LED batten lights

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RobinBHM

Established Member
Joined
17 Sep 2011
Messages
7,844
Reaction score
2,128
Location
Wst Sussex
Has anybody tried these lights from fleabay?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232174598921? ... EBIDX%3AIT

Im thinking of getting some for the garage.

There are quite a few sellers all offering pretty much the same lights. I guess they are all Chinese imports. They dont appear to me to have an earth connection even though they are made of aluminium and plastic.

They ard quite a bit cheaper than the battens that take led tubes equivalent to a T8 fluorescent tube.

I could go for the fluorescent weatherproof type high frequency which are fine but the warm up time is a pain in the cold months, so would prefer led ideally.
 
Certainly a good price, I am always slightly wary about the wattage equivalent on cheap led's. They never seem as bright as stated.
 
Claymore":4po42w2b said:
I replaced all of my tubes with LED versions that just fit into normal 5ft lights, I went for the white light after trying a "warm" light which gave a horrible tint to projects i was painting and love how bright they are almost hospital quality. Mine were off Ebay at around £15.00 per tube but they last much longer than the old tubes.
Cheers
Brian

Thanks for that Brian, Ive been thinking about getting some standard battens and fitting led tubes, £15 is pretty good price compared to screwstation etc.....

I cant decide whether to go for warm 3000k or the cool at 6000k. I tried the warm fluorescent at work -too yellow but the daylight bulbs gave a weird colour cast to the room. I ended up getting white light 4000k bulbs from QVS electrical. However I dont know how they would compare with LEDs. The daylight 6000k downlighter leds give a very cold bluish light which Im not too keen on.
 
For what it's worth, we've been experimenting with LED downlights in our new kitchen and settled on 4000k 'neutral' white. They give as near 'daylight' light as we could find, no glare or weird colouration. I'll be using the same rating for my workshop lighting - when it's built ;-) - so this thread has given me some pointers on where to buy. Thanks guys.

Paul
 
Be careful of cheap LED tube replacements some of them have live pins when one end is connected and the other is not. Not an issue if you turn the lights off before changing tubes but could be if one end falls out.

Also some LED lamps have a strobe effect due to poor design of the driver circuits.

The lights in the original post will be double insulated so they do not need an earth and should have the double square symbol to indicate this although the specs do not mention this.

I have become wary of cheap LED lights as when I fit them I have to replace them when they stop working so I go for the more expensive ones having had a lot of failures on cheap one which is a pain when it means repeated visits to the customer and then the supplier cannot supply a replacement that is equivalent in colour temperature, lumen output, appearance or output angle.

Kevin
 
HappyHacker":170uk7bj said:
Be careful of cheap LED tube replacements some of them have live pins when one end is connected and the other is not.

:?:

LED tubes are only connected at one end, the other end has dummy pins. Fluorescent tubes have filaments in each end to ignite the gas, hence the pins at both ends. The LED tubes have a live and neutral connection at one end of the tube only.
 
I just (today) fitted some in the kitchen as worktop lighting from a company called theelectricalwholesaler on e-bay, smaller than what you are looking at but they are excellent. Paid just over £60 for 4. Wife is only using two as they are so good and not using the main lights. Arrived the following day, thinking about a few for my work tops.
 
Many thanks for the suggestions, I shall investigate the ansell ones (thx Deema)

and also the ebay seller -cheers Jasper.
 
I'm not sure that I understand the logic but of course I'm not fully aware of your circumstances.
LEDs are normally used for their lower running costs. The lights linked to are 4' & 40w yet a standard 4' fluorescent is 36w.
There are also a lot of LED panel lights on the market which may be worth considering.
 
Robbo3":1q686jn8 said:
I'm not sure that I understand the logic but of course I'm not fully aware of your circumstances.
LEDs are normally used for their lower running costs. The lights linked to are 4' & 40w yet a standard 4' fluorescent is 36w.
There are also a lot of LED panel lights on the market which may be worth considering.

The garage currently has a rear section with a fridge freezer and tumble drier so we are constantly going out for just a moment and the fluorescents are very dull on switch on during the colder months so I thought LEDs would be the answer.

I did notice the link shows 4' lights rated at 40watts which doesnt very economic.

I have thought about LED panel lights but those would need to be attached in between the rafters and would need some boarding to hold them in place.

https://www.wholesaleledlights.co.uk/60 ... table-link
 
The eBay link is for a 40W light, but it has almost twice the light output of a standard 36W tube. The biggest thing about LEDs is not only the power saving (about half the power per lux compared to a standard tube) but that the light output does not fade over time. Most other light sources that amount if light reduces with time.

In a workshop you will appreciate a sealed light unit to avoid the dust getting inside the unit. A quick occasional brush on the outside of the diffuser restores full light again when there sealed!
 
My vote is for the LED lights - just replace 2 out of 4 5ft florescent units for industrial type LED tubes and what a difference. Light is instant and brighter and the two remaining tubes seem to take an age to strike up and give out sufficient light. Since these two were gifts I am looking at replacing the old tubes with the LED tubes. Only problem I have noticed is that some of the longer LED packs have a tendency to droop they don't seem to have the supporting strength of the florescence glass tube.
 
RobinBHM":tonhkvh4 said:
I have thought about LED panel lights but those would need to be attached in between the rafters and would need some boarding to hold them in place.
LED panels come in all sorts of shapes & sizes eg EBay item number:162305183337 shows a range.

If you have exposed joists fitting should be fairly easy.
 
mindthatwhatouch":2csj3p51 said:
Certainly a good price, I am always slightly wary about the wattage equivalent on cheap led's. They never seem as bright as stated.

+1
I bought some to replace the 500w halogen security lights outside. The LED lights allegedly had the same light output. They went back.

I also don't trust the claimed lifetime. Which means that when they do fail and you need to replace them then the chances are very high that the colour temperature will be different and in a multi-LED environment stick out like a sore thumb.
 
MMUK":10nur3au said:
HappyHacker":10nur3au said:
Be careful of cheap LED tube replacements some of them have live pins when one end is connected and the other is not.

:?:

LED tubes are only connected at one end, the other end has dummy pins. Fluorescent tubes have filaments in each end to ignite the gas, hence the pins at both ends. The LED tubes have a live and neutral connection at one end of the tube only.

Have a look at the recalls on
http://www.armadilloled.com/News/Check- ... -EU_56.htm
while it is quite old and from a manufacturer I have seen more recent warnings. Hopefully there should now be very few of them about.

Kevin
 
Back
Top