snorky18
Well-known member
Please critique my lighting plan.
Overhead view:
This is my first go at this, so don’t worry about hurting my feelings, just worry about making sure that I only hang lights once.
The garage: Standardish 2 car, interior dimensions of 25’x25’. 625 square feet total. The seven feet along the south end where the big doors are I never use, so I’m not concerned with lighting it very well, though what I’m doing will probably be an improvement from what it is now. Plus my doors are open so often that lights above them would be wasted, and I’m not about to hang any lights 7’ off the floor so they shine below the door, and Neglecting that 7’ unused section along the south wall where the doors are leaves me with 450 SF to illuminate. Ceilings are 12’, painted flat white. Walls are eggshell khaki.
Proposed: 11 4’ T8 fixtures make a total of 704 watts for 450SF, which provides about 1.5 Watts/SF. I’ve seen the number of 2 Watts/SF around here, but it seems like many are happy with less or more. I’ve never had good garage lighting before; I don’t even know what I need. Three rows of 12' of fixtures parallel to the cars, then 1 row of 8' of fixtures over the work bench (referred to as Row 4).
The bay in front of the work table is the one where ALL car repairs and other work are done. The left bay is used for my wife to park in, and nothing else. Both cars are generally pulled in forward. (I’ve found that if my wife’s car is backed in, she never closes the garage door when she leaves, but I digress…)
Legend for the drawing:
-Black lines are walls. (The “double wall” on 2.5 sides is the front and back of the top of the block wall, which stops at about 3’ high, creating an 8” deep shelf. The outermost white line is the perimeter of the garage at the ceiling).
-Gray circles are the exiting lighting (4 100-watt bulbs, yeeha)
-Gray rectangles are rough outlines of our cars.
-Red rectangles are proposed lighting (Lithonia 48” T8 fixtures, 2 32-watt bulbs each)
-Purple are dimensions.
-Green is the proposed 60” ceiling fan, b/c I’m in Alabama and the heat index is so high I feel like I’m working over a pot of boiling water. (Supposedly the fan is 43,000 cfm, so it should make a significant difference.)
Lingering questions I have:
1. Should I abandon (and remove) the current 4 ceramic fixtures with 100w bulbs, or leave them for general use (quick trips out to the car). One of them is located right where I want to hang the fan, so it’s probably going to be removed no matter what. The only thing I like about the 100W bulbs is that when it’s 40 degrees in the garage they’ll light up without hesitation, but it seems like the fluorescents would still provide enough light to run out there to grab something.
2. Is this enough light for my needs? (Car repair, general carpentry projects)
3. Will I get any weird shadows from the ceiling fan? It will be wrapped with light on 3 sides if I put it where it is shown. The blades will be 60” diameter, and 17” from the ceiling. The second drawing (see bottom of this post) is an elevation view of the approximate light paths from the sides of the fan.
4. Which rows of lighting should be on a switch together? I’m thinking a basic set (row 2?) just for getting stuff out of the car, then 1 and 3 together, then 4 by itself? I’ve never had the option before, so I’m not sure how to proceed.
5. Right now the single light switch for the garage lights is at the top of six steps, through the door, and around the other side of the wall. (So in the house.) It’s nice when I want to turn the lights off before going to bed (from the house), but highly inconvenient when I need to turn the lights on while I’m in the garage. I’m already going to put the fan speed control at the bottom of the steps, just to the left of the tool box. If I put the lights on more than 1 switch, I’m definitely putting those switches there as well. Should I just go ahead and put in a 3 way switch next to the fan speed control for the “basic set” of lights for general use that are also controlled from the house?
6. Will I wish I had a fixture over my toolbox, or is there more than enough light from the other sources to spill over?
7. That row of fixtures over the work table, How do I know if I want it centered over the work table, or if I want the light to come from “over my shoulder” (which sounds annoying, but I feel like someone on here said it was a good idea)? Or should it be closer to the wall like rows 1 and 3? Does it really matter? Keep in mind it also serves the purpose of illuminating the under-hood area of cars I’m working on, so I’m a bit hesitant to move it very far towards the fan.
8. Is there any reason I shouldn’t flush mount the florescent fixtures to the ceiling?
Thanks so much for your input.
Elevation View showing fan and nearest lights:
Overhead view:
This is my first go at this, so don’t worry about hurting my feelings, just worry about making sure that I only hang lights once.
The garage: Standardish 2 car, interior dimensions of 25’x25’. 625 square feet total. The seven feet along the south end where the big doors are I never use, so I’m not concerned with lighting it very well, though what I’m doing will probably be an improvement from what it is now. Plus my doors are open so often that lights above them would be wasted, and I’m not about to hang any lights 7’ off the floor so they shine below the door, and Neglecting that 7’ unused section along the south wall where the doors are leaves me with 450 SF to illuminate. Ceilings are 12’, painted flat white. Walls are eggshell khaki.
Proposed: 11 4’ T8 fixtures make a total of 704 watts for 450SF, which provides about 1.5 Watts/SF. I’ve seen the number of 2 Watts/SF around here, but it seems like many are happy with less or more. I’ve never had good garage lighting before; I don’t even know what I need. Three rows of 12' of fixtures parallel to the cars, then 1 row of 8' of fixtures over the work bench (referred to as Row 4).
The bay in front of the work table is the one where ALL car repairs and other work are done. The left bay is used for my wife to park in, and nothing else. Both cars are generally pulled in forward. (I’ve found that if my wife’s car is backed in, she never closes the garage door when she leaves, but I digress…)
Legend for the drawing:
-Black lines are walls. (The “double wall” on 2.5 sides is the front and back of the top of the block wall, which stops at about 3’ high, creating an 8” deep shelf. The outermost white line is the perimeter of the garage at the ceiling).
-Gray circles are the exiting lighting (4 100-watt bulbs, yeeha)
-Gray rectangles are rough outlines of our cars.
-Red rectangles are proposed lighting (Lithonia 48” T8 fixtures, 2 32-watt bulbs each)
-Purple are dimensions.
-Green is the proposed 60” ceiling fan, b/c I’m in Alabama and the heat index is so high I feel like I’m working over a pot of boiling water. (Supposedly the fan is 43,000 cfm, so it should make a significant difference.)
Lingering questions I have:
1. Should I abandon (and remove) the current 4 ceramic fixtures with 100w bulbs, or leave them for general use (quick trips out to the car). One of them is located right where I want to hang the fan, so it’s probably going to be removed no matter what. The only thing I like about the 100W bulbs is that when it’s 40 degrees in the garage they’ll light up without hesitation, but it seems like the fluorescents would still provide enough light to run out there to grab something.
2. Is this enough light for my needs? (Car repair, general carpentry projects)
3. Will I get any weird shadows from the ceiling fan? It will be wrapped with light on 3 sides if I put it where it is shown. The blades will be 60” diameter, and 17” from the ceiling. The second drawing (see bottom of this post) is an elevation view of the approximate light paths from the sides of the fan.
4. Which rows of lighting should be on a switch together? I’m thinking a basic set (row 2?) just for getting stuff out of the car, then 1 and 3 together, then 4 by itself? I’ve never had the option before, so I’m not sure how to proceed.
5. Right now the single light switch for the garage lights is at the top of six steps, through the door, and around the other side of the wall. (So in the house.) It’s nice when I want to turn the lights off before going to bed (from the house), but highly inconvenient when I need to turn the lights on while I’m in the garage. I’m already going to put the fan speed control at the bottom of the steps, just to the left of the tool box. If I put the lights on more than 1 switch, I’m definitely putting those switches there as well. Should I just go ahead and put in a 3 way switch next to the fan speed control for the “basic set” of lights for general use that are also controlled from the house?
6. Will I wish I had a fixture over my toolbox, or is there more than enough light from the other sources to spill over?
7. That row of fixtures over the work table, How do I know if I want it centered over the work table, or if I want the light to come from “over my shoulder” (which sounds annoying, but I feel like someone on here said it was a good idea)? Or should it be closer to the wall like rows 1 and 3? Does it really matter? Keep in mind it also serves the purpose of illuminating the under-hood area of cars I’m working on, so I’m a bit hesitant to move it very far towards the fan.
8. Is there any reason I shouldn’t flush mount the florescent fixtures to the ceiling?
Thanks so much for your input.
Elevation View showing fan and nearest lights:
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