LED lights for booth?

[Lizer]

I'll be building a new booth in my new shop. This isn't a fancy professional booth but it is an area of the shop that is specifically dedicated to making as a spray booth. 23' long x 13' wide with 14' sidewalls (can't help the height, it will be inconvenient).

My old booth--also a homemade booth but very effective--used 8' fluorescent lights which suck, especially when it's cold, and they start to flicker when ballasts go bad, and fluorescent bulbs are getting more scarce.

Seems everything is going to LED bulbs and I love them because they're instant on, don't make heat, use little power, cold doesn't matter. I was going to use daylight bulbs with a diffuser so the little dots don't shine through. Is there a reason I would NOT want LED lights in the booth, or what are lights some of you are using?

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

I use the daylight frosted bulbs both in my 8' and 4' fixtures in the booth.
Tried the non-frosted first but like you stated it caused little dots everywhere. Moved those to the main garage area.

 

[Lizer]

I use the daylight frosted bulbs both in my 8' and 4' fixtures in the booth.
Tried the non-frosted first but like you stated it caused little dots everywhere. Moved those to the main garage area.

But frosted you mean the opaque white covers and not the clear covers?

 

[chevman]

The bulbs themselves are frosted. Some even have adjustments for color, wattage, and are dimmable. Leds require a few more light fixtures though because they are more focused.

 

[Jim C]

my whole shop and booth are all led now. like you i got tired of replacing them or the ballast. fluorescents also lose about 50% of their light output over the fist prob 20% of their life. the led bulbs are great. i use daylight in the booth. mine are all frosted. you cannot see the leds in the tube

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

But frosted you mean the opaque white covers and not the clear covers?

As above the bulbs themselves are frosted. I don't have any covers on them.

 

[MJM]

Wear a headlamp and use a spray gun cup light. With all the money I just saved you from buying LED fixtures, you can buy me a nice Christmas gift.

 

[Treeslayer]

I use the daylight frosted bulbs both in my 8' and 4' fixtures in the booth.
Tried the non-frosted first but like you stated it caused little dots everywhere. Moved those to the main garage area.

ok, when you say daylight, are they more of a yellow light? i despise the bright white LED flashlights, i cant see well at all with type of light.
i too am tired of fighting florescent.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

ok, when you say daylight, are they more of a yellow light? i despise the bright white LED flashlights, i cant see well at all with type of light.
i too am tired of fighting florescent.

Daylight LED bulbs are meant to closely emulate actual sunlight.

 

[Treeslayer]

Daylight LED bulbs are meant to closely emulate actual sunlight.

sounds like thats what i want. noted.

 

[Lizer]

They’re a very bright white. 5000k I think.

 

[AAE]

Got these off Amazon. 8ft sections. Pretty inexpensive.

 

[Jimthecarguy]

5000k is considered daylight. I still flip the lights off and use a color matching light when color matching though.

 

[Jim C]

ok, when you say daylight, are they more of a yellow light? i despise the bright white LED flashlights, i cant see well at all with type of light.
i too am tired of fighting florescent.

like these guys stated, daylight bulbs are the super bright white that you say you hate. visibility with these is much better but most of all in a booth or paint shop its absolutely necessary. anything else will distort colors and not make them look correct.

 

[SMS]

These are a combination of LED lights from Menards and Rural King, all 5000K daylight but different styles depending on what was on sale, averaged around $12 each when bough last year. They all daisy chain plug in together so no wiring needed. I split them about 50/50 to two shop outlets.

 

[dhutton01]

What are you guys doing to protect the bulbs from overspray buildup?

My lights have glass covers so I can take a razor blade to the overspray. It makes a real improvement in light intensity when I remove the overspray. My booth moves a lot of air but it’s surprising how much overspray builds up.

 

['68 Coronet R/T]

Lacquer thinner.

 

[jlcustomz]

Don't normally take selfies, but these little headband usb rechargable led lights can be a help if needed . Put em on a few welding helmets also.
Surgery anyone ??

 

[Treeslayer]

ok guys, im going to go to leds since almost half my florescents are out, again.
looking around online, prices are wildly different. are the cheaper ones ok?
also i see that type A dosent need the ballast removed, type B does. any disadvantage to using type A?

 

[shine]

get rid of the ballast. i bought cheaper ones off ebay. only 2 have gone bad in several years.
with florescent you don't know how bad they are. happens slowly over time.
i clean the bulbs when i clean the booth. clear doesn't seem to effect them.