It is dark by half four, there is a brake disc to change, and the single fluorescent tube over the bench blinks twice before settling into a thin, greenish glow. If that scene is familiar, the fix probably is not a bigger bulb. It is choosing the right technology for a space that is cold, dusty and often used in short bursts — which is exactly what a garage or workshop is. Here is how the three main options actually compare when the doors are shut and the frost is on the roof.

Three technologies, three ways of making light

Halogen lamps are incandescent: a filament glows, and most of the electricity leaves as heat rather than light. They are simple, dimmable and cheap to buy, but wasteful — expect roughly 20 lumens per watt at best.

Fluorescent tubes, usually T8 with a G13 cap, pass current through mercury vapour to excite a phosphor coating. A good modern tube with an electronic ballast manages perhaps 80 to 100 lumens per watt, and produces a broad, even wash of light that suits a wide bench.

LEDs are semiconductors. A decent LED batten or tube will give you 100 to 140 lumens per watt, arrives at full brightness instantly, and does not care how cold the garage is. The catch is that cheap ones often have poor drivers, and the driver is what usually fails first.

Running costs: the wattage label only tells half the story

The number printed on a fluorescent tube is not the number your meter sees. A 58W tube on an older magnetic ballast can draw 65W or more, and the ballast may hum quietly for years while doing it. Electronic ballasts are closer to the rated figure. So a five-foot twin fluorescent batten is realistically pulling 120W or more, where a comparable five-foot LED batten runs at 40 to 50W.

To work out the difference for your own outbuilding, note the total wattage, multiply by the hours you use it each week, divide by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours, then multiply by your electricity unit rate. An 80W LED setup against a 260W fluorescent setup is a straightforward three-to-one ratio before you factor in anything else. If the lights are on for four hours a night through a winter, that gap is worth chasing.

Halogen has a second cost: heat. In summer, you are paying twice — once for the light and again to get the heat out of the room. On a raw January evening it feels pleasant, but a hot halogen on a stand is also a burn risk and must never be draped with a cloth or left near thinners, sawdust or a car cover.

One more thing worth knowing: fluorescent tubes dislike being switched on and off repeatedly, which shortens their life. If you are in and out of the workshop constantly, that alone nudges the argument towards LED.

Brightness and light quality where it counts

Ignore watts and shop in lumens. For general work — laying out timber, sweeping, sorting tools — around 300 to 500 lux at bench height is a sensible aim, with a separate task lamp for close inspection. Colour temperature matters too: 4000K neutral white is a good default for a workshop, 6000K daylight suits detailed work, and 3000K feels warmer if the space doubles as a social area.

Halogen scores well on colour rendering. It shows paint, wiring colours and wood grain honestly, which is why some people keep one halogen flood on a stand for judging colour. Fluorescent varies enormously — good tubes are fine, tired old ones go yellow and dim. LEDs are now usually very good, but very cheap ones can flicker visibly on camera or in your peripheral vision, which is tiring over a long job. Look for a stated colour rendering index rather than a marketing claim.

Lifespan and the real cost of changing lamps

Rated hours mean little if the fitting is above a workbench you have to clear first. As a rough guide:

  • Halogen: around 2,000 to 4,000 hours, and output drops as it ages.
  • Fluorescent: often 10,000 to 15,000 hours, with noticeable dimming long before the end and flickering as a common end-of-life symptom.
  • LED: typically 25,000 to 50,000 hours, though the driver rather than the diodes is usually what gives up.

Do the arithmetic on access as well as hours. Four fittings you can reach from a stepladder are a different proposition from eight tubes over a high ceiling and a parked car.

Cold weather, damp and British outbuildings

This is where fluorescent tubes fall down. Below about 5°C, output drops and starting slows; older magnetic ballasts are worse. Some tubes and fittings are rated for low temperatures, so check the specification rather than assuming.

LEDs start instantly in the cold, but check the driver's rated ambient temperature. Some budget fittings are specified for 0°C upwards, and an unheated garage in January sits below that — you want a fitting rated for the temperatures it will actually meet.

Damp is the other outbuilding problem. Condensation forms inside poorly sealed diffusers, dust sticks to it, and a year later the light is half as bright. For a garage, a shed or anywhere with a damp floor, an IP65-rated sealed batten is money well spent. In a dry, heated workshop, an IP20 batten is fine.

Choosing and fitting: what to check before you buy

  1. Measure the run you want to light and pick a batten length — 4ft covers 1.2m, 5ft covers 1.5m, 6ft covers 1.8m.
  2. Decide the lumen figure from the floor area and ceiling height, not from the wattage of the old fitting.
  3. Check the IP rating against dust and damp, and the ambient temperature rating against your coldest nights.
  4. If you are replacing tubes with LED retrofit lamps, check whether your fitting has a magnetic or electronic ballast. Some LED tubes require the ballast to be removed or bypassed, and guessing can destroy the lamp.
  5. Consider a PIR sensor for a shed or garage you only enter with full hands. It is a small convenience that pays for itself in forgotten lights.

A sensible way to upgrade

Start with the fittings you use most: the bench light, then the one over the car. Swap those to LED and leave the rest until they fail. If colour judgement matters, keep one halogen on a stand but treat it as a work light, not a room light. Old fluorescent tubes contain a small amount of mercury, so do not break them — take them to your local household waste recycling centre rather than putting them in the bin.

Anything beyond a like-for-like lamp change touches fixed wiring, and a new circuit in a garage or outbuilding may need notifying. Use a registered electrician for that side of the job, and if you are renting, get the landlord's permission in writing before you alter anything. Get the light levels and the temperature ratings right first, and the running cost saving follows as a bonus rather than the whole point.

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