Low energy workshop lighting

[wolf1]

Now that I'm about to come off my fixed rate electricity deal I need to look at power consumption in my workshop. Should have done it years ago but there's nothing like a massive price hike to set things in motion.

I run an Mot station and my power consumption is on average 300kwh per month. Not a great deal for a workshop but I have a habit of turning everything off if not needed. My ramps, compressor, brake tester and gas analyser I can't do much about as they have very high replacement costs and the replacements would invariably be no real difference in terms of power usage.

The lights however I can do something about as they appear by my back of a fag packet calculations my biggest power consumer as they are on 10 to 12 hrs a day whereas the other equipment is used only as required. I have 10 six foot double units with 70w tubes in, 8 single units with 70w tubes in, 2 four foot units with 36w tubes and a led high bay light which I'm estimating is 200w. Not all the lights are on all the time but the closer we get to winter and dark evenings more of them will have to be used.

Having done a bit of research on led replacements I've found that just fitting led tubes in isn't the best solution as the ballast has to be powered up also. So Ive come to the conclusion It would be better to fit complete fresh led units. If the light output is decent enough on the led replacements I could even bin off the double units and use singles instead.

Have any of you any experience in this? Bar the office the lights are approx 8 foot of the ground so I'm looking for any recommendations for units that will give a reasonable enough light with the least power consumption as possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated from those who have used certain products and had decent results as it appears not all led lights are as good as they purport to be.

[jamescodriver]

I don't know if this in the slightest bit helpful (its American to start with) but Matt goes into huge detail on lighting setups
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S3bA1gngaA

[Marcellus]

We replaced all our lights with something like these;

https://www.lepro.co.uk/200w-4000k-ufo-led-high-ba...

a 15,000 sqf workshop 40ft high and we’ve used 12 in total.

[peterperkins]

You could have a couple/few decent led fittings for general illumination then a decent portable unit or two with the close up work.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-twin-6ft-led-batten...


So in effect you are only seriously lighting the area you are working in/on not the whole workshop.

https://www.toolstation.com/wessex-led-twin-tripod...

Are there any minimum illumination level H&S requirements for workshops?

Edited by peterperkins on Saturday 22 October 17:38

[alabbasi]

I bought 3 boxes (36) of these lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FM77706/

They're much brighter than regular 8ft florescent lights which made a huge difference to my hobby shop. I had to cut the ballasts out and wire the ends directly to make them work which is simple and there are plenty of youtube videos available that show you how.

If you already have 8ft tubes, this is the way to go.

[oddball1313]

We installed something like these (cant remember exact supplier or exact bulb spec)as replacements to the halide bulbs in our factory. Think there were about 50 in 35000 sqft. As with OP siginficant share of our electricity bill was on lighting

https://www.bltdirect.com/casell-63-watt-daylight-...

[200Plus Club]

If the original fittings are old then don't bother doing any conversions to led tubes as you'll find the wiring is all crispy as are the end caps etc and it's much quicker to put up modern led luminaires
Your local electrical wholesalers will probably be helpful to assist you sourcing replacement units and you can probably reduce the number needed.
Consider a few low level led lighting units also, if you have safe wall space , you can never have too much in a workshop environment really.

[wolf1]

Got some single ended led tubes in the way. I spent a bit of time trawling youtube re the ballasts etc. The upside is that at the moment my twin fittings only work when both tubes are fitted and work but once I’ve rewired them i can run just one tube in then if the light output is good enough.

Dragged the ladders out to check the high bay light specs and after I’d coughed my head off brushing the thick layer of black dust off it it turns out it’s only 100w so not quite as bad as I’d thought. Will wire a separate switch in for that one to enable it to be isolated when not needed.

Will be interesting to see what effect it all has on consumption.

[A205GTI]

Best thing is to ring a local electrical wholesaler and ask them to get a lighting manufacturer rep out to survey the property

I used to do this all the time as a lighting rep.

Happy to help if you can DM me dimensions of building and heights etc...

[Coleman262]

Small 2 bay garage. We had approx 12 fluorescent lights, changed them to LED fittings and tubes (separate so they could be changed)

And it saved about £100 a quarter I think, (this was before the energy costs went up. So dress to think of what it would be now without)

Think they came from TLC electrical https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/


Was well worth it, as we went for the white light