Light for workbench - fluorescent or LED? Or...?

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geekIT

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#1584050 1-Jul-2016 13:46

T - could you give us a bit more detail? Like - how many LEDs, did you get a transformer from Ali? Better still, do you have Ali links to what you bought?

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throbb

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#1584128 1-Jul-2016 15:15

geekIT:

T - could you give us a bit more detail? Like - how many LEDs, did you get a transformer from Ali? Better still, do you have Ali links to what you bought?

These are the ones I got,

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/SMD-5050-AC-220V-led-strip-flexible-light-1M-2M-3M-4M-5M-6M-7M/32591339023.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.64.LkEBjL

I also got a few other lighting solutions as well and to be honest wasn't expecting much from these.

They give a good amount of light with no shadows. They also don't blind me if I look at them. They sit about 70cm above the workbench.

Athlonite

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#1584200 1-Jul-2016 16:30

If anything I'd go with LED

pipe60

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#1584374 1-Jul-2016 20:07

Another option is the 30W led oyster light like these.

http://www.rexellighting.co.nz/product/selene?i=1644

Putting them in a new build at the moment.

Would avoid the fluros Led offer so many better options and the fluros with electronic ballasts don't seem to last that well.

Building your own led strip lights is another cost effective option. Ulrich have the extrusions and lens in 4 M lengths

richms

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#1584405 1-Jul-2016 21:55

A lot of those oyster type lights are just a strip of overdriven 24 or 12v LED striplights around the perimeter of the metal part, with the light scattering to the lens.

Failuers of the groups of LEDs in the tape lead to dark spots in them.

Richard rich.ms

pipe60

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#1584695 2-Jul-2016 17:04

richms:

A lot of those oyster type lights are just a strip of overdriven 24 or 12v LED striplights around the perimeter of the metal part, with the light scattering to the lens.

Failuers of the groups of LEDs in the tape lead to dark spots in them.

The good ones are all smd led on the pcb

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MorrisTheCat

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#1589064 10-Jul-2016 09:00

My 10cents. I have a large basement enough space to store 4 big cars (2 end for end) behind their own tilt door.... Kind of setup.

Years ago I setup new twin flouro lights to the tune of 10 fittings.... There was so much light it was funny but when you are building kit cars or repairing classic cars you need light! I had experience of using old secondhand flouro fittings with newer lamps but one day a choke decided to overheat. Un-noticed it almost set the purlon it was mounted to on fire if I had not smelt smoke and noticed a curl of it by the light prompting me to tear it down with an axe to discover the wood glowing red charcoal....!

Never again on old flouros for me...

So recently I checked my basement and almost all fittings need 2 new starters and tubes with a few needing new 'tombstones' (the ends the tube pins into)...

Then I thought... Hey LEDs. Within minutes I found out there are LEDs and there are LEDs.... There seems to be a vast amount of cheaper utter crap no doubt from Chinese makers under weird no-name-brands of which the individual LED fails in a short time or they are not all the same individual brightness.. After a cost check considering only stuff that had a warranty and name brand it was fairly obvious I was going to be able to buy a heap of flouros.

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geekIT

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#1589114 10-Jul-2016 12:13

MorrisTheCat: Are you saying 'a heap of fluoros' are cheaper than quality LED products?

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MorrisTheCat

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#1589149 10-Jul-2016 15:17

geekIT:

MorrisTheCat: Are you saying 'a heap of fluoros' are cheaper than quality LED products?

In cash outlay, yes unless i am looking in all the wrong places on options for retro fittable Strip LED... The naked dual flouro fittings take 1.5m long lamps (TLD58/33), and i'd like to do a full tube change, thats 20 of them plus new starters all round and a few tombstones which have burned out... I last installed the whole setup over 10yrs ago and runtime has mostly been in the weekends when i go do hobby carstuff etc in my basement. Things are down to about half now, because over the years i replaced tubes here and there, the odd starter etc probably because the tube became dirtier than others (i mean actually COVERED in crud) and would refuse to strike.

Nothing wouldn't be better if i could simply go to solid state equivalent LED tube units but they are at the moment still a bit more expensive (if you are buying some that have a warranty and are QUALITY)....

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MikeAqua

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#1589182 10-Jul-2016 17:48

In our last house I was able to replace the flouro tubes in the workshop with LED tubes.

A person I know was importing a container load so I got them for a great price.

Mike

richms

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#1589230 10-Jul-2016 19:41

There are many non-legit LED tubes being sold too. What I have found asking around is the only legit way to have them is a single end power supply, with the other end a short and a replacement starter which is a fuse which will blow if a fluro tube is put in the fitting instead of the LED tube.

If the tube takes live at one end, and neutral at the other then putting that tube in will put the AC straight across the starter socket, making it explode in most cases as soon as power is connected. Those ones also end up with voltage on the free end if you stick one end in one side of the fitting and touch the other end while trying to line the pins up to put it in.

If they require any modifications to the fitting, you are invalidating any approvals that the fitting had by doing them and making an unsafe situation if someone was to stick a fluro tube back into them.

If you do not remove the power factor correction capacitor from the fitting, you end up with more current draw since the capacitor is there to correct the largly inductive load of the lamp and ballast combination. Not sure if this is to blame for the switches on my garage lights (8 tubes on each) cooking up really badly or not, but the switches have all gone to crap since I swapped out for LED tubes and didnt remove anything from the holders.

If you do not remove the ballast and put the 240 straight to the end of the LED tube, then you have an impedance inline with the power supply in the tube making heat needlessly.

So you really can't win with LED retrofits.

Richard rich.ms

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MorrisTheCat

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#1590300 12-Jul-2016 13:42

MikeAqua:

In our last house I was able to replace the flouro tubes in the workshop with LED tubes.

A person I know was importing a container load so I got them for a great price.

So how well have the things lasted? Were they genuine named brand and not a knockoff of a brand?

I watched youTubes that show LED length 'flouro' tube substitute lamps being run up slowly on DC and surprise, surprise, some of the individual LEDs light way sooner than others meaning the strip has been constructed of unmatched devices and will have very questionable life expectancy...

For now, because i need to sort my basement, i think tried and true good old fluros are still going to be better deal for me and maybe next time when the LED product has stabilised into a genuine reliable product then i will use them.

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floydie

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#1601880 31-Jul-2016 20:19

i just put two 5 ft led twins above my workbench. no shadowing issues and plenty of light.

you need to shop around as the electrical wholesalers do all sorts of specials on different brands throughout the year... i think mine were 120 each

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