A while ago I replaced all the old lighting in my shop. I used to have four dual-bulb T-12 fixtures. Not one fixture or bulb was the same brand, and the light was a weird mix of colors.
I wanted something more efficient, that wouldn’t hum, and would turn on instantly, even in cold temperatures, so I switched to T-8 fixtures with electronic ballasts and used 4100K bulbs throughout.
Advertisement
I was happy for a while, until one of the fixtures stopped working.
Then I started having bulbs randomly go out in other fixtures until I rotated them a few times — then they’d work again for a while. Frankly I’m also sick of the hassle, not to mention having to recycle bulbs that are considered hazardous materials.
I’ve been looking into LED shop lights. When Rockler agreed to ship out a review sample of the 4′ LED shop light they sell, I was excited to try it.
LED lights have a number of advantages over fluorescents. They are usually more efficient (even if only slightly), they last so long you don’t have to deal with replacing bulbs, and they don’t explode into tiny shards of glass when you accidentally hit them with a board you are maneuvering.
Advertisement
This particular shop light sold by Rockler is a Lights of America unit, model #8140SE2-WH5. It has 240 bright white (5000K) LEDs organized into two 120 LED “tubes.” It’s the same size and shape as a standard T-12 dual bulb fixture and is rated for 50,000 hours – that’s almost 6 years of continuous use.
It’s not clear whether the 50,000 hour longevity rating is determined using the common L70 rating standard, which tells you how long it might be before the light dims to 70% of its original light output.
Installing the Shop Light
The shop light comes with all the hardware you need for hanging it from the ceiling: S-hooks, chain, screw hooks, and drywall anchors.
As far as I can tell there is no way to surface-mount this light, and I don’t think I’d want to risk running screws blindly through the sealed compartment for the electronics on top of the light.
Rather than replacing any of the fixtures in my shop, I decided to test and use the LED shop light as task lighting over my workbench. First I had to clear out some wood I was storing above my bench.
To hang the light, I drove the screw hooks into two joists four feet apart. After attaching the chains to the light with the S-hooks, I hung the chains from the screw hooks, plugged in the light, and turned it on.
I was immediately impressed at how bright the LED shop light was. It seemed to visibly outshine all of the fluorescent fixtures in my shop.
Specs and Reality
One of the biggest reasons for buying LED lights is efficiency, so let’s look at some numbers. The shop light is rated for 4500 lumens at 40W, which puts its stated efficiency at 112.5 lumens per Watt. From what I’ve read this puts it at the higher end of LED efficiency (a good thing).
On the shop light, it says it draws 340mA, so I pulled out my trusty Kill-A-Watt and measured the actual energy consumption. It drew 0.33A from the 120V plug, giving 39 VA. The power factor was a pretty good 0.95 and the Kill-A-Watt said it was drawing 38 W. Given that LED bulb drivers usually have a lousy power factor, they must be doing some active compensation.
I left the light on for 2.5 hours and it used 0.09 kWh, which is approximately 40W per hour. All this means the specs match reality.
For comparison I checked out one of my new fixtures with T8 bulbs. It draws 0.77A from the 120V plug giving 93VA. It’s power factor is a horrible 0.57 and the Kill-A-Watt said it was pulling 55W.
I left it plugged in for about an hour and a half and it measured 0.08 kWh, which is approximately 50W per hour. Given that I have two 32W bulbs in the fixture, either the light bulb specs are off, or fluorescent tubes draw less power as they age.
Final Thoughts
While Rockler claims that the light comes on instantly, there is a very slight delay ( less than 1 second) between pulling the chain and the light illuminating. It’s actually slower than my T-8 fixtures, but when it comes on, it is on 100% full brightness. Also when you turn it off, the LEDs keep glowing dimly for a few seconds and then gradually fade out.
Although the color temperature of the LED shop light is different than the rest of my lights, it doesn’t really bother me as much since it’s positioned as the central light in my shop. Having another light in my shop has also made photography in my shop much easier, since now it’s bright enough so that I don’t have to use a tripod to stabilize every shot.
I like this light, but I don’t know if I would pay the full Rockler list price of $75. The $50 holiday 2015 sale price is more digestible.
I’ve also found a few retailers that also sell the 8140SE (which is the 4200 lumen version) for $36 to $42.
This LED shop light has definitely improved the lighting of my workshop.
Right now it’s temporarily oversold at Rockler. If you order now, you lock in the $50 price and get a place in line for when they receive a resupply. We’re not sure when the holiday promo pricing ends.
Buy Now (Model 8140SE2 at Rockler)
Compare (Model 8140SE at Amazon)
Use free shipping coupon code AFAZ1 at checkout. It gives you free ground shipping on $25+ orders, and we believe it expires at the end of December 2015.
Thank you to Rockler for providing the review sample unconditionally.
Nathan
Price isn’t that far off the mark at 50. as opposed to some LED lights on the market.
Good review
Also on your T-8 bulb and fixture power draw, I’ve been told that fluorescent bulbs are rated and sold as a “Max” allowed power use and manufacturing variance in the ballasts and the bulbs are used to determine a max allowed – but the real usage should always be below those values. The idea being the better built ballasts are more efficient etc etc. Take with a grain of salt and a shot.
Any idea who makes these for Rockler?
Benjamen
Yep, Lights of America. It’s model #8140SE2-WH5.
Bill K
Great support for going LED!
How about DIY LED lighting for all you handy tool guys?
I just bought some 12v LED strip and added under the cabinet kitchen lighting… worked great. Also used some small strips to add computer case interior lighting… worked great.
After reading Stuart’s above article, I can easily seeing how I might use a discarded flourescent fixture (reflector only) to mount LED strips and make a good LED shop light for about $12 and some fun time in the shop.
Stuart
You mean Ben’s article. =)
I still have a small supply of EL wire, cold cathode tubes, and LEDs for computer mod lighting. Now, there are so many more options.
Now, you can get decent RGB individually addressed LEDs anywhere. Ikea has some nice inexpensive options for those who don’t want to look too far.
fred
Some years ago after a string of old-age ballast failures – I switched out my general shop lighting from 2 lamp 8-foot T-12 fixtures to 4- lamp 8-foot T-8 ‘s . Like you I have mixed emotions about the tubes – and while 8 footers give better light coverage (light falloff at the ends seem to be an issue for fluorescent tubes) – disposing of the used bulbs is more of a nuisance. Once my remaining part of a case of tubes is used up – I’ve been thinking about buying replacement LED Tubes – but compared to about $120/case of T-8 tubes and needing to buy 40 tubes – the price is daunting.
John
I’ve purchased 3 of these over the last few months – 1 from Lowes (never seen there again), and 2 from Amazon. Great light so far – we’ll see how they hold up over a SE Michigan winter. At this point, I’m planning on five more for may garage.
The chains have differed between fixtures (the one from Lowes came with goofy plastic strip rather than chains), and the pull switch on one crapped out immediately (broken spring?). I easily replaced it with another pull switch I had on hand rather than send the light back.
John Sullivan
I bought one from Sam’s Club a few months ago for $36 (they’re still available at that price). The light quality was terrific (as one should expect from a LED fixture) but the hanging connectors were dismal. Add in the fact that this clearly wasn’t meant to be hardwired, and I won’t be buying any more.
I’m going to wait a year or two before replacing the Lithonia T8 fluorescent fixtures in my shop with LED — hopefully by then a major manufacturer will have an LED offering that can be hardwired and properly mounted in the $40 range. Since my shop has nearly 40 fixtures to replace, I’m in no hurry to spend that kind of cash despite the potential energy savings.
Bradley Hanstad
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/4ft-led-shoplight-shoplight-led/prod16460030.ip
$35.98 sams club
Mike D
I recently did a lot of research to upgrade my shop lighting, and it seems like the general consensus is this is the way to go, especially if you have existing T8 fixtures in place.
http://www.beeslighting.com/product-p/t818w1200bixxdf50f1.htm?CartID=1
Bradley Hanstad
Honestly, I just need 1 light bar. If I was replacing a serious amount of bulbs I would find myself hunting on alibaba for companies and getting “samples” in the amount I needed.
I have gotten some amazing prices and great quality. Plus I can define the color grade I want (k)
Drew M
I’ve seriously thought about buying some old T12 fixtures, a few 5m rolls of LED strip and a nice MeanWell powerfactor corrected psu off ebay to make my own LED shop lights.
I could really care less about the efficiency, I just don’t want the hassle of fluorescent or the poor cold temperature startup.
mike aka Fazzman
Cool,just what ive been looking for.
Mike D
I recently did a lot of research to upgrade my shop lighting, and it seems like the general consensus is this is the way to go, especially if you have existing T8 fixtures in place.
http://www.beeslighting.com/product-p/t818w1200bixxdf50f1.htm?CartID=1
John Sullivan
I’ve heard that the LED replacement bulbs (those which just click into an old fluorescent fixture– see Mike D’s link above) don’t offer the energy savings of a completely new fixture because they’re still using the old, power-hungry fluorescent ballast. That makes sense, but I’m not an electrical engineer. Can anyone who knows about these things comment?
Benjamen
I was looking at the LED replacement bulbs at Home Depot:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/TOGGLED-48-in-T8-16-Watt-Daylight-5000K-Linear-LED-Tube-Light-Bulb-A416-50210/205935902
If you look at the instructions they tell you how to rewire the fixture. You basically cut the ballast wires and wire the sockets directly to line voltage.
There should be no reason why they couldn’t get good efficiency, unless they built it using a cheap power supply and crappy LEDs.
Robert
Costco has a similar fixture for 32 to 39 on a regular basis, beats everything out there.
mgeorge
The Costco down here in Texas has the shop lights for $29.99. I bought 4 to light up my garage. I even connected one to come on when the garage opens. I used a socket to plug adapter to the garage door opener’s bulb socket to turn on when the garage opens. 🙂
Nigel
At Home Depot I got the Model # T48/841/LED/RP
Feit Electric 4 ft. T8/T12 17-Watt Cool White (4100K) Linear LED Light Bulb
They are an LED drop-in replacement for T12 tubes. They are the best thing I did for the garage, shop, basement, lights. Really bright. I had forgotten how much the old lights had faded. I also will not have to worry about cold weather warm-up.
A couple of years ago I had gotten a 4 ft LED shop light from Lowes for spot lighting at the lathe. I am really happy with it.
dave
I’m looking to replace 8′ HO fixtures that put out about 8000 lumens per bulb(16000 combined), it looks like with using two of ‘lights of america’ units they would have an out put of 8400 lumen and draw 80 watts combined with is about half of operating watts of two T-8’s that each draw 84 watts, but give double the lumens. It doesn’t seem like the light output of LED’s will replace the HO anytime soon. I have also been reading about failures from heat and manufacturing of the LED’s.
Matt
I use the Costco ones at $30 each
Bryanska
I’ve been using generic strip LEDs and transformers to add LED lighting to every closet in the house.
It wouldn’t be too difficult to simply stick the generic LED strips on the underside of the basement joists. They run cool and are dirt cheap ($11 for 5 meters)
Benjamen
Do you have any sources, I’ve been looking into LED strips, and the cheap ones like you mention seem to have really low lumen ratings. You’d have to have 10’s of meters to match a single T8 light fixture.
Ed S
I went the Costco $40 models. However I need to make the old light fixtures into outlets to plug in.
Then I thought about the BigAssLED and $400 is just silly.
Pixi has some nice flush LED panels (1×1, 1×2, 1×4) but they are less than BigAssLED but double the $40 and for a 4′ model, 5x the cost of the $40 ones.
But if your application wants a flush light…
DreamcatcherDB
@Benjamin,
Sorry to say, that’s quite the dungeon you are working in there. One bit of advice to you would be to drywall your workshop. I realize that is easier said than done but in my experience [in my own shop] the addition of the whitish face of the drywall greatly intensified the brightness of my shop lights. Also, since we are all DIY types here I would suggest you consider a ‘custom’ LED light solution as shown here:
Henry
Thanks for the review! I ordered 4 of them from Rockler while they were one sale. I liked them so much, and wanted some more.
Unfotunately, they weren’t on sale anymore at Rockler. I really like Rockler, bu wasn’t keen on the non-sale price, so I ordered the Amazon ones (same brand, but 4200 lumens) that you linked.
They arrived yesterday (the Rockler ones went back on sale the day after I ordered them btw), and they’re identical to the Rockler ones (4500 lumens).
FYI, for anyone that’s in the market!
Lord HowitHurtz
they’ve come down in price, i pick one up today (7-19-16) at BJ’s for $32.99. i checked other stores online and no one has them cheaper.
but the jerk-off who purchased it before me returned it without the hanging gear except for one ‘S’ hook and upon further examination he had also snipped off the grounding plug. so my excitement is a little gone now that i have to return it.
Mark Inmon
I loaded up on the lights at Sams Club when that had their sale , they were 25.00. I outfitted my whole shop with lights and a remote switch that turns all of them on at the same time. The lights are now 35 dollars off sale.