Need suggestions on lighting 40 x 50 Building with leds

earnest79

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Nov 9, 2009
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I have a 50watt led i stuck in a flood light fixture playing around a while back. i thought about getting a few of these but im looking for more efficient lighting

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 

IcantC

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Perhaps some additional info would help.
1) What exactly are you trying to light? (is it a room? Outdoor area? Whole home?). I am confused by 40x50 building.
2) What is the purpose of lighting? General, safety, reading,cooking?
3) Budget?
4) Off the shelf or homemade solution?
5) Your location?

That should help you get started.
 

JohnR66

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Linear fluorescent is the most cost effective. Very reasonable in price and higher efficiency than most current LED bulbs.
 

LEDninja

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Some of the OP's posts may have been lost in the CPF crash but I found the following info:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?307758-storage-building-lighting
storage building lighting
trying to decide what indoor lighting to get for a 50'x40'x12' building. Looking for something fairly efficient. ... I am located in north west indiana and the building will not be heated.

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Some things to consider:

For a permanent installation you will have to meet code unless the system(s) are 24V or less. That means all parts above 24V need UL or UR listing. ebay, Chinese websites are off limits.

LEDs need 10 square inches of heatsinking per watt. A 50 watt LED needs 500 square inches of metal surface to dissipate the heat. Unless you use fan cooling. (That little fixture you was looking at won't do.)

Unless you are using good LEDs like Bridgelux the LED arrays are not that efficient. 30 lumens per watt. CFLs are 60 lumens per watt. Linear tubes about 50% better.

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What kind of lighting do you have in the building now? That works in the summer but not in winter. I can't see you wandering around the place with just a flashlight for a year. (That very 1st post of yours was a year ago.)

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Cree have some Architectural Troffers that are direct replacements for 2'x4', 2'x2', 1'x4' linear fluorescent fixtures but they are very expensive. (Cree's PAR38 bulbs are 2X to 3X the price of the competition.)

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If you are using linear fluorescent now you can replace them with LED tubes. You will need to replace the ballasts with drivers or remove the ballasts and direct drive (depends on the tube).
There are a lot of crap LED tubes out there that may not last more than 6 months. Buy from reliable sources not ebay.

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For an off the shelf start from scratch system consider installing a bunch of downlights (say one in every 10'x10' area) and using a BR40 LED Flood Light Bulb. Please note some of HD's other LED 'flood lights' look like PAR spotlights to me and may have too narrow a beam.
 
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earnest79

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I was preplanning when i posted the old post. Now i have the building built and ready for lighting. Its just a 40 x 50 12 feet high building, basicly it will be used as a garage/workshop.

Theres no codes to worry about here. All new install .

I think CFLs being more efficient i may stick with them, i was hoping something new would have been around now(a year later).
Thanks for the suggestions ill look each up and read about them.
 
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LEDninja

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My only concern with fluorescent including CFLs is they have startup problems in the cold. You did mention unheated building.
 

SemiMan

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I suggest lamp T5 Ho's for general light.

Why would you suggest T5HO when current generation T8's are noticably more efficient. The only reason to go with the T5HO is for density of light for a given surface area of fixture.

Semiman
 

ryguy24000

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Light per square foot! Height!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So why wouldn't I?
 
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mattheww50

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Lumens per watt on Fluorescent lamps are almost entirely a function of the phosphors lining the tube, rather than any particular type. The cost of the tube tends to go up with the efficiency of the phosphors, and the CRI of the lamp.
 

NeonLights

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My only concern with fluorescent including CFLs is they have startup problems in the cold. You did mention unheated building.
Mostly depends on how cold. Here in central Ohio we have similar winter temps as the OP in northern Indiana, and out in my unheated, detached garage, I just have inexpensive 4' flourescents. I've been replacing the old ones that were in there when we bought this place 10 years ago with cheap new ones ($10 for a 2 x 4' fixture), and they fire up fine down to 0 deg F here, where the old ones would just sit and flicker dimly for 20-30 minutes before coming on, if they came on at all. I wanted to get something a little more high-tech, but just couldn't compete with economics of the inexpensive flourescent tubes.
 
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