I have 4' led 4000k shop lights over my layout. Each fixture uses only 40w.

They come in 2 packs and can be found at most hardware stores. Mine were around $50 on Amazon.

You can link up to four of them together, each one has an outlet on the side.

Way better lighting than any flourescent, no blue tinge throwing off colors or photos.

I bought three 2 packs for my 12x20 train room.

If your fixtures are in good shape, you could just replace the tubes with LED's. Just watch the color temp ratings, (deg K) on the replacements. If your existing lights are cool white, then 4100K LEDs will match. If you want to go warm white, then 3500K or lower are a good option.

Depending on the type of retrofit tubes you buy, you may need to re-wire the fixture by removing the ballast.

Fixture replacements are readily available if you want to go that route. Many options available including dimming and color changing via bluetooth and a smartphone app.

Bob

I recommend against the ones that attempt to leave the ballast in place.  Many times, the thing that is going bad is the ballast!  I had a ton of 4' florescent lights in my previous house, and the ballasts were dropping left and right after about 25 years in place.  I ended up replacing them with the LED's that require rewiring, they were great and way brighter than the old florescent bulbs were.  As a bonus, the LED tubes I bought were dimmable, so I could control the light intensity.  The rewiring is pretty simple, and I was lucky that I already had the non-shunted tombstones so I didn't have to replace those.

Note to John's comment.  Dimmable tubes usually take dimmers designed for that application/fixtures.

I took my last remaining fluorescent fixture down last year. It was in the laundry room and didn’t want a big remodeling expense so I just bought a similar LED fixture on Amazon. Wiring was easy and it fit in exactly in the area of the old fixture. The big plus was the nice bright light in comparison to the fluorescent AND no ballast hum.

@Mike CT posted:

Note to John's comment.  Dimmable tubes usually take dimmers designed for that application/fixtures.

Not the ones I bought, they connected directly to the power and any LED compatible dimmer worked fine with them.

The fixtures are solid state fixtures from Home Depot. The fail regularly. Fixtures are just hung from the rafters with the chains supplied. Any new fixtures and bulbs to be avoided?

On the big online retailer I bought the following in May 2021.  It has worked great.

FaithSail 4FT LED Wraparound 40W 4 Foot LED Shop Lights for Garage, 4400lm 4000K Neutral White, Wrap Light, 48 Inch LED Light Fixtures Flush Mount Office Ceiling Lighting, Fluorescent Tube Replacement

@gftiv posted:

The fixtures are solid state fixtures from Home Depot. The fail regularly. Fixtures are just hung from the rafters with the chains supplied. Any new fixtures and bulbs to be avoided?

What fixtures are you talking about.  If you're talking about the solid state ballast, those are junk!

I replaced all my fluorescent tubes with Toggled LED tubes from Home Depot.  Comes with everything you need to make the switch.  Very simple to do.

I also used Toggled LEDs from Home Depot. As Lehigh74 said, they have everything you need to convert the fixture to LEDs and get rid of the ballast, very handy. They are also dimmable. Cost was about $20 per fixture for either 4000k or 5000k at my local HD.

Fluorescent – thing of the past. Can’t find bulbs, flicker in cold weather, spare tubes take up space, housings are too bulky. Can’t get rid of the tubes.

These are bright and plug together. Just bought 4 of these at Sams Club...

Honeywell 5000 Lumen 4' LED Metal Shop Light (White Finish)

Item # 980353238

Model # SH450505Q185

CURRENT PRICE: $17.98ea.

Link - https://www.samsclub.com/p/hon...64?xid=plp_product_5

@SIRT posted:

Fluorescent – thing of the past. Can’t find bulbs, flicker in cold weather, spare tubes take up space, housings are too bulky. Can’t get rid of the tubes.

I recently tried to give some brand new, unused tubes to the local hardware store.  They wouldn't take them, but the guy told me a trick to make disposal safer.  There is a soft spot on the ends between the prongs.  Stick an Ice pick / scratch awl on the soft spot and tap it with a hammer.  That breaks the vacuum so the gas won't fly around so much when the tube is broken.

Done that using a 2lb hammer inside a garbage can half covered. No need for extra work these days or flying dust particles from the gas.

I stepped up into the 2020"s, LOL!

Last year I converted mine using the Halco 10-pack of LED ballast bypass replacement tubes that Home Depot sells. The thing about these is that you have to label the fixture for future lamp replacement as one end becomes the hot and the other the neutral. They give you stickers to accomplish this. But I hope to never need to replace them.

Another thing is that it did not seam that much brighter, but I later learned that LED tubes are more directional (i.e downward),  whereas the fluorescents have light that reflects from the fixture and the ceiling.

Yes, the solid state ballasts are junk. I am going to replace bulbs and fixtures. Do it right so i do not have to mess with it Again.

Curious if others have changed fluorescents to LEDs as part of improving command signal quality in the train room.  The hypothesis is stray radio frequencies put out by the fluorescent tubes.  I have more than 20 4-foot 2-tube fixtures in the space including lounge and storage room spaces.  Did that for myself several years back, both to end the slow loss of light intensity, regular replacement cycle problem with fluorescent tubes, and as part of problem-solving trains that lost their communication with the command base, mostly MTH as I recall but may have included some TMCC as well.  I think it helped with some of the mysterious communication dropouts.  Other simultaneous efforts make it hard to be sure of the cause-effect relationship.  Have others had similar experience?

Yours is not the first  time I've heard about the fluorescent lights causing RFI, so it's not surprising.

Replacement 2 X 4 fixture is an LED flat panel.  Note: 2 x 2 fixture pictured.    Down side, to LED fixtures, there is little service,  only replacement.