LED Light Strips

[allen8106]

This post isn't really about an RV of any kind but I know you folks here are very familiar with LED lighting. My work shop has some aging flourecent lights in it that need replacing. I would like to replace them with LED light strips. I would be interested in hearing what you may have used that might work in my application. The shop has a fairly low hanging ceiling joist system with no plywood or sheetrock on the ceiling, just open joists. I want bright bright lights.

Any help would be appreciated.

[D_E_Bishop]

I'll go with Elk4me, I replaced a two tube 8' fluorescent fixture over the DW's washer dryer in the garage and it is great and a new ballast for the 8" fixture was more than the 4' LED fixture.

I like the low profile of the LED shop lights over my work bench and the two tube LED fixture is much brighter than the old four tube fixture.

They range from $25 to $30 each at COSTCO.

[Elk4me]

Costco has LED shop lights, complete two light units for $30.00 each. Just bought 5 of them today. I have bought 7 previously and they are great.

[loggenrock]

Check these out - needed new ballasts in my overhead fixture, opted to swap to LEDs - easy install, no ballasts. SUPER bright!
www.amazon.com/Hyperikon-equivalent-Single-Ended-DLC-Qualified-Tombstones/dp/B00NXBMDEY/ref=cm_rdp_product

[Joe417]

I looked at the LED fixture that are available in my area and I couldn't see spending that much to replace my shop lights. I have 30 4ft fixtures.

I mounted 5 plastic light sockets from lowe's (about $1.25 each) on a board the length of the florescent fixture. Screwed in 5 of the cheap 13 watt led bulbs lowe's sells( they were less than $2 each also).

I think the 5 were a bit over 4000 lumens. So far so good. They use about 15 watts less but are instant on and cold doesn't bother them.

I mounted them on a board so I could hang them from the chains that were holding the florescent fixtures.

You could mount them on the wall around the perimeter of the room if you don't have enough ceiling height.

[JimBollman]

I have redone about half my shop with LED lighting so far. My approach is to move displaced florence fixtures to other less critical areas that either have bad lights or need more lights. Then replaced with these two style of LED lights singles where I didn't need as much light and doubles over work areas. They plug into each other end to end so whole sections can be fed with one set of wires.


https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-Pro-Strip-Shop-Light-Common-4-ft-Actual-1-61-in-x-48-03-in/100000...

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Utilitech-Pro-Strip-Shop-Light-Common-4-ft-Actual-3-23-in-x-48-03-in/503528...

I love them. I have to hold myself back from replacing all of them now.

[westend]

A guy wanting a few less lumens could buy these 4' toggle lamps for a sale price, $13.99. I'm going to get some to replace shop fixtures.
They are the same 120V bulbs as linked to above.

[Cameo_Phil]

I replaced my 4 ft. LED lamps with these lamps from Home Depot. They are expensive but they are very bright. See the link below. These are 120 volt non-ballasted lamps



Home Depot LED lamps

[RAS43]

I bought a pair of replacement 4' led tubes at Costco last month and just plugged them in. Much better lighting and so far they are great. On sale for less then $15.

[Ivylog]

I've had poor service out of LED strips in my RV. In a year 1/3 of the leds are out and by two years more than half have stopped working. At home I bought an expensive 120V LED rope light and had much the same luck throwing it out and buying the old style incandescent rope light.

Unlike the LED panels, it's hard to fine a voltage regulated 12V led strip. Since you are doing this in your shop I would buy a regulated 12V power supply and try the cheap LED strips on Ebay from China. In the past I've recommended warm white but I recently went with Daylight (6000 temp) in my kitchen. I have found the 5050 size chips run the coolest so I would try one of .....these.

[korbe]

I would buy the LED lights that fit into the original florescent fixtures, that includes a kit to bypass the ballasts.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Having made more than eighty extrodinarily bright LED lamps (up to 300 actual consumed watts) my advice is to take the word of no sales ad or even suggestion but rather try lights out in-person before you buy. From an eight foot height 30 watts consumed LED will yield a bright light below. Problem is manufacturers lie and state the chip rating, underdrive them to save on the cost of a heatsink and a 30 watt rated fixture renders 20 watts worth of light.

To avoid this nonsense be wary and check the light yourself. Hard to do if shopping on line. I had to build 11 50-watt fixtures for Mercado del Sur because of ridiculous and rather fraudulent claim by commercial shop lamp vendors. I now have a trunk full of beautiful CREE cast aluminum streetlight fixtures. But they used a 16 watt CREE chip and driver circuit that was barely brighter than a child's night light. They are slated for 50 watt chips and to-be-yet-discovered drivers that will push them to fifty watts consumed. Larger chips are almost uniformly 34-36 volt units. Cree individual chips are 4-volt 3-5-7 watt.

Do selection with your eyeballs. Genuine 20 watt floodlight LED bulbs are not cheap because they have a heavy heat sink inside.

LED lighting is laden with fraudulent claims but getting screwed can be thwarted by seeing-is-believing. Good fortune in your search.

[Strabo]

LED is next generation of lighting, enjoy it.

[SCVJeff]

Be careful of the "direct replacement" LED tubes that retain the ballast. You will find they draw almost as much as the fluorescent it replaced. Imreturned mine to Home Depot with that complaint and they said they were getting allot of them returned. Lowe's is clearing them out also.

[DrewE]

If cost is a factor, I suspect the least expensive route is to not use light strips at all, but to install a bunch of utility light bulb sockets and put LED bulbs in them. Granted, these aren't strips, but it's still possible to get quite good lighting if you don't space the sockets too far apart.