Workshop lighting?

Hey guys,

I've just bought myself a factory and I'm looking for suggestions on lighting.

It's 13*22m and about 4m at the gutters.

I'm thinking LED high bays, but should I just go the eBay ones that are cheap with warranty or good brand name ones?

Can anyone suggest another solution?

Cheers,
Trav

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You get what you pay for, never more, sometimes less.

We just replaced our lights with LED. We went from 8" bulbs to 4" LED's. Lighting is better and they cost less than 1/4 to run. I would check on watts used and output. Some of the cheaper ones have less lumens. Also the brightness the ones we put up are 5000K color temp. I put up an interior light at home from Menards that had 3500K or 4000K and it is a big difference.

We have 3 high bay 500w halogens per bay. There are 2 Bigass Led lights in a dark spot of the shop. These two make a huge difference.
High Bay Lighting | Industrial LED Lighting | Big Ass Light

LED for sure. The following probably doesn't help you in your country, but you never know. I'm small potatoes and i have been using the 4' LED Lights of america lights available at the local wholesale store. These lights are nice. Havea nice rigid aluminum extruded chassis.

I believe lights of america was bought out. Unsure of the new company name. Box went from blue to red if I recall.

Shop Lights


Hey For a while in my life I sold Lighting which saved energy and mostly promoted 5000Kelvin Florescent tubes in 4 foot. I think there may be places where you may wish to use 8 foot lamps if you want. Now a days for general lighting in shops and all kinds of Commercial office or say a Corporate building people also use the T8 and now the T6 fluorescent Lamps also.


Whether they are made using LEDS I just presume that they do and so they are available. As a rule the smaller diameter you use the more energy is saved in Fluorescent tubes and so I would bet LEDS are the same. The 5000K temp lights are superior to anything else because they render anything you look at with a fuller spectrum of light enabling you to see what quality of work you are making and allowing anything which should not be there whether a finish which is not right or anything they do a fantastic job.

DuroTest pioneered the full spectrum fluorescent lamps and made special lamps (Not Fluorescent likely HID) for lighting areas where the launchpads and probably other areas in a good durable quality light. They made their name that way and they are currently not leading the innovation today like other big makers are now.

There were HO (High Output) fluorescents were used in factories which gave more lumens than the regular ones and had greater penetration than the regular ones if they have them in HO I would look in to them for sure. 5000K is very important for best color rendition. In the old days the regular full spectrum which is a little different temperature than 5000K were often sold for QC because they could see better and find defects easier in the cosmetic sense.

One drawback for HID of the older type was that if the power went off then the lights needed a time before they would come shining back 100%. With LEDS if they have such a animal then they would likely come back on quick if there is a lighting outage.

xa-mont said:

Hey guys,

I've just bought myself a factory and I'm looking for suggestions on lighting.

It's 13*22m and about 4m at the gutters.

I'm thinking LED high bays, but should I just go the eBay ones that are cheap with warranty or good brand name ones?

Can anyone suggest another solution?

Cheers,
Trav

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I think there have been several threads on this topic within the last year or so on this forum. Lots of good info, try a search on "shop lighting" or similar.

Lighting = Increased productiveness = Money

First order business, this a real hot button issue for me, so ask the children to excuse them selves!

This is not a ranting diatribe; just trying make sure you take the works perspective on light seriousness. Offered by a denizen of the lightless shop.

1) Moral, I would feel a lot better with out the funeral home look.

2)Light quality, I could state pile of research on the subject, ~90% all good in fact beneficial to our very metabolic balance & function

Where I work the lighting VERY poor, very OLD mg Na vapor. Half on longer work and the ones that due would could be out-shined by my porch light. Re-positioning parts (2000# on up) so you can see the area of interest.
Better moral, employs get some benefit from alternative wave lengths. improved safety.
All that to don't look at it has finical advantage only. Good lighting consultant would not be a bad idea, even I go so far to ask 3 your best guys to be in on the selecting the purchase.

doug8cat said:

First order business, this a real hot button issue for me, so ask the children to excuse them selves!

This is not a ranting diatribe; just trying make sure you take the works perspective on light seriousness. Offered by a denizen of the lightless shop.

1) Moral, I would feel a lot better with out the funeral home look.

2)Light quality, I could state pile of research on the subject, ~90% all good in fact beneficial to our very metabolic balance & function

Where I work the lighting VERY poor, very OLD mg Na vapor. Half on longer work and the ones that due would could be out-shined by my porch light. Re-positioning parts (2000# on up) so you can see the area of interest.
Better moral, employs get some benefit from alternative wave lengths. improved safety.
All that to don't look at it has finical advantage only. Good lighting consultant would not be a bad idea, even I go so far to ask 3 your best guys to be in on the selecting the purchase.

Click to expand...

I'm my only guy [emoji14]

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Hey there "down under"! Whatever you do and whichever lighting you go for, I would strongly suggest that you buy & try a few units in your "highest need" area(s). There is a ton of cheap lighting on eBay. After buying some myself though (for a kitchen remodel), I was concerned that I may have gotten older units or models that produced below specified output (lumens). I think that some guys buy rejects and sell them from their homes. This might help explain why they had something to the effect of "Please to serve you best, contact to us if product not work well". LED's are like wood to a certain extent, the output is variable and certain culling has to take place to ensure the desired output is achieved. Also, LED output is increasing in capability & decreasing in cost over time somewhat like CPU power. Bottom line though: putting better lighting in can be a true "win-win-win": lower operating cost, better production, happier employees....". Oh yeah, look into motion sensors as well; another way to save even more energy. Sensors these days are much better than in years past.

The Dude

Trav.

You might try ringing your electricity provider. They have all sorts of incentives for crossing over. I see it when I'm out and about. Lower risk than pink bats.

Regards Phil.

I well understand the LED shop lighting topic has been beat to death. However, offerings and benefits are changing. I own a 24,000 SF shop with hundreds of F32T8 florescent fixtures. Each suspended fixture holds 4, 32 watt tubes arranged in pairs, end-to-end. Ceiling height is 14 feet. Light is satisfactory. Power bill is not.

Here in Vermont, an agency is offering rebates that may fully offset the cost of LED conversions. A requirement is they are DLC listed. A quick search thru Amazon shows a mind numbing number of options.

Am appealing to other shop owners that have recently been this route.
1. What brand/manufacturer did you choose? I only want to deal with premium quality, established brands, offering on-going designs.
2. What fixture design is best to directly replace suspended, fixtures?
3. Must be hard wired into my existing conduit drops.
4. What color temp is best for a manufacturing environment? We have no outside windows or other natural light.
5. If not Amazon (I get free shipping) what other distributor is a best choice?

Thanks in advance for any help. Don