Thread: Workshop lighting

Tossed up whether to put this in Electrical or general section, so mods please move it if you prefer.

Its a dire situation - I've run out of salvaged lights and looks like I need to actually buy some for the garage and workshop.
I mainly need something for general lighting, and the areas I need them for are all over 3m high so thinking about something like these LED high-bay lights.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-x-150W...pid=2119278830

150W, 120deg spread and roughly $35 each

I've got a couple of the more industrial style LED high-bay lights with aluminium shades approx 400mm diameter. I think they are also around the 150w rating.
They were given to me by a mate who imported a bunch direct from China for his new workshop and ended up with a few spares. They work well, but they do put out a bit of RF interference, which buggers the already dodgy reception on my shed radio.

Anyone happen to have similar to those ebay ones I linked to, or a recommendation for something better?

Steve

I'm interested to know as well, might be overkill in my small shed though.

Has anybody used the LED's that retrofit into the fluro battens?

Originally Posted by NedsHead

...Has anybody used the LED's that retrofit into the fluro battens?

Yes. They work quite nicely. I think Ray G also has them fitted in this shed. Mine were an ebay purchase; from memory AEG brand.

Michael

Originally Posted by NedsHead

I'm interested to know as well, might be overkill in my small shed though.

Has anybody used the LED's that retrofit into the fluro battens?

Yes. All 23 tubes replaced in the workshop and all fluro tubes in the house
The older style of ballast type only need the starter removed. Later model stuff needs the whole lot of the internals removed.
I used AEG tubes and rewired each batten holder so the Active wire went to one end of the tube and the neutral to the other end.
Phillips tubes have to be wired so that the active and neutral go to the two terminals on one end only.

Do a google search.

eBay has 120cm AEG tubes for about $9.50 each if
you buy a box of 25.
Get the 4000K temperature as the 6000K are a bit harsh (blue)

Have them over the wood and metal lathe. No problems with flicker that some claim that LED's cause.

Best of luck.

Originally Posted by NedsHead

Has anybody used the LED's that retrofit into the fluro battens?

Yes I have 20 of these (they cost me $100 for packs OF 10 on fleabay), and have had them for ~5 years and in that time one died after ~3 years use.
They do indeed use very little power but my Lux meter tell me they have lost around 5% brightness in that time.

The power draw in the original (20+ year old) fittings which I got for nothing and had working Standard 36W fluoro tubes consumed ~65W per fluoro, whereas the LED replacements are around 17W per tube.
Most of the power loss was in the old ballasts which were removed as they were getting quite hot.
Before replacing the tubes I did think about changing the ballasts but they were going to cost almost as much as new light fittings.

My estimate is I am in the shed about 20 hours a week and because of my poor eyesight and the lack of decent windows in the shed I usually turn on at least 10 of these LED tubes whenever I am in there.

With a difference of 48W between the two types of tubes I worked out the time required to payback the cost of purchase was about a year
Since then I've been saving, lots.

Of course a modern non-LED fluoro with an electronic ballast uses a lot less power than the old school ballasts, and cost savings won't be as dramatic.

Hi Guys,

I use these lights in the kitchen, bathroom and hall ways.

s-l225.jpg 7158G_P.jpeg
They normally would have GU10 50W halogen bulbs in them but I've got 3W LED ones in ours. The bright white ones are blinding and the bulbs are dirt cheap in the local supermarket without going to China. Though I did buy a pack of ten from there, but they were rubbish and dangerous. The outer shell is alloy and connected to one side of the mains supply.

I paid around £2 each for them in stainless steel, plus the cost of a bulb which was around the same price.

I've got a few of the LED fluoro replacements too.
Great over benches etc or in a normal 2.4m-ish wall height shed but I don't think they have enough output when mounted higher up.

Steve

The bloke I work for bought similar to what you had linked, supposed to be similar life span.
He had 8 of which 6 lasted only 2-8 months. Not sure as to why they died.
Kryn

Another alternative is low voltage LED rope lighting.
We’ve been installing the Mine Glow 24V products at work and they are impressive. I haven’t contacted the supplier to find out pricing and ordering yet so I don’t any idea on cost or minimum order.

That's interesting.
I get the the feeling from the marketing blurb that they will be expensive up front and you make the savings on reduced ongoing maintenance.

What was also interesting on their website is the statement that normal LEDs lose 50% luminescence within a couple of years.

Steve

Originally Posted by OxxAndBert

What was also interesting on their website is the statement that normal LEDs lose 50% luminescence within a couple of years.

Steve

Of course they will say that.
I have had the LED fluro replacements for over two years now. No reduction in light and no failures.
I also measured the power used before and after replacement using a watt meter.
Double fluro was 97 watts. After LED replacement, 28 watts.

Regards.

John

Originally Posted by Wimmera Jack

Of course they will say that.
I have had the LED fluro replacements for over two years now. No reduction in light and no failures.
I also measured the power used before and after replacement using a watt meter.
Double fluro was 97 watts. After LED replacement, 28 watts.

At 97W for a double fluoro and 28W for a double LED rpacement that makes it 48.5W and 14W per single tube respectively.
If so, they sound like older fluoros?

The newer generation fluoros are more efficient that this and have expected life times of about 2/3rds of the LED tubes.
About two years ago I picked up 5 near new (~6 months old) fluoro twin fittings complete with electronic ballasts and twin tubes for $10 for each fitting from GT.
The tubes are nominally 18W and I just measured their power use and it's 31 W per tube which is still pretty good considering they are now ~2.5 years old.

I also remeasured my LED replacements and they show up as 16W per tube, when they were new they were 17W per tube - probably still within measurement tolerance

Measuring light output (lumens) of tubes is very difficult to do accurately (ie just moving a few things around inside a shed will change readings due to changes in reflected light) but some measurements I did last year showed the then 5 year old LED tubes had lost about 5% of their light output.

Most LEDs are rated as L70 or L80 which means they lose 20 to 30% over their life time of say 30000 hours.

My shed has few windows so I have my LED tubes on most of the time and I estimate this at about 20 hours a week.
If my tubes are L70's and the intensity loss was linear (it's not) then;
20 hrs/week x 52 weeks x 5 year =~5200 hours of total use would on on average work out about (5200/30000) * 30 = 5.2% which is what I measured.
BTW I can only see this visually by running a new LED tube alongside an older one.

My workshop has 14 double fluoros, a mix of T8 & T5 with each pair individually switched to reduce lighting to where I’m working. This thread has been very informative but when I searched for fluoro LED replacements, I found this warning:
https://www.enlighten.com.au/knowled...ou-cant-ignore

They recommend a full luminaire replacement but they are a commercial organisation (self interest ??) . Any comments or feedback on their risk warning?

Originally Posted by peterbilt

They recommend a full luminaire replacement but they are a commercial organisation (self interest ??) . Any comments or feedback on their risk warning?

I think what the the author of that article is referring to (especially the illuimance, power factor and RF noise consideration) applies more to replacing fluoro tubes in larger buildings or workshops where National Standards for illumination would apply.

My experience is that If anything (specially older) home workshops are usually woefully under illuminated (ie a couple of incandescent light bulbs) often to save on the cost of lighting. Even if they cost a bit more, the low running cost of LED lighting provides a strong incentive for a DIYer to install more lighting. The ability to be able to see better in a home workshop has to be better than not.

Power factor is very important in large buildings but things can even go wrong with standard fluoros. Back in the 1970s a multistorey building in Perth was fitted with faulty fluoros that screwed up the power facts and over time the electrical wiring in the building failed and started a major fire.

As far as RFI is concerned, the installation of a single VFD in a home workshop is likely to have far greater RFI implications than changing a dozen or so fluoros.

BTW I would dispute the authors claim that the average LED tube weighs 300-400g , I just weighed the AEG LEDs I'm using and they weigh 205g.

If the author was serious about a whole of product risk analysis he should have considered things like the dangers associated with glass tube breakage (would you rather have a plastic tube land on your head or a glass one?) not to mention the long term environmental impact of the careless disposal of millions of fluoro tubes every year containing mercury.

Q

Originally Posted by BobL

As far as RFI is concerned, the installation of a single VFD in a home workshop is likely to have far greater RFI implications than changing a dozen or so fluoros.

Depends entirely upon the quality of both the VFD and the LED tubes, but in general that statement is a long way from reality. In a domestic environment you may not notice it so much because there is unlikely to be equipment that is susceptible to RFI present. Pretty much all LEDs have some form of driver circuit, and that is usually a switching or switch mode power supply, to maintain compact form factor usually means something has to give. That something is usually EME (RFI) suppression. If you walk around anywhere that has LED lighting with a spectrum analyser with lights on vs lights off, you will nearly always find an elevated noise floor with them on.