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Hangar lights

How tall is it inside, and is it bare metal/wood, or finished with a bright surface?

Are you only looking for general lighting, or are you going to be building a plane in there?
 
What do you plan on doing in there? If you're building pieces-parts, you need more light than just storing the plane there.

Several years ago, a friend (who's on this forum) used high-wattage CFL bulbs in regular light sockets. Seems to work well.

I've got some very old metal halides in my hangar, also work well for general lighting but start slow & aren't that efficient by today's standards.

If I were starting today, I'd probably shop for 8' LED 'tubes' that can replace standard 8' fluorescents. The new ones can run directly off line voltage, meaning no ballasts, since yours is a new install. Pick color temperature you like, and decide how much light (how many lamps) you need.

Shop around. Prices vary a lot.
 
I put in 2 X 4 drop in fluorescent's which work very well lighting wise. You have to remember if you are testing radio and electronics they interfere dramatically, although it was a supreme win for me when I turned the lights off and everything worked to perfection. Before that I was completely flawed as to the interference.
 
For general lighting I just bought some Hikolity ("High Quality"??) 4-foot LED lights. Good reviews on Amazon and so far (only a couple weeks) they are working well - nice and bright. Buy in a pack of 4 or 6 and save some $. Although they are plug-in, they are easy to cut off the plug and hardwire if you want.
 
A lot of hangar renters here have installed the high bay LED lights available at Home Depot for about $160 each. Our airport is offering to reimburse renters for installing the LED lights (because electricity is included in our rents!)

I bought two of them for the main lights for my paint booth at home, and they are quite bright. Most of the folks at the airport have either two or four of them installed about 10 feet above the floor and even the two-light setups are very well lit now.

They are a bit pricey but the power draw is super low. For the same light output in my shop, the current for the LEDs is substantially lower than the fluorescent ones I have installed in a different area. Like 5x or more lower, if I recall correctly.
 
What do you plan on doing in there? If you're building pieces-parts, you need more light than just storing the plane there.

Several years ago, a friend (who's on this forum) used high-wattage CFL bulbs in regular light sockets. Seems to work well.

I've got some very old metal halides in my hangar, also work well for general lighting but start slow & aren't that efficient by today's standards.

If I were starting today, I'd probably shop for 8' LED 'tubes' that can replace standard 8' fluorescents. The new ones can run directly off line voltage, meaning no ballasts, since yours is a new install. Pick color temperature you like, and decide how much light (how many lamps) you need.

Shop around. Prices vary a lot.


I have 15, cold weather, high output 2 bulb fixtures in my hangar. You don't have to look up to see if they're on, they're bright. My hangar is 60' X 27' with 14' walls.
My neighbor just replaced some of his "bulbs" with the LED replacements. They aren't as bright as the originals and seem to be more "direct" lighting, where the fluorescents spread the light more.
 
I have lit hundreds of hangars over my 30 year lighting career.
Hangar Lighting technology was predominantly Incandescent, Metal Halide or HO Fluorescent for 50 or more years with relatively minor improvements. The 21st century brought in High Efficiency T8, T5, and T5HO, all still available.

Within the past 5 years a very disruptive technology emerged with LED.
Sales of legacy Fluorescent and Metal Halide fixtures has declined rapidly while LED has revolutionized the industry. There have been few technological innovations in history that rival this kind of transformation in such a short time.
In the last couple of years LED prices have gone down, efficiencies, glare control, quality, all keep getting better.
Our sales of LED products today are approaching 80% of total product sales compared to the legacy products 20%.
It's hard to argue against LED today, just be careful what you buy. There is quite a bit of poor quality LED out there. I wouldn't buy from EBay, Amazon, etc....unless you know the brand.

What I recommend is shoot for 20 FC for a storage hangar, 50 FC for a Hangar/Shop. The key is the quality of the light, not just the quantity. More light sounds better but if it is not done well "see-ability" will suffer, eye strain, etc....
Most builders do well in 50 FC but you can always supplement when/where needed.

Get some professional help on the layout and product selection. Most local Electrical Wholesale houses will deal with the public. They all have lighting professionals that will help you for no cost in the hope of a sale. These wholesalers usually have the better brands of products, many times in stock.
You can also go to Acuity Brands web site and download a free lighting calcuLator, do the layout yourself, and go to your favorite big box store. Just remember, garbage in, garbage out. If you don't know what your doing, your end result might differ from the computer and there are many factors to consider in a quality lighting design.

A well lit hangar is a joy to work in. Good luck with your project.
 
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I rent a T-hanger that has only a 4-place 110V outlet and a single light fixture. When I moved in, a 60 watt incandescent bulb was the only light source in it.

Not wanting to pay to have lights installed, I bought two of these LED string lights from Amazon.com and put them up on the stud walls and ran an extension cord to the outlet. Not as convenient as hardwired lights. But, for a single 20 amp circuit, its about as good as it'll get.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L77LG9I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
ruptive technology emerged with LED.

Jon, I rent a T hangar and working there to finish my build. I often listen to an FM radio. My LED drop light and 4' bench LED (menards) make so much electrical noise that the radio just gives static.

So - do the modern, professional grade, LED fixtures do the same? I have not progressed to checking my radios yet, but suspect they would pick up the same interference. Only my Baja landing LEDs are electrically quiet.

Nice post, BTW.

Edit: Checked the unicom freq and squelch on the icom handheld has to be turned waaaaayyy up to overcome the LED noise. The local FBO will be getting a lot of static on the radio complaints if everyone uses these lights.
 
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City upgraded hangars to LEDs

Our hangars are city owned --- when the 8ft flourescents start giving problems, they replace with new LED fixtures (5 in my hangar)---better light and work great in cold weather.

EDIT: They do provide a lot of radio noise on my comms, while working in the hangar ----- usually not a big deal if you are working on something other than the comms, but really noisy!
 
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LEDs

In September I just purchased a t-hangar with a village supplied 20amp circuit. The previous owner had installed 5 halogen lights that totaled 900 watts, 7.5 amps out of my total 20amps. I installed 6 LED 4' lighting fixtures from Menards and if I remember correctly, they each ran 70 watts, so now I'm only drawing 2.3amps. What a difference! The place looked dumpy and dreary and cavelike with the old halogen lights and they really didn't light up the place all that well. The new ones, https://www.menards.com/main/lighti...0-lumens-4-led-shop-light/p-1460080852477.htm put out 4800 lumens each. I ran 4 in the central bay and 1 over each wing. While the new ones put out 4800 lumens each I think that the halogens actually match that in output. Let me tell you that there is no comparison to the LEDs vs halogens. LEDs win in a landslide.

I can now run lighting, Reiff engine heater, and a dehumidifier all at the same time.

Ran across a discussion thread this morning on budgetlightforum.com. They were lighting geeks discussing merits of floodlights. It reminded me of airplane addicts discussing primer. :D

BTW, one of the nicest features of the hangar is a lighted light switch. When I come into the hangar in the dark it's a lighted red switch that I think goes off when I turn on the lights. Nice and easy to find!
 
Acuity software

As I currently own a "cave" T hangar, I am also in the market for lighting. I thought Jon's post was excellent. Here is a link to an online design tool at the Acuity website.
 
just nearby

If you are flying around without a destination fly down to 3ck and I'll show you what I put in and what the lighting does for the space. I fly to KRAC for kringles occasionally.
 
Jon, I rent a T hangar and working there to finish my build. I often listen to an FM radio. My LED drop light and 4' bench LED make so much electrical noise that the radio just gives static.

So - do the modern, professional grade, LED fixtures do the same? I have not progressed to checking my radios yet, but suspect they would pick up the same interference. Only my Baja landing LEDs are electrically quiet.

Nice post, BTW.

Hi Bill - it depends. LED's as you well know are a solid state device that operate on direct current. The "driver" is the component that converts your AC power to DC as well as provides the regulation of power to the LED array. These drivers are a switching power supply, a micro processor, and other components like RF filters.
Your odds of getting better filtering go up with the quality and cost of the product. Commercial grade products have to meet FCC requirements. I do not know those standards. I would look carefully at the specifications for any LED product. If they don't list the driver specs....
 
UFO highbay

Thanks guys.LEDs it will be.

I used LED UFO Highbay Lights. 100W, spaced 12 ft apart. Probably 60 fc at the floor. Can get them off eBay in multipacks at about $80 a piece. Needed 120 degree beam angle, but got 90 degree and I don?t notice any hot spots. But I do have 18 ft sidewalls.
 
Hangar shop lights

As my old 8? fluorescent lights burned out, I decided to roll my own LED replacements for my shop which has a 10? ceiling.

I purchased some of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FHMSGU6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and powered from an old 12V pc power supply. {You could also use one of these https://www.amazon.com/JOYLIT-Switc...=1511127240&sr=1-51&keywords=led+power+supply } (many available on amazon and ebay)

For each of the 8' dual tube fluoroscent units, I used 24 feet (3 8? strips) of the above led strips.

After removing the guts of the old fluorescent housing, I glued the LED?s strip to the old housing.

Each 3 LED strip unit draws less than 2A at 12 volts.

My android light meter indicates I am getting about 300+ lux with the leds vs < 250 with the old fluorescents.

Need more light--use more LED's, say 4 or 5 strips.

My shop is now brighter, and uses a fraction of the power it did before.


Next summer, I will give the main part of the hangar with it's 16' ceiling the same treatment.


Warren
RV-7
Minneapolis Crystal
 
As my old 8? fluorescent lights burned out, I decided to roll my own LED replacements for my shop which has a 10? ceiling.

I purchased some of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FHMSGU6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and powered from an old 12V pc power supply. {You could also use one of these https://www.amazon.com/JOYLIT-Switc...=1511127240&sr=1-51&keywords=led+power+supply } (many available on amazon and ebay)

For each of the 8' dual tube fluoroscent units, I used 24 feet (3 8? strips) of the above led strips.

After removing the guts of the old fluorescent housing, I glued the LED?s strip to the old housing.

Each 3 LED strip unit draws less than 2A at 12 volts.

My android light meter indicates I am getting about 300+ lux with the leds vs < 250 with the old fluorescents.

Need more light--use more LED's, say 4 or 5 strips.

My shop is now brighter, and uses a fraction of the power it did before.


Next summer, I will give the main part of the hangar with it's 16' ceiling the same treatment.


Warren
RV-7
Minneapolis Crystal

6000K is really really blue. Manufacturers use high color temperatures because they are much cheaper to produce (blue) as they use less rare earth phosphors. Higher color temps are also more efficient so they play that trick on you, making it appear they are better than lower color temps.
They will also usually have very poor color rendering qualities.

I recommend 3500K with a minimum CRI of 80.

You get what you pay for, but if your happy, that is all that matters. I admire your ingenuity.
 
Hangar shop lights

FWIW... I happen to like the higher color temp. Of course, LED strips are available in a range of color temps, so buy what ever best suits you needs.

Also, FWIW, my total cost to replace each 8' dual fluoro tube unit was well under $20.

w
 
Another low cost option is to use the classic porcelain lamp bases (which are now plastic), and 100w equivalent LED bulbs. The 100w equivalent aren't too commonly found yet at the big boxes, but I've been happy with some Philips brand I got from Amazon. These are 1500 lumens/15w bulbs. If you do the wiring yourself, each light will cost around $8-12 or so, for the box, base and bulb, and they are easy to add where needed. Also easy to change if you decide you want a different color. My personal favorite for almost everything is the soft white, 2700K, but to each their own.
 
FWIW... I happen to like the higher color temp. Of course, LED strips are available in a range of color temps, so buy what ever best suits you needs.

Also, FWIW, my total cost to replace each 8' dual fluoro tube unit was well under $20.

w

Absolutely. Color temps are very subjective and if your not concerned about interior finishes being rendered as the right richness or color, no big deal if you like it. A hangar isn't usually anything other than white walls and concrete.
In regard to tape light, a couple of years ago I would have said you where crazy to use LED tape light. However, the technology has improved so much it is now a viable option.
Five years ago I put in 100' or so of very expensive,
high end, LED cove and over/under counter lights. They started to fail. I just changed them out to tape light. Better, brighter, readily dimmed, cheaper, and much easier to install.
You did well retrofitting your existing product to take advantage of the housing and I assume the reflector. A little sweat equity and you have just become your own manufacturer of lighting fixtures.
One caution, they are no longer UL listed. Just something to consider.
 
Shop Lights

For lights I found the cheapest option was to buy the 4 ft LED tubes from Amazon and re-wire some cheap housings from HD. I can build a 2-bulb light for just under $35 that belts out the lumens, I was hard pressed to find anything cheaper that came pre-built plus you can swap bulbs in the future if you want. I went 5000K for color acuity. Very low wattage and should pay for themselves soon.

LED Bulbs:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S5TTT0K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Housing:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-...IGHT/203081577
 
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If you're willing to diy on a new install, watch local craigslist listings for lights. I've bought 2x4 foot 'drop-in' style 277 Volt assemblies for almost nothing, because no commercial building will use them for new installs, and consumers can't use them because of the 277V ballasts. Ballasts aren't needed with the new LED tubes. Housings are bigger than 'shop lights' but seem to give more even light distribution. I've seen both 4 tube and 2 tube designs.
 
Update -- LED radio noise

Not a big deal, but playing with my panel, in the hangar, on shore power, the new LED hangar lights play havoc with my GTN 650. The 430 backup is quiet.

I did some experimentation (lights on, lights off) ---- but, I have found my 650 has always been a noisier radio than my 430 and use the 430 for most of my communications.

Ron
 
My hangar light solution

I was having issues with the lighting in my hangar for the build process. For under $200 here is the solution I came up with and it works very well.

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dreaded gray do not enter sign - no photos

I was having issues with the lighting in my hangar for the build process. For under $200 here is the solution I came up with and it works very well.

8RnchZ4NIXVwsX5DvC7V77R_miwU3SITB6DA6dNXH7vYWbt_SQ6p_kLHwCpFaolSNJ83B5EY41pcSKkmVqW4kKVc1EwjwbcfJaTiwXOqb4okB60D9PQq-4lzugkif5djniUTMrwxYY0__LjnSSQp60boVlMwL6gqQN0p5BrS0QWeoCxOvj1_PktDCbppqCGFxkgoikvFEGKk5boZk4KvFERNw8yRUqDMKJe1TDlAQSFOyLi4-40dSaCLFvAcXYOQN0SPugxfrrv0zp4ZUJreulyCYfwzadKE4NXLaoEzgRO9RKhDfYy3Nn4t6vil57lu2H6seNVPW_qs5lhGEIgBmVEDBUlVYLPhBOcnPFHTS9MsZCgmXBxbdXpupg3ObEP1JO2O0dYgXBJtdvbDxrL0gUePbsw2e2_9orw0bbM8bT4PES9aqmxfi-pY42ldOh-MuObCNTj3WZ8G2kvHulWT_-O0wtfOuB5Eo5STG9MU-kWQFbnB0CLfFgGrhpWyY8tOTGRPGbYNSxOxFh_nn998t9G5KtqCqBA9iGX9ZOX9ln-Ps1jIklnyPLMBFTogcBxQotQ4Pw4YGjv5yR7efMIGLT22UeQQ_FDnZfi5Ze-E=w958-h1277-no

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Sorry, I don't see the photos. Can you make them public on Google? Thanks!
 
CRI as spec'd is 70. You likely want better than that (have seen several references to CRI 80 as the minimum for working on things like airplane parts).
 
Pretty good

Ok lighting geniuses, help me out here. I have a 40? x 50? hangar / workshop that needs an entirely new light system. How do these lights look?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithoni...White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710

I can find them on amazon for about $160 each and Im thinking about mounting 3 along each side of the hangar.

I put a bunch of them in a warehouse a couple years ago. Good light but might be better ones out there now. Costoco and Sam's have cheaper per lumen cost now in smaller size. We have dozens of the home Depot lights at klmo and folks seem to like them. LEDs are best light for the buck today.
Dave
 
Ok lighting geniuses, help me out here. I have a 40? x 50? hangar / workshop that needs an entirely new light system. How do these lights look?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithoni...White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710

I can find them on amazon for about $160 each and Im thinking about mounting 3 along each side of the hangar.

Of late I?ve been replacing 4? two tube fluorescent shop lights with simple 60 watt equivent LED bulbs (4 for $5 at Walmart). I get the light bulb fixtures from Amazon for $1.30 each. I mount four of these on a 4?x1? piece of left over Van?s shipping crate. So for $10 or so I get an LED replacement for the shop light that does not flicker and does not buzz.

This is the cheap and not so pretty approach to LED lighting if you are so inclined. As example, this $139 Home Depot light fixture can be replaced with 14 of these cheap LED bulbs for perhaps $40.

Carl
 
Carl's approach has the downside of extra work, but will likely result in much more even coverage, especially if you don't have really high ceilings in your workspace. I really like 'distributed' light, instead of point-sources. It's easier on my eyes, and helps eliminate dark zones.
 
Lots of Light

Ok lighting geniuses, help me out here. I have a 40? x 50? hangar / workshop that needs an entirely new light system. How do these lights look?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithoni...White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710

I can find them on amazon for about $160 each and Im thinking about mounting 3 along each side of the hangar.

I installed 6 of them in my 40 X 40 hanger. Lots of light and I?m very happy with them. I have them on 3 switches so I can turn on a pair at a time. I purchased mine at Menards when they had a 11% sale plus they had a special that if you bought 5 or more at a time they discounted the price another $10 per fixture.
I?m very happy with the way it turned out and would do it again.
 
Rob------where did you get a hangar?

I bought a bunch of 4' two bulb LED shop lights at Costco for our new hangar, good light output and color. As I recall, $20 each on sale.

The lights in your link might use a ton of juice, and have pretty expensive bulbs when it is time to replace one------check them out well before spending the $$.

How goes the 14?
 
I've got four similar units (same metal halide lamp, different fixture) in a 48x50 hangar. Reasonable light; not great color accuracy. Six in a 40x50 should be very bright.

I put them up about 20 years ago because they were free. They are 'good enough'. The biggest downside to lights like these is the startup time; they take several minutes to get to full brightness. Unless you basically live in the hangar, bulb life will come close to your lifespan (unless the bulbs in those fixtures were very high time when pulled down). The nice thing is, if you like the fixtures, you can now buy LED bulbs to fit those sockets. If a bulb dies, just wire around the ballast (simple to do) and screw in the LED.

As to power consumption, its fairly simple to look up the lumens of a 250w metal halide lamp & it's in the specs of most LED shop lamps. Just do the math compared to LEDs. Commercial operations are replacing halide with LEDs because they typically operate them almost around the clock. If you're only in the hangar a few hours a week, the math is very different.

Charlie

edit: those do look like 'high bay' reflectors; how high is your ceiling?
 
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I picked up some LED lights from Sam’s Club for the hangar and have been very happy with them. No noise, bright light, easy to install and you can link them together.

https://www.samsclub.com/sams/linkable-shop-light-honeywell-led/prod20590154.ip?xid=plp:product:1:3

Slight digression here but I replaced all the 4' fluorescent tubes in my 24x24 shop with LEDs similar to what is in the above fixtures. It is a huge improvement over the old tubes which I had a hard time getting all burning at the same time. I bought 20 tubes via eBay for ~$100, rewired the fixtures to bypass the ballasts and am very happy with the results. I'm thinking about something similar for the hangar and am finding this thread useful.
 
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