2 car garage lighting recommendations

[308guru]

Hi all,

Looking for lighting suggestions for my garage. It’s your average 2 car attached, 24’ish x 24’ish, 10’ ceiling, 8’ x16’ door. The walls are currently insulated and sheet rocked, ceiling is open. The typical “cheapest option” 4 bulb sockets for overhead lighting. I’m planning to sheetrock the ceiling, insulate, install a heater, and install appropriate lighting. Typical use is putting the cars in each night, vehicle maintenance, bike cleaning & maintenance. Aside from the need in order to heat, sheetrock on the ceiling will help immensely with lighting.

I’m a self-proclaimed lighting snob coming from very high-end flashlights and quality lighting. I can somewhat put that aside as I don’t want to spend an insane amount of money on lighting the garage, but I will say a high CRI and ~4000K color temp would be awesome. I understand the sky is the limit, but I want to be reasonable with the lighting budget, which is undefined at this point.

What’s the general suggestion? LED “shop lights”? Canless recessed lights? Please point me to some examples if you’ve got a recommendation.

Thanks!

 

[AC-WC]

Go to the search feature and you can find all kinds of discussions, especially a permanent thread discussing this topic.
LED shoplights is the short answer. I have not purchased from Barinna LED but others here have recommended them. For a ten pack you can't beat the price. I have 15 lights 5000 lumens 5000k color.

 

[cybrdyke]

Shoplights are task lights and not for general illumination.
Use 9 4' surface mount strips (3x3), somewhere around 4000-5000 lumens each, in the CCT of your choice. One with a dropped lens, frosted, would be preferred. There are so many different styles, pick one that you like. If the corners are important to you, use a 4" round canless in each one to fill them in. All standard LED product is 80-ish CRI.
Good luck,
CD

 

[u2slow]

Get a couple of junction boxes into the ceiling before you close it up (wired back to your panel). Then you can surface-conduit between the fixtures afterward.

Fwiw, my ceiling isn't closed up yet, but have made out well with wall-mounted and shelf-mounted lighting for a long time.

 

[308guru]

surface mount strips (3x3).

Not sure what you mean. Examples please.

All standard LED product is 80-ish CRI.

Not true. There is a lot of product that is in the 70's. The most "productive" bin of many common emitters would be the 70+CRI, almost guaranteeing you're getting something in the 70's. The majority of people don't care about CRI and it's just fine because "they have LED lights!" (with an ugly purple/blue color and make everything look grey).

 

[dave*99]

Not sure what you mean. Examples please.


Not true. There is a lot of product that is in the 70's. The most "productive" bin of many common emitters would be the 70+CRI, almost guaranteeing you're getting something in the 70's. The majority of people don't care about CRI and it's just fine because "they have LED lights!" (with an ugly purple/blue color and make everything look grey).

3x3 usually means 3 rows of 3 strips each. Arranged in a grid/checker board pattern.

 

[Chuckster in NJ]

I’m a self-proclaimed lighting snob coming from very high-end flashlights and quality lighting. I can somewhat put that aside as I don’t want to spend an insane amount of money on lighting the garage, but I will say a high CRI and ~4000K color temp would be awesome. I understand the sky is the limit, but I want to be reasonable with the lighting budget, which is undefined at this point.

The ultimate lights for a lighting snob. www.hexagongarage.com

TIP! Install these lights along with a RACE DECK floor and you will have a "kick *** garage" that will be the envy of all your friends and family.

 

[rd65]

The ultimate lights for a lighting snob. www.hexagongarage.com

TIP! Install these lights along with a RACE DECK floor and you will have a "kick *** garage" that will be the envy of all your friends and family.

eh, not so fast. not entirely true.

 

[kngelv]

Other than a 10' ceiling - mine is 12', my new rear garage has the exact same measurements as yours with the same size door. I installed these. https://www.prolighting.com/h17s.html
Made by RAB. They are legit lights by a legit company. I have multiple ceiling mounted 4' shop lights in my front garage and they **** in comparison. The RAB's have three color temps and three different lumens output so you can customize a bit. I'm very happy with them. the glare in the pics is from the camera. It's not there in real life.

James

 

[308guru]

3x3 usually means 3 rows of 3 strips each. Arranged in a grid/checker board pattern.

I see.

Maybe I’m missing something, but that wouldn’t really make a grid/checkerboard pattern would it? Just 3 rows of lights?

 

[dave*99]

I see.

Maybe I’m missing something, but that wouldn’t really make a grid/checkerboard pattern would it? Just 3 rows of lights?

True the lights would not but the layout pattern for design purposes might start as a grid. The strips would lie in the center of the boxes.

 

[dave*99]

I used Lithonia CPANL 2x4 panels. The commercial version with 6000 lm output. There is a 4000 lm version too. Here are the design details.

Lighting for 24x28 shop

So I think I'm off to a rocky start..... I've been reading the best light fixture ever thread for a long time. And I still think I need some help. The basics: Woodshop above garage. Under construction. I have some woodworking machinery to go in the shop. It will have drywall finished...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[dave*99]

Other than a 10' ceiling - mine is 12', my new rear garage has the exact same measurements as yours with the same size door. I installed these. https://www.prolighting.com/h17s.html
Made by RAB. They are legit lights by a legit company. I have multiple ceiling mounted 4' shop lights in my front garage and they **** in comparison. The RAB's have three colr temps and three different lumens output so you can customize a bit. I'm very happy with them. the glare in the pics is from the camera. It's not there in real life.

James

RAB is a reputable brand, but those are high bay fixtures. They will not provide even illumination with a 10' ceiling. With the mounting hardware included, they would be a bit over 9' off the floor.

 

[cybrdyke]

Not sure what you mean. Examples please.


Not true. There is a lot of product that is in the 70's. The most "productive" bin of many common emitters would be the 70+CRI, almost guaranteeing you're getting something in the 70's. The majority of people don't care about CRI and it's just fine because "they have LED lights!" (with an ugly purple/blue color and make everything look grey).

There are thousands of these out there.
3x3 means 3 rows of 3 fixtures. Normally we orient these with the ends pointing at the garage door so that you aren't looking at the whole fixture as you are pulling into the garage.

As to CRI, nearly all pro lighting products are 80CRI or higher. If they aren't, the pros wont buy them. They also wont qualify for DLC or CEC approval, which makes them unsellable in the industry. If you're looking on Amazon or similar sites, then you'll find garbage products with questionable specs for Joe Homeowner use.

Good luck,
CD

 

[ssjones]

I have essentially the same size garage, with a small workshop area. I installed five, four-tube LED lamps (4').
That many LED lights does interfere with my Genie garage door opener. I discovered this after my car and keypads wouldn't work and after I bought a new Genie that had the same issue. Genie said that many LED tubes interferes with the signal. I just have to remember to turn them off before opening/closing from the car (or to the door just doesn't open). Not a big deal as I typically wouldn't leave the lights on leaving the house. You can buy special bulbs, but they were pricey enough that it wasn't worth it to me. I picked up these light fixtures, new in box with tubes for $20 locally, so a $100 investment.

I could have used two more fixtures near the door, to light up the vehicles when the door is down.

 

[kngelv]

RAB is a reputable brand, but those are high bay fixtures. They will not provide even illumination with a 10' ceiling. With the mounting hardware included, they would be a bit over 9' off the floor.

I had the same concern but was reassured that they were ok to as low as 10' by someone at RAB and also Prolighting. There are numerous similar high bay lights at my work and I don't like the glare. No issues with glare on these. I have them at 4K temp and the 60W equivalent output which puts them at 9816 lumens each. Perfect IMHO.

James

 

[rd65]

I have essentially the same size garage, with a small workshop area. I installed five, four-tube LED lamps (4').
That many LED lights does interfere with my Genie garage door opener. I discovered this after my car and keypads wouldn't work and after I bought a new Genie that had the same issue. Genie said that many LED tubes interferes with the signal. I just have to remember to turn them off before opening/closing from the car (or to the door just doesn't open). Not a big deal as I typically wouldn't leave the lights on leaving the house. You can buy special bulbs, but they were pricey enough that it wasn't worth it to me. I picked up these light fixtures, new in box with tubes for $20 locally, so a $100 investment.

I could have used two more fixtures near the door, to light up the vehicles when the door is down.

I'm probably going to sound like a **** but her goes, why do guys spend $1,000 on a floor but then not spend anything on lighting? I try to understand but just can't. Granted, looks like you have plenty of light for that space, but more generally speaking.

 

[codeadidas]

I was considering the CREE LS4 for my future build. However, after additional consideration, I decided to utilize traditional 4' T8 LED fixtures with high CRI bulbs (Specifically, High TM-30).

This decision was based on the fact that I can get better quality lighting that is more easily replaceable (simple bulb swap). My biggest concern was that the Cree or any integrated style lighting is difficult to replace. I currently have 14 Lithonia integrated 48" strips in my current garage (24'x24') and end up replacing about 1 per year, it gets annoying lol. Also, I could not locate the photometric report for the Cree LEDs, so I truly don't know if it justifies the premium price.

Attached are the bulbs I am considering. I plan to go with the Sylvania bulbs and may spring for Centric if I am feeling extra. I have 4 of the Sylvania bulbs right now in the garage for testing, and they have performed well so far. Light output is good, and they provide better color accuracy than my Lithonias. I plan to pair these bulbs with regular T8 fixtures like the TCP 88LT800045.

You can utilize the free Visual Interior Tool from Acuity brands to provide an estimate of illuminance. You can also pay $10 for a month of DIALux which is used to interactively calculate lighting and provides more realistic visualizations. You can see the heat map generated from the software for my layout. DIALux has tutorials on Youtube with everything you need to know to use the software.

 

[cybrdyke]

I was considering the CREE LS4 for my future build. However, after additional consideration, I decided to utilize traditional 4' T8 LED fixtures with high CRI bulbs (Specifically, High TM-30).

This decision was based on the fact that I can get better quality lighting that is more easily replaceable (simple bulb swap). My biggest concern was that the Cree or any integrated style lighting is difficult to replace. I currently have 14 Lithonia integrated 48" strips in my current garage (24'x24') and end up replacing about 1 per year, it gets annoying lol. Also, I could not locate the photometric report for the Cree LEDs, so I truly don't know if it justifies the premium price.

Attached are the bulbs I am considering. I plan to go with the Sylvania bulbs and may spring for Centric if I am feeling extra. I have 4 of the Sylvania bulbs right now in the garage for testing, and they have performed well so far. Light output is good, and they provide better color accuracy than my Lithonias. I plan to pair these bulbs with regular T8 fixtures like the TCP 88LT800045.

You can utilize the free Visual Interior Tool from Acuity brands to provide an estimate of illuminance. You can also pay $10 for a month of DIALux which is used to interactively calculate lighting and provides more realistic visualizations. You can see the heat map generated from the software for my layout. DIALux has tutorials on Youtube with everything you need to know to use the software.

Stick with the Sylvania. The Centric is loaded with marketing mumbo jumbo and suspect data.

By your chart, you can see what going to 90+ CRI does to lowering the performance of tubes, as well as increasing the price. Frankly, to me, it's not worth it for a garage space, unless you are doing critical work in there, like color matching paint for instance.
Good luck,
CD

 

[ssjones]

I'm probably going to sound like a **** but her goes, why do guys spend $1,000 on a floor but then not spend anything on lighting? I try to understand but just can't. Granted, looks like you have plenty of light for that space, but more generally speaking.

A $1000 for the floor?....I wish. I've had cars and motorcycles that cost less than that floor (but the uncoated floor was a disaster)
Yeah its plenty of light, my family/friends come over and laugh - you have an airport in your garage. My problem is it is always so warm here, nearly year round, that I have to work with the garage door up. Any additional lighting added would be covered by the open door.

 

[Metal-Marc]

20'x50'

I have twelve of these ceramic sockets.




And twelve LED cob bulbs. 200W equivalent 6500k daylight.

 

[tworley]

Happy with my "bolt" primelights. I picked these up when they were ~$50. I've got 10 in my 25x20 garage with a 5k color temp.

 

[308guru]

After reading through this thread a couple times and looking at products mentioned, I like the strip light idea. I would prefer (aesthetically) to have covers on them. Are there any recommended strips (housings) that come with a cover?

Am I correct in thinking the strips can generally be as cheap as I can find them? They are just holding the bulbs, which is where I want to spend the money as necessary.

 

[308guru]

These caught my eye as well. Integrated LED's rather than replaceable bulbs which is a little concerning for longevity.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Metalux-8-ft-Linear-White-Integrated-LED-Strip-Light-with-9500-Lumens-4000K-Dimmable-UNV-Voltage-8SL8040/305053569

 

[AC-WC]

For the LED strip lights all the different ones I bought have some kind of cover on them. You can't see the LED when lights are off or on.
Inexpensive quality ones are the chore to find. Don't go cheap. I did on my 1st batch of lights and had to replace all 15 in less than 2 yrs. One was only 3 months old.
First batch was Rural King worksaver brand and they did NOT last.
Did you have a chance to check out Barinna? So far I've had good luck with HF Braun lights and some of Menards low cost options. I picked ones that had 1-2 yr warranty. All of these are daisy chained.

 

[AC-WC]

For the cost of 2 of the HD lights you could have 10 of the Barinna shipped to you. You do have to dig through their website to find the ones with a cover/diffuser.

 

[logical]

The ultimate lights for a lighting snob. www.hexagongarage.com

TIP! Install these lights along with a RACE DECK floor and you will have a "kick *** garage" that will be the envy of all your friends and family.

People thought that about having a disco ball in their living room in the 70's too.

The wall and ceiling colors are good choices.

 

[badmatt]

I just finished up the lighting in my 24x24 9.5' ceiling height garage.

6 x 24x48' LED light panels (set at 50 watts and 5000K) I purchased these through a wholesaler here in Manitoba, they were roughly $65 Canadian a panel.




Dont judge me on the mess... still working through it and trying to get everything done before the snow comes.

 

[ssjones]

I just finished up the lighting in my 24x24 9.5' ceiling height garage.

6 x 24x48' LED light panels (set at 50 watts and 5000K) I purchased these through a wholesaler here in Manitoba, they were roughly $65 Canadian a panel.




Dont judge me on the mess... still working through it and trying to get everything done before the snow comes.

Looks like you have great coverage!

 

[Metal-Marc]

still working through it and trying to get everything done before the snow comes.

Hopefully you paint the drywall.

 

[badmatt]

Hopefully you paint the drywall.

I suppose.

 

[badmatt]

Looks like you have great coverage!

Thanks!

I wanted to never be short on lighting.

 

[old_smokey]

I just finished up the lighting in my 24x24 9.5' ceiling height garage.

6 x 24x48' LED light panels (set at 50 watts and 5000K) I purchased these through a wholesaler here in Manitoba, they were roughly $65 Canadian a panel.




Dont judge me on the mess... still working through it and trying to get everything done before the snow comes.

Mind sharing who the wholesaler was? Those look great. I wouldn't mind some myself.

 

[badmatt]

Mind sharing who the wholesaler was? Those look great. I wouldn't mind some myself.

Jenco Lighting on St James. Ill post the item number when I get home this evening. They come in a box of four but they will split a box if you need.

 

[BetterDays]

The ultimate lights for a lighting snob. www.hexagongarage.com

TIP! Install these lights along with a RACE DECK floor and you will have a "kick *** garage" that will be the envy of all your friends and family.

Those look like the lights that keep popping up in my FB seek since I was looking for garage lighting.

 

[Fav Onefour]

Wire the lighting with multiple switches and zones. I've rewired and modified my three bay, ten ft. ceiling height, garage shop lighting a few times. Multiple switches and zones has been a nice touch.

One set of switches operate a few central lights. Those lights are right over each parking bay. The switch locations are next to man door and house access. It may sound dorky but I reconfigured the switch locations so that the few central lights are operated by a switch right next to the door casing. That makes them easy to find and access in the dark and easy to shut off when I leave.

The main garage full lighting is operated by another set of switches inward from the central lights.
I'm in and out of the garage quite often while doing small tasks and work outside. My space is well lit and turning on the whole works is too much when I'm just going in and out. Honestly, when I come in at night, full lighting is almost blinding until the eyes adapt.

I have another light zone for my workbench area. That switch is right next to the main bench. The workbench light zone is all ceiling outlets off the switch. That lets me swap and reconfigure the lighting when I want without too much fuss. I've changed out and moved the workbench lights a few times before I felt like they were just right. The original location was too close to the wall and lit up the hanging tools before hitting the bench. The second location was too far away and created shadowing from my noggin while working. In the end I mounted four foot fixtures diagonally over the bench area to achieve front to back lighting.

In relation to fixtures. My central lighting is a combo system of skylights and single fixtures over each parking bay. I put those toward the front of vehicle locations to check fluids etc.
The main area full blown lighting is six of those simple ceramic surface mount and bulbs that @Metal-Marc , mentioned. Bulbs produce good light and are easily replaceable. I tried a few different light colors in those fixtures before settling on 5K. I also popped them up to 10,000 lumen bulbs. If I did anything else I'd add another zone of those fixtures and lower output bulbs around the outside edges to even out the light spread. The current locations do not burn paint in the corners. The middle area of the garage is well lit.

I am leery of integrated LED fixtures when using a lot of them in one space. I do use them but now purchase an extra fixture. I screwed up in "my younger years" and ended up replacing whole sets when one failed because the "trendy" style was discontinued.
I have a couple of indoor work spaces with low ceilings that are lit by flat panel LED fixtures. Lighting is good and clearance is a bonus. Fixtures aren't cheap and the trim packages keep changing. My current styles do not exist anymore. I'd call that my good and bad.
I also have some cheap integrated workshop lights. I'm talking cheap too. Twenty bucks a pop for 5,500 lumen output. I keep watching for the fixtures on sale and now have added them to another couple work areas. They are all plug in fixtures. I also recommend putting them on switched outlets. They bleed power and glow even when their cheap switches are off. Lighting is fairly good from those cheap fixtures.

 

[Metal-Marc]

Wire the lighting with multiple switches and zones. I've rewired and modified my three bay, ten ft. ceiling height, garage shop lighting a few times. Multiple switches and zones has been a nice touch.

I did something similar.

12 lights into three zones with three switches right by the door.

Then I added a fourth switch, a Leviton Z-Wave switch that feed the three switches. This way, I can remotely turn on or off all the lights in the garage.

 

[PhantomEB]

23x26x8….I did 3x4 Artika flat panels from Costco when I saw them on sale for 39.99 CDN each. Selectable for three different light levels plus a tenth over the main bench.

if I ever need to replace one I will just replace them all with the same brand or what have you. Barilla would more likely be my choice. Not a fan of the hexagonal fixtures that’s the trend for show room garages.

 

[Fav Onefour]

I did something similar.

12 lights into three zones with three switches right by the door.

Then I added a fourth switch, a Leviton Z-Wave switch that feed the three switches. This way, I can remotely turn on or off all the lights in the garage.

It's funny that you mention the master switch configuration. (My earlier response was already too damn long so I didn't mention that tidbit.)
I did that setup with a workshop that is tucked into a back corner of a 40 X 60 storage space. The main area lighting is ok but not good for task lighting. I linked a slave switch, located in the workshop area, off the main lighting circuit. The configuration allows me to have useful lighting where it's needed. The setup is pretty slick because I can flip off the whole works with one switch right at the door.
One other trick that I did in that little workshop was to add another separate 20A switched circuit. I wanted even more lighting but I was close to being tapped out on the main light circuit. I had started using the workshop for bigger projects and adding more tools. I run burner lights off ceiling outlets and battery chargers on a wall outlet off the added 20A circuit. The 20A circuit is only on while I'm working in that little workshop.

You guys may have already noticed that I'm big into proper lighting and layout. I look at it this way. I'm wasting time and energy whenever I'm walking back and forth to flip switches or work in half lit work spaces. I prefer to do a little work up front trying to get good lighting that is efficient to use. My wife used to give me **** about the time I spent doing good lighting. Then she started doing her junk in my work areas because it was easier. I'm warning you right now, watch out for task creep in your garage/shop when you do good lighting. Older kitchens have junk lighting. We had two fixtures on the kitchen ceiling that were shiny in the 1980s. I ended up redoing the kitchen/dining area lighting setup. She now has five switched zones and the amount of light where it's needed. It is a functional space that can be used day or night.

 

[BurtEggley]

2 car attached. Used six dual 4' fluorescents for years on two switches of 3 each. 3 spaced evenly to illuminate a raised hood and the workbench, 3 spaced evenly near rear of cars. Recently converted to bypass LED 5000K. More than enough light for most needs. Use battery powered lights when under the cars.