Lithonia Lighting CPANL 2x4 LED Flat Panel Light, 2 ft. by 4 ft. LED Light Panel, Ceiling Lighting Fixture, 4000 Lumens, 3500K/4000K/5000K Switchable CCT, Includes Direct Ceiling Mount Bracket, White

The laundry room luminaire started flickering again; great, another pair of 48" fluorescent tubes to recycle.Nope. Rather than continue the cycle I decided to replace the entire unit with this Lithonia CPANL LED luminaire.Installation was a breeze. It took a lot longer to remove the original luminaire and its ballast than to install this new one. A solid 75% of my time was spent just removing the old fixture.Thanks to the unit emerging from its packaging almost 90% assembled (thank you!) all I really needed to do was take a few measurements and hold the mount up against the ceiling to mark the spots for drilling. Drill. Thread the bolts through the mount into the toggle bolts, shove the toggles into the holes, pop through, tighten; this is all typical simple DIY electrical stuff.Then, the panel just hooks on one side of the mount, and latch-locks the other. Super-easy to "open and close" it and security tethers hold it gently in place while you're wiring it. If you want to change the color temperature, you'll need to open the latches and drop the unit to access the switch, so easy off/on is a pretty nice feature to have. This one's done well. Electricals are exactly what you'd expect, wire nuts, black to black, white to white, green/unsheathed to ground. Four metal toggle bolts hold the mount and luminaire to the ceiling.Bright and beautiful; it's roughly 50% brighter than the fluorescent unit it replaced, and at one-quarter the wattage.Oh, and it'll likely outlive me. Not that I'm planning on kicking off any time soon but at an hour a day of use this unit has a 100-year projected life span and I'm just not planning on living QUITE that long. No more tubes to specialty-recycle!Some helpful tips here. You'll need a few tools, but nothing any basic DIY'er wouldn't already own. And if you don't own them, this is your opportunity to purchase them because you'll use them for a hundred future tasks anyway, also known as "Honey, see, I need them because this guy in this review says I do." Your mileage may vary as may the impending status of your relationship; I have no experience as a therapist and as such this is not a counseling offer and I make no warranties express or implied that this sort of manipulation will produce the desired results. It may be fun to witness nonetheless.But in all seriousness:You'll need a 1/2" drill bit and some kind of power drill. Eye and basic face mask (hey, you've got all those leftover N95's right?) are appropriate; you're drilling the ceiling.Good: Medium flat blade and Philips screwdrivers. Better: flat/Philips bits for that power drillFlatnose/Lineman's Pliers. Most national codes require a pretty good twist a good bit up the insulation to hold the wires firmly before you cap them. Don't cut corners; your fingers won't work here.One note: SAVE THE STRAIN RELIEF from your original luminaire. This is that little plastic spacer that the wires go through, to protect them from being cut by...the razor-sharp metal holes the wires thread through on this unit. Despite the manual stating to use one, they DID NOT INCLUDE that strain relief part in the box. Thankfully, the 30+ year-old one from the removed unit fit perfectly so I didn't even need to source one and they seem to be fairly standard.All in all, great unit, zero installation issues, works perfectly.

I had a 2-U fluorescent fixture in the kitchen that either had burned out bulbs or a bad ballast. Instead of troubleshooting that I chose to simply replace the whole thing with LED. Many would punch holes in their building's envelope by putting a bunch of can lights, but I'm happy with the light produced by the fluorescent so don't need to leak all my heat into the attic.Pros:- Relatively easy to install. The entire removal and installation took me about an hour but I have zero practice. Subsequent fixtures would take less probably 30m each. I did it alone even though instructions recommend two people. As the light hangs from its bracket at 40 degree angle on hanger cables (not the power cable) there is no awkward part of the process where another person would significantly help. The tedious part is marking spots for 1/2" holes for butterfly bolts such that the fixture will hang square to the room. Its no worse than installing a fluorescent.- Its rated at 3300 lumens. 2* 40W U tube is 4600-5400 lumens depending on brand. My hesitation on ordering this was whether it would be dim. As i'm no spring chicken, I'd rather have the same or brighter. This fixture is comparable to the 2-U with the diffuser removed. Its much brighter than the 2-U with the diffuser installed. If replacing a 2-U 40W (80W total) especially with a frosted diffuser, don't hesitate its not too dim! I suspect the bulbs are tested for lumens alone, but the LED fixture is tested for lumens as a complete product so the losses through the diffuser are accounted in the 3300 lumens.- Color temperature can be set to 3500K, 4000K, or 5000K. On this fixture the 3500K is close approximation of halogen, the 4000K is close to regular fluorescent tubes, and 5000K is blue. In order to get a better feel for the color climb off the ladder (while its hanging at 40 degrees on support cables) and discuss with your partner, because I found it difficult to unlatch and lower once fully installed.Cons:- One defect: a bright spot where the diffuser may have been creased in shipping. I chose not to return it with the defect as all the LEDs seem to be on, and the plastic isn't fractured.- There is a small 0.25" gap between the ceiling and the top of the light due to the way the bracket works. No light escapes through this gap (some brands seem to leak light up there). There are some brands whose bracket is a box to remedy this, but I don't find it a big problem especially on a 12 ft ceiling. It would probably be annoying on a 7 or 8 ft ceiling like a basement.- The light takes half a second to turn on. Its faster than the fluorescent, but there is a slight delay between flipping the switch and the light coming on (at full power).The light claims to be dimmable with a regular (triac) dimmer. If I decide I don't like the brightness (too bright) I'll install one and update with how well it dims.It claims 60000 hour life and 37W consumption (little more than 1/3 the 96 watts for 2*U 40W plus ballast). It should outlast me as LED's don't suffer much from repeated switching. I'll be mildy annoyed if it fails early, and majorly annoyed if it fails when I'm too old to replace it myself (and have to pay someone a huge amount to swap it).Update: decided it was too harsh/jarring to turn on at 0430. Installed a Lutron AYCL-153P-WH. The CPANL dims very linearly and nicely down to a slight glow. When turned on dimmed the delay from switch on to light produced increases. There is no flicker or buzzing noises from the light or dimmer. About half power is good to avoid getting jarred awake, and its nice to have the full brightness available when needed.

High quality light from quality supplier. These are well thought out fixtures that should last for a long time. They are relatively easy to install (scan QR code for instructions) and produce a very bright light. These were perfect for my garage but might be too bright for a people space.