Gunny Posted January 9, 2019 Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 Ordered these LED shop lights, came 4 to a pack from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XGBKDKZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I see the price has gone up. They are lightweight, crazy lightweight. Like a kids toy, but they all worked and did so after a 1 hour burn so maybe I will not have to replace. I made some small 2 x 5 inch blocks to mount to ceiling each with a mounting screw in the middle. The lights do not come with said screw, they have some plastic adapter that probably does the same thing but I made my own anyway. The holes for the mounting screws were to small for my stock machine screws so I used my Dremel to open them up a bit and accept the screws I had, as in plenty of them. Took me about 15 minutes to take down the old florescent fixtures and cap off the wiring. Had the new ones up in about 20 minutes. Ran them all to one extension cord and turned them on. NICE! Tomorrow I will install the outlets in the ceiling so each light can be unplugged and replaced with ease if needed. Got that tip years ago from Bearpaw. Some of my current lights have already be ungraded in such a manner but the main shop lights had been hardwired since I bought the house. These units can be plugged end to end, but only two lights per circuit. I opted to run them just like the old ones so each has a plug to go into. Could have gone either way but I do intend to use them end to end in another location. For an hours worth of work and clean up so far I am pretty satisfied with the results. One nice thing about upgrading to outlets in the ceiling is I can easily replace any light without cutting power and wiring a new light in. May go ahead and upgrade the other locations for this while I am at it just to speed up installation next time. The package as received: Previous 3 fixture florescent lighting, with one 3 ft LED I added in December over the Drill Press: New LED shop lights, 4 in all. My temp hook up to test them out: Cal, Grandpadave52, p_toad and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lew Posted January 9, 2019 Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 Nice!! I’ve replaced some of my lights with LEDs, really like the amount of light. Gunny and p_toad 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuckSoup Posted January 9, 2019 Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 16 hours ago, Woodbutcherbynight said: These units can be plugged end to end, but only two lights per circuit. Nice looking fixtures & installing cord caps and outlets is a smart move. The wire that links these end to end must by pretty small to restrict you to just to per circuit. At 36 watts, if you only use (1) 20 amp circuit for your ceiling outlets you can plug in 52 fixtures before your over 16 amps. Grandpadave52, p_toad, HARO50 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadio Posted January 9, 2019 Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 That is a good price, I paid 8.40/tube to replace mine with LED plug and play replacements, which is the same as you paid for the whole fixture. Herb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunny Posted January 9, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 1 hour ago, DuckSoup said: The wire that links these end to end must by pretty small to restrict you to just to per circuit. At 36 watts, if you only use (1) 20 amp circuit for your ceiling outlets you can plug in 52 fixtures before your over 16 amps. The connector is very small, will take a picture later. To clarify they want only two lights paired together per plug. one outlet can run 8 lights. I am guessing that the amp draw after 2 lights becomes a problem for the smallish drivers the units use and so they overheat and die. Small problem, I already have two outlets installed and the third about to get started. Grandpadave52, DuckSoup and p_toad 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gunny Posted January 10, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Todays work. Installed 3 outlet boxes one having two outlets because I had a moment of inspiration and realized I still have two more lights to run. Why not have the outlets ready? Cut the factory wire to size and installed new ends so everything is nice and tidy. In the last picture you can see the difference in color and light really well from the single florescent fixture left and the new ones behind it. Cal, p_toad, HARO50 and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadio Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 I have 10 double light fixtures on a 15a circuit, and no problems. Herb p_toad, Cal and DuckSoup 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunny Posted January 10, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 39 minutes ago, Dadio said: I have 10 double light fixtures on a 15a circuit, and no problems. Herb All lights in shop are on same breaker, 20 amp heavy duty. But each pair of lights goes to a separate outlet. Makes removing a failed light easier. Unplug and replace. No hard wiring. No practical for the house but in a shop environment very useful. Bearpaw set me onto this years ago. Just have yet to need to replace lights till now. With the price of LED's coming into reasonable range decided to begin upgrading. DuckSoup, Dadio, Cal and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuckSoup Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 10 hours ago, Woodbutcherbynight said: With the price of LED's coming into reasonable range decided to begin upgrading. I think the technology has finally settled down on these. Wasn't that long ago each manufacture had their own idea on how to wire these. I remember some retrofit fluorescent fixture kits that had you wire 120 volts directly to the sockets on one end only, others would require a hot wire on one end and a neutral wire on the other. Plenty of those lamps were in the trash with fried drivers. Now just plug n play. A lot of the fixtures now are dimmable and you can replace a light switch with a dimmer switch. Others require 120 volts and a separate pair of wires to dim. Replacement drivers are available but sometimes it cheaper to just buy the whole fixture. Gunny, Dadio and p_toad 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunny Posted January 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 11 hours ago, DuckSoup said: I remember some retrofit fluorescent fixture kits that had you wire 120 volts directly to the sockets on one end only, others would require a hot wire on one end and a neutral wire on the other. I have two of those in the add on shop. Been working for couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuckSoup Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 11 hours ago, Woodbutcherbynight said: I have two of those in the add on shop. I'm not saying those are bad, it was the confusion from one manufacture to another on how to wire them. Lamps don't normally come with directions, not that I would read them. I also didn't like the idea of having 120 or 277 volts at a socket. Gunny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunny Posted January 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 On 1/11/2019 at 9:01 AM, DuckSoup said: it was the confusion from one manufacture to another on how to wire them I agree, set some up for a friends basement and he had 3 different brands of retrofits. Each having it's own version of power supply. For any brand once you have done one all is good. The others go fairly quickly. They do throw more light than the florescent bulbs, and use less power. But I did test them against these newer ones and the new guys drowned them out. So I will probably order more of the fixture style ones I just put up and take those down and reuse somewhere else. Now looking at 12 more to buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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