb in the middle of the garage. I didn't want to pay a lot since it's a rental and I'll be here a year max so this works out perfectly. Got a six pack on the way and i can easily remove them when we move on.
