Fluorescent shop loghts

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McBroom

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What is the brightest fluorescent bulb? Non LED.
I've got daylight colored lights now and want something brighter. 4' long.

Blue Mule
 

Ramm5.7

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Google is your friend brother...lol
What size 4ft? T8 T12??
 

turkeybird56

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The highest T8 I have seen are 3200 Lumens. BUT also depends on what light spectrum U R at Ref Soft light/Daylight, etc.

The highest T12 (old style big tubes) is 5,000 Lumens. Now, just FYI, U can Put T8 bulbs in a T12 fixture, but with that old style ballast in the T12's,, U will burn out those T8 bulbs quick.

ADDED: Kinda looks like LED is the way to go when replacing... IMHO...
 

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Seems like there was a "Bright White". "Daylight" might be better for human-type eyes tho… Some of the LED's will replace the Fluorescents directly and supposedly last longer and definitely have zero Mercury and Phosphors inside---less hazardous by far.
 

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Both T8 & 12 I've got both bulbs

Blue Mule

We used to use bright white only at work. Dont use daylight.
Now its LED 99%
 

madtrucker2016

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What is the brightest fluorescent bulb? Non LED.
I've got daylight colored lights now and want something brighter. 4' long.

Blue Mule
you might have a look at H O output fluorescent lamps with ballast.The H O stands for high output.that's what they call them and the run in very very cold weather no flickering like reg fluorescent do.Also they have one over that type its called> V H O Very High Output lamps and ballast
 

turkeybird56

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Both T8 & 12 I've got both bulbs

Blue Mule

TIME fer U to rip down those T-12's and replace with T-8 or LED.

(I am running my "mouth" when I still got (2) T-12's in house. I have replacement fixtures (T-8), just not got put up into ceiling yet).
 

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The ballast will limit what you can do. That said, what you want to avoid are the common “energy conserving” lamps that are around 32 watts and get a full 40w lamp. The lumens rating tells all. Cool white is designed to best match what you need for human vision.

I hate all things fluorescent myself. A couple more to go and I’ll be all LED.
 

turkeybird56

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The ballast will limit what you can do. That said, what you want to avoid are the common “energy conserving” lamps that are around 32 watts and get a full 40w lamp. The lumens rating tells all. Cool white is designed to best match what you need for human vision.

I hate all things fluorescent myself. A couple more to go and I’ll be all LED.

BOIRD learned sumthing new this AM. I did not even know there were 40W T8's. I have only seen 32, but I was not looking for 40W. AM I correct in assuming that any T8 fixture can take the 40W bulbs, or are there diff fixtures? FIGURED I would ask the Dumbazz question of the week than look it up. I got things to accomplish, ROFLMALO (Feed dogs/hossies, lol).. Hopefully the Internet PO PO not beat me up fer dumb question.

I just looked on line and saw there are LED T8 bulbs that just plug into yer T8 fixture? Guess BOIRD behind the power curve, feathers getting long...AND some LED require a ballast (direct replacement tubes) and other do not. WISH they would just make up their minds....
 
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Travelin Ram

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Now I’m not claiming to be an authority on this, as I’ve been out of the business for a while. Maybe there are ballasts that are only sufficient for 32w. Lots of cheap Chinese junk out there these days. However in my experience the ballasts were 40w rated. Then along came the EPA and decided we didn’t need as much light, and they promoted the 32w lamps.

You can still find 40w, but they may be pricey, as the mass market has completely bought into the energy conserving lamps.

For the trivia minded, there’s actually at least 4 levels of FL tubes. Eco, standard, HO (high output), and VHO. Last 2 really only seen in commercial service.

But that’s old tech now.
 
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