30x50 Garage Lighting Design

[Spudland_Dave]

Disclaimer...I think I've read the entire GJ forums for help...while i'm a little bit smarter, I still have plenty of questions.

-Garage is 30x50 building. For the purposes of lighting lets think of 2x 30x25 garages.

• Front half (2 doors) will be for the vehicles and normal day to day garage stuff (kids bikes, baseball bats, etc.. )
• Rear Half will be for tinkering...metal fab, restoration work, etc..

Light Types...tons of discussions. I'm thinking I'm leaning towards 4' T8 fixtures for the sole reason of bang for the buck. Not really wanting 8' units as I dont want to deal with handling 8' bulbs.

Placement...See pic 2. The Blue dashes each represent a 2 bulb 4' Fixture. Evenly spaced 7.5' apart, and same for length.

Finished ceiling height will be 10', currently no sheathing on interior, but its in the plans as funds & time allows. when I sheath, I will also be painting the interior. Color seems to matter so white cieling, light tan walls.

Currently nothing is wired, I havent even pulled power to the building yet (soon)...so you guys have a blank canvas to help me with.

Reason I'm asking about design now is I'd like to get my wiring installed...some of it at least...so when I get power pulled, I can quickly get lights. This time of year we are loosing daylight fast so not having light is costing me valuable work time after the kids go to bed. AND I really hate to pull out and re-do any wiring...not like they are giving away 14-2 these days..LOL

 

[nwav8tor]

FYI, You can get 8' T8 units that use four 4' bulbs rather than two 8'ers so you don't have to handle the long bulbs.

Some considerations for your proposed layout that I've learned on GJ:

1) In the double car bay area, you might want to move the outer rows of lights a bit further apart so the light shines on the sides of the vehicles rather than on the tops which leaves the outer sides in a shadow. Looks like you did it that way on the single car bay...

2) Remember that opened garage doors will block light from fixtures mounted directly above them. Watch out for shadows from electric door openers also.

3) For the lights in the back corner, if you have any shelving in that area, they don't need to be well lit and the lights can be further from the walls. Then again, if work benches are up against the wall in that area, your body might block the light if the lights are too far from the walls. Place lights accordingly.

4) Your plan throws off less than1 watt per sq. ft. or floor area. I've seen figures of 1.5+ to 2.0 watts per sq. ft. recommended for a well-lit shop. I guess it's a matter of personal preference and just how much detail work you'll be doing. For my garage, I'm planning on seventeen 4' T8 fixtures to cover 750 sq. ft. with 9' ceilings. That works out to just shy of 1.5 watts per sq. ft. Not great, but WAY better than the three 75W bulbs out there now!

My .02 input (but might be worth less since I'm no expert),
Paul

 

[Azmotorhead]

GO here Lighting layout It'll help you out some.
17 fixtures for a 30x50 I've got a 40x60 with 18'ceiling height and I've got 8 T5 fixtures with 6 lamps in each. Wired so I can illuminate in each fixture either 2 lamps.4lamps,or all 6.
When I turn on all 6 lamps the garage is brighter than outside during the day

 

[Azmotorhead]

Here's a shot so you can see what I've done

The 2 fixtures closest to that wall are offset from even spacing so I wouldnt get shadows on the floor.

 

[Chucktown]

Well done! Great space.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Overall I think I was overthinking this... Saturday night when we were done trimming up the garage doors I threw up 4 boxes strung some 14-2 and wound in 4 "100w" CFL's on the front end (where the cars would go)...slapped a plug on the end and voila, we have light.
NOW I cant say that its an over abundance of light, plenty for me to tinker in there. So now what I'm thinkin is A) 4 seperate 4' T5-HO's in place of where I got those lights now or B) 4 Seperate T8's where I got those lights now.

 

[FrankTheTank88]

The t8ho with refelectors still put out a TON of light and are much cheeper then the t5 versions. The t5 high bay with reflectors you are looking at 200 a pop. Like the ones pictured above

 

[Spudland_Dave]

The t8ho with refelectors still put out a TON of light and are much cheeper then the t5 versions. The t5 high bay with reflectors you are looking at 200 a pop. Like the ones pictured above

Oh if I go T5's I wont be getting any 200 buck fixtures...At MOST i'd splurge on the 2 bulb 4' unit I saw at Home Depot...59 bucks each if I remember right...If I dont go down the T5 road I'd go with the Plain ol T8's...

 

[FrankTheTank88]

Those t5 fixtures at HD are cheep, and don't even have a shroud. With your 10' ceilings, i would go with something that has at least a metal reflector shroud. It doesnt have to be reflective but that would be even better. Best bang for the buck is a tandem 8' t8 fixture which is basicly 2 4' fixtures back to back.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Best bang for the buck is a tandem 8' t8 fixture which is basicly 2 4' fixtures back to back.

Truth be told...when I walked into the lighting section, that is the fixture I went to look at.

Those t5 fixtures at HD are cheep, and don't even have a shroud. With your 10' ceilings, i would go with something that has at least a metal reflector shroud. It doesnt have to be reflective but that would be even better.

SO, from the light reading I've been doing about this, I was under the impression that T5's with a reflector were best for High Bay...High-Bay being defined as 14' or higher ceilings. SO I was under the impression that no matter the fixture I got (T5 or T8) I should aim for one without a reflector to get light "everywhere"

 

[Steevo]

I used the 8' x 4-bulb T8 fixtures in my shop.
12' ceilings, painted semi-gloss white for reflectivity, and they throw off an excellent amount of light.
My main rows are 5'5" apart, and there is an additional "L" in the corner where this picture was taken from, to light the workbench area.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

**SOLD** LOL...Lookin at those Pics Steevo...that appears to be a beautiful balance of cost and light output. You're borderline needing Sunscreen in there, yet you didnt need a 2nd mortgage to afford all the lights.

Forgive me for asking this...why the coupld of incandescent lamps right down the middle?

Now...2nd part of this question...can those fixtures be wired on seperate switches? I'd probably go every other bulb section on seperate switches. No need for daylight if we're just unbuckling the kids from their seats...

 

[Steevo]

**SOLD** LOL...Lookin at those Pics Steevo...that appears to be a beautiful balance of cost and light output. You're borderline needing Sunscreen in there, yet you didnt need a 2nd mortgage to afford all the lights.

Forgive me for asking this...why the coupld of incandescent lamps right down the middle?

Now...2nd part of this question...can those fixtures be wired on seperate switches? I'd probably go every other bulb section on seperate switches. No need for daylight if we're just unbuckling the kids from their seats...

The incandescent bulbs are there because when it was raw framing inside, and I wanted the electrical signed off, it required that there be a switch and a light inside. Since I knew I'd be working in there for a year or so before I put up the ceiling and fluorescent lights, I added three more ceiling boxes and edison bases to the original one, so there are still four of them in there, on their own switch. I actually thought I might need them for cold weather light when in a hurry to get in and out, but the T8's start in any temp, and I also added a heater so it never gets below 50 degrees anyway. I may actually swap the incandescent lights out for a couple of fans someday.

My main fluorescent fixtures are on three switches, so I can turn on just the outer rows, or one or more of the inner rows as well. In addition, there is a switch over the workbench to turn on the fixtures in the "L" arrangement over the bench area.