What's new
By:
Filters

Shop lighting recommendations

Baconator

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Member Number
1740
Messages
314
I am putting up a 50x80 shop with 16' sidewalls, its steel clear span so at the center its ~23' tall.
In my current shop I have T5HO highbays which have served me well, the LED fluorescent replacements Ive tried dont seem to be as bright as a highbay, they seem better served at lower heights.

It seems like the T5HO's arent as popular anymore, and arent carried by many places, so I am looking for something newer.
These LED highbay lights seem interesting, using this places calculator it shows I need 9 of them to get 75 foot candles.
https://greenlightdepot.com/collect...-tempered-glass-ul-dlc?variant=14911898943531

Anyone have experience with this type of light? Is there anything else I should be looking at?
 
I have zero experience with the lights you posted. I do have a 80'x50' steel clear span shop with 16' walls though. I doubt you'd be happy with 75fc of light. That's not very bright. With the light only coming from 9 sources, you're going to end up with a lot of shadows around things. 90fc min, 36" off the ground (work bench height) is what I'd be shooting for............and is what I did. The more sources of light you have, the fewer shadows you'll be dealing with.

That said, I used the T5HO fluorescents. I looked real hard into LED's at the time I built my shop, just couldn't get there with what I wanted for light.

This is what 90-100FC's covering the entire shop floor looks like in the same size shop you have. Notice nothing has a shadow.

Shop lights.jpg
 
Nice, thanks for the feedback.
I have T5HO's now, but these have much more lumens, 34k vs 29k of a 6 bulb fixture.
I think Ill order some up and try them out
 
another vote for the 100, 150, or 250 watt highbay "ufo" lights. I beliee rule of thumb is 10 watts/foot off the ground, so 150 watt for 16 foot ceilings, etc.
 
I've got the Amazon ufo's. One died 2yrs in, but overall I like them. Slowly converting a plant I work at from t5 highbay to ufo's. They are noticeably brighter.
Amp draw is very low too.
 
Dumb question....

I have two UFO's on my 13' tall gable-end leanto... Thinking about adding 4 to inside the barn... anyone having issues while working under a rig w/ the UFO's - specifically getting blinded by the light, so to speak?

Just curious.
 
rockota said:
Dumb question....

I have two UFO's on my 13' tall gable-end leanto... Thinking about adding 4 to inside the barn... anyone having issues while working under a rig w/ the UFO's - specifically getting blinded by the light, so to speak?

Just curious.
Click to expand...

Yes it will be blinding if your looking up at it directly. I guess if it's a tube buggy you can be looking through it but I don't think I'd be too worried about it.
 
rockota said:
Dumb question....

I have two UFO's on my 13' tall gable-end leanto... Thinking about adding 4 to inside the barn... anyone having issues while working under a rig w/ the UFO's - specifically getting blinded by the light, so to speak?

Just curious.
Click to expand...

You get used to it. When I first put up 5 80 watt LED wallpacks and a 150 watt UFO in my 25x30 9.5 foot ceiling shop I had to wear a ball cap to keep down the glare. Now I`m just used to it being normal. I like stupid bright shops.
 
I'd carpet bomb the edges with the $20 4ft fixtures until it's stupid bright then add UFOs in the middle until the whole shop is even.
 
Last edited:
Are the cheapest eBay LEDs halfway acceptable? if the price difference is there and I'll get a few years out of them they seem cheap enough I can swap the ones that die. That's all I've used for light bars, and eventually they burn out but I get plenty of life before they do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh