actually it currently is:
376829D8-6EE6-4B70-9D94-9D2511BD3D59_zpsmkohuaia.jpg

 

http://www.lsi-industries.com/produc...solutions.aspx
just one of many companies out there doing SERIOUSLY bright lights

 

flourescents are used in body shops because the light wraps around the surface of a car, and allows you to see without glare. you can see the imperfections in paint and body surfaces. I wonder if leds will do thay ( I doubt it ) but Id like to see if some variations will ever be useful in body shops
PS I cant function w/out my 8' flourescents

 

A reader on another forum posted this chart. It's interesting



I was also told that in hospital operating room they use 8000K lights. I need to verify that though.

Richard Newton
Historic Racing Images

 

+1 installed 5 works much better than the old

 

I use T5 high bay lights in all work areas. I have a separate circuit for 6 400 watt metal halide lights if I need more light.

I bought 60 of them off craigslist that were like new, and they sip energy running on 220V. I still have 20 of them left if anyone is interested :-)

 

I came across these at Costco today: LED "tubes" for 4' fixtures. Haven't tried them. Might do an A/B comparison with what I have right now.
photo943.jpg

 

IMO, you're better off with the whole fixture that can be had for the same price. Why put LED bulbs in older, clunkier/bigger flourescent assemblies that still have ballasts in them? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

I would tend to agree, though given how painful it was to get my fixtures up (fun with conduit and cheap razor sharp metal edges), the ease of plug and play is attractive.

There are numerous threads on Garage Journal about LED fixtures and retrofits. A point that comes up about the cheap LED fixtures are questions about longevity. If you just replace the tubes, you can always go back to fluorescent or upgrade to a better LED tube.

 

Dunno, all my fixtures are tapped into switched outlets right by the lights themselves. It doesn't get any easier for me to swap the entire fixture.

If you keep the existing fixtures, you'll most likely have a better chance of suffering a ballast failure before the new led lights fail themselves or have to endure buzzing ballasts. Also some modern electronics don't play nice with outlets/wiring circuit that are sharing the ballasts as well.

 

I also have T5 HO in my garage (54W) alone with 8' HO T12 fixtures switched separately. It's hard for me to tell the difference between the 48" T5 and the 8'- 115W T12 HO. I wanted to mention about 400 W Metal Halide failure. Sometimes the arctube will rupture sending the glass fragments outwards and break the outer glass. It's a rare occasion but I've seen it more than a few times. You can purchase the lamps with the protected shield. They have a shroud around the aretube to contain the fragments in case of an explosion. Attached is a pic of one lamp I saved that had nonpassive failure.
Also you pull the same power from the metal halide fixtures weather they are wired 110 or 220v. The difference is that on 110v, you my be pulling 5 amps and on 220v you may be pulling 2.5 amps but you are pulling them on both legs. Just wanted to put this in because I admire your work and hope to meet you someday.