I've heard they are great - was it expensive? Where did you get it from? I need about 20!

I have done all 7 of the tubes in my garage/workshop since last Summer.

You can get LED tubes that will go in existing fittings - they come with a new starter - they work well and will save on power - i bought mine on eBay - about £11-£12 for a 5 foot 2000 lumens tube - they replaced 20 year old tubes and were much brighter.

Also bought complete fittings from ScrewFix 5 foot twin at 4500 lumens for £35 - these are very good but need wiring - putting one of these in place of an old single fluorescent strip was a big improvement.

Show off! 

I got a 1.8m long 48W number from Toolstation. I Cost 28 quid and lights up my single garage, er.... guitar workshop beautifully. And bonus is that it comes on at the flick of a switch instead of waiting a couple of hours for it to do all that flickering business in start up. I no longer need to use a spotlight now .

Different lengths and strengths are available and they are so easy to swap with the wiring from the old fluorescent bar.

The instant bit is very good - decided I needed to replace some when I went into the other bit of the garage where the big tools live to cut something on the bandsaw - waited about half a minute for lights to stop flickering to do a 5 second cut..... 

Cheers folks - I'll check them out!

Oh wow, my dilemma is shadows. LED eliminates it?

Only if you're a vampire..... or is that mirrors......?

But yeah it greatly reduces shadows which is whgbI used to have an adjustable spotlight. I reckon if I got a second one it would pretty much be shadowless. Mark and Bill are just showing off with their need for loads of them cos their workshops are so HUGE! Size isn't everything you know....

My garage is quite big (26’ x 16’) but there are other claims on the space......

To avoid shadows you need to not have lights behind you but you can help by having white (or light colours) on the ceiling and walls to bounce light onto where you are working.  Tubes provide diffused light so you don’t get hard shadows like you do with bulbs.

Posted by: @frocesterbill

you can help by having white (or light colours) on the ceiling and walls to bounce light onto where you are working. 

I’ve got aluminium bubble insulation wrap on my ceiling.  Gives a bit of temperature insulation *and* spreads the light about too.

Gonna replace mine ? thanks guys

Noticed the other day that the 60 cycle hum is so sensitive with my fluorescent bulbs. Moving about in different areas is a considerable difference. For sure I will go with LED. Fortunately, I only need 2.

Yeah this is a subject I wanted to talk about too, I only have one old fluorescent tube in my workshop, it’s about time I upgraded to some LEDs. 

I've got a  6 foot long strip of 12V LEDs pinned to the underside of a shelf above my workbench. Also an old angle poise lamp attached to the same shelf that I can pull down closer to the bench.