Garage lighting, what do I need to know?

C. Charles Hahn said:
Or, dare I say, a shop that specializes in supplies for growing medical marijuana at home. Sadly potheads are pretty smart about fluorescent lighting.
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Most grows are using bulbs, not flourescents. :)
 
detailfanatic said:
Most grows are using bulbs, not flourescents. :)
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Really? I have a neighbor who used to be into that stuff and all he had were fluorescents.... doesn't necessarily mean he was using the best equipment but he made it sound like he knew what he was doing.
 
Hydroponic stores selling grow bulbs used to be dominated by the metal halide market. They amount of heat produced and the sheer toll on your phone bill led to most grow houses switching to lourescent lighting. Not to mention the fact when your power bill exceeds 1000 a month you get reported to the Dept of Homeland Security via Patriot Act. Lots of grow houses getting busted. Hence the massive switch over to t5 flourescent lighting for growing plants, pot, etc.



I have no personal knowledge of any of this. I heard it from a friend of a friend, who had a former roomate who grew pot. :)



Look in to CREE LED bulbs. You cant imagine the energy savings and the output. They are the industry leader in LED lighting with immense lumen output, CRI, and over 50k hours before burning out. Here is an example:



LRP38-10L-25D
 
C. Charles Hahn said:
What was the CRI on the GE bulbs? Lumen rating?
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The 6500K have a CRI of 78 with 2700 lumens, while the 5000K has an 86 CRI with 2800 lumens. While it may not be a huge difference, IMO the GE 5000Ks are a lot easier to see with and easier on the eyes. The 6500Ks were like the daylight on a cloudy day, really dim looking and hard to see in the garage. The 5000Ks have more of a natural sunlight output and are brighter
 
RedlineIRL said:
The 6500K have a CRI of 78 with 2700 lumens, while the 5000K has an 86 CRI with 2800 lumens. While it may not be a huge difference, IMO the GE 5000Ks are a lot easier to see with and easier on the eyes. The 6500Ks were like the daylight on a cloudy day, really dim looking and hard to see in the garage. The 5000Ks have more of a natural sunlight output and are brighter
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Hmm.... sounds like those 6500Ks are some crappy lamps.... the Philips ones I'm using are 85 CRI and 2800 lumens, I love 'em.



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Older thread I know but I recently purchased the cheaper Utilitech's from Lowes that are T12 for the walls in my shop. Whats the reason to go with T8's over T12? I figured the bigger diameter bulb and higher wattage of T12's would be better but I am no expert here at all. Wish I waited to read this before I bought 5 $20 units. I'd rather spend the extra money on good lighting than anything. I will take some pictures of my setup soon. On the wall, I tapped off from some wall outlets, ran a switch and then next to each light put a dual outlet so I can plug buffers, shop vacs, etc off them and bought the plug in type lighting instead of hardwired. Sure it isn't as clean as hard wired but I can plug stuff in now...

Thanks for any info!
 
Shawn F. said:
Older thread I know but I recently purchased the cheaper Utilitech's from Lowes that are T12 for the walls in my shop. Whats the reason to go with T8's over T12?
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T12s are being phased out, so replacement tubes will eventually become difficult to find.



I figured the bigger diameter bulb and higher wattage of T12's would be better but I am no expert here at all.
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Actually the exact opposite is true -- the lower wattage T8 lamps put out more light than T12s. And T5 lamps put out even more than T8s despite being smaller yet and even lower wattage, but they're not as mainstream and are quite a bit more expensive.
 
Hmm this is good to know! I am only out about $100 so it's ok. I'll keep the wall units but plan to add about 6-8 more on the wall and posts in the shop so will start going with the T8's. Which T8's from Lowes or Home Depot would you recommend? I know they have the dual and quad ones for about $25-$50 each and even some in black that are only $15 a piece (non hardwire/plug in type).
 
Thanks Charlie! I plan to mount them on the back wall, above the work bench and on my soon to be new carts I will be purchasing soon so that way I can roll them around.
 
I just got back from Home Depot and checked out the T8 and T5 lighting. All I have to say is that the T5's are BRIGHT! They have a 4 bulb one there with 72 watt bulbs putting out 17,800 Lumans and 85 CRI. It is blinding. I eventually want to replace all my 8 foot T12's with 8 foot T5's now.
 
Well today one of the ballasts in one of my lighting melted and went bad and almost caught fire. I had the fire department come with their thermal imaging camera to check out the burning smell in my shop. I had no clue it was one of the lights, I just smelled something electrical burning and as time went on the shop smelled so bad that even the shop next door smelled it and asked what it was. Anyways long story short, we found that one of the 96" T12 fluorescent fixtures was running abut 255-260 degrease just on the outside case and the ballast went bad, melted and spit tar all over. No clue why it did this since I am not an electrician but I ended up having to turn off the breaker for the middle row of lights and now left with no choice but to replace it... I was hoping to hold off for another 2 or 3 months to replace the lighting but oh well. About 6 fixtures in my shop are bad so instead of fixing it, I plan to buy new units and run either T5 or T8 bulbs. I believe I have 25 fixtures in the whole shop so I will probably do 5 or 10 at a time and then next month do another 5 and so on until they are all replaced (hopefully within 3 months, I just do not have the money to do them all at once).

Here is something I found on Youtube that seems to shed some light on the T5 vs T8 thing. I was going to splurge and get T5 lighting but now thinking about just running some high CRI high Lumen T8's instead and do this conversion to the T12 fixtures I already have if it's even possible... Shop lighting upgrade: T5 vs T8 fluorescent vs LED - YouTube
 
BTW, does anyone here know which ballast to get for the 8 foot lights? I heard that I cannot use just any ballast because the 8 footers will require a different ballast than a 2-4 foot one... I am hoping to take care of this tomorrow so any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
It's absolutely possible to convert your T12s to T8s, that's what I did.



Head to Home Depot, they will have the ballasts you need. Replacement is pretty simple once you open up the fixture and look at what's inside.
 
Charlie, any idea what ballasts I will need for the long 8 footers? As for wiring them up, I read and watched some videos on here and like you said, they are VERY easy. The one that burned up today will need to be replaced and I am not sure if I will replace it with an 8' T8 fixture already done or buy a T12 and update it. I also want to try and put some kind of reflectors behind these lights if at all possible but not sure yet on what to do.
 
You might as well just buy a T8 fixture for the one you need to replace; the metal housing is probably going to be identical in either case, and why end up with an extra new T12 ballast you don't need?



I'd probably go with something like these for ballasts (this is a 10 pack):



2 Or 1 Lamp T8 HO 8ft. 120-277V Electronic Ballast (Case of 10)-GE-286-HO-MV-N at The Home Depot



Comes out to $35.90 per ballast as opposed to the $37.97 they want for a single ballast.



That said, if you have a little bit of time you might call around to lighting/electrical contractors and see if you can get an even better price.
 
Thanks a lot Charlie! I will make some phone calls tomorrow and see what I can come up with. Right now my biggest issue with my ceiling insulation, floor and lighting. These 3 things need to be fixed ASAP and they are driving me nuts!
 
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