LED shop lights?

[LCHIEN]

I ordered one of these for under $30 just to see what its all about.

https://www.amazon.com/LUCECO-3600-L...KDWA04MNAF0M2X

It came. Its very compact and light. The length I actually measured surprisingly enough is 47 inches, if that's important to anyone. No reflector but the top of the tubes are dark so there's no light lost straight out the top... I presume the LEDs are all aimed downwards but diffused by the round frosted tubes, the box says it has a 50,000 hour life. Plastic tubes.
Oddly it has a graphic of the beam pattern which shows a downward facing cone (e.g. less than 180 degrees) but is labelled 240 degrees. Someone wasn't paying attention in geometry class. As an engineer that irks me no end.
It also says instant on - but there's a clear but short delay of about 1/10th of a second I would guess. To an EE, that's not instant but it does jump to full brightness.I guess that's instant compared to some fluorescents.

Oh maybe later I'll get the light meter out. and see how many Lux 3600 lumens into who knows what angle translates to. And how it compares to the T8 bulbs I have. Right now that sounds like too much work for this retired guy.


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[capncarl]

My only objection is the all glass design. My first shop lights were standard 4' 2 bulb cheapie lights. I can't say how many of them I busted and glass rained down on my head when I moved long board around. A 10 footer would do it every time! I finally replaced them with fixtures with opaque plastic covers.
Im wondering how 4' led bulbs will perform in my fixtures with these covers?

[atgcpaul]

These (or something very similar to them) are going on sale today at Costco for $20. I already have 2 when they were $25, and plan on getting at least 2 more.

https://www.amazon.com/Feit-917972-Electric-Utility-Light/dp/B00LFAY5SM

I would be interested in Loring's finding with his light meter. According to the specs here, two 4' T8 bulbs should be putting out 5800 lumens combined:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-30-Pack-32-Watt-4-100K-Cool-White-Fluorescent-Tube-Light-Bulbs-Common-48-in-Actual-48-in/50325341

[LCHIEN]

I pulled up this recommended chart for light intensity at the work surface.
The apparent conditions seem to dictate 500-1000 Lux ( which is an intensity falling on a defined area whereas lumens is a total light output in all directions).
I measured with a lux meter and got 250 to 1500 lux with most work surfaces being 400 to 500
(the tops of machine tables like Drill press, bandsaw, table saw, router, Miter saw, jointer, and oscillating sander.)
Best was the Drill press at 1500, 1350 at the bandsaw, Both of them had a task light. Using overhead lights, Router was 450 and table saw was 525.
How's yours?
By the way, the easiest way to increase LUX is to lower your light closer to the worksurface. Next use some dedicated task lighting, something on a gooseneck mount that can be directed to the place where the blade meets the wood.

[LCHIEN]

These (or something very similar to them) are going on sale today at Costco for $20. I already have 2 when they were $25, and plan on getting at least 2 more.

https://www.amazon.com/Feit-917972-E.../dp/B00LFAY5SM

I would be interested in Loring's finding with his light meter. According to the specs here, two 4' T8 bulbs should be putting out 5800 lumens combined:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-30-Pack-...48-in/50325341

That's 5800 lumens, 2900 down into the lower hemisphere and 2900 up into the metal reflector, of which maybe 2000 is reflected back down. Then of that 2000 about 1000 is blocked by the tube itself so only 1000 makes it back down toward the surface adding to the 2900 that launched downwards giving maybe the equivalent intensity of a 3900 light that fully directs all its light downwards towards the work area, when new.

Lumens are tough because they count light going off in all directions and some devices don't even have even light output in all directions. You need a integrating shpere to measure lumens. But Lux is more useful, its indicates the intensity of light on a given area which is really what you need..


Back to the light I received My Kill-a-watt measured 40W which is high, but also measured 123.6 volts line voltage. Strictly speaking if the electronics is regulated at all the power shouldn't be affected by the voltage. And that's correct because it read 40W to 40.5W with all input voltage from 100V to 127V. It did not seem to affect the brightness.
But that disagrees with the rating on it and the box which says 36W. I guess that's only a 11% error.
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I'm thinking about how to test it.- mostly the juggling of units coming off the ceiling and replaced - I'm thinking of replacing a dual T12 fixture but want to measure one of the T8's I have as well. So I need to suspend each one a distance off the measuring surface. with no other lights on which means outside the shop.

[atgcpaul]

I don't have a light meter so I was thinking about how to test this, too. Is there some kind of light meter/intensity meter built in to a fancy DSLR camera? I could try to stand a fixed distance from each type of light, point, and measure. I was also thinking about some kind of solar circuit. Connect a small solar cell to a volt meter and see which light gives me the most output. I have a busted outdoor solar light. Maybe I'll try to repurpose that.

[cwsmith]

Perhaps not as scientific as Lorings, but what I would do, is set up my camera on a tripod so I could exactly measure the distance to the subject and then meter, as well as take a photo of an card/object under the LED fixture and then do the same under my florescent shop light. With distance of light to object and camera to object being the same, one should get a fairly good idea of the differences.

If your camera has a light meter, as my old Canon F1 has, you should get a measure, at least as far as what the F-stop and shutter speed requirement would be in the comparison. On my Nikon 995 digital, about all I think can be done would be to compare the color value of the object picture.

I still haven't bought an LED bulb/fixture, but when I do, I would basically set up the new fixture on one end of the shed with the present florescent fixture on the other. That way, I can set up an object on a table and move it under each light for a test measurement and photo. I do have an old hand-held photo light meter from the mid-50's. Still works, but I'm not sure how accurate the meausured values might be.

CWS

[Condoman44]

I have 8 of the COSTCO fixtures in various places around the basement. For the workshop they supplement the F96T12's I have over the machinery. Since they were on sale I bought another to put I don't know where.

[atgcpaul]

Definitely get them while they're hot! Yesterday was the first day of the sale. I went to Costco last night to pick up 4 more. The pallet with the lights on them already looked a little disheveled and the guy in front of me, rather than going from the top, pulled out 10 lights from the side of the pallet--like the guy who pulls the roll of toilet paper from the middle of the stack.

[capncarl]

What, no light meter? Download the app on your phone!

[LCHIEN]

The light meter I have is an incident light meter, it measures light falling upon the sensor. The meters in your DLSRs and cameras are always reflected light meters set for an average 18% gray reflectance. Only your external handheld meters like the Gossen Luna Pro, Sekonic and Weston Masters are incident light meters.

Here's one like the one I have... the cap is on over the sensor dome.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIGITAL-ILLU...-Z5tRaaQXGHEmg
34 bucks on eBay, I bought mine many years ago for somewhat less.

Somewhere there is a lux to EV (exposure value which is in steps of 1 and logarithmec by log 2 every 1 EV step represents a doubling of light) and there is multiple shutter speed/f-stop combinations that match an EV (and if your camera is recommending and exposure corresponding to this then it already took the 18% out of the equation.

OK, so 0 EV is 2.5 Lux. Every one step in EV doubles the Lux. A bright sunlit day is cponsidered to be EV15 and 81900 Lux. https://www.intl-lighttech.com/suppo...s/calculator05
There's some websites that have EV to exposure values https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Modern...xposure_tables
so its possible to convert to Lux trom the setting your DSLR meter suggests

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[os1kne]

I'll give another recommendation for the LED shop lights from Costco. I've got 4 or 5 of them. I pick them up when I see them on sale, and they tend to go quickly. The newer ones are "linkable", which has turned out to be a handy feature - there is a single outlet in the end of the unit (the end opposite the cord). You can plug the cord from a second light into this outlet. I believe that you can chain up to 4 lights in this manner. I've been using them for a year or so, and they're a big improvement over flourescent shop lights IMO.

I know that most of the users here tend to do remodeling, painting, or other work in areas that don't have great lighting - so, here's a quick tip. I've been remodeling my basement - framing, etc. before running wiring. I've been using one of my lights as a quick and easy temporary light. I lean it up against a wall or quickly suspend it from the ceiling. It easily lights a typical room sized area.