I was thinking of switching all my lights in the garage to these lights http://www.plasmaled.com/household_led_light_bulb.htm

I was thinking with all the costs in everything going up and me in my garage every night, might do some good?

 

Go here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/

These LED lights are very poor quality. They burn out quickly, and don't provide much light output (they are intense, but the light doesn't fill out).

In my garage, I have 6 light fixtures that are dual 4' T8 lamps with electronic ballasts. About 64 watts per fixture, and extremely bright. Still, 384 watts is a lot of juice, but it's very worth it because these fixtures have no shadows and very intense light output.

 

ya i would not trust the leds to be brighter than a normal bulb

 

As I live in the very cold climates - almost -40 this week - I had to use cold weather flourescents.

 

I too have the T8's in my garage and they are plenty bright enough. Also they last alot longer than the old school balasts.

 

If you are now using standard light bulbs, the easiest solution is to change to CFL's. Use a 26 watt CFL with a K 6500 rating. They are about $3.00 to $5.00. Available almost anywhere.

 

Most 'white' LED stuff today is way high in color temp, meaning very blue. They are a blue to ultraviolet emitter with a life limited phosphor that emits yellow, the blue shines through.You can buy great and expensive LED lighting, Leo Laporte on his first online studio uses them, and claims on his twit.tv on line tv says he saves bundles of electric costs. But as much as I hate cfl being promoted by electiric companies, in your case I would agree with the above poster.
Buy a bunch of box store clip on reflector lamps, equip them with 6500 kelvins cfl's. Plus you can move them all around. Hey like to light your next youtube how to do.

 

I too have 2 8 ft 2 tube T8's each 8 ft long in my garage. Plenty bright to work on my car.

 

Look at the dispersion pattern in the last pic..

http://www.plasmaled.com/images/3watt7.jpg

Those things might make good flashlights, but that's about it. Not unless you put a bazillion of them in the garage pointing down and sideways. And at $20+ each, you're going to spend a small fortune in lights to get enough output to do anything userful.

 

Metal halides

 

Just get a pair of cheapo HID kits and dangle the bulbs out in the center of the room. "ZOMG....I JUST GLARED MYSELF! AHHH!!!"

In all seriousness, just get some Metal Halides like MrGone suggested.

 

Mercury halides

 

Metal Halides are some of the least efficient forms of light.

They are only more efficient than incandescent and mercury vapor. Modern fluorescent lamps are more efficient. And MH lamps have a lot of shadows when used in a small area like a residential garage.

LEDs are not cost effective yet.

MH lamps are too inefficient and would make mean shadows in your garage. And they need to warm up and cool down, you can't just flick them on and off.

Just get 4' garage light fixtures at Home Depot or Lowe's and install T8 neutral white lamps in 'em. You'll spend less and get better light.