Thread: What's the Go For Lighting a Shed Nowadays?

LED panels are the go.
While they can be used for general lighting they're also excellent for benches.

Here's an example from teh big green warehouse
Brilliant Lighting 100W Black Stealth II DIY LED Slim Panel Flood Light - Bunnings Australia
100W ones emit a huge amount of light (supposedly 10000 lumens, I cant stare at them for more than a second or so) cost over $100 but comes with a plug etc.

If you are electrically competent and prepared to attach your own plug and earth them properly then you can get more or less they same thing on ebay for about $15.

I suspect the ones from bunnings will last a bit longer (2 year warranty) than teh ebay ones.

If you already have fluoros and the units are compatible then LED fluoro replacements are a cheap option. Each LED fluoro emits about 20% of the light a 100W LED panel emits, so you need 5 LED fluoros to produce the same amount of light as one 100W LED panel.

currently got nothing in the shed. one plug in 'worklight' thing. In the home a couple of fluoros and all the rest old time stuff with a great mix of bulbs because of all the changes lighting has gone through in recent years.

Thanks for this clue. I"ll look into it. Yep, I wire up extension leads and similar basic stuff. Very carefully.

p.s. what about these ebay offerings. plug supplied:

100W LED Floods Light Outdoor Waterproof Spotlight PIR Motion Sensor Floodlight | eBay

I use these in my shed...Philips-BN012C-SmartBright-Slimline-LED-Batten_1024x1024.jpg

Originally Posted by ericks2

I use these in my shed...Philips-BN012C-SmartBright-Slimline-LED-Batten_1024x1024.jpg

They look pretty good to me. And the price is right isn't it?

You got the motion sensor? Worth having? Or something else to go wrong? It switches on automatic when you come in?

Switches off and leaves you in the dark momentarily if you go into a trance.. ?

No worries with things like the brightness falls off very drastically as you move away from them/ Or the light's very harsh and makes deep shadows, you can't see your job half the time? ( had all those hassles with the old bunnins cheap spotty 'worklights' ).

How many do you find you need to (1) just light the shed and/or (2) provide working illumination at the bench?

Just asking. I'll get one for testing and will soon find out.

On that it looks like this is about it - there's no choosing between different formats, strip say, or bigger wattages or anything...

Look good though.

Originally Posted by abrogard

currently got nothing in the shed. one plug in 'worklight' thing. In the home a couple of fluoros and all the rest old time stuff with a great mix of bulbs because of all the changes lighting has gone through in recent years.
Thanks for this clue. I"ll look into it. Yep, I wire up extension leads and similar basic stuff. Very carefully.
p.s. what about these ebay offerings. plug supplied:

100W LED Floods Light Outdoor Waterproof Spotlight PIR Motion Sensor Floodlight | eBay

A couple of things about those ones.

They have all their LED elements close together so they really are like a spotlight and will produce quite sharp harsh shadows which I don't like for shed lighting.

The other thing is the add says 100W but don't give a total light output (Lumens or "lm")
I wouldn't buy anything that does not give an "lm" value
100W could mean anything, an inefficient LED can eat up 100W but not produce many Lumens.
Efficient LEDs should produce ~110 Lumens per Watt, and anything less than 100 lm/W id likely to be old stuff.

Mind you, many light outpus (lumen) ratings, especially on ebay etc, are not not accurate either.

LED Panels and fluoros will produce more even lighting than spots.

Those are good points you make.

But you're happy with the ones you have I believe.

So are the ones I linked to good enough? You suggested I'd maybe find some I could wire in myself. These appear to save me the trouble. I they're the right gear.

Here's the link again:

100W LED Floods Light Outdoor Waterproof Spotlight PIR Motion Sensor Floodlight | eBay

Originally Posted by abrogard

Those are good points you make.

But you're happy with the ones you have I believe.

What I'm happy with for general shed lighting is my LED fluoros because they spread the light far better than any small panels.
The LED panels I have are slightly different to the ones you linked to.

Mine have 96 LED elements spread evenly across the surface.
Panel.JPG
The lighting from these panels is not really suited to general shed lighting but do work OK above benches
I have one panel above my electronics bench ,and one above my triple grinder turntable.

So are the ones I linked to good enough? You suggested I'd maybe find some I could wire in myself. These appear to save me the trouble. I they're the right gear.
100W LED Floods Light Outdoor Waterproof Spotlight PIR Motion Sensor Floodlight | eBay

And here's my comments again - they will will give hard shadows so are not suited to general lighting.
There's also no lumen rating so you don't know what you are getting without buying one and measuring its light outout.

Here's the typical BS specs sprouted on ebay you need to be wary of.

These 5 panel lights look good.
Each panel appears to contain 25 LED elements and can be individually oriented to spread the light which is really good.
They screw into conventional light screw bulb fittings which could be handy.
They claim to be 200W.

5 Panels LED Garage Light Shop Light for Garage Workshop Bay Attic Basement | eBay

The blurb further down says they output 10000 lumens - this means they are 50 lumens/watt which is very inefficient.
Identical looking units (there are dozens of them) say they are 10000 lumens and 100W, which is also what mine are.
I suspect both the Watts and are wrong (too high).

Originally Posted by abrogard

They look pretty good to me. And the price is right isn't it?

You got the motion sensor? Worth having? Or something else to go wrong? It switches on automatic when you come in?

Switches off and leaves you in the dark momentarily if you go into a trance.. ?

No worries with things like the brightness falls off very drastically as you move away from them/ Or the light's very harsh and makes deep shadows, you can't see your job half the time? ( had all those hassles with the old bunnins cheap spotty 'worklights' ).

How many do you find you need to (1) just light the shed and/or (2) provide working illumination at the bench?

Just asking. I'll get one for testing and will soon find out.

On that it looks like this is about it - there's no choosing between different formats, strip say, or bigger wattages or anything...

Look good though.

Mine is just on a switch at the entrance to the shed....shed is 6x 5m and i have six of these installed. They are cheap enough if i need to add more. No shadows or harsh lighting. I only have these up high...been using them for a while and they been great. There are obviously better options but for the price they good. I am an Electrical contractor by the way

I've put 3 of these in my small workshop (6x3m).

Mercator Conrad 48w 5000K LED Ceiling Light - Galaxy Lighting & Fans

While they don't reach Bob's 100lm/W they are fantastic light colour and 120 degree beam spread which means no deep shadows. Also my walls are white so the light does bounce off of them to some degree. I'm definitely more than happy with them.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by addyau

I've put 3 of these in my small workshop (6x3m).

Mercator Conrad 48w 5000K LED Ceiling Light - Galaxy Lighting & Fans

While they don't reach Bob's 100lm/W they are fantastic light colour and 120 degree beam spread which means no deep shadows. Also my walls are white so the light does bounce off of them to some degree. I'm definitely more than happy with them.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Well I will look up these or similar on ebay and take a punt on one. LED Batten being the operative words.

I wouldn’t get motion sensors unless you are just ducking in and out of the shed, they will drive you crazy as they will keep turning off when you are standing still at the bench. I have removed mine

thanks for the tip. I suspected that might be the case.

Originally Posted by Beardy

I wouldn’t get motion sensors unless you are just ducking in and out of the shed, they will drive you crazy as they will keep turning off when you are standing still at the bench. I have removed mine

Even worse is if you are in the middle of something dangerous and the lights go out.