Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shop lights?

I had my farm shop burn down two years ago and just put it's replacement up. 54Wx60Lx16H. For the time being it is uninsulated.
I'm going to dedicate a 25'x40' corner section to tools/repair. The rest storage.

I am thinking perhaps a couple of the street type lamps to light up the non works areas.
I'm looking to light the work area well. The old shop had 8' fluorescent lights-cold duty. I'm guessing there must be something better out there?
Thoughts and incites appreciated.
Frank/FVA

anything you other than HO flourescents are going to take a few minutes to fire up and light up.

as an electrician I would go with the old 8' f96HO type fixture,they are efficient and light instantly.

Frank;
Our cabinet shop -24,000sq.ft. - is lit with the 8' fluorescent bulbs.

I was helping the electrician try to get a replacement ballast working last week - two new "high efficiency" units failed to work for us - and he told me that the 8' bulb is going the way of the dodo bird.

He said the trend he's seeing up here is folks going to T5 4' bulbs. Here I thought we'd be converting to T8 type bulbs and being cutting edge and all that.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about the imminent demise of the 8' fluorescent, but that's what they tell me up here.

All the best to you and yours Frank and good luck on your hunts this fall.

Dwayne

I asked my builder and he just kinda shrugged and said the same thing.

Dwayne
One of the issues with the 8' bulbs and fixtures is that they are fragile and in these cut cost days don't do too well in the shipping....or so I was told by one vender.
Best wishes to you and yours this fall as well. I'm heading to the Adirondacks 5 days next week.

Frank

T-5 HIGH BAY LIGHTS

I use to wire riding arenas and these are what I would use now for installation.

For instance...

http://www.aeilighting.com/

I just re-did my garage shop and used 8' fluorescents. I looked seriously at metal halides, but decided to go back to cold start fluorescents for initial cost.

Ed

That's what I'm asking about. Thanks.

We put those in our shop at work.....wow what a difference!

A problem we found with multi-voltage electronic ballasts was their short life. After some in house research we found that when connected to the lower voltage and there was a voltage spike they would kick to the higher voltage and no longer work at the lower voltage.

To solve was simple, single voltage ballasts for the appropriate voltage. We had to replace very few after this "discovery".

Not sure if it still applies , but something to keep in mind.

I put in some inexpensive outdoor compact fluorescent lights and 4' T-8's over work benches.

If you are running a lathe, be careful with fluorescent around it. At certain speeds, the light can make the chuck appear to be stopped.

Grow lights. Look at the Humboldt County Craig's list.

They've got out with new LED tube lights that fit in existing fluorescent fixtures. They're supposed to be very functional in cold (they use them in walk-in freezers)and use very little power. I don't have any idea what they cost, but they might be worth looking in to.