Shop light recommendations

48" LED's from Home Depot in my shop. Extremely bright, so much so that I took two sets back because I didn't need the extra light. I'm going to eventually replace the fluorescent ones in my garage with them.

I have 2-4' LED lights in my 12x20 shop. They put out really nice light. 30'x40' I would put at least 6. I put a receptacle and wired the receptacle to a switch to turn them on and off.

I built a 30x40 last year and just went through this same thing. You want to make sure you have plenty of light. Nothing worse than trying to work in the darkened corner of a shop. Unless the led price has come down a good bit, they were expensive compared to t8. I bought 4 different 4’ t8 fixtures and 2 different 4’ led fixtures. I then mounted them one at a time (in the same location), turned them on, and took pictures to compare how bright each fixture was compared to the others. I knew which one I thought was brightest, but I sent the pictures to 4 friends and asked what they thought. 3 of the 4 picked the same fixture I did. Turns out it was the cheapest t8 fixture. I ended up getting 8 4’ t8 fixtures ($11 each) vs led fixtures ($40 each). Now if I planned to be in my shop working 8 hours a day, then I would probably go with led. Like CHEDBALLZ, I wired receptacles and used plug in lights for ease of replacement later on.

ETA:
I actually put 12 4’ t8. 2 rows of 6. Cost of fixture was $11 each, then however much bulbs cost.

8ft LED shop lights on Amazon, Put out 8000 lm each. You will be amazed at the lighting. 30X40 Id get 8 or 10 total. Depends on interior walls and spacing.

This is what I have.

An open strip flourescent will put out light in about a 270 degree pattern so it will give the appearance of more light. The downside their life average is 10K hours. Plus when it's cold here, they hum like crazy.

An LED by itself is a focused directional light source so you won't get as much total light coverage (ceilings/walls) unless you play around with the placement. Almost all of the LED shoplights will have a prismatic diffuser to help spread that focused light out. The LED will last for 50K-70K hours, cost less to operate, and are unaffected by cold temps.

We put in 6 of those LEDs that plug into 110 outlets in our shop rafters. They light up a 40x40 no problem and plenty bright

similar to these.

LINK

Thanks for all the tips and recommendations. Definitely going to go with led it looks like.

LED I’ve had nothing but problems from fluorescent shop lights. They’re a buzzing, flickering, inconsistent PITA if it’s cool outside. I switched to LED and haven’t regretted it once. When I flip the switch on I have light, lotsa light.