LED tube lights for a garage

[z06tim]

Has anyone got any experience of this, or any recommendations on where to buy?

Quick search on the web turns up something like this: http://www.ledchoice.co.uk/led-tube-lights

I have a modern house which has the one fluorescent tube in a double garage. To get the sort of light output and coverage that I want, I was planning going for up to 6 tubes. Since it would make sense to go LED for reduced consumption, I wondered if there was a recommended batten to go with the LED tube.

Seems like this is going to be an expensive project!

[Spare tyre]

im really bad for getting carried away with Lighting especially LED lighting

Just last weekend i had to stop myself spending over £100 on led lighting for my utility room

the light is on in there for less than 3 mins a week


how often is your garage light on?

[z06tim]

That's a fair point. It's not currently on that much.

I just want to make my garage more usable. The light is so poor you cannot do any work on the cars in there, or find things on a winter evening!

I know it would be a whole lot cheaper with fluorescent tubes.

[martinnitram]

How much !

As said above, depends how much you have them on to justify cost to buy vs electric saving, ill let you do the sums.
But in a double garage 6M x 6M, 4 6' twin florescent lights will give you all the light you need.
If its painted white inside even better.

[Pothole]

martinnitram said:

How much !

As said above, depends how much you have them on to justify cost to buy vs electric saving, ill let you do the sums.
But in a double garage 6M x 6M, 4 6' twin florescent lights will give you all the light you need.
If its painted white inside even better.

remember to factor in the cost of some dark glasses!

[cptsideways]

I replaced my garage fluros with LED ones. the light output is way better.

[Fastpedeller]

I always thought that fluoro lights were pretty low concumption - Is there much benefit in going LED? Certainly a lot costlier.

[V8RX7]

z06tim said:

I just want to make my garage more usable. The light is so poor you cannot do any work on the cars in there, or find things on a winter evening!

I felt the same so removed the fluorescents and fitted two bayonet fittings with 100w bulbs - beautifully lit up for £6

[netherfield]

I have 6 x 6ft led tubes in the garage, can recommend the light output.

The way the tubes are constructed tends to throw the light down and sideways only and not upwards.

Main reason for changing was the fact that out of the 6 there always seemed to be one not working or flashing a lot. I know ordinairy tubes don't like cold weather which doesn't affect the led's.
http://www.lampshoponline.com/t8-led-tubes/

Edited by netherfield on Saturday 22 November 08:22

[blueST]

How much brighter than flourescent are these? I've got twenty 600mm flourescent tubes and white walls in my garage and I would still prefer a bit more light. I'm thinking of gradually swapping over as the old tubes fail.

[netherfield]

blueST said:

How much brighter than flourescent are these? I've got twenty 600mm flourescent tubes and white walls in my garage and I would still prefer a bit more light. I'm thinking of gradually swapping over as the old tubes fail.

I would say 25% or more, be aware the ones in the link do give a somewhat blue light and that some wiring alteration is required inside the fitting.

Two alternatives are available from this supplier, one is live at one end of the tube and neutral at the other, or the other has live and neutral at the one end, I went for the former and connected both terminals to live at one end and neutral to both at the other, this gives me a simple wire change if the product only becomes available with a one end termination.

[hairyben]

LED bulkheads - the replacement for 2D kind - are one of the most cost effective amenity lighting solutions right now, or commercial downlights (larger & non-dimmable eg megaman zenia, several times the output of a typical domestic type downlight)

[blueST]

netherfield said:

I would say 25% or more, be aware the ones in the link do give a somewhat blue light and that some wiring alteration is required inside the fitting.

Two alternatives are available from this supplier, one is live at one end of the tube and neutral at the other, or the other has live and neutral at the one end, I went for the former and connected both terminals to live at one end and neutral to both at the other, this gives me a simple wire change if the product only becomes available with a one end termination.

Cool, lots of info. I didn't realise there were wiring changes though. I take it there a none that are a straight swap?

[netherfield]

There are some that swap straight over,but they seem to cost around the £100 each for a 6 ft.

One thing I did learn from the link I put up,if you order something usually the day after you get an email offering a discount, this worked well for me I bought one to try and then got the other five at a discount,if I recall that was 15%.