Replacing a 4ft. fluorescent with an LED equivalent

 

New LED light - and old fluorescent

I teach wood turning classes in my workshop (https://www.arttec.net/Bowl_making_class/index.htm) and it is important to have plenty of good quality light.  So for years I have had a 4 foot fluorescent fixture right above the lathe, but recently I have been concerned that flying bits of wood that spin off the lathe could go up and hit and break one of the fluorescent tubes which would be really bad.  

As you may know, fluorescent tubes contain mercury, and I recently took a bunch of bad tubes into my town transfer station for safe disposal.  So I decided to upgrade that fixture to an LED equivalent and I'm very pleased with the result.  And of course LEDs do not contain Mercury and are not made of glass so I'm sure they can take a hit without concern.

This new fixture cost about $60 at my local ACE Hardware store which is not cheap, but you can find more affordable ones on Amazon. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)  I hoped it would use less power, but it is a great deal more efficient.  Using my power meter, I learned that the fluorescent was using about 46.3 W while the new LED uses about 42 W  LEDs are generally rated for about 50,000 hours which is many more hours than you get from a fluorescent tube.  .

The brightness and color rendition index (CRI) are much better with the LEDs. I used my light meter to compare them and as you can see, the LED is more than four times brighter!

I'm really pleased with this change because I no longer have to worry about safety or disposing used fluorescent tubes.  Eventually, I will replace several other similar 4ft fluorescent units with LEDs.

It is also convenient that these fixtures can be daisy chained, there's a two-pronged socket on the end that allows you to plug another lamp into it.  This can really simplify shop light wiring.  Another plus!