workshop lighting

[Sandyn]

I replaced all my fluorescent tubes with Philips LED tubes. Hated the flicker and delay with fluorescent tubes. They are very good, but reasonably expensive if they don't last, but I have had them for about 3 years and (touch wood) all 7 tubes in different rooms, are still good. They are great if you already have the FL lights, but I wouldn't fit them new, I would have looked at panel lights, but just read AndyT's comment about them being too too directional. That could be due to the design where the LED strips are recessed, perhaps a surface mount panel light would be better? I have 2 LED tubes in both my workshops, but just not quite enough light for me. I prefer very bright working area and 6500K,
To supplement my lighting, I use 5 COB floodlights, some above machinery. I mount them so I can rotate and tilt the head. I had a source of 10W very slim units at £5, (eLuminate from Home Bargains) but they no longer sell them. eLuminate are an odd company which doesn't really exist and the director has another 12000 companies! I'm still looking for a suitable replacement. Home bargains now sell Spear and Jackson, but only PIR. I have one, the PIR is rubbish and no adjustments.
While talking about lighting, I use several floodlights outside the house at night a combination of PIR and floodlights. I fitted adjustable dawn to dusk sensors on the floodlights Screwfix LAP black photocell sensor. It means all the outside lights come on at dusk and go off in the morning, or most of the day in Scotland just now.

 

[tradesman]

Hi All,

I cant recommended CPC enough for products like these. simple and good - also owned by Farnells one of the worlds largest but run independently.

Loads of other stuff too

https://cpc.farnell.com/

 

[tradesman]

https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/pel01605/led-light-fitting-36w-1-2m-6500k/dp/LA08111

 

[Robbo60]

I found this great bayonet or ES available

HZSANUE B22 Bayonet Cap LED Garage Light, Daylight White 60W 6500K 5500Lm Deformable Shop lamp with 4 Adjustable Panels, LED Ceiling Light, for Garage

 

[Ukulele joe]

By accident I chose 3 double tube 5 feet long fittings. The tubes are plastic and in a shed the ceiling is low. Every now and then I catch them in some way or other and they just bounce a little but never break. Mine are "daylight" and are perfect for use on my scroll saw where I never bother with the saw light.

 

[J.A.Olsson]

One thing to keep in mind when buying LED lights is that "color temperature" can be a bit misleading, especially when buying cheap ones from ebay.
Since an LED is not a source of black body radiation, the assumed spectral distribution when talking about temperature is incorrect. Instead, an LED emitts separate colors that in our mind looks white, and the described temperature is just a suggestion from the seller.
Why does this matter? Well, it means that the so called color rendering index (CRI) can be very different between LEDs with supposedly the same temperature.
As a result, certain colors might "pop" or look dull. This is not a good thing to have in a workshop where you might want to apply finishes and tints to beautiful furniture

 

[TRITON]

Workshop lighting formula -

Take the number of lights you have,double it and add three spot-lights.

 

[Gregers]

My 6 ft 70w fluorescent light just gave out today (I think the tube was still soldering on, as it was the holder that had given up). Replaced it with an 18 W 4200L led from Screwfix (£22) which only took a couple of minutes to install and is a vast improvement. I suppose it ought to be as the retiring tube was 40 odd years old. Still annoyed, though, that it didn’t see me out.

 

[stevek]

Just to echo the Colour Temp post above, in my opinion go for Warm White and as has been said, check that they really are towards the warmer range and not just the warmer side of Daylight, Daylight sounds great but is in reality very cold blue light that has the effect of washing out colour, Warm White is more the colour of your regular old fashioned lightbulbs. A couple of years ago Lidls were doing a sealed LED striplight fixture, about 4ft long, really nice water resistant housings and in a nice warm light too, really great compared to the old fluorescents, cheap to buy and instant start too, problem is will they ever do them again? I suppliment my main lights with a couple of Anglepoise lights, and Im now using LED lamps in those, Argos do packs of 2 lamps at a very reasonable price, again in a nice warm white.

 

[bp122]

I replaced all my fluorescent tubes with Philips LED tubes. Hated the flicker and delay with fluorescent tubes. They are very good, but reasonably expensive if they don't last, but I have had them for about 3 years and (touch wood) all 7 tubes in different rooms, are still good. They are great if you already have the FL lights, but I wouldn't fit them new, I would have looked at panel lights, but just read AndyT's comment about them being too too directional. That could be due to the design where the LED strips are recessed, perhaps a surface mount panel light would be better? I have 2 LED tubes in both my workshops, but just not quite enough light for me. I prefer very bright working area and 6500K,
To supplement my lighting, I use 5 COB floodlights, some above machinery. I mount them so I can rotate and tilt the head. I had a source of 10W very slim units at £5, (eLuminate from Home Bargains) but they no longer sell them. eLuminate are an odd company which doesn't really exist and the director has another 12000 companies! I'm still looking for a suitable replacement. Home bargains now sell Spear and Jackson, but only PIR. I have one, the PIR is rubbish and no adjustments.
While talking about lighting, I use several floodlights outside the house at night a combination of PIR and floodlights. I fitted adjustable dawn to dusk sensors on the floodlights Screwfix LAP black photocell sensor. It means all the outside lights come on at dusk and go off in the morning, or most of the day in Scotland just now.

I went with 60cm X 60cm led panels (2 off) from eBay at £19 a pop. Spaced apart by 40cm (between inner edges) lights up the whole area (single garage) very well but just pours tons of light on the workbench and table saw. I could space them further apart to get more even coverage but I prefer it this way. I did this over a year ago and it is awesome. When I have the garage door open, it even lights my drive! Neighbours say my workshop is lit better than their houses.

Recently I bought 4 of the same panels (slightly warmer colour) on Amazon for a deal for £45, used two of these to light up the loft on either end walls and it is like a photo studio up there now.

 

[billw]

I have 3 600x600 5000W panels spaced over a 3 metre length. probably overkill but it's fantastic, and no shadows. They were £26 each I think.

 

[pcb1962]

I have 3 600x600 5000W panels

With 5000W panels it's either going to be very bright or very warm, or probably both!

 

[TDA171]

I'm planning on redoing my shop lighting, at the moment its a mismatch of old flourescents. I picked up 1O double tube units with T5 tubes off facebook new in the box cheap. I noticed that they are 45 watts per tube. I need about 2O units so thats alot of juice.
Has any one tried these cheap LED units off ebay, you can get 1O for £65

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Batt...var=652142534502&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

They are brilliant!! I recently put 2x5 foot and 1x 2 foot battens in my wife’s sewing room and she now needs sunglasses when she goes in there.
havejust placed a 5 foot over my wood lathe to replace the LED angle poise lamp, and it is fab.
Because they are so light, they can be mounted vertically, or as I have just done, lowered on a length of chain, on a piece of wooden batten, and placed directly above the working area you want improved lighting in.
That also sounds a great price but do check the lengths that price applies to as they come in lengths from 2 to 6 feet.
Cheers
Tim

 

[Sandyn]

White LED's are blue LED chips with a yellow phosphor coating. The colour depends mainly on the composition of the phosphor. Good manufacturers will match colour temperatures carefully and will grade the finished product. Lower quality manufacturers won't bother colour matching, so the colour will be all over the place. That's why people complain about blue light from white LED's. You can get 'full spectrum LED's which use a second chip.
If you are particularly concerned about CRI, then look at Light Emitting Plasma lights (LEP) They are mainly high illumination products, such as street lighting, stadiums and the like and used as growing lamps, so popular in the west coast of Scotland in some houses They are expensive!!

 

[IDIY]

popular in the west coast of Scotland in some houses They are expensive!!

Popular in Scotland but expensive? surely that’s a contradiction in terms

 

[NewbieRaf]

Lighting in my shop/garage has been very very challenging because I simply have no power, so it’s been all about portable power stations, cheap but good quality solar (70quid) and wattage of strip lights from TLC electrical (8quid) each.

If you guys/gals are interested I could make a quick video showing you all what I did

 

[SamTheJarvis]

TLC has some great led battens, knightsbridge CCW. Has 3 colour temps to choose from. Well built. Includes a driver. driverless leds are not good in a workshop, as they are very susceptible to voltage fluctuations (common un a shop) and will flicker. They're steel.body so need earthed. Smart hinge system so you can open and screw them and shut, instead of those metal clips other battens use.

 

[Sandyn]

Popular in Scotland but expensive? surely that’s a contradiction in terms

Depends what you are growing, some very lucrative household cash crops in this area

 

[Sandyn]

Hi All,

I cant recommended CPC enough for products like these. simple and good - also owned by Farnells one of the worlds largest but run independently.

Loads of other stuff too

https://cpc.farnell.com/

It's one of my favourites as well, I'm like a kid in a toy shop when I look at their site. I just got three of these.

60 LED's so 0.5W per chip. 2400 lumens 6000K The lamp is great quality, the cable is very short, just 6", but £8 for a 30W!! that fine. I measured the power at 29W. The have a phenomenal selections of lamps.

 

[mikej460]

I installed LED 'panels' two years ago. Much brighter, even lighting.
Deals nicely with shadows just where you don't want them.
Panels are about 4'x18"

I have a centre row of 4 x LAP Twin 4ft LED Batten White 43W 4400lm from Screwfix which are great except they cast a shadow just where you don't want it, usually when measuring/marking out. I would encourage others to put two rows of panels or battens, one down each side of their shops rather than one row down the middle. The general consensus on this forum is for panels.