Lidl LED strip lights

[Malcolm Parker]

If like me, you need more light in the garage, get down to the middle isle of your Lidl and buy a 4ft long LED strip light, at £14.99.  Comes with a 2 year guarantee.
With a fluorescent tube costing about a tenner, they look to be great value.  They have a waterproof plastic cover over the light.

[JonE]

you can also now get LED replacements, with new LED starter, for existing fluorescent devices. My mum put a 4' in her kitchen for 10 quid from her local hardware store. Its half the wattage... but no brighter.

[dickie65]

I use the Lidl LED under cabinet lights as work lights, they come with a 240v transformer plug,if you cut it off they will run on 12v
You can daisy chain them together.

[Tony Griffiths]

Over the age of 65, eyes typically need twice as much light as those who are 20 and under - so lots of lighting in the garage is very useful for us older chaps. I've recently fitted a number of 5-foot LED strips to supplement the fluorescent lighting - and it has made a great difference. I've also put in a number of undershelf strips - and these have helped not only bench work, but also cast some light horizontally as well. The Lidle units sound good value - I might be adding some of those tomorrow.

[Bruce Nicholls]

Tool Station have a good variety of competitively priced LED products in their catalogue and will deliver any order over £10 free next day.

[Ian McGowan]

Sadly, no sign of these in our Lidl but, I fitted the garage out with Toolstation equivalents last summer for only little money more. Probably the best money I have spent on the garage for a long time. It is wonderful in winter to have instant lighting at the touch of the switch rather than waiting for the fluorescents to strike (or not) and slowly warm up to max. brightness.
              As I have changed out virtually every light in the house to LED and am constantly extolling the virtues of these, my daughters have started referring to me as "Captain Kilowatt"!! I cannot, however begin to rival Tony's installation above; I have seen sunbeds with less lighting than his garage.

[Steve Jones]

Not in our Lidl either but as I needed a replacement tube for one of my fittings anyway I tried just buying the LED tube from Screwfix this afternoon. Fitted into the existing fitting in less time than it took me to get my steps and the difference is amazing. 1500mm LED tube was £14.99 and I'll get two more to convert the other two fittings before the weekend.

Steve

[John Cornforth]

I have just equipped a garage with some LED 24 watt 5 foot tubes and new fittings.  The tubes come with "LED adaptor starters" which replace the conventional starter if you are retrofitting an older fluorescent fitting.  The tubes themselves were just over £10 each from my local TLC branch.  So nice to have instant light when you have just popped in to fetch something !

I did look at self contained LED battens, but when/if they fail a whole new fitting is needed which means disturbing the wiring.  This seemed a bit of a nuisance, but maybe they last so long it's not really an issue.

As a related tip, why not use up any leftover light coloured emulsion paint to treat the ceiling above each light.  This sends most of the stray light back where it's needed.

[Stumpi]

I upgraded one fitting with the screwfix  tube and starter,unfortunately no upgrade was available for the others.
So i have fitted 3 of these https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-twin-5ft-.../7223v#_=p     excellent light output and easy connections with a loop in connection on both ends.
Andy

[Stuart Giles]

I have just equipped a garage with some LED 24 watt 5 foot tubes and new fittings.  The tubes come with "LED adaptor starters" which replace the conventional starter if you are retrofitting an older fluorescent fitting.  The tubes themselves were just over £10 each from my local TLC branch.  So nice to have instant light when you have just popped in to fetch something !

I did look at self contained LED battens, but when/if they fail a whole new fitting is needed which means disturbing the wiring.  This seemed a bit of a nuisance, but maybe they last so long it's not really an issue.

As a related tip, why not use up any leftover light coloured emulsion paint to treat the ceiling above each light.  This sends most of the stray light back where it's needed.

I have lots of 5' fluorescent fittings in the two garages and two workshops I have here. As each fluorescent has died or started that annoying flickering I have also been changing them out for the TLC LED tubes. I have been working my way through the lighting for several years now and it's certainly easy to see which tubes are LED and which are fluorescent; the LED tubes definitely emit more light. As John says, the other advantage of just changing the tubes is not having fiddle with the wiring and batten mountings as I would need to if I changed out the whole fitting.