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Need recommendations lighting for hangar

Md11av8r

Member
Hey guys I would like your opinions on the best type of lights to use in my hanger. I am looking for some super bright LEDs. At the present time I have the gas lights whichTake forever to reach full brightness, and once they do the lighting is inadequate for my needs.
 
I went "cheap"..but all is well

I went to the local farm store and bought 6 LED's, high watt (5550 W or so as I recall) equivalent...$25 a pop. You can "daisy chain" them and as they draw virtually no power, no problem using medium quality extension cords as wiring so I could move them to another hangar if I desired (which I have done once)..Cable ties, a man lift and a day...its better than daylight in a standard sized hangar. Put 2 more above the workbench for close up, and wired them all to a switches in the hangar receptacles. Not the most eloquent solution, but under $250 for the whole project and I have the brightest lights on the airport. If I owned the hangar, I would have went for something a little higher class.
 
Brian's suggestion above would do it. If you did want to do it with one light... We put these in our warehouse. I also put one in my 30 x 60 barn which would be similar to a hangar. I'm very happy with them. I'd suggest purchasing the remote control which will allow you to program the light for various lighting conditions. Again, one light is going to be enough. LEDLightExpert.com

Light
150 Watt Titan III MOTION SENSOR LED High Bay UFO Light - 22,000 Lumen - 5000K - DLC Verified High bay LED 37-224 150 Watt Titan III MOTION SENSOR LED High Bay UFO Light - 22,000 Lumen - 5000K - DLC Verified High bay LED
Remote control
79-142 Remote Control for Titan III LED High Bay Lights
 
Hangar Lights

I just installed some that I bought at Home Depot. A neighbor had them and I was impressed. I have a 42'w x 40'd box with 15'+ ceiling and used 4. BIG difference from the florescent's that I had.
Commercial Electric. 750-W equivalent LED High Bay Lights. 30,000 Lumens.
Internet #305409859
Model #HL-NHB270-NP09B
Store SKU #1003239951
 

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We had 14 8 foot 2 tube flourescent light fixtures installed when our hangar was built in 2008. Fast forward to last year. The lights and/or ballasts are starting to wear out. Note - those light fixtures were the commercial single pin variety and the bulbs aren't stocked at Home Depot.
Government Incentive Money Program to the rescue --- Our local electric company had a program to upgrade their commercial customers lighting systems with LEDs. The customer pays 20% of the total cost and the electric company picks up 80% of the tab.
An electrician contractor bid the job, submitted the bid and got it approved. A crew of 8 electricians with 2 scissor lifts came in and converted my light fixtures and installed new LED tubes. They were on site for about an hour. My cost was $241.00
There are youtube vids showing the fixture conversion process for the diy guys out there.
Another data point - an automotive body shop owner tells me he won't work under LED lighting because it causes false shadows on whatever he's painting. I do know my LED lights cause a hard edge to the shadows while the old flourescent lights showed a gradual soft transition between light and darkness.
 
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Lots of ideas here, mostly how to do lighting on the cheap, and that is probably best if you are renting. In my case I bought a typically equipped hangar with poor lighting and minimal outlets. As a new owner I decided to have lighting done by a contractor by permit and construction to codes appropriate for an airplane hangar. I figured to spent a lot of time here and wanted a proper workshop in addition to just a space to store my airplane.
The contractor spent 3 days there with one man and a lift. Six 4 tube T8 fixtures were installed in addition to 4 tubes that existed and the 120V and 240V drops. Everything is in conduit and looks like it was all original construction. No string lighting for me!

i-JkZM9hd-L.jpg


The floor was already epoxy painted and that helps illumination quite a bit. The cost was $5000. I know, sounds like a lot but I intend to recover the cost in the increased valuation when I finally sell the hangar. In the meantime, life is good.
 
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I installed these LED high-bays, ordered from Home Depot, and they are very bright. These are a commercial version of what they had for sale in their store (brighter). The ceiling of my hangar is 21’ tall, so I wanted something bright. Hangar is a ‘T’, 1300 sq/ft.

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super bright LEDs

I bought 3 26000 lumen high bay LEDs from Superbrightleds.
Hung them along the centerline of the hangar at 20 ft above the floor, 20ft spacing, and they do a great job of lighting a 60x70 hangar space
 
For those with the high bay lights, does the light spread? I have a high output led I got to try to replace the tube lights I have. The light is somewhat directional as opposed to the fluorescent. Much brighter but focused. The highbay stuff has a flat face and was concerned I'd have some spot lights rather than flood.
 
I second this selection. Go industrial - not the Home Depot or Lowe's stuff.

If I had a hangar that I used for commercial purposes, I might go that route. But in my personal (rented) hangar, where the lights are on 10-20 hours a year, I went cheap with LED's from Sam's Club. I've been very pleased...
 
UFO High Bay lights are fantastic

I installed four LED 150W "UFO High Bay" lights in my hangar right after move-in. The pathetic dual tube fluorescent fixture that came with the hangar would have made me go blind trying to work on the plane. I put one center, one right wingtip, one left wing tip, and one tail. Really nice and bright -- photos don't really show how bright these lamps are.

The light spreads well ... they have a 120 deg "beam". I put a diffuser on the center lamp thinking that would help the spread ... I could only get one at the time, since the place I ordered from was out of stock except for the one. After installing, I found there was no need for any additional diffusers.

Any noob that comes into the hangar always comments ... "wow, nice lighting!"

Fixture in the rafters:
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With the plane, early on:
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Full monty at night:
IMG_0267%20%281%29-L.jpg
 
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I second this selection. Go industrial - not the Home Depot or Lowe's stuff.

Home Depot, and maybe Lowes, also sells the industrial lights. You just have to ask them, and order them because they are not normally in their stores. They are likely a bit less expensive this way.
 
More is better

Design what you think you need, then add at least two more. Told my electrician that and shop/hangar is just what I wanted.
 
I purchased an 1150 sq. ft. hangar last year and hired an electrician to run additional outlets and install 5 commercial UFO LED high bay lights using conduit. The hangar lights up like daylight with very little shadowing. The electrical supplier visited the hangar to help me decide on the correct fixture. I also had the electrician place the switches on the wall near the walk door. One switch turns on the lights while the other turns on the outlet that I have three fans plugged into.
 
1000bulbs

LED Round High Bay - 100 Watt - 250 Watt Metal Halide Equal - 5000 Kelvin
14,000 Lumens - 120-277 Volt - 5 Year Warranty - TCP UFOUZDB150K

Shop around in the high bay LEDs

Rudy
 
Nothing scientific here . . .

I have some strips of LED commercial lights installed by the airport, and they are pretty good for walking around and general, but wanted much better lighting for annuals (CI) so Lithonia high bay lights with 22000 lumens - 1.2 amps were installed. Two 15"X22" lights spaced about 15 ft apart yielded good overlap and presents a good even lighting back to the empennage. Most FWF work is ok without additional lighting.

Mounted any lower would be too close to the floor for the illumination angle of these lights. They were $110/ea and the local big box store (Menards for me).
 
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Check with your electrical company. Where I live, the energy trust subsidized the purchase of the square LED arrays for the hangar. When I turn on the lights, I need sunglasses!

Gary
 
I found Metal Halide lights on Craigslist for $5/each. They use a lot of energy but I don't have the lights on in the hangar bay (18' ceilings) that often. Maybe 3-5 hours/month. I have a garage bay where I am building and have installed LED's in that area. If you are not using the lights very often, you may want to consider something used. Many warehouses are going to LED's and selling the old high bay lights cheap.
Just my 2cents.
 
Check with your local utility, ours was willing to pick up a significant percentage of the replacement cost in energy rebate form but we could not find replacement lights that would cast enough light to replace them.


Maybe things have changed, I'll check into those UFO lights.
 
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