I would like some advice on selecting some hanging shop lights for the ceiling of my garage. I would like them to be bright so I believe that I have figured out that I want two lamps with a color temperature equivalent to sun light (value of about 6500K). I understand the dimensional differences between T 12 and T 8 lamps. I do not understand what causes some of the available assemblies to make a humming sound. I would like to avoid the humming sound. I think that the T lamps may be quieter but I have not yet tried them. I am looking a Home Depot as a possible source. Please share your knowledge. Thanks Lauran
I recently bought a dual 4 foot length shop light at home depot. T8 bulb and super easy to install/hang. Plugs into an outlet. Nice n bright too
the ballast can hum, for a number of reasons. get lots of lights. you can turn them off if its too bright, but you can turn on what isn't there. I even painted the wall white to brighten my garage. probably better info at garagejournal.com
Don't overlook the thought of putting some lights high on the sidewalls if space will allow.To compensate for an open overhead door or hood
Research this on Garage Journal.com & if it gets cold where your located that will make a HUGE difference. This past winter, my lights in the shop barely turn on. You will get overwhelmed on the info on GarageJournal but, sorta' like the HAMB......you have to dig thru some of the stuff to find the "true info". Chris
Whatever you decide, don't mount em too high ....I've seen so many times where the lights get mounted to the ceiling in high shops, lessening the effect of those light fixtures. My current place has low ceilings. But, my old shop had real tall ceilings, so I mounted my lights there hanging from 8-10 foot cables. Made a huge difference
The biggest factor to ballast noise (or hum) is the quality of the fixture. It's the old "you get what you pay for" thing. As some mentioned the flourescents do have trouble starting in cold weather(below 50). If you need to start in cold weather then look for High Output or HO flourescent lamps. The fixture and the lamp need to match. In other words a HO fixture and HO lamps. Most HO fixtures are Industrials and have reflectors on them. HO's will start to 0 or -20 depending on the ballast. Doubt it gets that cold in Cali!
I used 8' fixtures 4 total in a 24' x 24' garage plenty of light. Garage door blocks the one you need the most when you pull the front of a car in at night. I think next time I would use 8 - 4' fixtures mostly easyer to replace /transport bulbs and as mentioned quieter. I found that the covers on the 8 foot fixtures seam to vibirate and create most of the noise, wraped some electric tape around the edge of the fixture before puting the cover on made them alot better. Thety also quiet down when they warm up for a while.
What ever you do, avoid the 4 foot 34 watt "wattmiser" or energy saver bulbs, they flicker and never come on with full lighting. They also seem to burn out faster. I went thru a dozen wattmiser bulbs in my shop each year. A switch to Phillips Alto 40 watt cool white bulbs stopped the money bleeding. The cool white bulbs seem to come on in colder temps where the warm white would not. All the old lighting fixtures I have in my shop came from other peoples junk piles. I always looked for the cold start ballasts and saved them when I could find them. All My 4 foot lights come on down to about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. I recently picked up some 4 foot fixtures at Home Depot for $15 each. They came with a 5 foot cord attached and an inline switch. I mounted 4 of them (8 bulbs) in the far dark corner of the shop and used an extension cord with a power bar attached to the roof. Now all I have to do is plug the extension cord in to turn on the lights in what was usually a dimly lite area. .
I was told by an electrician to spend the extra $$$ and get lights with an "electronic balast"? Because they wouldn't hummm...boy, do I wish I had listened to him, but I was being cheap, and once again, it bit me in the a$$. The 8' ers I have in my shop hummmmmmmmmmmbbbuuzzzzzzz constantly, and unless I'm making lots of noise, they drive me CRAZY!! I will fix it eventually, but in the mean time say it with me, now! HHHUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Yep, go with the electronic ballasts. The home depot shop lights suck for anything under 50 - 55 degrees. I was given 70 4 foot 3 light fixtures that have the magnetic ballasts ( hummm, flicker, won't start in cold ). I have converted these fixtures to the electronic ones and they are bitchin now. When I want it really bright in my shop I turn on the 4 400w metal halide shop lights - got these off of craigslist for $25 each, there really bright but tend to spin that electric meter pretty fast.
When I built my shop I went with round fixtures that hang down about 12" from a junctiom box mounted on the rafters. They are the kind like seen in old school cafeterias and are dark green on top and white inside. I run the 100watt equivilant CFC bulbs and it is plenty bright. I have 12' ceilings and have never managed to hit one yet. The only drawback is when it gets below about 50 degrees it takes a few minutes to come up to full brightness but there is no transformer hum to bother you and no static on the radio.
Check ebay. I found a pair of track lights that came out of a jewlery store. I had to find a trak to fit these lights , but a lighting told me just what i needed. Some times when stores go out of business people will come in and buy all the lighting and display cases and sell them on ebay. If you want pictues of these lights i will post them
Electronic ballasts are all rated for cold weather, so they'll fire in cooler temps than the old wound core ballasts, plus they wont hum. I'd think twice about the 6500k lamps. Yes they are closer to daylight, but unless you really need that light level they are also about 4x the price of regular 3500k lamps. Why pay $8 ea. when you can get 3500 for under $2.? A 735 or 841 lamp will wrok in almost every case and be cheaper. I'd be careful about buying the Home Depot lights, even with electronic ballasts unless you open the box and see that the electronic ballast is a name brand like Advance or Universal, etc. Most that HD sells are actually printed circuit boad ballats and they wont last a year or so. Go to your local electrical supply house and see what they want for fitures. Might be a little more, but the quailty will be better, and well worth the extra.
First of all gentlmen you can only buy flourescent fixtures with electronic ballasts now days. The old lights hummed because of the inefficient magnetic ballasts. One peice of advice I can give you is dont buy the T8 fixtures that take the 8 ft. bulbs. The bulbs are hard to get in some places and are way over priced. If you an 8 ft. fixture get the T12 bulbs. As stated above you will get what you pay for. Dont but the lights with the cords and plugs on them either. Try buying a name brand such as Atlas or Lithonia. You may even try an electrical supply store instead of a lowes or home depot, the prices are alittle cheaper sometimes. If you want to really get some bright light, Atlas sells a fixture that has 4 T5 lamps (smaller than the T8) and they put out some amazingly bright light. They can be pricey but you will require fewer lights. It all depends on the amount of light you want, where you installing them and what you want to spend. If you need more help pm me and I help you best I can. Nothing worse than a dark shop. Good luck.
The color corrected lights (natural sun spectrum) are the best, they don't cast yellow. I use them both at my screenprint shop and at my home garage, and love them. www.highspeedmotorsports.com
Agree, and if you can, make a way of raising/lowering them in case you need to work on something tall. I've seen parachute cord & pulleys used.
I used 10 cast off fixtures from a resteraunt when they upgraded. My ceilings are 15 ft. so I hung them 5 ft. down for a 10 ft. light to floor height. These were the 4 ft double bulb varity, cheap and worked great.
go to an electrical supply store and get the tandem 4' fixtures. its like two 4' fixtures butted end to end to get 8 feet. the nice thing about the new electronic ballast is that it is an instant on so there is no flickering and warm up time like the old magnetic ballasts. you will be happy with the purchace and wont regret it like you will if you get old second hand fixtures or cheap ones from a store like home depot or lowes. not bashing them just the old saying you get what you pay for. if you are anywhere near northern cali. i would be happy to help out. shockley......
I think the T12 stuff and some of the T8 are to be phased out of production in 2012. T5 high bay fixtures while a bit pricey are really nice. You might want to check out those.
We just changed over our garage to all T-8 units. We used some new units and refitted some of the others. The bright white light is so much better than the older yellow lights. It costs a couple of bucks but seems to be really worth it. there is a picture below of the first change
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