24 x 26 Lighting Ideas

[iceman31]

I am about to do the electrical on my garage and need some ideas. I was looking for your opinion. Do I go with CFL lights or should I go with the long tube style fixtures? I actually like the CFL lights and the bulbs are easy to change. How many of them should I have installed in the garage if I go that route? My garage will be fully insulated and I have a heavy 16' door and one walk in door. Also one 48" window on the west side. Also I would like outside lighting on either side of the 16' door and one outside the walk in door. Your ideas will help me lots. Thanks. My garage is just a shell right now with all doors and windows installed, shingles installed so slowly coming along.

 

[JoeFin]

I like a lot of light.

I butted together several 4' fluorescent fixtures in the existing garage and will be doing the same for the addition. I get a gazillion hours out of the tubes and their relatively cheap to operate.

Adding a nice reflector would make them all that more efficient and shed tons of light on my work surfaces

 

[2ManyProjects]

I am about to do the electrical on my garage and need some ideas. I was looking for your opinion.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3387494&postcount=5

Do I go with CFL lights or should I go with the long tube style fixtures?

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3390274&postcount=11

Also I would like outside lighting on either side of the 16' door and one outside the walk in door.

There are, literally, thousands of options for this. Which will be more or less appropriate for your application will depend on such things as the architectural details (and overall style) of the building, the proximity of neighbors (and/or your own home's windows), and especially the intended use of the lighting: Is it primarily decorative, or functional? Is it intended to simply let you see to put a key in the door, or is it also a security light, or is it attempting to provide workspace-quality light outdoors? And, of course, there is the matter of your personal taste, and your budget; "similar" fixtures can cost anywhere from $50 to $500 (or more). IOW, your question is so open-ended as to be effectively unanswerable.

I like a lot of light.

So do I, provided that I can CONTROL that light in a granular fashion. You don't want to be forced to turn on several hundred (or thousand) watts of lighting just to go grab a screwdriver, or unload the groceries.

Adding a nice reflector would make them all that more efficient and shed tons of light on my work surfaces

That is true if, and ONLY "if", the light is only needed directly below the fixture(s) -- i.e., such as task lighting for a workbench or stationary power tool. But for the general lighting in a typical low-ceilinged garage application, such reflectors are more often actually counterproductive, as they inhibit the wide and even distribution of the light.

 

[JoeFin]

That is true if, and ONLY "if", the light is only needed directly below the fixture(s) -- i.e., such as task lighting for a workbench or stationary power tool. But for the general lighting in a typical low-ceilinged garage application, such reflectors are more often actually counterproductive, as they inhibit the wide and even distribution of the light.

I've used those wrapped fixtures before and wouldn't use them again.

First off try not getting your information for fluorescent reflectors from sites like 420.com or HempCultureRus.com. Those reflectors are designed to shed light directly down on a grow bed and they do a very good job of that I'm sure.

Been quite a few years since I've had to access information on Fluorescent Reflectors and was pretty surprised by the results my self. But they have been in use for 20+ years and if any thing the price is coming down.

You need to be careful to select reflectors for the correct ceiling height but they have 98% aluminum reflectors all the way down to 8' ceiling heights for T5, T8, and CFL cans.

And NO you do not need to turn it all on at once.

Task Lighting, 50/50 Switching, or any other arrangement is all possible provided you plan ahead and provide wiring for them before you close the walls. If your worried about "Hauling in the Groceries" and the dim 40 watt bulb in your garage door opener is not enough. Use the dry contacts found on most upper scale door openers to fire a relay that can shed a little more light on the subject. This doesn't need to be additional dedicated task specific lighting but rather can be just 1 or a portion of your garage/shop lighting provided you know how to wire it up.

There are Free Lighting Design, vendor specific, software programs out there on the net and I would highly suggest using one.

http://www.luxart.com/ProdMluxLight.htm

Nothing worse then finishing off the walls just to find out you don't have enough light. Here are some industry recommendations of how much light to use

Activity Illumination (lux, lumen/m2)

Public areas with dark surroundings 20 - 50

Simple orientation for short visits 50 - 100

Working areas where visual tasks are only occasionally performed 100 - 150

Warehouses, Homes, Theaters, Archives 150

Easy Office Work, Classes 250

Normal Office Work, PC Work, Study Library,
Groceries, Show Rooms, Laboratories 500

Supermarkets, Mechanical Workshops, Office Landscapes 750

Normal Drawing Work, Detailed Mechanical Workshops,
Operation Theatres 1,000

Detailed Drawing Work, Very Detailed Mechanical Works 1500 - 2000

Performance of visual tasks of low contrast and very small size
for prolonged periods of time 2000 - 5000

Performance of very prolonged and exacting visual tasks 5000 - 10000

Performance of very special visual tasks of extremely low contrast
and small size 10000 - 20000

Nothing well screw your eyes up faster then not having the correct lighting for the task. And as you can see by the chart, doing close tolerance machine work requires a "Ton of Light". Not having reflectors would just require too many fixtures and doesn't make sense wasting all that light illuminating your ceiling

But then again I know a few girls who like looking at the ceiling ....

 

[2ManyProjects]

I've used those wrapped fixtures before and wouldn't use them again.

Care to explain why, specifically? Do you have an issue with the specific make/model fixtures I used as an example? Or with all similar fixtures?

First off try not getting your information for fluorescent reflectors from sites like 420.com or HempCultureRus.com. Those reflectors are designed to shed light directly down on a grow bed and they do a very good job of that I'm sure.

What on Earth are you blathering on about..?

You appear to be arguing with something I've said; but are in fact confirming my point that ALL such reflectors (including those provided by common cheap "shop lights") serve to direct the light more-or-less directly downward, as opposed to letting it spread out over a larger area. Different implementations will of course vary somewhat in their effectiveness/efficiency; but regardless, that redirection is their fundamental raison d'etere.

And NO you do not need to turn it all on at once.

A. - What does this have to do with reflectors vs. diffusers?

B. - And again, where have I suggested otherwise? I in fact explicitly cautioned AGAINST creating a situation where that would be the case. Did you even read the posts I linked to?

Nothing worse then finishing off the walls just to find out you don't have enough light. Here are some industry recommendations of how much light to use

Care to cite a reference for these (collectively, rather vague and arbitrary) pronouncements from on high?

Nothing well screw your eyes up faster then not having the correct lighting for the task. And as you can see by the chart, doing close tolerance machine work requires a "Ton of Light".

You are apparently conflating (and/or confusing) general illumination with task lighting. They are two very different things, requiring two very different solutions. And notably, neither replaces the other.

Not having reflectors would just require too many fixtures and doesn't make sense wasting all that light illuminating your ceiling

A. - Using reflectors such as the ones you apparently advocate on your general area lighting will in fact drive the required fixture count UP, not down. The more effective/efficient those reflectors are, the more they will concentrate the lamp's output into a relatively small area. It rather obviously follows from this that a greater number of fixtures will then be needed to cover a given area with adequately even illumination.

B. - Given the right circumstances (and again, in the context of general area illumination), the ceiling itself IS both a (broad) reflector AND a diffuser. If you don't have a usable ceiling (such as, for example, in an an open-truss pole barn or similar), or are dealing with some other extremely high-ceiling application, then on-fixture reflectors of some sort become pretty much your only semi-viable alternative. But that has never been the context under discussion in this thread.

But then again I know a few girls who like looking at the ceiling ....

If you say so. :

 

[sands35]

IMHO - I've looked at a lot of the light calculators, there are too many assumptions to make them work for a DIY job. I'm not going to pay somebody to do it "professionally".

What I'm doing is this (26x32 w/ 10' ceilings):

Plan A:
25 junction boxes spaced on a 5x5 grid.
Under cabinet and track lights over work bench areas (installing 3' deep shelves about 7.5' over the floor with cabinets under them. High storage for infrequent use stuff and a place to put task lights.)
Start out with the standard hardware store CFLs at ~120 Watt equivalent.

See what happens.

Plan B:
Up the wattage in higher work areas of the CFLs.
or
Install surface mount T8s in higher work areas.

====
Given that I'll want junction boxes regardless of screw in or tube fluorescent, an Edison base costs ~$1.50 and I'll have a use for the CFLs else-ware in my house, I'm basically only out some time if I don't like the CFLs in the garage.

 

[Kevin C]

I like a lot of light.

I butted together several 4' fluorescent fixtures in the existing garage and will be doing the same for the addition. I get a gazillion hours out of the tubes and their relatively cheap to operate.

Adding a nice reflector would make them all that more efficient and shed tons of light on my work surfaces

I agree on using a reflector and I'm surprised that anyone would recommend not using one. I have a 24' * 26' shop with eleven four foot, double bulb T8 shop lights and the light level is really, really nice.

I split it up into three zones, first bay, second bay and the back of the shop.

Unfortunately, the light I used has been discontinued:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-White-Ceiling-Fluorescent-Shop-Light-DISCONTINUED-HBSL-25G/202022571#.UkhN_4aTh8E

Two things that I liked about this light:

A nice grid over the lamps keeps me from breaking them If I hit one with a long piece of stock. Since they are suspense from short chains, they move when hit.

It has a nice reflector designed for normal height ceilings (not a high bay light).

Reflectors: Why throw away a large portion of the light so so you can light up the top of the walls? A reasonably curved reflector / director gets most of the light going in the right direction. The reflectors on my lights keep the light off of the tops of the walls, but still allow for a pretty wide dispersion angle.

I have seen a number of people pay more to get T5 lights with a small efficiency gain, only to negate that by losing a signification portion of the light to the sides of the shop.

With a 10' ceiling a single light covers a 20' wide area. I put four across the back of the shop so that they overlap and limit shadows.

For detail work I still need a strong small work light. However, the room is bright enough to make it very pleasant to work in. Light colored walls and floor help a lot.

 

[Wayne G]

Have 24x24 garage. Put 18 screw in cfl bulbs. Put in series of 4or 5 porceline type. They are on 3or 4 way switches. Can have all on or just 4.placed above workbench, toolboxes ect. Good luck!!!