I have seen a few threads with some great advice on lighting plans. So I thought I would go ahead and post my to get any advice or critiquing before I dive into the installation.
Always a good (or at least prudent) idea.
Garage is 21x27 (measured at the interior side of the walls). Each square of the grid represents 6". 9' ceiling which will get sheetrock (is not currently). Plans are for twelve 4' Double bulb T8 light fixtures.
That works out to about 118 source lumens/ft.^2, with fresh tubes, which should be just about perfect in terms of overall brightness levels. However, you will PROBABLY want to implement the switching to provide somewhat more granular control than what you show. More on that later.
Sub panel already in garage so dedicated circuit is not a problem.
As long as you have plenty of open breaker slots, make that TWO dedicated circuits. Not because the load is all that great (24 tubes at a nominal 32 watts each is only 768 watts, +/- the ballast factors); but because
IF one breaker trips (or needs to be shut down for maintenance), you won't be left completely in the dark.
Three switched zones (reflected by the different color shaded areas).
In a relatively small shop/garage such as yours, zoning is usually less useful than being able to granularly control the brightness level throughout the space. Ideally, you'll want three switch banks ("per zone", if still doing zoning): The first switch will control some minimal number (probably 1-3 in a space that size) of fixtures, and comprise your "walk through" lighting; optionally, these can also be triggered by your garage door opener(s). Switch #2 will control perhaps 35-40% or so of the remaining fixtures; and in combination with the walk-through lights, will provide adequate illumination for "casual" work anywhere in the space. Finally, Switch #3 controls the remaining 60-65% or so of the fixtures, and is used by itself when you want that "just a little more" light, and in combination with both of the other banks when you want maximum brightness for critical and/or fine detail work. By setting things up in this manner, you have at least FOUR different illumination levels to choose from, as appropriate for whatever you'll be doing in that space at the time.
Everything is pretty much uniformly centered, except the two right hand corners (to prevent obstruction by the overhead door). Based on some of the things I have read, I am toying with the idea about moving the outside rows closer to the outside walls. Thoughts?
Well... You're currently showing three of the four lights in each row as four feet off the sidewalls, with the other one less than a 1.5 feet off the walls. Neither is horrible; but normally, you'd ideally want something in between these two extremes. However, this presumes such things as workbenches, wall cabinets, and/or other wall-hung storage. And since you don't yet know most your plans for those things, it is difficult to predict.
I probably will be installing a shelf completely around the perimeter of the garage within a couple feet of the ceiling, which may be a reason to leave them where they are shown on the plan.
Depends in part on the depth of the shelf. Obviously, the lights should NOT be blocked by the shelf; and in order to illuminate the shelf itself well, the lights should be at least a foot or so away from it (more, really, given the end-to-end gaps between the fixtures you're showing). Bottom Line:
IF you do put up such a shelf, keep it relatively narrow. You probably don't want to be hefting big heavy items up that high anyway.
Things may get moved around, but I usually park a 1/2 ton pickup on one side and mower and Atv on the other (pickup ends up being closer to the center of the garage). No plans for any permanently mounted work benches as of right now.
Thanks for ANY thoughts, concerns, or recommendations.
Hmmmm... I'm less concerned with "parking" as with what sort of work you plan to be doing in that space. With no plans for a workbench, I suspect the answer to that may well be "Not much" -- in which case, even 118 lumens/ft.^2 is serious overkill. If all you're concerned about is seeing well enough to move stored items about, etc., even half of that will be plenty. OTOH, getting truly EVEN illumination with less than the twelve fixtures you're already showing could be problematic. Dropping back to single-tube strips might be a workable solution; but it won't save you much/any money except in operating costs
Also, these are the lights that I am planning to use...
Standard-issue twin-tube open strip fixtures.
They'll work OK for you; and thousands of folks have satisfactorily used them for similar purposes. But if you want to "dress things up" some. AND aid light dispersion/diffusion a bit in the process, consider something like:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-2-Light-Utility-Light-3348-2L32W-WRAP/100654395
They're cheap; they look half-decent; they can be strung together in more-or-less continuous "strips" when appropriate; and the polycarbonate lens both helps to evenly distribute the light and provides some impact protection. There's also a matching two-foot version:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...hite-Fluorescent-Light-Fixture-3324/202192968
if you need to fit into really tight spots, or fill out a specific-length run.
