CFL and Fluorescent to LED

Colossus · January 18, 2015

appreciate that, thank you kind sir.

Chris · January 18, 2015

I got the Phillips tubes in 4000k. I need to do my kitchen in them now

Colossus · January 22, 2015

Here is an interesting article that might be helpful for those thinking about converting over to LED.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/picking-the-right-bulb-makes-all-the-difference-with-led-options/2014/12/18/6c0d8bb0-8548-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html

idnative1948 · March 20, 2015

Wish me luck then on LEDs. My honey came home from Costco with a 4ft dual LED this afternoon ($39.95). WOW these tired old eyes are happy now in the garage. No issues with door opener.

Colossus · March 23, 2015

Costco has some great deals on LEDs right now, I've been upgrading the floodlights in my house to LEDs and they are much brighter without the horrible crispness. Very pleased.

Chadwilliam1 · June 17, 2015

I have 18 of the costco shop lights installed at my house which are 34.99 right now. My house was just built so I needed lights so instead of buying fluorescents I went LED. These things weigh nothing and use very little energy. I like the color, there is no glass so a light is not going to fall out. In my 24X32 garage I installed 8 of them and in my 1200 square foot basement I installed 10 of them. I have 3 left over for various uses.

I love LEDs, I have like 27 can lights in my house and I went ahead and replaced all of those incandescent lights with LEDs. I do not like the yellow color that comes from the CFls. I bought 15 led bulbs from through the power company they arrived today. 15 was my limit of the discounted LEDs. I put them in the most commonly used spots of the house.

OP I highly doubt you will see a noticeable drop in your electric bill by switching from fluorescents to LEDs with just a few shop lights. I highly recommend the costco shop lights they are great. I really like mine, and I would gladly add more.

Chris · June 17, 2015

I have 18 of the costco shop lights installed at my house which are 34.99 right now. My house was just built so I needed lights so instead of buying fluorescents I went LED. These things weigh nothing and use very little energy. I like the color, there is no glass so a light is not going to fall out. In my 24X32 garage I installed 8 of them and in my 1200 square foot basement I installed 10 of them. I have 3 left over for various uses.

I love LEDs, I have like 27 can lights in my house and I went ahead and replaced all of those incandescent lights with LEDs. I do not like the yellow color that comes from the CFls. I bought 15 led bulbs from through the power company they arrived today. 15 was my limit of the discounted LEDs. I put them in the most commonly used spots of the house.

OP I highly doubt you will see a noticeable drop in your electric bill by switching from fluorescents to LEDs with just a few shop lights. I highly recommend the costco shop lights they are great. I really like mine, and I would gladly add more.

Pics of them?

Chadwilliam1 · June 17, 2015

Here is the link to the forum to where I found out about them. With some good pics of different installs.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=270879

Chris · June 17, 2015

Here is the link to the forum to where I found out about them. With some good pics of different installs.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=270879

Is it just the bulbs or entire fixtures? I do rent so i cant hang new fixtures.

Cklump · June 17, 2015

It is the whole fixture. The bulbs in them do not come out.

unit731 · June 24, 2015

If you use major brand lamps (Philips, Cree, etc) then failure rates are a lot less.

I had a Cree LED and parts of the bulb quit. So much for the 11-20 year lifespan.

Telephoned Cree for warranty replacement. It was easy. Just take back to Lowe's and get a replacement. OK. Good. But that is a 30 minute drive for me. And if a dedicated trip the gas mileage would negate the advantage.

Different take. I have two outside garage lights left/right. I purchased off eb*y two 5 watt LED for around $5.00 for pair free shipping from China/Hong Kong. Work just fine. Leave on all night with a timer.

Chris · June 24, 2015

I had a Cree LED and parts of the bulb quit. So much for the 11-20 year lifespan.

Telephoned Cree for warranty replacement. It was easy. Just take back to Lowe's and get a replacement. OK. Good. But that is a 30 minute drive for me. And if a dedicated trip the gas mileage would negate the advantage.

Different take. I have two outside garage lights left/right. I purchased off eb*y two 5 watt LED for around $5.00 for pair free shipping from China/Hong Kong. Work just fine. Leave on all night with a timer.

My outdoor lights were normal foxtures for 60w incandescents. And out in front of my garage are for like 20w candelabra base incandescents. All 3 have been changed to LED with photocells. So i just always leave the switches. I dont even remember what switches they are

bmf4069 · July 8, 2015

I put Halo retro-fit led kits it my can lights. Super clean look and they come in 2700k(incandescent lamp color) so its no different from the 65w br30s that were in there. In the garage I just roll with 2 8' strips with 96w 4100s. They're starting to come out with t5 strips which will be super bright.

And whoever said they're phasing out t8s: not for a while, t12s are getting g phased out.

Aaron1085 · August 23, 2015

FYI I picked me up one of those LED Shoplights from Costco a few weeks ago to permanently mount above my work bench in the garage. The light output is good and not too crisp, but a good white light but the thing is very fragile so beware with that. No flickering from the cold like fluorescents do, instant on and full brightness. I do like it so far. Again use caution with it when installing. I plan on installing/converting the fluorescent fixture in my elderly mothers walk-in closet over to LED once I can find some LED tubes that give a bit warmer of color. The brightness is good though since her eye sight is dimming as she gets older (she's into her early 70s now) and has asked me to make the lights in the house brighter for her.

Do you have a link to these and / or picture of your install? I'd like to mount some in my garage rafters before winter.

Sent from my iPhone

[email protected] · June 8, 2016

This Thread was started in 2014 - and last Post was Aug. 2015 - so thought I’d take a minute to update.

I’d been looking at LED’s for the garage since before 2014. Kept waiting for the quality to go up and price to come down. A lighting strike to the garage forced me to make a decision. Garage is 42’ x 24’ with two 18’ garage doors in front - on 16’ in the rear. I had originally put 6 T-12, 75 watt, double tube, 8’ long fluoresce fixtures.

Each fluoresce fixture put out 6500K color, at 4500 lumens x 2=9000 lumen.

After the lighting strike.. I started pricing replacements - either entire fixtures or just the ballast. Any way I looked at it - I was looking at $45.00 to $65.00 to replace the one’s I had. (depending on the quality of the fixture and ballast) I already had a couple spare bulbs - so I bought a new fixture. Got it home and went to install it - when I found that the new fixtures wiring away from the ballast was about 12” long. This would mean that I would have to make a jumper wire about 3’ long to reach the garage wiring. WHAT? No Way! I took it back, and looked at other brands - they were all identical. I wasn’t about to make jumper wires for all the lights…

I had purchased a 48” LED Shop Light about two years earlier from Sam’s Club to put over my workbench - I think they were about $39.95 then. SUPER BRIGHT and very light weight fixture. Came with everything needed to hang it as well. After two years - I was still very happy and impressed with it. Lights Of America was the brand. Components from China, but at least assembled in the USA.

Checked the current price on Sam’s Club on-line and their 2Pack was $64.88 with free shipping. Each one is 40watts, 4500 lumens, 5000K color. So times 2 - 9000 Lumens. (and a lot less watts). Ordered 6 2Packs to replace the lights in the garage. Ordered an extra one - as a future spare. {why not - they were $32.44 per light).

Next - I did have to terminate the garage wiring with an outlet so I could just plug the new lights in. I actually like this feature as it makes replacement easy and safe. Each light can be individually turned on/off as well as being controlled from the original light switches. I like this feature as well - because these LED’s put out so much light that for normal garage use one of them put out plenty of light. If I’m cleaning/detailing/polishing a car there - I can easily turn on the second one in each row.

I have to say that the light these things put out is amazing - lumens ratings aside - they are twice as bright as the fluorescents. Plus they are instant ON ! and full bright.

They are designed to hang from a chain - that worked fine in some places, but in others they needed to be flush mounted. Some guys just drilled a couple holes though the fixture and screwed them to the celling. However, if you need flush mounting - you just call Lights of America and they will send you “clips” for flush mounting the lights - free. The clips just snap onto the ends of the fixture and prove a hole for flush mounting.

All in all - I’m very happy with new lights. Good Customer Value.

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/2pk-led-shoplight-4-ft-led-shoplight/prod20051839.ip?navAction=

FWIW,

Carl B.