Garage lighting

[Andy8421]

I am building a new garage as part of my master plan to finally start restoring my Sprint.

In the 15 years since I last bought garage lighting, flourescent lights seem to have fallen out of favour, and now LED battens are the thing. While I don't have a problem with LEDs, all of the "lasts 5 years" LED bulbs I have bought seem to last 5 months, whereas the old flourescents in my other garages have been going strong for ever.

Can anyone recommend decent quality lighting battens (flourescent or LED), approx 5ft in length that I can suspend from chains in my new garage?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Andy.

[prezoom]

Go with LED's. Last summer I replaced all the 8' 2 tube fixtures with 4' 2 tube LED's. Up to 4 LED units can be daisy chained, which saves on the electrical wiring issues. They also put out far less heat, which is good in my re-claimed desert climate. Over time they will help pay for themselves by using far less electricity than the 8 footers, and this is with replacing each 8' units with 2 4' units. The difference in the lighting of the LED's is much better than the old fixtures.

[jk952]

Check out Barrina LED 46 inch long tubes; small and inexpensive.
I bought a 12 pack about two years ago, put 7 in my 12x23 ft garage and it is drafting room* bright! The balance I keep for spares or whatever. Come with lots wiring bits for different ways of combining, connect direct end to end or with supplied wires in between, plug in directly to 120v. (no transformer) std. house supply (here at least).

*meaning old style drafting board room bright, not current CAD drafting room dark…

Jack

[mikealdren]

I bought relatively cheap LED battens to replace my old fluorescent units and they are vastly better and much cheaper to run too. As others have said, very easy to install (they are light to handle) and they don't flicker.

[Bud English]

Another plus that nobody had mentioned is that the LED's don't hesitate to light at full brightness even at very low temperatures, where fluorescent units fail. ...then I put in a garage heater making that less important except in the garden shed.

[snowyelan]

LED are the way to go IF you can replace the bulb and do it cheaply. I currently have 2 hall lights that are $18 per bulb to replace....might just replace the fixtures!!! Side note, don't let your better half pick fixtures.

[69S4]

I put in some 48w 600 x 600mm 5000K LED panel lights in my work area last year and they've been a revelation. So much better than the fluorescent lights or even the LED bulbs I had before. If you're handy with wiring and can install them yourself they're under £20 each to buy (eBay mainly). A couple of people have said they're like having a window in the roof with the sun shining through.

[Andy8421]

Thanks everyone.

LEDs it is.....

Andy.

[rgh0]

I used LED outdoor style flood lights - 9 units covered my 6m x 6m garage, cheaper and easier to fit than batten lights and cheaper replacement LED bulb units

cheers
Rohan

[The Veg]

I just added a pair of LED units to my garage, equivalent shape-/size of a 4-foot, 2-tube Fluoro fixture. Inside they just have a single row of LEDs. The light from them is amazing, a really nice improvement! They came with remote-controls that allow you do all sorts of interesting things, but I have them set to come on with the wall-switch.

I still have some fluoro-fixtures too that are showing signs of weakness and they'll be replaced by LED before too long. Highly recommended!

[Hawksfield]

Hi All

Nice to see you guys applying Chapman's ideology Adding Lightness

[Bitsilly]

Hi All

Nice to see you guys applying Chapman's ideology Adding Lightness

That was quite clever!! I am still laughing on the inside,,, thanks!!

My 2 cents, I lost my central vision in one eye and ever since have needed a lot more light in general than before.
My previously adequate tubes now need to be supplemented by various lamps etc.
And as a result, my plan is to replace the tubes with brighter LED equivalents.

So what can I add..... that the sellers of every type of bulb and LED seem to be allowed to legally make up the lux value which of course makes a farce of any comparison. So the only site I can recommend is classic car led lights, they are excellent.

[Andy8421]

Just to complete this thread, I ended up buying 5 of these (4 to use and one spare):

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-single-5 ... 00lm/1079v

So far they have worked just fine, and are much brighter than the equivalent length fluorescent tubes in my other garages. It looks like Screwfix are discontinuing them, but at 25% off I will buy a couple more.

Andy.

[john.p.clegg]

Thanks Andy

Am joining the 21 Century and going LED , a dozen ordered , at a most reasonable price , may have to fit individual OFF switches though....

John

[mikealdren]

Hi John,
they don't draw much current so you connect them to a single switch although you will need a suitable terminal block to link the cables.