Brightest ceiling shop lights

[jwmelvin]

Avoid "Integrated" units, it just means if any part of it fails you need a complete new unit.

Sometimes, that doesn't seem to matter all that much. I have a bunch of T8 replacement tubes, and like that I can replace them if the fail, but I also have some integrated fixtures that are super cheap and work quite well, especially for distributing light across a wider area than a 2-tube fixture. Those integrated fixtures have plugs (one with a 2-prong and switch, and a couple straight connectors to daisy chain) and yes, they are flimsy and light, but once mounted that seems pretty irrelevant. The ones I have mounted with their included clips were easy; the ones I put in my garage I just bailing-wired to the trusses:


I feel like the T8 tubes are a little brighter but these integrated fixtures are much cheaper if you don't already have a T8 fixture in place.

 

[Cheeseking]

Just converted all 10 of my 4' - 2- bulb shop fixtures to LED from T8 flourescent's.
Like the OP, my goal was max brightness but also to reuse the existing fixtures since they are pretty nice quality units recently purchased. That lead me to these "direct wire" replacement bulbs.
Not cheap at $15 per bulb so I bought two to test in one fixture and WOW. I was sold. They are way brighter than the flourescents. They have sort of triangle shape to direct the light. Each bulb is 2100 lumens @5K daylight temp. The conversion process was simple - just gut all the ballast and wiring and direct wire non shunted lamp holders on one end. Me a very happy camper now. This is a great option for folks who have existing fixtures and want to convert.

 

[jwmelvin]

This reminded me that the directionality of LEDs was an issue for some of my fixtures that angled the tombstones away from the centerline, I believe to make the fixture lower profile. With the LED replacement tubes in place, they spread the light way too much and didn't light up right under the fixture very well. So I 3d printed a replacement tombstone holder to reorient the tubes to vertical; it worked quite well.

https://imgur.com/a/AEMzB

 

[woodchucker]

the ones I put in my garage I just bailing-wired to the trusses:

Is that your home shop? let me just say ... wow, I would like to have that space. And the NSX

 

[jwmelvin]

Is that your home shop?

Yea. I posted about the beginnings of my shop in this thread. I am fortunate to have so much space, and I'm slowly getting it better organized. (Sorry for the diversion OP).

 

[dtsh]

Just converted all 10 of my 4' - 2- bulb shop fixtures to LED from T8 flourescent's.
Like the OP, my goal was max brightness but also to reuse the existing fixtures since they are pretty nice quality units recently purchased. That lead me to these "direct wire" replacement bulbs.
Not cheap at $15 per bulb so I bought two to test in one fixture and WOW. I was sold. They are way brighter than the flourescents.

I went through the same this winter; all of my 8' T12 fixtures began flickering all the time and not starting reliably. I replaced the bulbs with direct wire (ballast bypass) LEDs and I was very impressed with the output. Being 8' bulbs with the single-pin FA8 socket, my options were more limited, but I've been very happy with the result. To get equal or better lighting on fewer watts is an added win.

 

[Groundhog]

Yeah Woodchucker, I agree. I'm envious of the NSX. I don't have that much space either but would park it in my living room (if it were big enough).

 

[wlburton]

Menards has a 5000 lumen, linkable, integrated hanging shop light on sale through 3/24 for 24.99, plus an additional 11% instore rebate. You can't really go wrong at that price.

 

[zmotorsports]

It's more than just 4' 2 bulbs vs. 4 bulbs, etc. You have to look at lumen output and you aren't going to find that with a $29.99 fixture. Yes an inexpensive fixture will work and is LED but invest in good lighting once and be done with it.

I had T8's in my last shop and they were pretty good until we started looking at LED's at work, then I realized how poorly lit my old shop really was. When we were building my new shop last year I opted to upgrade to LED's right out of the gate and be done with it. I told my electrician buddy that I wanted it bright in the shop, somewhere around 100 foot candles if possible. He had been using these fixtures in some of his other shops and had good results so I went with the same ones.

Here are the ones I went with.
http://www.e-conolight.com/replaces...-bay-e-hld27-series.html?cct=5251&finish=5331

Here is what my 2k square foot shop area looks like with 11 fixtures, 27k lumen each.

Here is my 1k square foot RV bay with 6 fixtures.

Readings around the shop.

Over my workbenches was the least bright area at only 95 f/c but I also planned out having overhead cabinets with 4' single LED's under the storage cabinets.

Here are the lights under my cabinets giving the perfect amount of light to the top of the workbenches.

Mike

 

[Groundhog]

Menards has a 5000 lumen, linkable, integrated hanging shop light on sale through 3/24 for 24.99, plus an additional 11% instore rebate. You can't really go wrong at that price.

Shoot. I quit looking last night when I found these at Lowes. $38 I think. We have a Menards about 5 blocks from Lowes!
Oh well, I'm about 1/2 way done with installation. I decided to re-arrange all of the lights on the entire 1/3 of the shop that has the dark places - which, of course, has turned into a bigger job than I thought it would!