Changinig out 48" florescent shop fixtures for 60 watt equivalent led bulbs

[Overland1]

Anyone care to share their thoughts on this?  An led bulb and socket is considerably cheaper than an led shop light. I am wondering how many bulbs and sockets it would take to equal one of my 48" florescent?

[daddo]

Not liking the electronics dependability in LED shop lights, when my fluorescent lights go out, I'll build my own run with regular type spiral or easily replaced LED bulbs.
If electricity costs me another 5 bucks a month, I'm not going to sweat it.

I rarely use the fluorescent lights anyway. Don't like'em.

[fredhargis]

They usually put the lumens somewhere on the package, you can compare them. Everything I've seen so far indicate the LEDs put out a little less light for a comparable fluorescent lamp. But my experience doesn't confirm that. I bought some of the cheap Ciostco LED shop lamps when they had them for $20 each (2-48" tubes) and replaced some temporary (brand new, high quality) 48" T5 florescents. With 2 of the LED replacing one of the others (the T5's were 4 lamp fixtures) my eyes tell me I have more light. This might not be the same for the lamp conversion, but it would be worth pursuing. Personally I would get the ones that run without the old ballast.

[Robert Adams]

Have installed these  in a commercial application and they are much higher lumen output than the ones you pick up locally. They are also direct wire. Course they are $14 each which is double the price of the lower lumen output versions.

     I would love to replace all my 8' t8 bulbs with them but they are pricey and hard to ship.

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/177165/KOBI-K6P9.html

    You can also order them in bulk on ebay from other sellers for as low as $7 each shipped.


       Direct wire is the way to go and I prefer the ones that are hot on one end and neutral on the other though they aren't legal in places like Australia etc. They have to use the goofy wire ones.

[Cooler]

The replaced the 4 tube x 4 foot long light fixtures in our office with very expensive edge lit LED fixtures.  Each panel looks like a panel of light.  The lighting is brighter, more color accurate and (apparently) more durable.  It has been about 4 years and the ritual of replacing bulbs and ballasts have been a thing of the past.

I have been replacing my shop lights with Lights of America LEDs.  These are very cheap (about $40.00) and very bright and color accurate.  

Unless I run into problems with these I will continue the conversion as each fixture fails.  

Note:  T12 fluorescent bulbs are out of production but bulbs can still be found.  T8s are available and seem to work with the T12 fixtures.  There are T6s out there but I have not tried any.

[fredhargis]

OK, I looked some of this stuff up...my basement has all single lamp socket fixtures with LED bulbs so I was wondering about the conversion to fluorescent (I'm not going to do that, just curious). Depending on which lamps the fluorescents are (light output on a T8 varies quite a bit) it would take 3 -4 of the 60 watt LED lamps to replace one T8 lamp (one light, not one fixture). The 60 watt LED generate 800 lumens (according to the label on a premium lamp) and the T 8 lamps range between 2400 to 3200 lumens. It should be noted that fluorescents lose light as they age, and I've not seen anywhere that the LEDS will do that. The other reason I did this was I didn't read your title line close enough to realize you wanted to use the bulbs, I interpreted your question as using the LED replacements for your fluorescent fixtures (my apologies).

[EricU]

the led replacements for fluorescent tubes do put out a little less light, but it's all pointed in the direction that you actually use it.  The originals put out light throughout 360 degrees, and a lot of it goes to waste.  I think the led bulbs are almost surely brighter in the directions that matter. I know things got a lot brighter in my shop when I replaced the bulbs. Of course, if you want max brightness from a fluorescent tube, you have to replace it before it goes bad. Leds also get less bright over time. Since Fred said he had never seen anything about leds losing brightness over time, it's much slower than for a fluorescent tube. If you knew the emitter used, it's on the data sheet.

[Robert Adams]

Yes leds do get dimmer over time. 

       Leds that are over driven will put out more light however it will drastically reduce the life of the leds. The problem is without a thorough teardown and testing there is no way to tell if a certain bulb has been done this way. But you can always be wary of leds that put out allot more light than others as it could possibly be overdriven. 


          I have found the color temperature with most leds are more accurate than fluorescent bulbs. IE many 5k t8s are much more blue than they should be but a 5k led looks right. The fluorescent bulbs often end up greenish as well.

      Still amazes me how many t 12 bulbs and fixtures are still on the market though. Most of what the borgs carry here is t 12 still.  

          For those that don't know what t-8 means it's simple. It's just eights of an inch. a t8 is 8 eights of an inch in diameter.

[Overland1]

Well I have decided to just go with the 48" LED shop lights from walmart. They are down to $38 now and I will do like Cooler and replace them as they go out. I bought one yesterday and put it up between two t8's. It looks every bit as bright and the color is good also.

[6270_Productions]

Yes leds do get dimmer over time. 

       Leds that are over driven will put out more light however it will drastically reduce the life of the leds. The problem is without a thorough teardown and testing there is no way to tell if a certain bulb has been done this way. But you can always be wary of leds that put out allot more light than others as it could possibly be overdriven. 


          I have found the color temperature with most leds are more accurate than fluorescent bulbs. IE many 5k t8s are much more blue than they should be but a 5k led looks right. The fluorescent bulbs often end up greenish as well.

      Still amazes me how many t 12 bulbs and fixtures are still on the market though. Most of what the borgs carry here is t 12 still.  

          For those that don't know what t-8 means it's simple. It's just eights of an inch. a t8 is 8 eights of an inch in diameter.

That is good to know!!!!

I never could remember which was which - T8 or T12.  I do know the difference between 1" and 1 1/4".

Thanks!