Replacing garage lights?

[Deleted]

Currently, we have three, 48-inch, 2-tube fluorescent fixtures in our garage.  We had the ballast replaced in one back in March but it burned up about a month ago.  When I called the electrician who does a lot of work for us, he said he will no longer install fluorescent fixtures or replace ballasts because "they are being phased out".  He recommended LED fixtures like we have in our kitchen (round ones where you just replace the whole fixture rather than a bulb), but that will leave us with a bit of sheetrock repair and repainting to cover up areas formerly covered by the old fluorescents.  

I'm seeing 48-inch LED fixtures online at Lowe's and HD. They run between $80-$120 each.  Has anyone used these?  Thoughts and ideas welcome.  

TIA!

[Sharon]

I love, love, love the wafer lights that the electrician convinced me to put in the front part of the garage.  In the back part of the garage he also installed two 48" LED fixtures but they aren't my primary light source in the garage.  Because of the weird wiring in the garage they are on a separate switch that is in the middle of the garage.  They are only used when I am doing projects in the garage and have the garage door down.  I don't think they put out as much light as my wafer fixtures do.  Only half of the garage has ceiling otherwise I would have done the wafer lights through out the garage.

[Deleted]

They make 48" LED fixtures.

You can also retrofit the old fixture for LED. It's not hard to do and your hardware store sells the part for <$50.

[sesfw]

They make 48" LED fixtures.

Costco carries these and we have a couple in our garage.  I would love to put in a solar tube in the garage but haven't made the call yet.  Our garage roof is covered with solar panels now so one more thing should be ok.

[tskeeter]

Sept 27, 2020 21:07:06 GMT -5 sesfw said:

They make 48" LED fixtures.

Costco carries these and we have a couple in our garage.  I would love to put in a solar tube in the garage but haven't made the call yet.  Our garage roof is covered with solar panels now so one more thing should be ok.

I have reservations about solar tube skylights.  The basic solar tube is about 10 inches in diameter.  That makes a skylight of about 1/2 square foot in area.  By comparison, a small standard skylight, just two feet by three feet, lets six square feet of light into your house.  Twelve times as much as a ten inch solar tube.

I don’t think I’d cut a hole in my roof to get the little bit of light that, according to professional reviews of solar tubes, a solar tube will provide.  Rather than general lighting, a solar tube might be more suitable as a solar task light over an easel or similar workstation.

[justme]

My dad's replaced a few with the versions costco sales. A bit better price I believe. Wow I checked a lot better price - there's an option for one for 40 or two for 60. And I've seen at least one go on sale by costco before. 

[sesfw]

I have reservations about solar tube skylights.

In a garage you need a couple of solar tubes.  Our single tube was around $350 and I don't know what the cost is now.  Putting in a skylight in an already built home would cost several times that amount, and I've seen several skylights that have developed leaks.  I have never heard of a tube with a leak.

Also a solar tube won't have temperature transfer, either hot or cold.


Something to consider.

[stillmovingforward]

We have several of the costco led lights in our garage to replace the original fl lights. It was a plug and play to replace them and we've have no problems in the couple years we've had them.