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a mix of everything. from natural light to free bulbs from the dwp.

Good topic Lance. My lighting is pathetic. I believe I feel a trip to the Home Depot coming up.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I bet this doesn't apply to most of you, but maybe for some. My T5 and T8 fixtures need to be replaced at least once a year. I have always assumed it had something to do with the brownout they go through every time I turn on a tool with a motor. My electrician friend agreed with me and redid the power to my shop with a dedicated subpanel and new circuits all over the place. Now the lights are rock solid. I'm hoping that means they'll last longer as well.

And as an aside, you read a lot of people saying 220 / 110 won't make a difference. My experience disagrees with that. Tools start up more quickly and hog through things with less bogging down. Now the brownouts suggest I was already stretching the limits of my existing wiring, so maybe just having enough helped, but I got significant benefits from switching everything to 220.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Wow, better than having a drink.

All the fixtures in my shop, 4 ft. tubes and individual "bulbs” are all fluorescent and all 5000k color temperature (like sunlight, as many folks above have also used). This color is rarely seen in homes, offices or retail. The 5000k color temperature makes evaluation of materials' color easy for me, more like being in natural sunlight. I believe that is why graphic designers, photographers, and others that want "true" color use them.

Some folks herein described 2700k temperature as "natural". Its an amber (yellow) tinted light usually used in homes, offices and retail that people have grown up with and expect to see. My wife is so accustomed to the typical yellow incandescent lighting (like most people), that lights that don't add a similar color cast seem "funny" to her.

White light is a "full" color spectrum. Mixing various color temperature (e.g. 5000k + 2700k + ?) will not yield white light. I don't understand what would be gained by mixing color temperatures. When I have added lights over benches or at certain machines, they are always 5000k so that the overall room light color does not change. Otherwise, the overall color would be hard to control, and moving from one station to another would result in different appearances.

I don't notice any flickering in my shop's lights. Some 4' tubes with old ballast inside our home's laundry room do flicker.

Ed

My entire roof is made of translucent plastic panels so, in the daytime, there is a ton of light. I don't work in the shop much at night, but when I do I have five double florescent light fixtures. The draw back - it gets HOT in the summer. This last summer it was 110° in there!

I use 4ft LED shop lights in my shop and I don't regret it for one second. They cast almost zero shadow and look beautiful. The up front cost is much higher than fluorscent, but the power savings and lack of burnt out bulbs and ballasts will outweigh that in the end. I paid $260 for four of them on eBay, and they are plenty for my 20X20 shop. I do plan on getting two more 2ft ones to help supliment in a few darker spots.

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Chris Alvarado
www.ChrisAlvaradoLive.com
www.Driftwood-Guitars.com

Just replaced my lights with GE A-19 LEDs (soft white in overheads, and 'daylight' in bench goosenecks). They were $8 each, so not much more than the flourescent bulbs that I hate. If you don't get the dimmable LEDs, they're not that pricey, considering how long they last. IMHO, MUCH better light than flourescents.