How important is the ceiling and wall color for light distribution?

IONH · Nov 17, 2010

My garage is ~27w X 32d and I plan on installing 15 (3w X 5d) T8 twin bulb units without reflectors. My ceiling is some type of 2x8'ish drywall with light brown paper.

How much will my ceiling color impact the light distribution as the lights do not have reflectors? How much of a difference would it make to throw up some plain unpainted gray skinned drywall?

SteelArt · Nov 17, 2010

Lots. I have just gone from a tin ceiling to a white painted one and I can now happily work without even turning the lights on. While doing the ceiling we lined it with brwon ply first and the change once the paint went on was amazing.

Have a look for yourself

IONH · Nov 17, 2010

Great comparison pictures SteelArt!

What do you you think if I did have reflectors?

As the 2x8 sheets of drywall are in somewhat rough shape, lots of strapping holding them up where they sagged for the PO, so to paint I will need to pull them down and put something else up (eg: plywood like you did) and primer/paint over that.

williaty · Nov 17, 2010

Ceiling and wall color and tone are going to have a HUGE impact on lighting, regardless of the reflector on the light source. Most things that are "colored" absorb the majority of the light that hits them. The best reflecting paint I've ever encountered (so good that we use it to coat the inside of theatrical lights) is flat white ceiling paint. That stuff reflects over 98% of incident light and since it's flat, it scatters the light around everywhere, reducing the harshness of shadows.

bchee · Nov 17, 2010

Which is more important, the ceiling or the wall color?
Seems like the walls make more of an impact.

williaty · Nov 17, 2010

Ceiling, actually. It has more to do with overall lighting. Now, the wall IMMEDIATELY in front of your work area has a big impact on your work area when you talk about something like a bench pushed up against the wall. On the scale of the whole shop, though, it's the ceiling.

bchee · Nov 18, 2010

dang, didn't know that. In the before and after pictures that SteelArt posted, both walls and ceiling changed colors, so of course everything seems brighter.

williaty · Nov 18, 2010

Yeah, SteelArt's photos went basically from "worst case" to "best case" in one fell swoop.

IONH · Nov 18, 2010

Awesome information williaty. :beer:

Looks like I can get ~1/2" OSB 4x8 sheets for $6 from the big box store. Figure 30 sheets to have extra and that's $180 plus screws to hold it up. This'd be a good time to run some electrical up there for the lighting as well.

Plus, this way, I can mount the lights anywhere as I can mount them straight to the 1/2" OSB.

williaty · Nov 18, 2010

You way want to arrange for some lights to face up towards the ceiling from several feet away from it. In the car garage, when I work in there, we take two 500W halogen flood lights on a stand and bounce them off the ceiling, which is painted flat white. It lights the whole place up so you can see what you're doing, even in the shadows, without ever feeling harsh/bright/glaring. I'll then use a flourescent light if I have to crawl under the car. For very fine detail tasks, I'll sometimes add a "task light" right above what I'm working on. For just general "kick this, curse at that" type working, the halogen floods bounced off the ceiling are enough for the 3-car garage.

bochnak · Nov 18, 2010

HUGE difference in garage when I painted my bare cinder block walls gloss white. Ceiling is open and lights have reflectors.

tomstin · Nov 18, 2010

I noticed a big improvement after painting the walls and ceiling white in my garage.

JC23 · Nov 18, 2010

Hey, IONH, if the ceiling is already covered with drywall as you say, just paint it. You don't need to cover it again. Start out with a good drywall sealer and then use white.

I did mine in gloss white as it's 28 ft wide with three rows of lighting.

williaty · Nov 18, 2010

The other thing to consider is if it's bare drywall and the drywall is faced in white paper, you're not going to gain a whole lot by painting it. If it's the brown-faced sheets, it'll improve considerably.

IONH · Nov 18, 2010

JC23 said:
Hey, IONH, if the ceiling is already covered with drywall as you say, just paint it. You don't need to cover it again. Start out with a good drywall sealer and then use white.

I did mine in gloss white as it's 28 ft wide with three rows of lighting.

I was considering that. Right now it is so dirty and some of it sagging where there is no strapping that it's in rough shape.

williaty said:
The other thing to consider is if it's bare drywall and the drywall is faced in white paper, you're not going to gain a whole lot by painting it. If it's the brown-faced sheets, it'll improve considerably.

First post I stated its brown faced.

Right now, at the loss of about 3/4" of ceiling height, I am considering running some new straps and all my electrical against the drywall. Then put the OSB up against the strapping. This would seem to be the simplest approach.

reznunt · Nov 18, 2010

wall color does effect how bright it seems in your garage. but if you put enough lighting in there, you can have your garage any color you like. here's mine with dark gray walls:

nmanitou · Nov 18, 2010

Here's another before and after. I just painted my OSB walls and WOW - I like it!
Before:

After:

You may notice that my ceiling isn't in yet, so the improvement is total due to wall reflection.

YMMV!

IONH · Nov 18, 2010

Thanks for the pictures nmanitou. Are you planning on adding a ceiling? I think that'd help quite a bit.

How important is the ceiling and wall color for light distribution?

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