All About LED Shop Lights

For illuminating a tiny work area or workbench, LED shop lights are excellent lighting choices. Read our guide to ensure you buy the correct LED shop light before you proceed with a purchase.

What exactly is an LED shop light?

The new LED version of fluorescent shop lights is LED shop lights.

Commonly found in garages and workshops, shop lights are used to light a small area like a tabletop or workbench with a straightforward yet affordable lighting fixture.
Designed to fit 4-ft fluorescent tubes, conventional fluorescent shop light fixtures offer longer lives, less electrical use, and daylight balanced colour temperatures when compared to incandescent bulbs. For workshop type lighting uses, this has made them quite attractive.
LED versions of a shop light are a technical no-brainer given the performance surpassing that of fluorescent lamps with LED technology.
Though mostly using the same linear fluorescent form factor and usually available in 4-ft lengths using a very comparable fixture style, LED shop lights have longer lives and greater efficiency than their fluorescent equivalents.
Shop lights have many benefits, but the main ones are:
Affordable: A shop light fixture costs under $15 USD.
Easy to set up: A shop light fixture needs no sophisticated wiring or electrical expertise.
A shop light fixture's height and position may be easily changed. Usually ceiling mounted, typical 4-ft fluorescent/LED tube light fixtures are tough to install and permanently fixed into place.
A shop light fixture can be placed precisely where the light is required, therefore wasting less light on illuminating non-essential areas and helping to save more electrical expenses.
Considering all of those benefits, shop lights are obviously a great option for workshop-style illumination. But how do LED shop lights compare to fluorescent shop lights? LED shop lights show us even more advantages:
Shop lights hold true for LED lights overall advantages against fluorescent lights - longer lives, less electrical use, no mercury
Shop lights are more prone to being struck accidentally by power tools or stray items since they are usually located closer to the ground. Broken fluorescent tubes can be dangerous and call for a lot of cleaning. Usually constructed of very robust polycarbonate plastic, LED shop lights don't cause any dangerous chemical leak even if they break.
Unlike fluorescent lamps that shine in a 360 degree angle, LED tube lights direct light downwards. In a shop light fixture, this increases the true efficiency of LED shop lights above that of fluorescent shop lights, which lose some of the light aimed upward.
LED shop lights can use improved light spectrum choices including high CRI and photosynthesis optimisation. Workshops needing colour accuracy might find this helpful; so might growing plants.
 

What varieties of LED shop lights are on the market?

Currently, there are two main kinds of LED shop lights: integrated LED shop lights and LED shop light retrofits.
Integrated LED shop lights mount the LED chips and electronics straight into the fixture (i.e. integrated), eliminating the "lamp" that may be replaced. The concept is that with longer lifetimes of LED technology, the light will keep emitting enough light until the fixture itself is decommissioned.
Conversely, LED shop light retrofits are replaceable since they maintain the lamp distinct from the fixture. Usually, this means swapping out the fluorescent tube for an LED tube light using a fluorescent shop light fixture. Usually, a fluorescent shop light fixture will have a built-in fluorescent ballast.
Ideally, integrated LED shop lights are the best choice. After all, the newer technology, LEDs, drives these fixtures' design. Consequently, they usually lack characteristics such "lampholders" and really incorporate the LED sources into the fixture.
The LED tube light retrofit method, by definition, tries to circumvent the design of older fluorescent fixtures. The LED tube light is mechanically and electrically compatible only as much as it fits in the shop light fixture first intended for fluorescent lamps. In terms of product performance and choices, this would undoubtedly appear to be a drawback.
But, in reality, economic factors in the lighting sector cloud matters. Specifically, the large and profitable market for LED tube light retrofitting has been created by the great number of fluorescent ceiling fixtures in current structures.
This has led to considerable R&D effort in LED tube light design as well as production. That means for the final customer a great range of LED tube lights at reasonable prices, and in certain situations it makes sense to keep using fluorescent shop light fixtures and retrofit them with LED tube lights.

We offer advice below based on your circumstances.

If:
You want a straightforward, plug-and-play light fixture with no replacement lamps to concern about.
You are less concerned about light colour and quality choices-including "upgrading."


If you already own fluorescent shop light fixtures or can buy them at a low cost, we advise retrofit LED shop lights.
You have more exacting criteria or needs regarding colour quality, such as colour rendering.
You wish to be able to regularly alter your lighting (for example, replacing various LED tubes for various colour temperatures)
Future advancements in LED tube lights make you hopeful; you would like to be able to "upgrade" to a new LED tube light without having to change the fixture.
You are okay with maybe having to rewire the fluorescent shop light fixture to bypass or delete the ballast

What are some characteristics to seek in an LED shop light?

Here are several unusual LED shop light features you could find useful.
Output of Light
Usually, an LED shop light's brightness is stated in lumens. Should you be unfamiliar with this measure, the following can serve as a fair ballpark estimate:
Fifteen lumens per watt for incandescent bulbs
Fluorescent lights: 50 lumens per watt
A 1500 lumen LED shop light, for instance, could be considered approximately equal to a 100 Watt incandescent bulb (1500 lumens split by 15 lumams per watt) or a 30 Watt fluorescent lamp (1500 lumens divided by 50 lumens per watt).
How does this help? If your fluorescent shop light runs two 30 Watt bulbs, you can expect to need about 3000 lumens from your shop light to keep the same degree of brightness.

Hue Temperature
Colour temperature is a figure indicating how "yellow" or "blue" a light's hue is.
2700K is regarded as the same hue as the traditional incandescent light bulb.
Being neither blue nor yellow, 4000K is often referred to as "neutral white"; it sits in the centre of the colour temperature range.
For textiles and prints, 5000K is often used to define colour.
Natural daylight is 6500K, which is a decent way to estimate appearance in outside lighting conditions.
Your particular choice, as well as the particular use or activity, will determine the colour temperature we advise.
Generally speaking, lower colour temperatures produce a more relaxed or "warm" environment. A good contender for 4000K or below would be an LED shop light for a residential garage.
Higher colour temperatures let you see colours more clearly. Due to its yellow bias, 5000K lets a very neutral and clean white light that lets better colour perception than 4000K and below.
The ideal colour temperature would be 6500K if you wish to mimic natural daylight conditions.
Choose 80 or above for CRI.
Because it is not directly apparent from just looking at the emitted light from a shop light, CRI is somewhat difficult to grasp.
CRI is a score from 0 to 100 that assesses how accurately items seem under a light. The more correct, the higher the score.

What, after all, is really accurate?
Imagine your garage, which lacks any natural light, trying to paint your car. A perfectly accurate LED shop light would make the paint colour look precisely the same as it does under natural daylight.
On the other hand, a low CRI LED shop light would cause the paint colour to appear different. Though outside, your car's colour could not seem the way you imagined even with all your efforts.
So, what is a good CRI number?
For non-color sensitive work, we advise buying LED shop lights with at least 80 CRI.
We advise 90 CRI or above for improved look and colour accuracy.
How can you determine an LED shop light's CCT or CRI? Almost all manufacturers will be able to give this to you on the product specification sheet or packaging.
Switch On/Off
Traditionally, shop lights have had a pull-chain for their on-off switch; many LED shop lights still follow this design.
On the other hand, you may also come across some designs that use a rocker switch installed directly on the device.
Daisy Chaining
Using several LED shop lights in one area could make it difficult to have to individually run wires from each fixture to a single outlet or power source. Daisy chaining, on the other hand, lets the fixtures link one after another, therefore streamlining your installation.
Method of Mounting
Most LED shop lights have a chain letting the fixture dangle from the ceiling. Some will also let flush mounting straight onto the ceiling.
Reflector
Some LED shop lights will have side reflectors on the fixture to assist in directing the light downward. This can help to raise the brightness in a certain area while lowering glare at the same time.

What is the procedure for installing an LED shop light?
Below, we'll discuss general advice and suggestions for putting in an LED shop light. Your shop light manufacturer's manual will provide particular mounting and use directions.

Choosing the Installation Site

Finding a suitable site is the first step in putting the LED shop light. You will want to ensure the light is located straight above the work area or workbench. Ensure the ceiling or mounting surface above this spot can support the weight of the shop light.
Most shop lights draw power from a standard wall-plug. You will want to ensure that running an electrical cable to the shop light is safe. Especially if you are daisy chaining, verify that the power draw of the fixtures will not exceed that of your electrical cables.
At last, verify that the given chain and mounting height let the fixture hang at an acceptable level. While a fixture that is too low could pose a major risk if it interferes with people or other objects (especially power tools), a fixture that is too high may not give the workspace enough directed light. Though they run on line voltage, which could lead major injury or death, LED shop lights lack mercury.

Installing the Shop Light Fixture
Consult your shop light's user manual. Always follow electrical safety and turn off all outlets and wires you will be working with.
Once installed, an included LED shop light fixture should be ready to operate.
A retrofit LED shop light calls for the fluorescent tube to be replaced with a suitable LED tube light. For locating and installing an LED tube light into a fluorescent shop light fixture, we advise reading our LED tube lights guide. Installation into a fluorescent shop light fixture can be significantly easier with a 3-in-1 LED tube light as it needs no ballast rewiring.

Final Thoughts

For lighting a workspace, LED shop lights are a great option. Though LED retrofit shop light fixtures can offer a great variety of options as well, integrated LED shop lights are offered as a "lampless" solution.