New Garage Lighting

[PALYDIN11]

I have a 28 x 32 pole building detached with two bays for vehicles and 10' ceilings. I am looking into lighting options but have no clue on what to use. The only lights that I am familiar with are the 4' LED lights. The ceiling is not finished so lights will attach to the roof trusses. I may eventually get a lift but for now will work on cars and motorcycles on the floor. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shiftless]

I have a 28 x 32 pole building detached with two bays for vehicles and 10' ceilings. I am looking into lighting options but have no clue on what to use. The only lights that I am familiar with are the 4' LED lights. The ceiling is not finished so lights will attach to the roof trusses. I may eventually get a lift but for now will work on cars and motorcycles on the floor. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If you want lots of light go with about 20 of those. (some guys might suggest 30)
I would put one or two more directly over the workbench and others over stationary machines like lathes or drill presses.

My workshop area is small...only 10 by 20 and I have 5 of them installed in the ceiling. PLENTY of light. To light up my open shelving I have 4 LED floodlights angled downward toward the shelves and 3 more LED flood lights over my 7 foot long workbench. Ceiling lights and flood lights are separately switched.
Remember that if you put receptacles in the ceiling or anywhere else to run those plug in shoplights, you are supposed to provide GFCI protection.

 

[G-ManBart]

My barn is a bit bigger, so I partitioned off a 24x40 section for a shop...steel liner panel ceiling and walls, etc and I used five of the LED lights I'll link below. I would have used six, but I took one corner and built a bathroom/utility closet as a room within the room, and figured there was no need to put a light over that. For the dimensions your building is, I think four lights would work nicely and even three would probably work fine. On the 40x40 side of my barn I use only two since it's mostly just storage for my machines and trailers, but it's still quite a bit of light and brighter than most people's barns/garages. My ceilings are a bit over 13' so a little higher than yours. The two pictures were taken at different times, for different purposes, but give you an idea what I'm talking about and since it's hard to explain, I linked a video I did because friends and family asked for an update....just a quick walkthrough. I just noticed that you can see there's no light coming in from outside when I took the pictures....definitely taken at night.







http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-2-ft-White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710

 

[Shiftless]

G-man
Nice set up you have there.
How many tubes in each of those fixtures? 4?
One thing that makes your space seem so bright is that you have white walls. That makes a huge difference. Except for my garage door every square foot of wall has open shelving or brown pegboard covered with small tools. The dark 60 year old concrete floor doesn't reflect much light either.

Anybody planning lighting arrangement has to predict what he/she will do in that space. Just storage or space for parking cars needs WAY less lighting than a place where you are doing close work like fabrication or repair.
IMHO, nobody needs hospital surgical room light intensity in every square foot of his garage.
It looks like you have achieved a nice level of illumination, not too little , not too much.
Some day I should measure what my set up provides. (LUX)

 

[G-ManBart]

G-man
Nice set up you have there.
How many tubes in each of those fixtures? 4?
One thing that makes your space seem so bright is that you have white walls. That makes a huge difference. Except for my garage door every square foot of wall has open shelving or brown pegboard covered with small tools. The dark 60 year old concrete floor doesn't reflect much light either.

Anybody planning lighting arrangement has to predict what he/she will do in that space. Just storage or space for parking cars needs WAY less lighting than a place where you are doing close work like fabrication or repair.
IMHO, nobody needs hospital surgical room light intensity in every square foot of his garage.
It looks like you have achieved a nice level of illumination, not too little , not too much.
Some day I should measure what my set up provides. (LUX)

Thanks! They're LEDs with two strips of LEDs, but I don't know how many total.

I definitely planned ahead and figured the white walls and ceiling would help a lot, and they do. I also planned ahead and put the lights right over where the work benches will be.

Here's a picture of the 40x40 side right after i got the two of the same type lights hung. I think this is a lot of light from only two fixtures.

 

[Shiftless]

Wow, only 2 strips per fixture.
Mine are the FEIT shoplights from Costco rated at 3700 lumens each. As you probably know, they have 2 strips of LEDs per fixture. The strips are inside frosted plastic tubes to act as diffusers.

 

[PALYDIN11]

Thanks for the reply G-Man. Those lights really light up the space.

My barn is a bit bigger, so I partitioned off a 24x40 section for a shop...steel liner panel ceiling and walls, etc and I used five of the LED lights I'll link below. I would have used six, but I took one corner and built a bathroom/utility closet as a room within the room, and figured there was no need to put a light over that. For the dimensions your building is, I think four lights would work nicely and even three would probably work fine. On the 40x40 side of my barn I use only two since it's mostly just storage for my machines and trailers, but it's still quite a bit of light and brighter than most people's barns/garages. My ceilings are a bit over 13' so a little higher than yours. The two pictures were taken at different times, for different purposes, but give you an idea what I'm talking about and since it's hard to explain, I linked a video I did because friends and family asked for an update....just a quick walkthrough. I just noticed that you can see there's no light coming in from outside when I took the pictures....definitely taken at night.

Thanks for the reply G-Man. Those lights really light up the space.







http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-2-ft-White-LED-High-Bay-Light-IBH-11L-MV/203812710

 

[PALYDIN11]

Got it, Thanks for the quick reply. You guys are helping me narrow down the choices.

If you want lots of light go with about 20 of those. (some guys might suggest 30)
I would put one or two more directly over the workbench and others over stationary machines like lathes or drill presses.

My workshop area is small...only 10 by 20 and I have 5 of them installed in the ceiling. PLENTY of light. To light up my open shelving I have 4 LED floodlights angled downward toward the shelves and 3 more LED flood lights over my 7 foot long workbench. Ceiling lights and flood lights are separately switched.
Remember that if you put receptacles in the ceiling or anywhere else to run those plug in shoplights, you are supposed to provide GFCI protection.

 

[G-ManBart]

Wow, only 2 strips per fixture.
Mine are the FEIT shoplights from Costco rated at 3700 lumens each. As you probably know, they have 2 strips of LEDs per fixture. The strips are inside frosted plastic tubes to act as diffusers.

Mine are listed at 11,200 lumens with an acrylic diffuser. They aren't cheap, but I love the light they put out, and that I only had to do five power drops...and they're nearly a lifetime purchase at my use rate.