Best Bulbs for Shop Lights

2023 – New LED Shop Lights
There seems to be a new winner in the inexpensive shop light category.
Home Depot has an LED light for $42.97, 85 watts of power and 10,000 lumens.
I just tested one in the basement and it’s comparable to 2.5 old shop lights and costs less.
It’s easy to connect to my basement pulleys and each has a string to turn it on and off. It can also be connected to other lights which is convenient.
How long it will last is questionable since it mentions a 5 year warranty and either 20,000 hours or 50,000 hours life.

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OLD Information Below.

I just bought a couple of  new shop lights and wondered what kind of bulbs would be best and also cost efficient.

New fixtures use the new T8 bulb. It uses less electricity and puts out as much or more than the old T12 bulbs.

Note – there are now T5 bulbs which come in different wattages.

Bulbs also come in a number of colors from Day Light (5000K), Warm Light and Cool Light (6500K).

This fixture is called – Lithonia Lighting

4-Light Grey Fluorescent Heavy-Duty Shop Light

Most of my research indicates that the Cool White bulbs are as good as the special Grow lights which are much more expensive.  They do lack some of the red spectrum, so some sites recommend using a mixture of incandescent and cool white. That seems a bit complicated and more expensive.

In my experience over the years, plants do well under just about any types of fluorescent lights.

Here are the sites which talk about lights.

• University of Alaska – Cool White
• U of Missouri – combination of Cool White and Incandescent
• HydroFarm – Cool White

I’ve decided to do a mixture of Cool White and Warm Light/Daylight bulbs.

This light fixture is available from Home Depot or Amazon. It does seem to be built better than the typical shop light and can also be plugged into each other. They also have a pull on/off switch.

Click here for a comparison of LED versus Fluorescent Lights.