led vs flourecents

[fcylinderrules]

Hi everyone,
have been trying out some LED's for the first time.....had some old outside Halogen spot lamps with reflectors, thought I'd buy a few LED boards and power units just to see how it goes....the idea being that is when I build my new workshop I'd like to use LED's instead of Florescent lamps......
the boards I bought have 48 LED's at 12v, but very disappointed with the light output.....I did buy the correct voltage power transformers....
Are there different type's of LED's, these were supposed to be super bright, can't remember the wattage......(I'll still be able to use them around the farm but was hoping for better).........
I did go see some out side flood lamps in a DIY store and those (10w) seemed much brighter than mine....
I like the idea of power saving with the LED's and you can stuff them everywhere and in the corner's......

any experience of this problem or should I just wait until they get the whole LED lamp thing working properly........
many thanks  Clogs

[CrazyModder]

In my experience, LEDs are pretty fickle. They need superb cooling (mostly by tacking them onto big aluminium coolers or whatever) or they die quickly. And the lumen output, while good on paper, just doesn't seem to do it for me.

Then, different LEDs (even if they have the same model number) often look quite differently - different color tones.

So... well, you can try and ymmv, but I'd go with good old fashioned lamps instead, really.

[AdeV]

I, on the other hand, love LEDs.... although the only ones I've tried on a machine so far, I miscalculated the voltage and have burned a large number of the individual LEDs out (oops). While they were working, though, they gave out great light - I used 4x 12v panels of 48 LEDs, glued inside an old filament bulb holder. You couldn't look directly at them whilst they were on, and they lit the work up just fine. Then the magic smoke started to come out...

From a house point of view, I'm completely converted. Most of my bulbs are now LED, I've got 3 traditional filament bulbs left which are getting changed to LEDs as soon as they blow, and a couple of CFLs which I hate.

For machine work, you want to get bright white or daylight white IMHO, warm white is just too yellow. You may also find the reason for your home-made flood being "too dim" is because the LED is in the wrong place for the parabolic reflector; LEDs are, as you know, much lower profile than bulbs, so the reflector needs to be a different shape to pick up all the light. The only way around that would be to make a "bulb" of LEDs (say, 4 or 6, arranged in a ring facing outwards), and mounted in roughly the same place as a bulb's filament would be. The awkwardness of arranging the LEDs like that would probably make it easier and cheaper just to buy a dedicated unit...

[dawesy]

We have led strip lights at work. They are very bright but the light spread is very narrow. They are about 5' long and 3"wide mounted about 8' high but the light pool on the ground is only about 4'-5' wide. They aren't cheap either.
As direct lighting over a work bench, lathe etc they would be ok though. 
I am looking at swapping my fluorescent's for led downlighting but I'll need quite a few to keep current light levels.

[chipenter]

I also have LEDs useing downlighters and outside work lights the type with a large square LED of up to 50what , are realy bright and a good spread you see stars iff you look directly at them .

[awemawson]

I am now replacing outside floodlight / pir lights with leds as the halogen ones fail. The replacements give a good light and so far none have failed.

I'd love to replace the fluorescent lights in the workshop as they draw a silly amount of current. I have 67 6 foot 72 watt tubes - or 4.8 kW of lighting - needless to say they are not all on at the same time, but it does make the replacement decision harder as the led tubes are still about £50 each compared to £3 for a replacement tube

[DMIOM]

I am now replacing outside floodlight / pir lights with leds as the halogen ones fail. The replacements give a good light and so far none have failed. ....

Hi Andrew - have you had any of them up for any length of time yet? and any make/model recommendations?

cheers / Dave

[awemawson]

Dave,

They are all off ebay - obviously Chinese - various sellers. Some have been up perhaps a year now. I started getting 'daylight' white but now am getting 'warm white' latest batch (of four) came from here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201271305382?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=500469586452&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Those particular ones have only been up a couple of weeks but the ones below have been up 6 weeks

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111320931038?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=410309598973&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I have another pair of 50 watt one that have been up 12 months in one case and 6 in the other but they have dropped off my 'purchase history' so I can't give you specifics.

[Sid_Vicious]

Dave,

I have another pair of 50 watt one that have been up 12 months in one case and 6 in the other but they have dropped off my 'purchase history' so I can't give you specifics.

If you look at purchase history you get years click on the year and you will get the history for that year and then click on seller's name.  At least that works for me.

[awemawson]

Now there is a handy tip i'd not noticed before 

(However although you can see the item, the details aren't kept it would appear)

[rleete]

A bit pricey for home shop, but we got some for work from "Big Ass Fans".  Bright as daylight, full spectrum, damn near bulletproof.  Last light you'll ever need.

http://www.bigasslight.com/homes-shops/

Not affiliated, just a satisfied customer. 

[hermetic]

Mate of mine manages a local garden centre, and they have just had all their atlas 8Ft twin flourescents replaced with 8ft led fittings (there are a lot!) reckons the pay back time in saved electricity will be three years including installation costs. Given that 8ft tubes have gone up to about £17 each now I managed to cadge 8 of the old fittings complete with tubes and reflectors, as my workshop uses 8ft single fittings. The place feels completely different inside, as the led's are much closer to daylight, and brighter than the flourescents!
Phil

[fcylinderrules]

 Just to add…..

 Quite soon I'll be moving to southern europe......endless sun.....
the plan was when I retired to have my own workshop planned MY way....
 So, it'll be a 10m x 20m (30ftx60ft) shed, split into a machine shop, dirt room, clean room and a garage workshop for my 1928 Citroen pick-up and my 2 Indian's.....it'll have a small 1 bedroom apartment stuck on the end.....
 This is so I can spend the rest of my day's mucking about with the project's I always promised myself I'd do.....
 Now here's the rub....it'll be in the middle of nowhere, 1/2hr from the beach and OFF grid......
 You know whats coming next, 5-10kw solar panels and a small 3phase genny for the three phase stuff.....thats unless I can sort out something (Inverter) for the heavy machines......
 as I'll be spending most of my day's and night's, for the young'un's, you cant sleep when ur over 65....in my shed with my own thought's, projects and 60's 70's rock-n-roll....
 Originally there was to be a triple run of double flourecents the full length of the shop...but with no elec and plenty of 12v I thought it'd be best to use LED's....
hence the question......
 I've looked at the kick-ass'd light's awhile ago, they are just brilliant, excuse the pun but anything from over the pond will double in price by the time it get's to Europe !!!!
 So I guess I'll keep looking, thats unless you brilliant lot can help me find a solution....

Here's to the men in shed's.......thanks….fcylinderrules....

[mattinker]

Just to add…..

 Quite soon I'll be moving to southern europe......endless sun.....

Where in southern Europe? I moved to the south West of France, just after Thatcher came to power. Endless sun turned out to be very wet winters! I spent five years in the south, moved up to Paris, where it's cooler in the summer, no wetter and I like it more!

If your in a rural area, off grid might not be such a good idea, three phase electricity is much more available, and you can use the grid to store electricity!  Your photo cells earn you money!

Different dreams, I have a 12m x 14m workshop with my 70sqm flat  built in above it!

Curious about your dream, regards, Matthew.