my pole building is going in next month. 24x40x10. it will be mainly a wood & metal/welding shop and a bit of small engine repair. 8 doublehung windows, 2 man doors and a garage door with windows. in the planning phases for the power and lighting. not really happy with the fluroescent tube shop lights i use in other places and looking for other, better options without breaking the bank. any thoughts would be appreciated.

LEDs are the going thing right now, and for good reasons

If you don't mind buying China, those 4 ft LED's from Harbor Fright are the catsass. Twice the light at half the watts, at all temperatures in my shop.

My shop is 50 by 50 by 12. I am replacing fluorescent lights with LED UFO lights. I have also used four foot fluorescent fixtures with LED conversions and have been pleased.

The UFO lights are considered high bay, they are fine in my shop, if you use them mount the fixtures as high as possible.

LED High Bay lights. Hands down

My shop is 30x40 with a 10' cieling

I have 15 four foot 5000 lum LED lights

Really brite in there

If you go with LEDs, shop around until you find one in the 3k color range.

The higher the color, the more blue/blue-white the light is, which is annoying to me, and throws off color perception.

3k or thereabouts replicates the natural light and old incandescent bulbs the best.

I put 10 of these in a 40x60 with 16 feet walls,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0761L281Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Plenty of light.

Put 4 of these in the side shed,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075ZV37CY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used amazon because of the free shipping, buying direct from hyperlite the freight was expensive.

Ronnie

I have a 24 X 36' garage/shop that came with the old T-16 florescent tubes 4' long. Four fixtures total- one over each of the three garage bays, one over the work bench. In cold weather, you could barely see inside. Wasn't real happy, but couldn't do anything about it at the time.

In 2015, after some research, upgraded to T-8 florescent bulbs and doubled the number of fixtures to eight. Much better. Slight dimming in the winter, but not nearly as bad as the T-16, and doable.

In 2018, was out in my 12' X 16' storage shed at my parent's place doing some reloading and shooting before deer season using a "trouble light" with a 100 watt incandescent bulb to light the up the building and using a clamp on flexible stand with another 100 watt bulb over the work bench. Dad came in and said, "Here, I'll let you borrow this".. it was a 4' LED light rated at 5500 lumens. HOLY COW! It lit that room up all by itself! It is instantly bright and does not dim in cold temperatures, unlike florescent.

I was wondering, since my T-8 florescent and the LED were both rated at 5500 lumens, why the LED was so much brighter? So I did some research. Turns out that the florescent gets that rating by measuring the light put out all the way around the bulb, a lot of which is recessed in the fixture and does you no good. Plus, it slowly loses its brightness over time until it goes dark. So if yours is a few years old, you're not getting the full rating on the part that does shine out. LED on the other hand, is essentially measured on all of its usable light, plus it doesn't dim until it finally quits.. many years down the road.

This past spring (2020) I redid all my garage/shop lighting and added two more for a grand total of 10- 4' LED lights with 5500 lumens each. It lights that place up like the Fourth of July. There is no way I would ever consider going back to florescent.

^^^ This ^^^

The UFOs are great for high bay use, the newest led fixtures are adjustable for both brightness and color.The led technology is changing fast, fixtures that were cutting edge 2 years ago are outdated today.

Was it Ideal that bought Cree Lighting?
At least an american company. And at least some U.S build/assembly

This.My eyes are old and LED light is much better.

I'm ole school in my 50x30 red iron framed metal building shop...ceilings 19+ feet

Installed 12 flourescent fixtures using two T5 bulbs..so 24 54 watt bulbs

All the light I need...cheap to operate...shop built in 2014

Link is good place to buy any type bulbs/lamps

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/90192/USH-3000397.html

For older or cheaper T12 fixtures, the GE Daylight 6500 flourescent bulbs are pretty nice. Lowes stocks them by the case.

I just re-wired my garage, and hung a bunch of salvage office fixtures that were in really good shape but cheap at Goodwill. The GE Daylight 6500s really lit up my garage.

I replace the fluorescent lights in my reloading shack with the 4 foot LED fixtures and couldn't be more pleased.
Paul B.

last month I replaced my 4' fluorescent garage lights with 4' LED fixtures seems to give double the light!

Jake bought a couple of super lights, I think LED.

Big Ass Lights.com

I replaced the fluorescent fixtures in my attic, garage and laundry room 2 weeks ago with these. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Metalux...Yc-NIXC8khoC9LYQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

The price is great as is the output. Durability remains in question, but the are rated for 40,000 hours.