24x36 garage

[tuip]

I'm trying to figure out the amount of lights for my shop that is being built.
It is 24 deep 36 wide with 3 bays. One smaller bay separated by 2 small 4ft walls from the big one (earthquake requirement).

10ft high walls and I'm painting it white.

I was originally thinking 5 rows of 3 fixtures each or am I going overkill here?

 

[pattenp]

Use a 100 lumens per sqft as a base and figure what you may need. A typical single 48" T8 lamp outputs 2600 - 2800 Lu which will be around 8 8ft 4 lamp T8 fixtures or 16 4ft 2 lamp T8 fixtures.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Go here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=289441 Board member Platonic Solid has been kind enough to work out lighting layouts for a variety of garage sizes, you'll probably find something in that thread that is pretty close to your garage.

 

[tuip]

Its been a little while since posting updates to this thread. We passed electrical inspection today so next up is framing inspection and then we can do insulation and sheetrock.

I guess it is a good thing if the inspector checks your work and says "nice .. I like the way it looks and how this thing turned out" ... *happy dance*

 

[SteveeP]

I have a 26 deep X 36 wide, 3 car also with 10ft ceilings. I went with 5 equally spaced towards the back (~30" off back wall) over work benches, tool boxes, etc. on it's own circuit/switch. Then 2 rows of 3 fixtures/each equally spaced on the rest of the ceiling. These 6 on it's own circuit/switch.
So 11, 4ft 2bulb T8 fixtures total and it lights it quite nice.

 

[tuip]

I will have 8 in total in the work area (2 rows of 4) and another 8 in the car park area. So it will be a little brighter than yours.

 

[James-W]

My garage is 24 X 36 and I have twelve 100 watt CFL's set up in 4 rows of 3 lights each. This gives me plenty of light for most things, but in certain situations a little "spot light" can be a big help.

 

[jlckmj]

I have a 24x36 and I have 10 - 105W (= 400Watt equivalent) CFL's, and it is more than adequate lighting. The only other lighting I need is under the hoist, or directly over the work bench for detail work.

Jim

 

[grzellmer]

100 lumins / sq ft is pretty high. (30 lumens / sq ft is industrial standard) Depends on the activity in the garage. Detailed work = more light needed. My garage is 30X40 and I have 8 T8 2 bulb fixtures (about 3K lumens per bulb) so I have 48000 in 1200 sq ft = 40 lumens / sq ft. Pretty good most of the time but use an extra spot light on occasion.

 

[tuip]

I'll be at about 65 or so. The numbers vary .. some call for 30 .. others call for a higher number. I can get LED tubes for about 10 dollar a piece which will help keeping cost down. I got the first circuit finished today with outlets and some outside lights. It feels so good to be able to flip that switch the first time and it all works flawlessly.

Tomorrow is framing inspection and I will have a few minor questions for the inspector since I initially had planned for 'non-heated' but it seems that when you want to insulate/sheetrock it makes a difference from a code perspective. Also I might 'rewire' the 240V circuits I had planned for EV charging systems with 6-3 instead of 6-2 to be more future proof.

I won't have a regular 'radio' in the garage. I decided to save space and install an in wall bluetooth amplifier. I got this instead. It saves me shelf space and I tend to listen either Pandora or something else anyways.

While I was waiting for electrical inspection I decided to start a quick side project and finish one of my 2 shop seats. I had 2 seats from a Land Rover Discovery that had rolled which were in decent condition. I removed the 30 pounds of steel seat frame underneath and mounted it on an desk chair base. Left to do are hooking up the electric lumbar and seat recliner (possibly the seat warmers if I get to it). There is space under the seat for a small battery pack to get the motor stuff to work