Workshop lighting

MassiveJim

MassiveJim

MassiveJim

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22 Feb 2014
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I am pondering over what to do lighting wise in my workshop.

Currently have a twin 6ft fitting with plastic reflective louvres in which directs the light downwards more than an open fitting. I have just replaced the 2 tubes with fluorescents as a test and it is much brighter.

then also have a 5ft uncovered fitting.

I tried an LED tube in the 5ft fitting and the light "quality" wasn't as good, it seemed as bright yet the room wasn't lit up as well.

What have you guys used ?

I think I want 2 x dual 6ft fittings to replace both of these, and I would get a fitting with a diffuser instead of a closed louvre one, just to let out the light to the sides a bit more.

Also any decent LED tubes, i don't mind buying LED but the light has to be at least as good as a "normal" bulb, which are being phased out so getting harder and harder to come by.
 
Screwfix do some good LAP ones you can daisy chain them.

While not sure seem to remember light from fluorescents will bounce around the room more than LED light does so that could be why your not seeing it as bright, you also want a high lumen count
 
I'm surprised you weren't blown away by the led light you fitted, maybe it's not a very good one? I have 2 bayonet ceiling roses in my garage containing 15 watt flouro bulbs and they're adequate for storing stuff but useless for working under, however the LED baton I fitted on the ceiling directly above my work bench is superb, it's like an operating theatre. I'd recommend swapping out all of your flouro tubes and housings for these:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-single-4ft-led-batten-white-22w-2100lm/8373v
 
Nikumba said:
Screwfix do some good LAP ones you can daisy chain them.

While not sure seem to remember light from fluorescents will bounce around the room more than LED light does so that could be why your not seeing it as bright, you also want a high lumen count
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Those screwfix ones look ok, I would be interested to see how they compare to a standard fitting with retrofitted LED tubes though, seems like a bit of a PITA to have to swap out an entire fitting every time it wears out (I know they are quoted at 25000 hours use but I wouldn't be surprised if it was really half of that, which equates to about 5 years)

bainbridge said:
I'm surprised you weren't blown away by the led light you fitted, maybe it's not a very good one? I have 2 bayonet ceiling roses in my garage containing 15 watt flouro bulbs and they're adequate for storing stuff but useless for working under, however the LED baton I fitted on the ceiling directly above my work bench is superb, it's like an operating theatre. I'd recommend swapping out all of your flouro tubes and housings for these:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-single-4ft-led-batten-white-22w-2100lm/8373v
Click to expand...

Not sure if it was good or not, it was £20 for the tube and it retrofits into the standard fluoro fitting.

and i'm not surprised your LED lights are way brighter, you're not really comparing like for like in your comparison, bayonet fluoro bulbs at 15w vs a 22w LED is obviously going to be a lot brighter.
for reference, a standard 5ft fluoro tube is 58w, an LED equivalent replacement is around 20w, so roughly 3 times the light output.

I guess it depends on height as well.

for example we have a 30w LED fitting I got from amazon that sits about 2/3 feet above a workbench for extra light when needed and when that is on that workspace is the brightest in the workshop by far.
however, I took the tube out of the 5ft fitting on the celling as a test and put the same LED light there instead and it was noticeably dimmer.


I'm willing to splash a bit of cash but It has to be better than what I have now.
 
I've got 2 of the lap ones from screwfix in my garage, I got 3 to put up originally but didn't bother with the last one in the end, absolutely loads of light. Think they were the 5000lm ones.
 
MassiveJim said:
I tried an LED tube in the 5ft fitting and the light "quality" wasn't as good, it seemed as bright yet the room wasn't lit up as well.
Click to expand...

The usual issue with the LED tubes, especially cheaper ones, is the fact they have a much smaller beam angle of light being emitted, traditional fluorescent are 360 degrees around, and as such the light is going in all directions, and the part of the tube that is facing the fitting is reflected back down, most LED are only 160 degrees, but you can get models that are over 300 degrees and many in between.

I've done a great deal of investigation into lighting and tubes, and found pretty much conclusively, you get what you pay for. The Philips MasterLED series offer some of the best quality light, with great CRI (colour Rendering Index) and excellent options of a high number of lumens per watt, you should also be looking at bulbs in the 5000-6500k range, or daylight as it is referred to, if you want to get white light which is more suited to a workshop environment.

Which tubes did you buy in the first place that you found were of poor quality?
 
Journey said:
The usual issue with the LED tubes, especially cheaper ones, is the fact they have a much smaller beam angle of light being emitted, traditional fluorescent are 360 degrees around, and as such the light is going in all directions, and the part of the tube that is facing the fitting is reflected back down, most LED are only 160 degrees, but you can get models that are over 300 degrees and many in between.

I've done a great deal of investigation into lighting and tubes, and found pretty much conclusively, you get what you pay for. The Philips MasterLED series offer some of the best quality light, with great CRI (colour Rendering Index) and excellent options of a high number of lumens per watt, you should also be looking at bulbs in the 5000-6500k range, or daylight as it is referred to, if you want to get white light which is more suited to a workshop environment.

Which tubes did you buy in the first place that you found were of poor quality?
Click to expand...

I think the ones I bought were Energizer branded.

Looked on screwfix at those LEDs and they don't list the CRI annoyingly, my experience with anything below 85 is not nice, so important to have that as high as possible.
Also have looked up the lumens of fluoro tubes and they quote a 58w 5ft tube at 5400 Lumens
70w 6ft tube at 6300 lumens

bearing in mind I have a dual 6ft and a single 5ft in the workshop currently with another dual 6ft unit partly covering the workshop I have a lot more light than these LEDs are quoting.

I'm tempted to replace the current 5ft for a dual 6ft and leave it at that, LEDs are such a minefield, colour temperature, beam angle, CRI, wattage, with most website not listing all of the information that you need, at least that was my experience when buying LEDs for inside the house.
 
MassiveJim said:
I'm tempted to replace the current 5ft for a dual 6ft and leave it at that, LEDs are such a minefield, colour temperature, beam angle, CRI, wattage, with most website not listing all of the information that you need, at least that was my experience when buying LEDs for inside the house.
Click to expand...

As I said stick to Philips, you can access all of the data sheets, and ordering codes etc. and end up with excellent results, and you don't need to spend huge sums of money. I'd never go back to fluorescent tubes, and much prefer the LED's both ascetically and for the much lower watt per lumen output.

I have used some of the Energizer branded ones, and to put it frankly they were terrible, I sent all of them back and will likely never buy one again.
 
Looking at doing this myself, current have 2 6ft 75w fluorescent tubes and it's still a bit gloomy. Was going to put 4 600mm ceiling panel leds in (40w), probably on the warmer side as cooler lights just remind me of a depressing office.

A friend just put a few led fluorescent replacements in his garage but the quality of light wasn't great.
 
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