Want to upgrade your shop lighting? Why not retrofit them? Unlike fluorescent tubes, LED are more efficient, require less maintenance, last longer, and contain no toxic chemicals. You can get the same color and the same lumen output at a fraction of your current operating costs.
The Problem with Traditional Shop Lighting
For those who have worked under fluorescent lighting, these challenges are all too familiar. Traditional lighting options for commercial and industrial spaces are outdated.
Fluorescent lamps generally perform poorly in terms of providing the lumens needed to fully illuminate a workspace. Their notorious buzzing and occasional flickering are not only distracting, but can also trigger headaches and fatigue.
Incandescent lamps, while less prone to flickering, are still insufficient in terms of lighting capabilities. Additionally, their energy efficiency can cause utility costs to soar. This is especially true in spaces where lights are used for extended periods of time. Both of these traditional lighting solutions also have a shorter lifespan, requiring frequent replacement.
What is an LED shop light?
LED shop lights are the new LED version of fluorescent shop lights.
Shop lights are commonly used in garages and workshops (hence the name) where a simple but cost-effective lighting fixture is needed to illuminate a small area such as a tabletop or workbench.
What are some features to look for in an LED shop light?
Below are some unique LED shop lights features that you may find useful.
Light Output:
The brightness of LED shop light is usually given in lumens. If you aren’t familiar with this metric, you can use the following as a rough ballpark estimate:
Incandescent bulbs: 15 lumens per watt
Fluorescent lamps: 50 lumens per watt
For example, a 1500 lumen LED shop light can be thought of as being roughly equivalent to a 100 Watt incandescent bulb (1500 lumens divided by 15 lumens per watt) or a 30 Watt fluorescent lamp (1500 lumens divided by 50 lumens per watt).
How is this useful? Well, if you have a fluorescent shop light that uses 2 lamps that are 30 Watts each, you can estimate that you will want roughly 3000 lumens from your shop light to maintain the same level of brightness.
Color Temperature:
Color temperature is a number that describes how “yellow” or “blue” a light’s color is.
- 2700K is considered the same color as the classic incandescent light bulb
- 3000K is slightly bluer and is similar to halogen bulb light color, but still has a warm, inviting yellow color to it.
- 4000K is often called “neutral white” because it is neither blue nor yellow – and is the middle of the color temperature scale.
- 5000K is commonly used for determining color, such as for prints and textiles
- 6500K is considered natural daylight, and is a good way to approximate appearance in outdoor lighting condition
Shop lights are ideal for indoor and outdoor applications. Because of their mounting versatility and thin profile, they can be found in:
- parking garages
- bars
- warehouses
- walkways
- tunnel lighting
- advertisement and factory lighting
