Lights of America LED Shop Lights

[cody michael]

Our eyes function well in a huge range of illumination levels but our ability to see fine details goes down without a large amount of light. That ability also decreases with age - so us more mature types need more light than our kids. For reference, fully Daylight is around 10,750Lux, an overcast day is about 1,075 Lux, and a very dark day is about 100 Lux. I found a recommended lighting level chart that said offices need 100-250 LUX and mechanical workshops should have around 1000 Lux.

1 Lux is 1 lumen per square meter. So if you put a 4500lumen fixture in a 20x20 garage, you'd be at about 120 lux. That is a lot more than nothing but probably not enough for a shop with me in it. I have a little over 200 lux in my shop right now and have noticed that while it is OK for most things, it isn't enough when I am finishing or doing other things were I need to see more details. I'm using 8 CFLs in 4 two light fixtures and will probably upgrade them to 23W from their current 13W. That will put me a little over 400 LUX or about double where I am now. That is still less than half what is recommended for a "mechanical workshop" (whatever that is) but I think I will be OK. Worse than more overall light I need a raking low angle light when I am finishing to show me the wet edge. I have all my lights in roughly the middle half of the shop with the area under the garage door not directly lit. So I have higher light levels in the center and less at the ends. That isn't ideal either but isn't working badly for me.

I will upgrade to LEDs when the bulbs come down some. CFLs are a lot more cost effective right now and work fine.

I agree with that light recommendation, I have a 16ft by 24ft shop, with 8 3 bulb t8 fixtures, if I did my calculations right I am around 1,500 lux. it is nice to work in there, I even use my sun glasses as safety glasses sometimes (I'm working on outdoor project, need something cut) and it is still plenty bright.

[cody michael]

Thank you for that! That looks like a great site! Gonna try a small order first and make sure those LED strips are the same ones everyone else is selling for a lot more and then if they work good Ill pick up a bunch more for all over the house!

I have bought quite a few things from them, I figure most the stuff like this is made in a few factories and rebadged anyway, plus they cut out the middle man and seem to have great prices, I am planning on getting some leds from them for my garage when I have some extra cash

[Ben Rivel]

I have bought quite a few things from them, I figure most the stuff like this is made in a few factories and rebadged anyway, plus they cut out the middle man and seem to have great prices, I am planning on getting some leds from them for my garage when I have some extra cash

What power supply have you been using? One of theirs?

[Jesse Busenitz]

How do you all like the light color from your led's?? I"m getting ready to put better lighting in my shop, and am wondering about fluorescent vs LED. It's a 10.6' galvanized tin ceiling with epoxy on the floor.

[Jack Jackson]

I like the LED light color. Some of the fluorescent 'daylight' lights are similar, but some of those have more of a blue hue which I don't care for.

[Michael Stein]

I like it, a lot.

[David Helm]

Just got a couple of them from Costco to see how they do. Light is great. I really enjoy the lack of buzzing from the fluorescents.

[ian maybury]

Know nothing about LED fluorescent equivalent lamps, but have with a friend done a fair amount of testing with LED downlighters in the house.

There could of course have been a definite cause for it in our cases (but know of none/don't suffer problems with other electrical equipment) - but we both found in the case of the several brands we tried that (a) there always seem to be early failures and a pretty rapid decline in light intensity (despite the maker's claims), and (b) that the light colour tends to be a bit odd. The latter with either a blue/violet tint, or a mucky sort of brown tone.

Wouldn't rule out using them, but i would want to establish by whatever means a reasonable level of certainty that whatever i bought was genuinely reliable.

Just over two years ago i fitted T8 fluorescent tubes with reputedly good quality Tridonic electronic ballasts. They have been great - instant starting, no hum, good light levels, zero problems/failures etc.

That was after having been caught badly when upgrading the shop about four years ago as a result of buying the first battens offered by a local wholesaler - they turned out to be cheap Eastern made T5 fluorescents with dodgy electronic ballasts.

I hadn't bought lighting in many years - since when fluorescents were rock solid long life items subject to just the odd ballast failure or the like. These were complete junk, about 30% quit within a year, and by the time it was evident there was a quality problem (the unreliable ballasts) the importer had folded the company and re-opened under a new but related name - they had no spares and were refusing all claims. Chances are they had anyway only imported a few container loads bought on the cheap, but little did i know. Electrics are professionally handled, aren't they? Codes, standards and all of that?

Ho hum. It's a good one to get right first time. Replacing a whole shop full of lamps is no trivial task when the new ones have a different mounting and wiring layout/entry point, and access requires wobbling on a step ladder in the spaces between the machines....

[Jack Jackson]

Yeah, longevity may end up being the only downside to these LED's. Of course only time will tell... I don't have time to buy one and test it for any length of time. While buying enough for the whole shop wasn't exactly cheap - at least if I do have to replace some or all of them at some point it'll be as easy as unplugging them and taking out the screw hooks, then I can install the replacement with the existing electrical.

[Ross Canant]

LOA, Lights of America, & Feit Electric, are both sellers of cheap quality products, that you get less then you pay for, better quality LED fixtures cost some serious money at this time. Feit is the manufacturer or distributer of the LED fixtures sold at Costco.

I have 16 of the Feit LEDs in my shop. Zero failures and great light.

[Ross Canant]

I agree with that light recommendation, I have a 16ft by 24ft shop, with 8 3 bulb t8 fixtures, if I did my calculations right I am around 1,500 lux. it is nice to work in there, I even use my sun glasses as safety glasses sometimes (I'm working on outdoor project, need something cut) and it is still plenty bright.

LED lights put all of their rated output downward, while T8s put half of theirs up to the ceiling. My shop is lit with 43 lumens/SF and it is more than enough for anything I do.

[Lynn Kasdorf]

I have had very good luck with 1000bulbs.com They often have good deals on various types of LED bulbs, including flourescent LED replacements. I use a lot of 60w equiv LED screw-in bulbs that were $4 each. I have also bought very good replacement ballasts from them.

[Stan Krupowies]

I just got some Philips 4' LED bulbs from the borg. They are 2100 lumens and plug and play, just take out the old fluorescent and install the new LED. They were $10 each and so far I'm very happy with them.

[Bill McNiel]

FWIW- I recently replaced a 4 tube T-8 fixture in my shop with the Costco LED. It has provided more light and I find the color appealing- so far, so good. As other fixtures die, or I have extra cash & time, I will replace all the other T-8 fixtures with the Feit LEDs.