Advice on lighting

[mikeozo]

Garage is 28' deep by 36' wide. Ceilings are 10' high. Two 8x10 garage door bays. Ceiling is 5/8 plywood and will be painted light gray or white. I wanted to paint the ceiling black but wasn't sure how that would effect the lighting. The walls will be a light natural stain on the tongue and groove pine walls. The picture below is not actual garage but similar how I plan to do it.

I am debating between the deformable garage lights like the one pictured below or the typical 4' LED shop lights. I included the layouts of what I was considering below in the graph paper sketches. The red lines and circles represent where I had planned on putting the lighting. Most of the time my garage will be used for woodworking/construction projects but I also will occasionally do car repairs.

If I go with the deformables, I will be putting them on 3 different switches so I can control the lighting. If I do the 4' LED shop lights I will do 5 switches.

So here goes...

1. If I go with the deformables, how many lumens should I go with for each light?

2. Is 9 of the deformables too many for a 28x36 garage? If so, what would you suggest? Is my layout correct?

3. If I go with the 4' LED shop lights, is my layout adequate and is the number of lights correct? And what output should the lights be?

4. If I go with the 4' LED, should I go with neutral, bright, or super bright?

5. In your opinion, which is the best lighting choice and why?

Thanks so much for all your help!!!
Mike

 

[u2slow]

I think you're on the right track arranging lights around the perimeter of the vehicle footprint.

Maybe some trial & error is in order. I'm fully using my shop and the lighting is still work-in-progress.

 

[Bert_]

I would not consider either of those for a shop I cared about. To put it bluntly, they cheap junk.

The best fixture sticky has quite a few good options that I would choose from.

 

[Stuart in MN]

^ What Bert is referring to is the sticky note at the top of the electrical section on The Best Light Fixture Ever! This is the link: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/the-best-light-fixture-ever.278420/ Note that it's been updated a number of times so the information on the first few pages may be out of date. Also look at the lighting layout sticky, you may find one in there that matches up closely to your garage. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/light-fixture-layout-collections.289441/

 

[nadogail]

The deformables are cheap, I bought one to replace a failed fluorescent in my workshop. As the other T-12 fixtures fail, I intend to buy more of those to replace them.