Lighting Plan for my new garage (pics)

[GoBlue22]

I'm about to start construction on my (36'wx30'dx12'h ceiling) shop for working on cars. It's a 3 bay setup with a lift in the middle, I'm planning on having 4 rows of lights, 8' fixtures to have a nearly continuous line of light down the sides of each bay (total of 15 fixtures). Looking at T8's most likely.

You can see the scale layouts I have made on floorplanner.com below.

Thoughts, opinions, feedback appreciated! Thanks!

 

[GYPSY400]

I dont see anything wrong with that layout.. it's more than what im planning for lights so it should be plenty bright. . Im planning on doing 6 8ft tandem fixtures in 36x24

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[HotwheelsYJ]

Do you plan on putting in task lighting over the counter? If not, move those lights to right above the front edge of the counter. Otherwise your body will create a shadow right where you're trying to work.
I would add a welder plug just inside one of the bay doors. I'm always needing to weld something up that's outside & don't want to drag a 220V extension cord out

 

[pattenp]

What kind of car work are you mainly doing? If it's general mechanical repair then I think the number of fixtures and placement is overkill. If it's detailing and finish repair then what you are doing is great.

Edit: If you do have that many fixtures, place them on multiple switches to give you the ability to turn on different banks. You don't want them all on one switch.

 

[600SL]

You have come up with exactly the same solution I came up with for my two bay version of your garage 30x28x10. You even used the same Floor plan software with the same Ferrari. The arguments for how many and where to place them and how to distribute lighting are all in this thread.

If you wait a week and follow this thread these lights will be on and I will be reporting back. I'm actually concerned that I have too much light in the garage. But reading most of the threads on this sight I'm staring to get the feeling that too much light is like too much ***.

Unfortunately I wont have working experience with the lights for some time. I'm not expecting to see cars or tools in the garage for about 2 months.

One of the things I was considering is zoning the lights. At least to start out they will all come on at once. When considering this I came to the conclusion that 3 maybe 4 of the 11 lights could be turned off when working on one car. And that may be true but I am also aware that I'm a person who cant stay still and will ultimately want them all on and will curse when I have to go back to the switch and put the rest on. So that is something I will be experimenting with especially if I find my lighting to be overkill.

In a 3 or more bay setup zoning becomes more of an issue.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231499

 

[GoBlue22]

You have come up with exactly the same solution I came up with for my two bay version of your garage 30x28x10. You even used the same Floor plan software with the same Ferrari. The arguments for how many and where to place them and how to distribute lighting are all in this thread.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231499

Your thread is what turned me on to floorplanner.com - I really like it. Just can't figure out how to make the ferrari stay blue in the 3D view (to match my blue corvette)

If you wait a week and follow this thread these lights will be on and I will be reporting back. I'm actually concerned that I have too much light in the garage. But reading most of the threads on this sight I'm staring to get the feeling that too much light is like too much ***.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231499

My reading on GF says the same, you can't have too many lights. I need to finalize on what lighting fixtures I will use, but if I had 15 8' fixtures, that had 2x2 4' bulbs in each, that would be 4x15=60 T8 Bulbs in about 1000 finished square feet.

One of the things I was considering is zoning the lights. At least to start out they will all come on at once. When considering this I came to the conclusion that 3 maybe 4 of the 11 lights could be turned off when working on one car. And that may be true but I am also aware that I'm a person who cant stay still and will ultimately want them all on and will curse when I have to go back to the switch and put the rest on. So that is something I will be experimenting with especially if I find my lighting to be overkill.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231499

I look forward to seeing your lights up in operation! My plan is for 3 zones. Zone 1 is the two rows of lights in the middle (working around the lift). Zone 2 is the 2 rows on the edges. Zone 3 is the transverse oriented lights. Open to better ideas on the zoning too!

 

[GoBlue22]

What kind of car work are you mainly doing? If it's general mechanical repair then I think the number of fixtures and placement is overkill. If it's detailing and finish repair then what you are doing is great.

Edit: If you do have that many fixtures, place them on multiple switches to give you the ability to turn on different banks. You don't want them all on one switch.

Primarily general mechanical on my track car, race car. Engine, suspension, brakes etc. No painting, waxing, buffing here! My plan is to have the lights in 3 zones. I have 4 24' banks of lights down the edges of 3 bays. How much less light do you think I could have in each one of those banks?

 

[sands35]

Even with lots of ceiling mounted tubes, there are always shadows under a car hood.

Have you though about one of these mounted on the wall?
(A dock light for loading semi trailers)

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail...=71303498002&gclid=CMyxjpSe6r0CFY0-MgodBz0Avg

If your construction is new, then it's trivial plan out more ceiling boxes then you think you need now. If you don't need them, just put a cover on it. Only cost you a few dollars for the extra boxes and the time to run the wire into them. It may drive another light circuit if your loads add up though.

 

[GoBlue22]

Even with lots of ceiling mounted tubes, there are always shadows under a car hood.

Have you though about one of these mounted on the wall?
(A dock light for loading semi trailers)

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail...=71303498002&gclid=CMyxjpSe6r0CFY0-MgodBz0Avg

I'll have two retractable electic cord reels in the ceiling, I usually use a work light setup like this for the under hood work:

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-professional-fluorescent-work-light/p-03483912000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1#

I like the idea of a wall mounted light, but I'll need something else for working in the middle bay on the lift.

 

[pattenp]

I'd seriously consider reducing the 3 fixtures to 2 fixtures in the 4 rows. That gives you 11 fixtures and you'll have over 115LU per sqft providing you are using F32T8 lamps. To me that's plenty of light.

Edit: Or go from three 8' fixtures to two 8' and one 4' in each of the four rows.

Edit Edit: You know... lighting is such a personal choice thing. I'm not going to say you should have less or more. It's really up to you how bright you want it to be. If what you laid out is what you want, then go for it and be happy. When you hit your senior years, assuming you're young, you'll appreciate the extra light.

Primarily general mechanical on my track car, race car. Engine, suspension, brakes etc. No painting, waxing, buffing here! My plan is to have the lights in 3 zones. I have 4 24' banks of lights down the edges of 3 bays. How much less light do you think I could have in each one of those banks?

 

[Stuff]

Not electrical but some building codes require toilet rooms to be 60" deep.

 

[GoBlue22]

I'd seriously consider reducing the 3 fixtures to 2 fixtures in the 4 rows. That gives you 11 fixtures and you'll have over 115LU per sqft providing you are using F32T8 lamps. To me that's plenty of light.

Edit: Or go from three 8' fixtures to two 8' and one 4' in each of the four rows.

Edit Edit: You know... lighting is such a personal choice thing. I'm not going to say you should have less or more. It's really up to you how bright you want it to be. If what you laid out is what you want, then go for it and be happy. When you hit your senior years, assuming you're young, you'll appreciate the extra light.

you are probably onto something. I just did a little calculation. My current garage on the house is 625 sqft, it has 12 96" T12 bulbs, 4400 lumens each at 5000K color temperature. That works out to 84.48 lumens/sqft

New garage will be 29x35 interior dimension = 1015 sqft. 15 T8 fixtures, 4x4' bulbs each, 2900 lumens each will be 171.43 lumens/sqft. I know I'd like more light in the new garage, but I probably don't need 103% more lumens!!!

 

[GoBlue22]

Not electrical but some building codes require toilet rooms to be 60" deep.

Thank you, great comment. I am not a building code expert, but I found the VA residential building code this morning. Seems that a toilet has to have its centerline 15" from the side wall (min width of room 30") and there has to be 21" in front of the toilet to the nearest door/wall. Toilettes in my house seem to be about 29", so I will need more space than on my drawing now, 29"+21"=50" min. VA Code P2705.1

 

[pattenp]

I used a conservative 2600LU per F32T8 lamp for the 115LU per sqft with 11 fixtures.