48W IP65 5ft LED Batten - 6500K Daylight

This is a 48W LED batten, 5ft or 1500mm long, rated at 5,800 lumens with a colour temperature of 6,500K. Both the wattage and the lumen figure are quoted for the fitting as a whole rather than for a tube you buy separately. That works out at roughly 121 lumens per watt. The specification rates it IP65: on the IP scale the first digit, 6, is the dust seal and the second, 5, is protection against water jets.

Five feet is the length that suits a working space rather than a room you sit in: a garage, a workshop, a utility area, a garden store, a loft or a long corridor. Measure the run before you order, because 1500mm is the fitting's own length and you want clearance at each end for the cable entry and for the clips that release the diffuser. At 6,500K the light sits at the cool, blue-white end of the scale, which picks out detail and makes labels and markings easy to read over a bench or inside a store cupboard. It is a less comfortable light in a living room, where a warmer white reads better. Two or three fittings in a line will light a double garage more evenly than one in the middle.

In the photograph the housing is grey with a translucent ribbed diffuser held on by metal clips along one long edge, and a grey cable gland sits at the end of the body, which is worth knowing when you plan where the feed comes in. It is non-dimmable, so it wants a plain switched circuit rather than a dimmer; if you want different levels you change the number of fittings, not their output. Wiring is work for a competent person. Keep the diffuser clean, because dust on the outside of a sealed unit costs you light long before the LEDs do.

Can I run this from a dimmer switch?

No. The specification records it as non-dimmable, so it needs a plain switched circuit; a dimmer module will not give you any control over the output.

Do I need to buy a tube or lamp for it as well?

The 48W and the 5,800 lumen figure are both quoted for the fitting itself, and no separate tube or lamp is listed anywhere in the record.

What does the IP65 rating actually protect against?

On the IP scale a 6 in the first position means dust tight and a 5 in the second means protected against jets of water from any direction.

How cool does 6,500K light look in use?

It is at the daylight end of the range, a crisp blue leaning white that shows up detail and colour differences well, rather than the yellower light of a warm white lamp.

Will it replace an older 5ft fitting on the same fixings?

Its own length is 1500mm, so measure your existing run and the gap at each end before ordering; we cannot confirm hole centres, because the record does not give them.

Is a fluorescent wattage equivalent given for the 48W?

No. Neither the specification nor the packaging supplied to us prints an equivalence figure, so we make no claim about the old tube wattage this replaces.