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Moved house recently and the lights in the shed are pretty rubbish so looking to replace them. The shed is roughly 8 foot 24ish foot so im looking for one above the work bench and then 3 more along the length of the shed depending on what i buy. I have seen some panels that seem to be throw away once they break so would prefer something with replaceable elements.
Any recommendations on LED lights panels or strips? im not to bothered about which as long as they are bright and not going to fail in a couple of months.
It's a bit leftfield but I just put 12v lighting in. Bought a proper deep cycle battery (you could use an old car battery). Then £50 for a charge controller and 30w solar panel with 6 x 8w LED strips intended for motorhomes. Still easily bright enough although I might want a bigger solar panel in future.
I was about to recommend 12v lighting, but not to go off grid.
My rec is self-adhesive led strip lights. Run a few strips along the ceiling, find a suitable power supply (running off mains in my case) and you’ve got a huge diffuse light source that leaves no shadows. Add extra strips over the workbench.
If you've got mains, these are good. Various lengths/outputs in the drop-down. https://www.toolstation.com/v-tac-led-weatherproof-fitting-ip65-6500k/p82982
Here’s a random picture of my shed (I had everything pushed up one end in order to paint the floor) but I think it shows the benefits of the long continuous strip light sources. I’ve since added extra strips over the workbenches. It’s a very flexible approach.
Thanks for the replies, I do have mains in the shed and will probably stick with it rather than 12v.
Those are the sort of thing Id quite like Simon but it looks like when they go you have to bin them rather than replace the lamp although that might be for the majority of these things now.
Goldfish what sort of lights are those if you remember? that looks nice and bright and as my shed only has a small window at one end and another small one in the middle so there's not much light gets in.
I just went the cheap route and grabbed light fittings from Freegle as and when they came up – I started with a traditional 4ft fluorescent tube light, then got a 4-way GU12 spotlight a couple of months later that goes above my workbench and finally got an angle poise lamp for when I want close-up light. It cost me the grand total of a junction box, a couple of metres of twin and earth (so the 4-way spot switches on with the fluorescent light) and a few hours of fettling.
Sorry, please read both my posts, but I split it and wasn’t very clear. What you see in the picture are LED strip lights, which are self adhesive tape covered in LEDs just stuck to the ceiling. You can buy them in various lengths with mains power supplies like this:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/bendable-5m-led-tape-light-10w-1200lm/959fx?ref=SFAppShare
I actually purchased the bare strips, and I bought some aluminium channel to fit it in, and I bought one big 100W power supply to power all 12m of LED strip. But if you purchase something like the above 3 times you could run 3 strips off the 3 supplied power supplies. Just trim off excess light strip. I wouldn’t judge brightness from my photo, but the quality of light due to how it’s distributed is excellent.
You need to be careful about position and output.
You'll probably be okay with 3x four foot battens, I'll have to check the lumens for mine tho. You might need more and smaller if shadows will be a problem
Fluorescent will be cheaper but you'll need separate work lights if you use a lathe or similar, so LED if you can afford them
Just put 4 of these in my loft when I insulated and boarded it out. Fine for the price.
https://www.toolstation.com/v-tac-led-batten-cw-tubes-ip20/p33970
The smaller sealed battens linked by simon_g above are great also. I got two but didn't use them in the loft so wired them up with some heavy duty cable and attached some velcro tabs to use as garden party lights to strap under a gazebo... They are uncomfortably bright 🔆
Sorry goldfish didn't notice you'd posted twice
I fitted 3 4ft weatherproof LED strips inside my shed, from screwfix. They're bright enough for general use in my 8x12 shed. They seemed really bright at first but as soon as I tried working on something small and detailed quickly discovered the need for an additional light source (which I still don't have). Had then fitted for over two years, no problems whatsoever.
The only hard part with 12v offgrid (solar) is making an educated guess at power balancing. Ie, consumption versus production + storage.
My ratio is about 2hrs of full production gives 1hr lighting.
The batteries cost the most, so no point getting something massive. Mine is 22ah, which gives a few hours continuous use.
A small car battery is 50ah, you could probably get one from a council recycling site for nothing - but it won't last as well.
6 x8w 12v LED lights a shed 10m x 4m.
Mine are twin 4-foot battens (actually four shorter panels) 43W each batten, so a tad over 5000 lumen each. Three will give you a good light
I have some Toolstation 5' LED battens, picked them as you can replaced the LED "tube" and retain the fitting if the LED dies.
Single
https://www.toolstation.com/lighting/batten-lights/c694?type=LED+Batten
Twin
https://www.toolstation.com/v-tac-led-batten-cw-tubes-ip20/p43924
If you have fluorescent fittings you can wire them up to take LED tubes (they just need L and N, no ballast etc).
Have a think about light placement so you dont create shadows where you work.
Those are the sort of thing Id quite like Simon but it looks like when they go you have to bin them rather than replace the lamp although that might be for the majority of these things now.
Given they’re under a tenner (under £20 for the biggest) and rated for 20,000 hours are you that fussed? Even thinking about environmental factors I think they’re better than a fluorescent tube (longer life, no mercury) plus use less energy.
Apologies, just checked, 4400 lumen per batten. They're older than I thought!
12-13000 lumen should be enough
This is very true Simon but I always find those quoted hours a tiny bit exaggerated.
But you're right even if they laster half the quoted time they would be fine
I would avoid those Toolstation ones. 3 out of the 4 I bought just over a year ago have given up the ghost.
Got one of these led fittings in my shed, more than adequate
I bought big square led panels from B&Q when they were on sale. Theyve been up 5 years and they're still great.
Those Screwfix ones I have are good if you're not knowledgeable about electric circuits because if you need more light you just chain another strip on the end of the last light, think you can do five like that (or is that how lights work normally lol I don't know). I had a sparky do the electrics for my shed but I can manage adding more of these lights without worrying I'm going to burn my shed down or something.