Recommendation for LED Garage Lights
 

I'm looking to replace two 48" flourescent fixtures in my garage.

My garage is finished, so I'm looking for a fixture that is flush mounted and looks decent. The Big Ass brand offers a good looking fixture, but I'm not going to pay $400.

I don't mind spending $150 to $200 per fixture. I'm also thinking about going with two of those 18" square fixtures.

Any ideas?

I've been there... looked high and low... In the end I didn't go the flushed option.
Instead I went for these...

Mercator Neo & Mercator Metro

They were the best bang for buck LED batten lights I could find for my garage.
I've got no complaints. They work a treat! YMMV

I ended up buying them off ebay store. eg:

NEW Mercator NEO 45W LED Batten Slimline Ceiling OR Wall Surface Mount Light | eBay

They also offer flush style LED at considerably less than $400usd
Good luck with your search.

Oops, see you already looked at Big Ass. I've seen them and they are nothing short of awesome, but they are pricey.

Why not just replace the lamps with LED ones. We are dealing with this where I work right now, so I see what's out there in the commercial world. New direct replacement lamps are by far the least expensive and you keep your current fixture.
3500-4000k bulbs are about right for color imo.
Larry

I really need to replace the fixtures as well, since I'm working with two single bulb flourescent light bulbs right now.

Yeah, I can see that. I have 6 two lamp fixtures in my garage! I don't have any trouble seeing!
Larry

Do not put replacement LED lamps in your fixtures they are absolute garbage. I am in the lighting industry and the only people the buy that garbage are VA hospitals and low bid government projects. If you can go with a surface mount unit go with something like a Cooper lighting Metalux series ILED which is a LED low bay. This has distribution options and really high lumen levels. Use a wireless $50.00 Lutron fixture controller and you can dim it wireless without having to run 0-10V control wires. Buy the absolute highest lumen package you can get as you can always dim it down.

All of the lighting in my garage is now LED. Years ago I remodeled my garage and installed six 6" recessed lights in the field of my garage, with four 4" recessed lights over my workbench. About a year ago I switched out the incandescent bulbs for cool white LED flood bulbs and significantly reduced the power consumption while vastly improving the lighting.

Doug, you should come by in the evening sometime to check it out. At full brightness I have great, white working light throughout the garage.

Recessed lights are great. The LED bulbs available now provide a bright, white light which is perfect for a shop or garage. The ones I bought were available at the local ACE Hardware, and were about $30 each bulb.

Incidentally, light fixtures with an integrated LED light are junk. I installed one in a bathroom and then removed it after about a week. Worse than a fluorescent for blinking and flickering. I replaced it with a recessed light fixture and an LED bulb similar to what I have done in the garage. Don't buy an "LED Fixture"---pure junk.

DD

Doug almost hit the nail on the head but here is some additional insight.

1. The only LED bulbs worth considering would be recessed screw base lamps. The lamps you want to stay away from are all the T5 and T8 replacements. Just realized that these lamps change faster than computers so buy some spares or be prepared to have mixed and matched lamps over the years. Although the LED's are designed for longer burn times they are still man made and the heat is going to get them. Anyone who tells you LED's do not create heat knows absolutely nothing about what the are talking about.....LED''s create an enormous amount of heat. The heat that is created is not in the form of infared like an incandescent but from the actual LED itself......this is why most LED's have noticeable heat sinks. If your garage is climate controlled your lamps will last much longer.

2. Integrated LED fixtures are not junk they are mostly specification grade and are engineered for specific photometrics and performance. The integrated LED fixtures you want to stay away from are the Lowes and Home Depot kind. Prepare to spend $150-$500 per fixture for the quality designs. These options are all modular for replacement over time. Their is a product by Halo called the ML56 which is a really sweet deal for an LED downlight with all kinds of color temperature and lumen level options.

I can't help you with fixtures, however in February I swapped out all of T8 tubes with LED (ballast compatible) tubes from EarthLed.com. What a difference! No more warm up to full brightness, brighter and I think they are using less than 1/2 the electricity!!

The Integrated LED fixture I was referring to was from Home Depot, and was a recessed light with integrated LED's. It was a P-O-S.

The recessed fixtures I am using are the 6" round can HALO fixtures (new construction). The bulbs I am using have heat sinks, and look like a standard recessed light bulb more-or-less.

I've updated all of my shop and exterior lighting to LED, mostly for the power savings. In the shop, though, the white lighting is great work lighting.

DD

Great source. I used them as well on my latest house. Approx 160 or so bulbs. My meter has slowed quite a bit.

In the last couple of months I bought several 48" LED lights from Lowes for about $50 each.
The first one I installed was in a basement and was very impressed with the amount of light it put out compared to the 48" T-8 fixtures around it.
Next I install four in four offices. I replaced two 48" T-8 fixtures with one LED fixture in each office. More light from the LEDs.

So I bought a few for my house.

At my shop (ten foot ceiling) I'm replacing the eight foot H.O. T-12 with 4' T-5. The four and six tube T-5 put out a tremendous amount of light. The T-5 fixtures cost me $80 and $130 each with tubes.

I would suggest you go to Lowes or Home Depot and look at the 4' LED fixtures. They are 120 volt converted to 120 DC with out a transformer. The covers looks like half of a T-8 lamp.
Not bad looking but puts our a lot of light and uses a lot less energy.


Dwight

Try these....

https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...ong/2733/5791/

Kevin