# Forum Home Renovation Lighting  Optimal efficient home workshop lighting options

## Daavid

I am new here so give me some space if I transgress. 
I am building a new workshop and looking at lighting options. 
In the past I have used 4 foot flouros which are relatively cheap and work well.  I wonder if they are still the best option.   At issue is I will still end up with 8 or so 40 watters which is still 320 watts.  Given the amount of time I will spend using them it will end up costing a couple of hundred dollars a year to run them. 
Within the house I have been replacing the high use lights with LED's so 300 watts has become 60 watts saving at least a couple of bucks a week.  (More if the price of electricity goes up ... but that will never happen  :Biggrin: ) 
Are their LED options that make sense in a workshop.

----------


## davidajelliott

There are "Led" Fluro tubes available on the market although replacing all those standard 36w tubes with the "Led" options will be prohibitive. In non electronic Fluro lights , the ones with starters just remove the starters and replace with led tubes. A word of caution though , Led fluros seem to be better as a overhead ( direct over workspace) option and dont spread the light as much as the standard fluro tubes. Hope it helps  :Biggrin:

----------


## Master Splinter

Four foot tubes with tri-phosphor bulbs get my vote!

----------


## LinesElectrical

It's going to be hard to find anything better than fluoros in regards to price, maintnence, running costs and light output unless it's a huge workshop with high ceiling height.

----------


## Daavid

I guess the way I am reading it is that I might as well install the standard batons with the tubes they come with and update them with the LED option when I am ready. 
To me the LED tube replacements still look a bit crude compared with, say the downlight replacement options which these days are looking quite refined.  http://www.ledcentral.com.au/online-...20watt-t8-tube

----------


## Smurf

Agreed that fluoro's are still the best way to go but get the "T5" type if you want to minimise electricity usage. 
The T5 28 watt tubes are effectively the same as the old 36 (or 40) watt tubes in terms of light output. Also they last longer too. 
T5 tubes are a different fitting however so if you want to go this way then be sure to buy actual T5 light fittings. (For the record, the older type are also known as T8). 
The T5 tubes can be easily recognised as much thinner than the old type.

----------


## SilentButDeadly

A plain old fluro batten fitted with a silver aluminium reflector makes an excellent workshop luminaire....ofte means you can use smaller or a smaller number of fittings. There are specific designs that makes those LED T5 globes really perform too.  Allen Fluorescent Lighting Pty Ltd  http://www.pierlite.com/au/10491/regency-srs

----------


## Daavid

My little shed project is nearing completion and the second fit wiring should happen some time next week. 
I am still in a quandary as to the best lighting.  I was hoping that an LED option would become cost competitive but the advances and price reductions for this sort of application still seems to be some way off. 
The sparky (who is checking the wiring and performing the final terminations) was not a fan of T5 fluorescents having not found them to be very reliable.  I bought a small one to try out and it worked ok but watt for watt seemed no more efficient than the regular T8 setup.  They are slightly more expensive for both the fittings and the tubes.  From an environmental perspective because the ballast etc. is built in this all gets thrown away when the tube needs replacing which seems a waste. 
I do have a fitting with GU10 LED downlights - super bright ones, which I will use above my work bench which I acquired some time back for basically no cost.  I will probably use GU10 fittings with compact fluorescents above the other work areas. 
Apart from that my current thinking is to go with standard T8 battons for 36watt tubes.  They are cheap enough that I won't feel bad ditching them down the track when a super efficient option becomes available. 
Before making the final purchases I thought I would throw it to the collective wisdom of the forum for comment and feed back.

----------


## Bruiser

Go the fluoros.  To save money, have a couple of switching configurations - all on, half on, one on. 
I also like a simple light globe somewhere - open the door, flick the switch and it's on straight away.   
My beer fridge has this arrangement with a sensor light, I always feel very cultured when I grab an Emu Export with this technology backing me up.

----------


## Smurf

> The sparky (who is checking the wiring and performing the final terminations) was not a fan of T5 fluorescents having not found them to be very reliable.  I bought a small one to try out and it worked ok but watt for watt seemed no more efficient than the regular T8 setup.  They are slightly more expensive for both the fittings and the tubes.  From an environmental perspective because the ballast etc. is built in this all gets thrown away when the tube needs replacing which seems a waste.

   The ballast in a T5 is part of the light itself, not the tube.  
As for reliability, in theory the T5's have a long life but I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the case in practice. After all, T8's don't last (in practice) as long as the old T12's they replaced even though in theory the reverse is true. 
That said, if you want cheap, bright and reasonably efficient then T8's are the way to go.

----------


## GraemeCook

Good Morning Daavid 
There is a lot of mythology surrounding lighting, aided by advertising hype, but the basics are fairly simple: 
*  Tungsten filament and halogen lights are equally inefficient.
*  Compact fluoros (CFL's) and LEDs use about half the electricity per lumen of light output as halogens.
*  Old style long fluoros (T8's) use half the electricity of LED's.
*  T5's are about 20% more efficient than T8's.  Jury is still out on longevity. 
Efficient reflectors (read large) are critical to ensure that most of the light generated is usable - that is why commercial lights tend to have much larger reflectors than domestic ones (where style is everything!) 
My shed is 15 x 25 feet with 10 foot ceilings and darkish walls/ceilings.   It has 5 double T12 and that is not enough light for the entire shed.  There are areas where detailed work is not adequately illuminated.   One day I will add some more fluoros.    The fluoros cost about $50 each, and the sparky will charge $100 to turn up - its cost effective to add the extra lights now, rater than later, and an extra switch means that you do not have to use them all all the time. 
Fair Winds 
Graeme

----------


## Wombat2

Go with the fluro tubes - I picked up 12 double fittings with twice as many tubes on eBay from an office refit for $100. Installed them in the 7x5m garage/workshop in three banks of  3 with each bank having a pull string switch so the main switch turns on the first then each other bank cascades off the first.  With them all on it is brighter than day ! Most time I only have the first bank on.

----------

