22x24 garage lighting layout - comments needed

[Prometheus]

Hi everyone,

So I'm getting ready to start doing the lighting in my 2 car garage. I have 9 foot ceilings and have already epoxied the floor, so it is quite reflective. Walls from 4 feet on up will be drywalled and painted a light color.

Here is what I came up with:

Rectangles are 4 foot 2 bulb t8 fixtures, circles are recessed lighting. The recessed lighting will be hooked up to a switch in the house and only used if I run out into the garage to grab a tool or get something out of the car, not the main light source. 18 T8 bulbs at 2850 lumens each will get me about 97 lumens per square foot, which I think will be sufficient. Workbenches and powertools will also have task lighting.

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions or alternate ideas on what I can do to make my design better. Thanks.

 

[JamieK]

If this is a working garage, then run the fixtures 90 degrees to how you have them now, so they are perpendicular to the garage door. As you have it now, a lot of the light is being "wasted" on the tops of the cars. Running it the other way will light up the sides of the car better.

 

[kd3pc]

I am with Jamie on this, I ran mine 90 degrees to your design and have great lighting door up or door down.

 

[Prometheus]

Thanks for the input so far. My main use for the garage isn't going to be automotive work, it's primarily going to be a woodworking shop so I'm not too concerned about lighting up the sides of the vehicles.

Also, where my garage door opener lands complicates the placement of running the lights front to back. I either have to do 4 rows which puts the lights close to the outside walls and makes it harder to place the recessed lights, or I do only 2 rows but then I feel like the outside walls will be dark. My overall goal is to provide good overall lighting for as much of the garage as possible while still being able to use the recessed lights for quick trips out to the garage. I'm having a hard time coming up with a layout where the lights go perpendicular to the garage door where I can achieve this. If anyone has any drawings of how I can do this I would love to see them. Thanks.

 

[JamieK]

Another idea is to just eliminate the recessed lighting. My garage is basically the same size, with three rows of light. Each row is on a separate switch. I just light up the center row when I'm just grabbing a tool or getting something quick, and just use two rows of light when I'm working on one side of the garage. All three rows come on when I'm doing detailed work. This may work better for your layout, because if your garage door is up, then the bottom row of lights will not be doing anything but wasting power.

Also, space the lights apart some lengthwise. This will give you more light out towards the walls.

 

[cybrdyke]

A couple of things...
First, the tubes are rated for 2850 lumens, but the ballast only delivers 88% of that, so re-do your math on the lumens per square foot.
My garage is the same size as yours and 9 fixtures is plenty! I put an LED can in each corner, just to fill in the corners for task lighting. Since you have task lighting as well, I agree with others that the 10 cans are unneccesary.
Good luck.
CD

 

[Prometheus]

Cybr - thanks for reminding me about the ballast efficiency - using the 88% figure I get 86 lumens/sq ft. Still enough I think.


I guess I need to explain my situation a little better. Currently I have a 3-way switch in the house and another 3-way next to the man door in the garage that controls 2 light bulbs in my garage. That's all the light there is. I am going to run a sub panel to the garage and use that to power the main lights and new outlets. However, that existing circuit will still be in place. So I figured it would be nice to wire some lights to just use for quick trips out to the garage. The new light switches from the sub panel will be in the garage near the door into the house, not near the man door outside, so it is not really practical to use that existing circuit for one of the fluorescent banks. Hence why I want to use some recessed lights. I'm not set on any certain number, just enough so I can see to grab a tool or something out of a vehicle.

That being said - I get what everyone is saying about spacing the lights further out. That seems reasonable and something I am going to do now. I'm also planning on having each bank on it's own switch so I can turn on each bank individually if I want.

I want to put in some recessed lights, not for use when the fluorescents are on, but only for use when my wife or I go out there for something random. Assuming I space out the fluorescents more, where should I put the can lights? Also, how far end-to-end should the fluorescent fixtures be? 2 feet between? More? Less?

Thanks.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Which dimension is the garage door on - 22ft or 24ft?
What are dimensions for where garage door opener lands.
Any other obstructions - support beams - columns - ...?
Workbench location.
A picture would be good.

 

[ford33]

Perhaps you should consider where the equipment is going and place lighting as needed. The current design appears to be generic and provide equal lighting everywhere.

I don't see where the cans are of any benefit.

 

[Prometheus]

Which dimension is the garage door on - 22ft or 24ft?
What are dimensions for where garage door opener lands.
Any other obstructions - support beams - columns - ...?
Workbench location.
A picture would be good.

22 deep, 24 wide. No support beams or columns, just hangers for garage door opener and tracks. There is an attic access near the front of the garage, but is not in the way of where I drew the lights above. Workbench location is as of yet undecided. I think it is going to go in between the 2 man doors at the front of the garage, but it will have it's own task lighting and won't be relying on the main fluorescent fixture. I mainly want good overall lighting for the garage for working on woodworking projects with some basic car detailing/cleaning mixed in. Workbenches and powertools will each have their own task lighting.

 

[Platonic Solid]

I'd find a way to put them perpendicular to the garage door, but that's been said. Regardless of which way you rotate them, approximate spacing for even light distribution throughout should be (from fixture center to center) 8ft. along 24ft wall and 7.3ft along 22ft wall.
Approximate yield = 62fc = 62lm/sq ft

I don't agree with using recessed cans for any purpose in a garage (unless your highlighting a babe calendar). What kind of can lights are you proposing?

 

[Prometheus]

I don't agree with using recessed cans for any purpose in a garage (unless your highlighting a babe calendar). What kind of can lights are you proposing?

I'm planning on using 6" LED can lights. Their sole purpose will be for quick trips taking out the garbage, before shoveling the drive in winter, grabbing something quick out of the tool box, etc. Just seem silly to fire up a bank or 2 of the fluorescent lights (and burning 180-300 watts) when I can turn on 4 LED can lights for the quick trips (and the circuit is already there).

Also, I guess I don't get why the direction the lights are running matters. If they are spaced correctly they should disperse light evenly, correct? I guess I don't understand why everyone is saying run them perpendicular to the garage door. Thanks.

 

[Platonic Solid]

How wide is your garage door?

 

[Prometheus]

18 feet wide x 7 tall.

 

[Platonic Solid]

The closer the lights are to the floor, the more important fixture rotation is. Now put a vehicle or 2 in the garage. Distance from top of vehicle to fixture becomes - what - 5 ft? The goal is to eliminate the shadows and putting the lights parallel with the vehicles with 9ft ceilings will reduce shadows and provide the same even distribution when there are no vehicles. How about this: Put 3 fixtures to left and right of garage door parallel to cars then put the center row perpendicular to the cars. That would work just fine. Best of both worlds.

 

[Prometheus]

That makes more sense. Thanks for the explanation. So here's what I came up with:

I think that will work. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Better. I see you added a 10th fixture. What's the distance from the ceiling to the door track?

 

[Prometheus]

Right about 24 inches. Little less.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Just for the record, If this was my garage I would do 12 fixtures like this (yield = 82fc):

 

[Czar]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and am planning,out my garage as well. Mine is 25' deep by 26' wide and was thinking Platonic's layout looks like the way to go. Would having 15' high ceilings change anything?

 

[Platonic Solid]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and am planning,out my garage as well. Mine is 25' deep by 26' wide and was thinking Platonic's layout looks like the way to go. Would having 15' high ceilings change anything?

Drop the fixtures down to 12', use 16 fixtures (4 rows of 4) to get 80fc.