Plug in T8 Leds vs line voltage

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A bit odd with all the payback comments. The purpose of lighting is light, not payback. If LED tubes were available when I built my shop 5 years ago, I never would have put in the T8s, which continually degrade in light output. I'm glad I don't have to junk all the fixtures to get the much brighter lighting provided by the LEDs. And if payback is the focus, how about a flashlight for the 3 minutes a day of needed light?
 
A bit odd with all the payback comments. The purpose of lighting is light, not payback.

It's always about money. If light was the only concern then we would all be using incandescent for the high CRI.
 
A bit odd with all the payback comments. The purpose of lighting is light, not payback. If LED tubes were available when I built my shop 5 years ago, I never would have put in the T8s, which continually degrade in light output. I'm glad I don't have to junk all the fixtures to get the much brighter lighting provided by the LEDs. And if payback is the focus, how about a flashlight for the 3 minutes a day of needed light?

Information is never a bad thing. Do with it as you like.
 
It's always about money
Don't you think it's rarely about the money? Whether food, clothes, furniture, cars, trucks, houses, etc., isn't it more about satisfaction, status, appearance, class, comfort, culture, what the Jones think, etc.? So with lighting. Incidentally, incandescent doesn't look at all like light in nature, sunlight. Isn't it a very artificial light based on primitive technology, although advance for its time?
 
For me, it was all about light. Money was no object, as we were talking a cost difference of less than 1% in the total project cost, between LED and T8. I did consider LED, but all three of the electricians who quoted the job recommended against them for shop applications. I went online, and read up more on them, and found more similar recommendations favoring T8 over LED's for workshops. You guys make me wonder if I should have given LED a try anyway, but in the face of unanimous recommendation against LEDs, I went T8. I'm not sorry I did, as they work very well for me, but do wonder about the opposing opinions on the two.
 
I have been working on several industrial projects and pretty much universally, they have pulled fluorescents and replaced them with LEDs with occupancy sensors. Most are wifi enabled with dimmers. The lights can be programmed remotely to adjust the lighting level depending on time of day and activity level in an area. It does take a bit of getting used to when walking through an area that the lights follow us as we walk through it. The facility electricians appreciate the LEDs as they are more rugged, don't require special cleanup procedures and seem to have a lot longer more consistent life. Due to the instant on aspects especially in cold areas, the owners see significant savings in the facility lighting costs as intermittent lighting can be used rather than maintaining a base lighting level.
 
One other advantage to the LEDs are they are in polycarbonate tube. They appear to be a lot more rugged from a glancing blow compared to a glass fluorescent tube
I believe this is generally true but I've read that the Philips I bought do actually have a glass component that can break. That said, the tubes seem much more rugged than standard fluorescents.
 
I have been working on several industrial projects and pretty much universally, they have pulled fluorescents and replaced them with LEDs with occupancy sensors. Most are wifi enabled with dimmers. The lights can be programmed remotely to adjust the lighting level depending on time of day and activity level in an area. It does take a bit of getting used to when walking through an area that the lights follow us as we walk through it. The facility electricians appreciate the LEDs as they are more rugged, don't require special cleanup procedures and seem to have a lot longer more consistent life. Due to the instant on aspects especially in cold areas, the owners see significant savings in the facility lighting costs as intermittent lighting can be used rather than maintaining a base lighting level.
There are related advantages for outdoor (e.g. road) lighting. LEDs offer full output almost instantaneously and can be dimmed. So, they can be turned off when not needed and output can be adjusted to achieve the desired illumination rather than the early over-lumination typical of sodium or halogen. This because age-related dimming of conventional lamps has to be accounted for.
 
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If you are already running T8's the payback period is normally over 10 years for switching to LEDs. I had 5 different retrofit companies come into our shop and none of them could get a decent payback period.

Did they factor in the cost of replacing flourescent tubes when they konk out or go dim over those 10 years? Seems not - I am seeing that aspect semi-regularly here, in my basement.
 
Did they factor in the cost of replacing flourescent tubes when they konk out or go dim over those 10 years? Seems not - I am seeing that aspect semi-regularly here, in my basement.
Same with me, I don't run the fluorescent fixtures that often but they still seem to go dim fairly rapidly. Of course it may be that the T-8s tubes were A grade. I have to recycle the tubes at my town garage which is generally closed when I am not working so it means keeping dead tubes around and hoping I don't break them. I would guess at best my break rate of dead tubes is about 30%.
 
Did they factor in the cost of replacing flourescent tubes when they konk out or go dim over those 10 years? Seems not - I am seeing that aspect semi-regularly here, in my basement.
I think we were still running all of the original 1981 vintage T12 tubes in our quad 8' shop fixtures, when we sold mom's house a few years ago. That shop got used a lot, but not enough to rip thru a single fluorescent bulb in 20+ years. Again, OP is asking about a residential garage not a commercial application.
 
I didn't see any discussion on the high cost of failure on LEDs
Of $300 of LEDs I've purchased in the last 8 yrs $200 worth failed in a few months.
 
Ouch. I have yet to have one fail but we only have 4 in the house at present. It will take us several years to use up our supply of CFLs.
 
That has been my experience with CFLs. Most of the ones I installed have failed.
 
I date ours. The oldest is going on 5 yrs. now. We haven't had an early failure since the first generation bulbs. They get the most use in the kitchen and dining rooms. Average life there is 2-3 yrs..
 
I didn't see any discussion on the high cost of failure on LEDs.
I've installed 40+ LED bulbs, 1st 20 @ $10 each, price dropping to about $3 each for later ones. Longest in use 2+ years now. Two have failed, one right away, the 2nd after almost 2 years but was buzzing after a couple of months. At current prices cost of failure is nominal. I see $2/bulb prices now. These have been much more reliable than CFLs.
 
I have measured 125 volts in the place most of the time. That may be eating them up.
 
That has been my experience with CFLs. Most of the ones I installed have failed.

My only failure fixture is a triple lamp that hangs in a stairwell second floor.The bulbs mount base end up .Figure it's a heat displacement issue. Now have Leds there.
Personally I choose the 6500K screw base & at .99 cents for 3 ,hard to pass up.Haven't seen any LEDs over 5000k & those don't seem to come up on sale for a good price around here

What ever works for ya

Cheers
 
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