LED is the way to go. I recently installed 60 ea. 4 foot fixtures in my shop.
My shop is 2400 sf and I wanted it lit up for old eyes.
It was about 1/3 the cost of comparable florescent fixtures for the
same amount of light. I'll never run all those lights at the same time
but it is 20 A max @ 120V consumption for all those lights. 
Plus I don't have to deal with Ballasts and bulb replacement.
LED should last 100,000 hours. that is approx. 11.5 years.
of "ON" time. Brute force, an LED only needs a capacitor to run off 120VAC.
I'm converting my whole property to LED as older bulbs fail.
Down side is, it was the Chinese that took this technology and ran with it.
so they are presently the only suppliers of "daylight" color temperature
LEDs and fancy diffuser fixtures.

I went with the “Soft White” instead of the Daylight color temperature. I have fluorescent lights in my laundry room and my garage. As the ballasts/bulbs go bad I’ll be replacing them with daylight LED’s. The added brightness is much appreciated for my old eyes. Hopefully I’ll have 20 years before I have to replace one. I think the technology is terrific in this case.




 

I was an early adopter of CFL’s when they first came out. I lived in SoCal and I paid a lot of money for my first box of them. They were large helical monstrosities, too large to fit in some applications, they were not dimmable, they were not supposed to be used in an outside application and they were not as bright as advertised. Not too long after they came out Costco and other stores had some special deals on them like buy one box at half price and get one or two boxes for free. I imagine they were not great sellers at first. After a couple of years they reduced the size, made them dimmable and made them brighter. However, I never got a lot of longevity out of them. They just didn’t last as long as advertised. I replaced every bulb in my house with them and while I saw some costs savings it was pretty obvious I would probably never break even on my investment. When I replaced all the bulbs I saved all the filament bulbs for some stupid reason.

Before we moved I went back through and replaced all of the CFL’s with the filament bulbs I had saved and packed all my CFL’s in my container. When we moved to the Big Island we rented a house on the Hilo side for a while. I did the same thing, I went through and replaced all the filament bulbs with my CFL’s. And before we moved to Oahu I replaced all the CFL’s with the filament bulbs. I brought all my CFL’s to my home on Oahu. After we bought the house in Kapolei I went through and replaced all the filaments with all those old monstrosity CFL’s I still had. Needless to say, I saw some cost savings and after 9 years I had one box of CFL’s left before we moved back to the mainland. This time I left the CFL’s in the house for the new owner. And I left all the filament bulbs for the new owner. But somehow that last box of CFL’s that I intended to leave for the new owner ended up with me here in AZ. 😂

Now here in my house in AZ I have solar panels from Tesla. And I have an app that I can monitor how much power the panels put out, how much power the house is using and how much power I am selling back to the grid. And the app shows all of this in real time. A couple of days ago I was monitoring the power the house was using when my wife turned on the kitchen lights. The power usage with my 65” TV and router running is 0.3 KWpH. When she turned on the kitchen lights the power usage doubled! The kitchen lights were using 0.3 KWpH. And being that my wife spends a lot of time in the kitchen they stay on a lot. I went around the house and turned different lights on to see how much power they used. I was amazed how much regular filament bulbs use. I went to Home Depot and checked out LED bulbs. They make them in all sorts of sizes and shapes to replace filament style bulbs as direct replacements. They are also bright and they make them dimmable. So today I went through and replaced every bulb in the house with LED bulbs. Now the kitchen uses 0.1 KWpH. Some of the other rooms don’t even register a power increase on my app. The total replacement cost for all bulbs in the house is $70. I also added a dimmer on my dining room light fixture that cost an additional $30. With the dimmer on at full brightness, the dining room fixture now shows 0.1 KWpH. But when I dim the bulbs down to where we want it, the power usage doesn’t register on my app. So now during the day, I not only use less power and not pay for it, but it increases the amount of power I sell back to the grid. Without selling power back, I expect to break even on my bulb investment in probably 6-8 years. But with selling power back I figure I break even in about half that time.

Even tho the technology for solar panels is not at that point yet where it is financially viable to invest in them without massive taxpayer subsidies, the technology for light bulbs is at that point where it is worthwhile to invest in replacing all of your filament bulbs with LED’s IMHO.

I replaced the florescent light fixture in my kitchen after almost twenty years with a LED light fixture.  Now we need to put on sun screen (J/K) since it is almost twice as bright!

I am looking at replacing the florescent fixtures in my garage with 4' LED fixture . . . soon.

I replaced the florescent light fixture in my kitchen after almost twenty years with a LED light fixture.  Now we need to put on sun screen (J/K) since it is almost twice as bright!

I am looking at replacing the florescent fixtures in my garage with 4' LED fixture . . . soon.

I have a florescent shop light fixture in my reloading shop.
I bought some led replacement tubes that supposedly drop in.
It seems like the ballast overheats with the led replacement tubes.
After a while, the lights go off until the fixture cools down.
Suspect an impedance mismatch.

Better to buy a fixture made for led bulbs rather than retrofit.

Nice!  Do you have the tesla panels that replace your roof?  Was always curious on those.  I also switched all my bulbs to LED.  Made a difference in the power bill.

I replaced the florescent light fixture in my kitchen after almost twenty years with a LED light fixture.  Now we need to put on sun screen (J/K) since it is almost twice as bright!

I am looking at replacing the florescent fixtures in my garage with 4' LED fixture . . . soon.

Just saw a YT video of a great idea, especially here in Hawaii were garages might be on the small side.

This guy attached 2 @ 4ft LED fixtures end-to-end near the top of his overhead garage door.  Each fixture has 2 bulbs. 

Now he can have light in the front section of his garage whether the door is open or closed.  My 2-car garage door takes up all the space at the ceiling from the front of the garage to the center of the garage, so the one light fixture is installed where the door's tracks stop.  Sure, the door opener has a light, but that's just for visibility when you open or close the door.  It's not bright enough to use if you intend to do any work in the garage.

Anyway, with the lightweight LEDs that can be connected to just one outlet, this makes perfect sense for use in both the closed and open positions.

If you only need light when the door is closed, LEDs may be small enough to fit above the open door on the ceiling, but why limit yourself?

One more project on my list ....

Pretty cheap from Amazon.
I bought Sunco's. 4 footers.
You can string them together.

Two words:  dimmer switch.      

That assumes your LED bulbs are dimmable.  Most are, unlike the Compact Fluorescents.  Many of those were not compatible with dimmers. They wouldn't run on less than full brightness, flickered, caused a "humming" noise, or just didn't turn on and off as they should.  I've not seen very many non-dimmable LEDs lately, although some do recommend specific models of dimmers -- either they were tested to work, or were their brand.   

One of the best things about garage and storage space LEDs now is you can get really compact fixtures that are very lightweight, can be installed on the edges of 2-by rafters and joists without hanging over the sides, and several can be connected in series, eliminating the need for junction boxes, outlets and/or additional wiring.  One switched outlet or junction box lets you light up every nook and cranny in no time.

I bought the motion activated LED fixtures from Costco when they were on sale.  Just plug it in.  Comes on when I enter, and turns off a few minutes after I leave.  Yeah, these kinds of devices spoil me, but I'm worth it!     From a safety perspective, who doesn't want a light that comes on in pitch black conditions -- whether it's you starting down some steps, or someone who isn't supposed to be there?

Unfortunately, the fixture I purchased is not dimmable.

I replaced the florescent light fixture in my kitchen after almost twenty years with a LED light fixture.  Now we need to put on sun screen (J/K) since it is almost twice as bright!

I am looking at replacing the florescent fixtures in my garage with 4' LED fixture . . . soon.

Whose "bright " idea was that?      

I have gone almost entirely to LED bulbs. I do seem to see more failure than should be expected from this technology but what can I expect from cheap costco LED bulbs? LEDs are very sensitive to heat and if they aren't regulated effectively or cooled well then their lifespan is going to shorten significantly.