Workshop Lighting

What is wrong in fitting 6ft LED tubes? I simply shorted out the ballast and fitted the supplied starter.

You can even get battens ready to fit LED tubes, ie without the choke etc.

LED tubes are also multi-sourced.

I really like 600 x 600 warm light LED panels. A beautiful light with no shadows.

Bill

What is the reason you've decided to replace them? Are they all failing and giving insufficient light? If not, they might still be working well in 5 or 10 years. What's wrong with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

Fluorescent lamps are on the way out, no doubt about it. But I do sometimes wonder about how LED comparisons are made:

Putting things into perspective, an equivalent non-LED panel light would use 200W ? that?s 5 times more energy! This highlights just how much LEDs can save you on electricity bills with just a single product."

Equivalent: 4 x 18w T8 Tubes Fluorescent

Energy saving: 35% Energy Saving (compared with 4 x 20W switch start)"

I assume in the first case they are talking about a comparison with 2 x

I agree, they're excellent lights (I have them in the kitchen, utility and larder) but I'd prefer a strip light in a workshop. OOI, I don't see the point in replacing 6ft fluorescents until the tube dies.

Yup; totally shagged-out and a third of 'em have already failed completely. You kind of become accustomed to the dimness over time - up to a point - but I've reached and exceeded that point!

I was given a spare 600 x 600 panel and so I fitted it in a dark area of the workshop. What happens now is that when I'm doing something fiddly I move the table under the panel because I find it a better light than the two five-foot fluos over the main bench!

Bill

I decided to get a job lot of LED tubes and retrofit them into the old battens. I haven't looked back. The light is stronger and a better/purer white, though a bit on 'cool' side.

On 27/11/2020 10:30, snipped-for-privacy@aolbin.com wrote: ...

They lose a significant amount of brightness long before they die.

I would really prefer a CT emulating natural daylight at mid-day (ideally) as I do a fair bit of classic car restoration and it's important for accurate colour matching.

Is that the CT of mid-day with direct sunshine and clear sky or mid-day on a bright but overcast day? The latter can have a CT far higher than the former.

The crucial bit for that is the Colour Rendering Index (CRI). A measure of how even the the light level is across the spectrum. Decent "cool white" LED tubes ought have a CT within the "daylight" range and a reasonable CRI, may well be better than cool white triphosphur flourescent tubes.

Problem seems to be smooth continuous spectrum florries or LEDS tend to produce fewer lumens than the more common types. All a compromise.

About 5 or 6 years ago time had come to replace the all the flourescent tubes in our shop for the 3rd time in 15 years. About 36 of them. I was deligted to find a new class of tubes tubes with a "pure daylight" light production and sure enough comparing CCTV images taken under the old dim yellow tubes and the new "daylight" tubes the difference was astounding. What the manufacturers faild to advise was that within around 18 months the pure brilliant "daylight" had vanished to a crappy dull yellow no better than the bulbs I'd taken out.

The light boxes were replaced with LED panels and the shop light was once again restored to a delightful bright "sunshine" white. with quite a reduced energy consumption.

Any recommendations for suppliers and makes of 600x600 panels or rather ones to avoid ?

Many complain of florries flickering and giving them headaches. But high frequency ballasts that cure this have been around for a long long time. They also prolong tube life. I guess also the tubes don't dim as quickly with them either.

I've bought the following, with mounting kits: "40W 600x600 LED Panel - Non-Flicker Driver - TP(b) - 4000K - Daylight (PAN-6X6-40W-TPB-4000K)" from LedHut and "BRIGHT SOURCE 24W 600X300 LED PANEL C/W DRIVERSKU: FFM-LED-63-24W-4000K - Cool White Colour 4000K - Cool White" from LAMPSHOPONLINE ... all are still going strong and even the very traditional SWMBO is pleased with the appearance, light level and colour.

Sorry, I can't remember and in any case I've only used one make so it wouldn't really be a useful recommendation.

Bill

In terms of build quality or aesthetics?

Bill

Both, they look good (which really means the lights don't shout "look at me") and give a good level of light at the "right" colour temperature. If we'd decided on panels before replacing the ceiling I might have recessed them, but maintaining a fire barrier (retrospectively) would have been difficult and it would also make maintenance and future revamps more difficult. To give an idea of practical light levels ... In a 5x4.5m kitchen we have two 300x600 switched as a pair and a central 600x600 switched separately - the latter is rarely used. In the 4.5x3m utility we have one 600x600 and that's OK for the room's purpose but would probably have been better with two 300x600s. The larder is 1.5x3m and is extremely well lit by a 600x600.