Shop Lights

[Tapper]

While not actually a woodworking "tool" I thought some here might find this interesting and helpful. I have 10+ 4' 2-tube t8 fluorescent light fixtures in my shop (had 'em for many years). Recently a couple of them went out and bulb replacement didn't help. Yep, it was the ballast. Decided to take a look at conversion to LED. YouTube helped.

Wound up picking up "toggled" brand bulb kits at Home Depot. $19 and change includes 2 tubes and the kit to convert it to LED. Kit includes new "Tombstones" with wire leads, along with wire nuts. Make sure to get the ones that say "Direct Wire, Ballast Bypass" on the box. In short, you remove and throw away the ballast and only wire the Tombstones on one end to the power cord, easy peazy. The Tombstones on the other end just hold the tubes in place. When installing the bulbs make sure to insert the end of the triangular tube with the writing on it in the powered Tombstone end. Also the tubes are a plastic kind of material rather than glass making them more durable.

The "toggled" brand offers 4 different hues, Soft White (amber - 3000K), Cool White (still a little amber - 4000K), Daylight (more white - 5000K), and Daylight Delight (the brightest - 6500K). I chose Daylight which mutes the glare a little while still providing great light (I use task lighting on all countertops, benches and stationary tools). As the ballasts and bulbs begin to fail on the rest, will replace them with LED since I am quite pleased with the results on these.

LED is more energy efficient, less expensive and these bulbs have a six year warranty. Just a reminder to most, as I'm sure many here already knew about this. 

Thanks,

Doug

[KyleD]

I have a mixture of led and florescent lights in the shop. I love the extra light and color of the daylight led bulbs but have trouble with them lasting. The worst offenders are the shop fixtures from Menards. At least half have stoped working. They mainly go into a dim flickering pattern. Almost as bad is the ones like you have that use the existing fixture and bypass the ballast. 
I have an 8 foot ceiling and would like to go with the new low profile led fixtures like available on Amazon but it rankles me that these fixtures that use led and are supposed to last for many years use cheap electronics that continually fail.

[Tapper]

I have a mixture of led and florescent lights in the shop. I love the extra light and color of the daylight led bulbs but have trouble with them lasting. The worst offenders are the shop fixtures from Menards. At least half have stoped working. They mainly go into a dim flickering pattern. Almost as bad is the ones like you have that use the existing fixture and bypass the ballast. 
I have an 8 foot ceiling and would like to go with the new low profile led fixtures like available on Amazon but it rankles me that these fixtures that use led and are supposed to last for many years use cheap electronics that continually fail.

I'm no electrician, but the main parts to any shop light as I see it are the tubes, the ballast and wiring, including the Tombstones. Once you discard the ballast that problem goes away. The new LED tubes remove the fluorescent bulb problems. The kit I mentioned above comes with new Tombstones with wires attached to one end, removing the wiring problem. There is nothing left to go wrong, assuming you attach the wiring properly to the existing power source.

Doug

[KyleD]

Led shop light fixtures still have electronics in them. It is called a driver rather than a ballast it is integrated and not replaceable and I believe it is the weak link.

[Ohio Mike]

Led shop light fixtures still have electronics in them. It is called a driver rather than a ballast it is integrated and not replaceable and I believe it is the weak link.

^^^ This

It's almost always the electronics that fail and it's often because of heat buildup.  I replaced incandescents with LED's in the basement stairwell and they never lasted more than 6 months before they began flickering.

I modified the fixture to leave an air gap between the glass globe and the fixture's base in hopes of increasing air circulation and it worked.  I haven't had to replace a bulb in 18 months.






Mike

[Tapper]

The fixtures I'm speaking of are two bulb, 4' long t8 open light fixtures, i.e. there is no heat buildup. The only "electronics" involved are in the bulbs themselves as there are no other electronic components; direct wire per the conversion kit. The bulbs are guaranteed for 6 years.

Doug

[Ohio Mike]

The fixtures I'm speaking of are two bulb, 4' long t8 open light fixtures, i.e. there is no heat buildup. The only "electronics" involved are in the bulbs themselves as there are no other electronic components; direct wire per the conversion kit. The bulbs are guaranteed for 6 years.

Doug

Yes, sorry for the confusion.  I was talking about the fixtures KyleD got at Menards that are failing.  Some LED fixtures totally enclose the electronics allowing excess heat to build up.   I don't know if KyleD's are that type of fixture but my message was that modifying an LED fixture to increase air circulation worked for me.  

OTOH, if the Menard's lights have poor quality electronics, extra air circulation probably won't help.


Mike

[KyleD]

All the led shop lights we have talked about in this post have electronic drivers. While the actual led components in the lights will last the drivers are the weak link. I hope your experience is better than mine.
 
I do recommend you check out how the six year guarantee works. Many guarantees are only as good as the company that makes them. If you can exchange any lights that go bad at your local HD great but what happens if they no longer carry that brand a couple years down the road? if you have to deal with some amorphous company over the internet the guarantee may not be worth the paper it is printed on.

 I really do hope the lights work out for you. You will like the light they put out.

[EricU]

I was always too lazy to convert when the big box stores only carried the led bulbs that required the ballast.  The ballast is a big reason for conversion in my mind. Then HD started carrying the direct connect/no ballast variety so I converted my two shop lights.  Only problem is that shop lights were really cheap for a reason, they are flimsy.  I have one where the tombstones aren't held securely, and a bulb just fell out yesterday.  Granted, bulbs used to fall out and break before the conversion, and the led bulbs don't break unlike fluorescent bulbs.  I'm thinking about moving over to side lit downlights, although the price is putting me off. But I haven't looked too hard other than HD.

I assume there isn't too much electronics in the led bulbs and they mostly just string together enough leds that they can take rectified 120v.
But I have never bothered to see if someone tore one down.

[KyleD]

I assume there isn't too much electronics in the led bulbs and they mostly just string together enough leds that they can take rectified 120v.
But I have never bothered to see if someone tore one down.

I don't know if they would just put enough leds in series to take 120v rectified. Wouldn't that make them like old fashion Christmas lights where if one bulb (or led) goes bad it breaks the circuit and the whole string stops working?