Am I overdoing it for lights?

[Teikas Dad]

I'm in the process of building my new shop. It's 20' X 20' with 10' high ceilings. What I'm planning on doing for lights is installing a total of six 8' long (4 T8 bulb each) light strips. I'm figuring 3 rows of 2 fixtures each, spaced about 5' apart.

Is that too much for that sized shop? I have always heard that not enough light is a bad thing....

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You can never have too much light. You can always add more, and lighting specific to certain areas, like over a workbench.

Charles

 

[Ray-CA]

You'll know you have enough light when you flip them on and every other light in the neighborhood dims.......

I have four, 4-foot, 2-bulb older style florescent fixtures in our 24x25 garage. It's been plenty of light, enough to build a car. Do I wish I had more light at times, yes. Am I going to do something about it? Not in this garage.

Ray

 

[nate379]

Sounds WAY overkill to me. My garage is 24x26 and I have 4 4ft housings in it. Plenty of light. Have thought of running 2 more housings, but not sure its worth the trouble.

If you really want to run all those lights, run it on 2 circuits. One controlling 2 lights and the other 4 lights.

When you run in the garage for a couple mins, no reason to kick on all the lights.

 

[tdkkart]

Go with 4' bulbs, 8 footers are a PIA to deal with, expensive, hard to transport, hard to store and deal with.

At my last place I had 7 4ft 2 bulb fixtures in a 24x24x9' space with a white painted OSB ceiling. Plenty of light.
My current shop has 9 2 bulb 4ft fixtures in a 24x30x12' space. again, plenty of light even with no windows.

 

[mhm993]

I'm 28x21 with six double eight footer t8's, 10 and 12 foot ceilings. That's perfect for 600 square feet.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Go with 4' bulbs, 8 footers are a PIA to deal with, expensive, hard to transport, hard to store and deal with.

I think the 8 footers he is suggesting are ones that use four each four foot bulbs, they put the bulbs staggered at a slight angle, overlapped to make the length come out right. I've never even seen a 8 ft long T8 lamp.

It possible that two simple 4 ft fixtures will be cheaper than one 8 ft fixture with four bulbs. Really need to look into this.

Charles

 

[AMCguy]

I would recommend you run a strip down the middle of your garage and the other two on the side walls about 8 feet off the floor. That way the light will get under the hood of your car. The way you are thinking of going, your work will be in the shadow of your hood. Even if the shop is well lit you will still need a work light under the hood. The brighter the space, the darker it will seem under the hood.

 

[HIRISC]

You can never have too much light. You can always add more, and lighting specific to certain areas, like over a workbench.

Charles

+1

I don't think you're overdoing it, but I'd recommend spacing the lights out a bit more/different as suggested above.

I just lit a space about 16w x 32d with 19 recessed (reduces the actual lumen output since you don't get the sides/bounce) 2xT8 troffer lights and 17 recessed cans.

65w incandescent in the cans for the moment. 5000K temp, 2950 lumen T8's.

It's perfect.

The original plan:

Finished product:

 

[tdkkart]

I think the 8 footers he is suggesting are ones that use four each four foot bulbs, they put the bulbs staggered at a slight angle, overlapped to make the length come out right. I've never even seen a 8 ft long T8 lamp.

It possible that two simple 4 ft fixtures will be cheaper than one 8 ft fixture with four bulbs. Really need to look into this.

It's possible he talking dual 4ft fixtures, however I'm 99% sure that I've see a fixture with 8ft T8's at Home Depot.

Yes, 2 4ft fixtures will indeed be cheaper than a single 8ft.

 

[jmh21586]

I have a total of 18, 8' HO bulbs in my 930 sqft shop. Can't have enough.

 

[mad57]

Never enough light but def put them on two switches stagger the lights every other one is on so if you dont need day light just switch half on . And save some juice. Thats what i did in my gargage but i just bought the depo cheapies 4ft and just plug them in, if i need more ill add another light. My personal op is that a brighter garage is a more productive garage , esp in the winter. Warmer feeling good luck.

 

[Cryptic1911]

If you can't see it from space, It aint bright enough.

 

[Teikas Dad]

If you can't see it from space, It aint bright enough.

I like that one!

Thanks for the input guys. The lights I'm looking at are a 8' long strips, but each strip has 4 4' T8 bulbs. I don't have to worry about looking under a car's hood, it's a woodworking shop. I'm putting my table saw in the center of the shop, then all my other tools like chop saw/lath/planer/jointer/etc. around the outside walls. I'm figuring on putting OSB on the ceiling and painting it white to help reflect the light. I though about leaving out the center strips and just going with the two outside rows. That would put the lights 5' from each wall, but 10' from each other in the center. From what I'm hearing, maybe another option would be to go with 6 4' T8 units with diffusers on them spaced out at 5/10/15 feet. The 4' T8 is only a couple of bucks less than the 8' 4 bulb T8 unit at HD so I was figuring the bigger lights for only a little more money. I just didn't want to blind myself with too much light.

The one thing I already learned here on the forum, and checked at HD, is that both the 8' and 4' T8 units that they sell are the GESB series...so at least I will be able to play my FM radio!

 

[nate379]

That is ridiculous! That room has to be brighter than the damn face of the sun! Do you wear sunglasses in there? I could see maybe a setup where you removed every other row, but what you have... why didn't you just line the whole ceiling with lights, your about there anyhow!

It would cost me $0.45/hr to run that many lights!

The lights in my garage which are plenty of light, costs me $0.05/hr.

+1

I don't think you're overdoing it, but I'd recommend spacing the lights out a bit more/different as suggested above.

I just lit a space about 16w x 32d with 19 recessed (reduces the actual lumen output since you don't get the sides/bounce) 2xT8 troffer lights and 17 recessed cans.

65w incandescent in the cans for the moment. 5000K temp, 2950 lumen T8's.

It's perfect.

The original plan:

Finished product:

 

[Rosco]

Never too much light! I have a 26X30 with 6 8' (4 bulb) T-8's in the cieling and 6 4' T-8 (2 bulb) on the walls. It makes a hell of a difference when working at night.

 

[nate379]

Sure you can have too many and it will show with the electric bill

I'd rather use a shop light if needed versus dozens of lights on the ceiling. I agree it ***** working in a dimly lit shop, but overkill isn't necessarily a good thing either.

 

[Boyd Who]

I love light!!
I have a 12x20 with 8' ceiling and I have seven 4-ft T-8 fixtures in it. Almost need welding goggles in there, but there are NO dark spots in the garage now.

 

[HIRISC]

That is ridiculous! That room has to be brighter than the damn face of the sun! Do you wear sunglasses in there? I could see maybe a setup where you removed every other row, but what you have... why didn't you just line the whole ceiling with lights, your about there anyhow!

It would cost me $0.45/hr to run that many lights!

The lights in my garage which are plenty of light, costs me $0.05/hr.

I can reduce the light, what I can't do is add light (easily) later.

 

[BillK]

Dad,
As we get older ........ the more light the merrier I am getting ready to add some lighting in my business and I want it to be like daylight ! I dont think you are going overboard at all.

 

[Teikas Dad]

Thanks for all the input. HIRISC, outstanding setup. I did a whole bunch of searches on the net and found a couple of good articles on the Fine Woodworking magazine website. Based on the info I found there they are recommending 100 footcandles (I know..old terminology) per square foot for those of us over 40...you know, all the people with experience...yeah, that's the ticket. Anyway, based on what I found I'm going to stick with the 3 rows of 8 foot strips (with 4' T8 bulbs in them). If I do that I should have plenty of light through the entire shop. I'll probably add a 4' light directly over my workbench so there won't be any dark areas to work in.

I do appreciate all the input from all of you. I'm sticking with my original plan, but you gave me a lot to consider and compare against what I'm going to do. You are a good reality check for me. I'll post some pictures down the road when I get everything done.

 

[nissan_crawler]

I have a 19x23 with 9 4' 2 bulb t8's. It's good, but I wouldn't go any less than this.

 

[Falcon67]

My 20x24x 8' ceiling has an 8' T8 over the main bench, 12 4' fixtures in two banks on the ceiling and a few 4' T8 fixtures as work lights in specific spots. I would suggest lots of fixtures, but wired in banks of 3-4 so you can switch on what you need. As I add T8s to replace the old T12s, I use the Lowes fixtures with pull chains so I can use just what I need to save a little on power.

 

[gmhill33]

What kind of lights did you use? I am doing a 12x22x12 garage and want to put in the flush mount lights.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Falcon67]

What kind of lights did you use? I am doing a 12x22x12 garage and want to put in the flush mount lights.

Thanks,
Gary

If you're asking me, I just used regular "shop lights", not anything flush.

 

[T VETTE]

+1

I don't think you're overdoing it, but I'd recommend spacing the lights out a bit more/different as suggested above.

I just lit a space about 16w x 32d with 19 recessed (reduces the actual lumen output since you don't get the sides/bounce) 2xT8 troffer lights and 17 recessed cans.

65w incandescent in the cans for the moment. 5000K temp, 2950 lumen T8's.

It's perfect.

The original plan:

Finished product:

You must be an electrician.......................

I have been in many a body shop paint booth and you have most beat!

 

[gmhill33]

Sorry I was talking about tdkkart.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[bobadame]

I've got about 25 lumens per square foot at the source. With a 12' (average) ceiling, that seems to be enough light to work comfortably without straining to see what I'm doing. I'm using compact florescents, the screw in kind. Each 23 watt bulb produces about 1600 lumens. I have 40 fixtures split up into 9 circuits. This covers about 2500 square feet, it works out to 62 square feet per fixture and about 280 square feet per circuit. I did it this way so that I can concentrate light in the area I'm working in without having to light areas where I'm not. I've also installed 5 sky light tubes. Each one of these brings in natural sunlight equalent to 5, 100 watt incandesents under ideal conditions.

 

[HIRISC]

You must be an electrician.......................

I have been in many a body shop paint booth and you have most beat!

Thanks. Not an electrician, just a guy who didn't want to regret not having enough light.

 

[robortiz59]

I like that one!



The one thing I already learned here on the forum, and checked at HD, is that both the 8' and 4' T8 units that they sell are the GESB series...so at least I will be able to play my FM radio!

What does GESB mean?

 

[Teikas Dad]

What does GESB mean?

One of the threads I read on the forum here talked about fluorescent lights interfering with FM radio reception. Apparently the lights at Home Depot that have GESB or RES in the model number don't cause RFI problems.

These two threads is where I read the info about it.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41230&highlight=home+depot

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28982&highlight=home+depot

 

[W_A_Watson_II]

I have 96 4' T-8 Tubes in my 54' x 44' x 14' Shop, or just under 25 sq. ft. for each 4' T-8. Three circuits/switches. Mine was calculated to give 100 foot candles at the floor level with new tubes, Everyone told me it was overkill but it wasn't.

You will end up with just under 17 sq. ft. per 4' T-8, and a shorter ceiling, so a much brighter shop.

 

[WinFred]

Is that too much for that sized shop? I have always heard that not enough light is a bad thing....

not a chance....
you'll still add direct area lighting as yur shop develops.. plan for it...

 

[gmhill33]

What kind of lights did you use? I am doing a 12x22x12 garage and want to put in the flush mount lights.

Thanks,
Gary

+1

I don't think you're overdoing it, but I'd recommend spacing the lights out a bit more/different as suggested above.

I just lit a space about 16w x 32d with 19 recessed (reduces the actual lumen output since you don't get the sides/bounce) 2xT8 troffer lights and 17 recessed cans.

65w incandescent in the cans for the moment. 5000K temp, 2950 lumen T8's.

It's perfect.

The original plan:

Finished product:

 

[HIRISC]

What kind of lights did you use? I am doing a 12x22x12 garage and want to put in the flush mount lights.

Thanks,
Gary

Hi Gary,

2-bulb troffer's from Home Depot:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Same price as the 2' (4-bulb), but I have 16" O.C. joists.

We pre-framed the light locations with 2x2's to give them more secure mounting than just against the sheetrock.. LMK if you want more details.

 

[Diablo]

Dont be afraid to put too many, id say if anything add more switches. make say every row on its own or something. better to have more control and turn off what you dont use all the time cause you know one day you are going to want all of them

 

[Mr_fixit]

You can never have too much light. Just have switches to turn sections off.

As you get older , you'll want more light.

I have a 42 x30 building with 10 & 12' height and have about 100 4' t-8 bulbs. There're never all on at the same time, but they could be.

 

[dannodubs]

Is there a preferred direction one should mount fluorescent lights? With the direction the car parks or perpendicular?. Just got finished mounting 6 of the same type fixtures that the original posted installed. I mounted with the direction of the cars. Thinking about switching the one over the work bench though.

Also anyone ever mounted the lights using the aluminum drywall anchors? I mounted on the rafters but they didn't land in spots where a nice pattern could occur. Id go in the attic and add wood, but its filled with blown in paper insulation. Not my cup of tea this time of year

 

[PhantomEB]

I ran mine parallel to the vehicles BESIDE the vehicle spaces, not above them then perpendicular in front of them. Still would like to do one row perpendicular behind the vehicles, 22x24 so not major room, would go all parallel if bigger.

 

[rsanter]

put them on 3-4 switches so you can bring them on in stages based on how much light you need at the time

bob