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I was in Costco Friday and noticed that they have those 4 foot LED (two tube) work area lights that look like fluorescents (but aren't) for $24 each after instant rebate. They are normally about $30 each. That is a fairly good deal. You can chain 4 of them together with their power cords.

I got five, I already had 2 - now I need to hang them in my shop - the high side (14' RV door with a 20' roof) doesn't have any lights over it and gets pretty dark in there.

FWIW
 
Good to know, I need to finish my shop build and having lots of light is a major concern. I'm 40'X80' with a double width 14' door that blocks a lot of light when open. I am looking at lights that can be mounted on the door for this reason! Do you by chance know if these are less sensitive to shake and vibration?
 
On the door itself?

I wouldn't put them there - they seem too flimsy for that.

I have a similar door - 14' tall roll up, wider than standard. I was looking at how to mount them and I was considering mounting them to the upright beams but decided to hang one from the end of the roller rails for the door, and the rest from overhead beams beyond the door, which are 14' high.

When I would have the door open there is enough light under it - I would not have it open at night most of the time as I can fit most any vehicle I own all the way inside - my shop is something like ~20'x~48' I think.
 
I figured it wouldn't work hanging lights on the door, I have chain running across the door track with florescent's hanging, but the rig that resides in that space can/will tangle with the set up, and worse, I have to access that rig at 4 am and usually don't put it back in until dark! It needs to be kept from freezing, other wise it takes an hour to warm it up! Hydros don't like cold! I am still going to pick up a bunch of those lights, they will sure brighten things up in there! Thanks for the post!
 
Was getting displeased with the ballast getting old and dim tubes and just needed a better light source in the shop around al the machines .
( i say ) . Go LED and never look back . I stated with a couple 4' led's to check-out and I was smiling Bigtime . I yanked out all the florescent tube lighting in my shop and, I Have Never Been More Happy with going LED .
very Bright , they are lightweight , they are modular in connection to each other in series also . plus the nm light frequency they produce makes better representation of true color .
Just seeing better with good lighting just changes and makes all-around better attitude in the shop when your working .
 
My neighbor called me the other day and said that Walmart had a bunch of LED 60 watt standard base light bulbs sitting on their clearance table for only .82 cents each.
I told him to buy them all for me. He showed up later that day with three shopping bags full of them, 45 in all.
They were the high end dimmable ones normally retailing for over $6.00 each and they replaced almost every bulb in my house/shop.
 
I figured it wouldn't work hanging lights on the door, I have chain running across the door track with florescent's hanging, but the rig that resides in that space can/will tangle with the set up, and worse, I have to access that rig at 4 am and usually don't put it back in until dark! It needs to be kept from freezing, other wise it takes an hour to warm it up! Hydros don't like cold! I am still going to pick up a bunch of those lights, they will sure brighten things up in there! Thanks for the post!

Yeah - my fluorescents take a while to light up in the winter too, another reason I will go with LED. I don't go out to the shop that much, but in the winter, when I do, I need the lights for a short time and I need them immediately so I can get what I need and move on, not ten minutes later.
 
Yes - everything in my house is LED or fluorescent and the latter will be replaced with LED when they expire. In the least, I haven't had to replace any of the LEDs and probably won't ever need to.

When I retire and build a new place, it will have solar power as the primary with grid power as a backup. I could power needed lights in the house with a single car battery and an inverter and a single small solar panel now. The main lighting in my bedroom is two LED strips that consume 14 watts total.

I have emergency lighting throughout the house that run on batteries that will get me through a night without power. I have lost power a couple of times a year, but have never needed to hookup the genset - if I do it will be primarily to run the well pump.

Lighting isn't a big consumer of electricity. Heat, etc., is the largest consumer. I have a woodstove and plenty of firewood if I have an extended power outage. My next place will have at least a backup solar powered well pump and a manual pump - probably a cistern with a DC powered booster pressure pump so I don't need to have grid power to have water pressure in the house.
 
Interesting to read this thread compared to the threads a few years back when so many where screaming about how the government mandating the end of general use incandescent was a horrible thing and how the new CF's and LEDs shed terrible light.

My self I bought up what incandescent bulbs I could find cheap and have now moved most of my lighting to CF's and LEDs My only real complaint is in some custom made light fixtures we have in the kitchen the LED's are a little too long (they are designed for the golf ball sized std base bulbs) and way to harsh. But we are getting used to them.
 
I have a small workbench area and currently use incandescent bulbs in 3 adjustable arm lights. The problem is it gets real hot sitting at bench once the lights (which are mounted to bench) are on for a few minutes. Do the LED lights emit less heat?
 
Very minimal heat, I love the LED lights! I use two flex arm lights with 100 watt bulbs. They would get so stinking hot after awhile. And the lights are always right near where I am working. The 100 watt LED puts out almost zero heat, its nice.
Thank you I will have to pick some up and give it a try
 
I have a small workbench area and currently use incandescent bulbs in 3 adjustable arm lights. The problem is it gets real hot sitting at bench once the lights (which are mounted to bench) are on for a few minutes. Do the LED lights emit less heat?

Yes - considerably less heat. They do get hot, but where I can't touch an incandescent to unscrew it without waiting for it to cool down after turning it off, I generally can touch an LED bulb while it is still lit - it is very warm, but usually it won't burn my fingers.

Some people think LEDs are "cool light", and in a sense they are; they don't use heat to emit light, but the current that goes through them does make them heat up, and for that reason they usually have a heat sink of some sort on them to keep them from getting too hot. You won't feel the heat from them unless you put your hand on them or very near them and then only after they have been on for a significant period of time.
 
I bought two of these lights from Costco a couple years ago and love them. They make my little garage bright as day, and never flicker or have a hard time going on in the cold. I was frustrated by my florescent work lights, and seemed to be replacing bulbs and ballasts constantly.Best purchase ever.
 
When I built my 30'x48' pole barn type shop I F'ed up purty.
My side tin length was 10', the PT 6X6 poles wound up being about 2' taller than the tin & I dint want to cut them off. I got some clear fiberglass panels to cover the opening & most days I don't need any lights except for small work.
 
When I built my 30'x48' pole barn type shop I F'ed up purty.
My side tin length was 10', the PT 6X6 poles wound up being about 2' taller than the tin & I dint want to cut them off. I got some clear fiberglass panels to cover the opening & most days I don't need any lights except for small work.
I have a row of somewhat translucent fiberglass at the top of the back of my shop - but even on sunny days not near enough light comes through there to light up the shop.

My next shop is going to have a number of solar tubes, each with powered lighting, but I will still have quite a bit of the conventional LED lighting.
 
I put LED's in my small work/hobby shop when I built, and have never had that kind of light before. It has a pure tone instead of a yellowish tone and that helps sort colors better. It really helped at the Loading bench being able to have a softer light that I can move to where it's easy on the eyes! Like some of you, I have two movable arm lights and these really work well! Now to bite the bullet and convert the main shop over to LED! I currently have sodium vapor, and while they seem bright, LED should have better brightness!
 
My shop had 10 of these and it's like daylight. I can finally see to work. <broken link removed>

And no it's not overkill. It just about meets recommendations for a machine shop.
I'd like to get their ballast bypass 4 ft LED replacement tubes.
4FT 15W 4000K or 5000K 100-277V input ballast bypass LED T8 tube light. Works in place of any 4 foot fluorescent tube T8, T10, or T12 that has a G13 medium bipin base. Rewiring and fluorescent ballast removal is required. | Green LED Zone (http://www.greenledzone.com/15w-t8-led-tube-ballast-bypass-5000k-p/gl-t8b1554-6a2-(4ft).htm)
I've tried some direct replacement tubes from home depot, but they didn't like my electronic ballast and wouldn't start up at full brightness.
 

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