Approve my Garage Lighting

[Ccamp12]

Wife and I just moved into our new house and I am preparing to setup the garage lighting. My last garage was a 2 stall with brown panel walls, with 6x 4' 4-bulb T8 fixtures for a total of 115lm/ft2.

The new garage is a 3 car, approximately 800sq.ft but I'm only going to install my lights over the 2 stall portion. Walls and ceiling are painted white.

Purchased 19x 4' LED fixtures, each producing 3200 lumens 85 CRI and drawing 35W (cannot find the amp draw, electrical is not my forte). The breaker panel in the basement has garage lights labeled, but what I'm unsure of is if they are on the same circuit as the outlets or not. The garage lights circuit is a 20A circuit.

I'm planning on having these on three switches. One switch for the single stall, one switch for the 2 stall that is covered by the garage door when up, and a 3rd switch for the 2 stall for when the doors are down.

Opinions? Anything you would change? Workbench will be on far right wall, slight off center to the back wall.

Garage is mostly used for working on cars, motorcycles, detailing, small woodworking projects etc.

Thanks!

Chris C.

 

[bczygan]

So I'm trying to understand, the area on the left is going to be used for a Halloween scary spook house?

 

[bczygan]

And I count 18 lights in your stack and 19 on the plan.

 

[Ccamp12]

I need to pick up the last one when it comes in, they shipped the wrong quantity to the story but didn't specify when they called.

Ha it won't be ALL that dark in the 1-stall. The 125W (equiv.) LED is pretty bright on its own. It's already up there, along with 2 not-so-bright 100W eq. CFL bulbs. The one LED is supposed to put out 2000 lumens.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Here's the spec sheet. No IES photometric file available. Might be able to get more useful info (doubtful) with the UL number under the UL logo (assuming that label is visible somewhere).

Also, Ceiling height?

 

[Commendatore]

I have 8 of those in 500 square feet and I think you're going to need a good pair of sunglasses. The good news is that with 19 of those in the two stall portion you'll have so much bleeding over into the one stall you probably won't need any lights over there.

 

[Chevy-SS]

Recently built 1,000 sf garage addition. I used 3 separate switch circuits, one for left side of garage, one for right side, and one for workbench. If I had to do the wiring again, I would simply have used one main lighting switch (3-way or 4-way or whatever). One main switch would be handier than having switches all over the place. Anyway, that's just MHO.

Alternatively, if I really wanted the three separate circuits, I would have put three switches at each station. The way it is now, I gotta run back and forth a little bit to switch different circuits. It's only a few feet, I know, but still not as convenient as it could be.

You are wise to spend some extra time in the planning phase. Get a bunch of opinions/ideas and pick whatever floats your boat.

Good luck with project

-

 

[Ccamp12]

I appreciate the input Chevy-SS! I had two in my last garage and it worked okay, both right at the door. But one circuit may not be a bad idea I hadn't even really thought about it.

These lights daisy chain together and say only 9 can be linked that way. Is this going to be an issue if I hardware these together in the attic of the garage? Do I need to have these split on circuits going to different junction boxes?

Platonic Solid - Is the IES Photometric file what is used to see the light spread at given ceiling heights? I'll measure, but it's roughly 9.5-10' high.

 

[Ccamp12]

Commendatore - Good to know! Now I wonder if I should just go ahead and revise my plan to spread these over the whole garage evenly... I can't imagine I would be doing much of any work on the 1 stall side, but just for consistency I wonder if it would look better.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Is the IES Photometric file what is used to see the light spread at given ceiling heights? I'll measure, but it's roughly 9.5-10' high.

Yes, it permits the generation of isoplots in virtual layouts such these: Light Fixture Layout Collections.

HD's advertising statement of: "Light performance is equivalent to typical 2-32-Watt fluorescent shop light" is of little value since shop light efficacy varies from 50% to 90%. Using a fluorescent shop light IES file to represent an LED fixture would be significantly flawed.

I would not normally agree with the use of reflectors at your ceiling height, especially when you have a flat white ceiling. I suspect these fixtures are primarily intended for task lighting over workbenches, not general area illumination. In the commercial world, fixtures without IES files are basically unsellable.

 

[Ccamp12]

Platonic, I certainly do not mean to disregard your comments or experience. I understand why that would be absolutely necessary in a commercial environment so they do not over or under light offices or warehouses. For garage use though I'm just going with the lumens per square foot.. I had actually read on several other threads that a hooded lamp will provide ~40% more down light than non-hooded, which swayed me towards these as well. I wasn't aware that hooded lamps are generally for task lighting. In my last garage I had mounted troffers on the ceiling, acting as hoods if you may, and was very pleased with the light.

A previous question is still unanswered regarding whether I can hard wire all of these onto one switch or not. The instructions say you can daisy chain 9 together with their provided 14" connection wire, but how does this effect hard wiring them in? If I only have one circuit in the garage for lights as it is, can I even install all 19?

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[Platonic Solid]

If the HD site is accurate it states 36W 120V, thus 36W/120V=0.3A per fixture.
You can put 15A of lights on a 20A circuuit, thus 15A/0.3A per fixture = 50 fixtures.
I don't think you have anything to worry about since 19 x 0.3A = only 5.7A.

As far as reflectors go, yes you get more downlight, but it comes at a cost = darker ceilings which make the room/garage feel smaller. If you have white ceilings and surface mount non-reflector fixtures you get the best of both worlds and the downlight difference becomes insignificant.

 

[Ccamp12]

That makes sense. Thanks a lot Platonic!!

 

[alfredeneuman]

You can put 15A of lights on a 20A circuuit, thus 15A/0.3A per fixture = 50 fixtures.

You can run 16A of lights on a 20A circuit. The factor for lighting is 80%.

 

[Ccamp12]

A

Started laying out where I actually want my shelves, wall track and workbench/tools to be moved to. Planning on installing them on the 25th.

 

[Ccamp12]

Made some progress this weekend finally. The three rows perpendicular to the door are up and just plugged in (not hard wired to switch yet).

Two rows parallel to the door aren't finished yet, and I don't have the 4 above the single bay up yet either. 1-2 more evenings and I'll have the rest mounted. Then I just have to wire them.

I think I'll keep the three existing bulb fixtures on one switch, and put LED bulbs in them. Then I'll run another switch for the shop lights.

 

[cybrdyke]

Ccamp-This is not directed at you because I'm sure that you'll enjoy your new lights. You'll be happy!
I just think it's time to disspell some of the internet myths that are out there.
1) "Hooded" fixtures only serve to reflect light into a smaller area on the target, hence, they are used for task lighting, not to generally illuminate large spaces. They do NOT deliver more light, they just make things more shadow-ey and contrast-y.
2) Lumens per square foot is B.S. If you took any light fixture and hung it 9' from the floor and took a measurment, and then raised that exact same fixture to 20' from the floor, you'd get a completely different measurement. Same lumens per square foot.
Anyway....sorry for the hijack.
CD

 

[Ccamp12]

I get now the hooded vs non part and honestly in person it isn't very shadowy on the ceiling. I suppose this is partly because the walls and ceiling are all white.

The lumens per square foot myth is also just for paper specs, I agree completely. I took some measurements last night with these 3 rows and it's around 290-300 lux pretty consistently around the 2-bay side. Once the rest of the lights are mounted and wired I'm hoping for around 500 lux.

All numbers aside yes I am very happy with these! They make life in the garage much much more enjoyable.

I do not have any long term reviews obviously yet but so far the instant on full brightness, lack of flickering or buzzing is already a huge step up from the T8s I installed in my last garage.

I'll post some completion pics soon!!

 

[cybrdyke]

I get now the hooded vs non part and honestly in person it isn't very shadowy on the ceiling. I suppose this is partly because the walls and ceiling are all white.

The lumens per square foot myth is also just for paper specs, I agree completely. I took some measurements last night with these 3 rows and it's around 290-300 lux pretty consistently around the 2-bay side. Once the rest of the lights are mounted and wired I'm hoping for around 500 lux.

All numbers aside yes I am very happy with these! They make life in the garage much much more enjoyable.

I do not have any long term reviews obviously yet but so far the instant on full brightness, lack of flickering or buzzing is already a huge step up from the T8s I installed in my last garage.

I'll post some completion pics soon!!

That's Great, Man!!! Happy for you.....
Keep us updated!

CD

 

[Ccamp12]

Well, goes to show the accuracy of the lux meter iPhone app...it was reading around 300 lux. Bought a proper lux meter on Amazon and with half of the lights I'm already at 1,100+ lux at 3-4' from the ground [emoji15]

NOT that I'm complaining in the least, I absolutely love this light.

 

[Ccamp12]

This year really caught up with me... Finally hung the rest of the lights about 3 weeks ago and had an electrician friend wire outlets in the attic and I ran the plugs through drywall grommets so I can unplug and take them with me if I ever move.

The 4 lights on the single bay aren't wired yet, we needed some conduit fittings and we just said we would wrap it up after the holidays. He wired the 2-bay side the other day and I love the light. Absolutely wouldn't change a thing!

1,800+ lux and elbow height consistently throughout the 2-bay portion of the garage, no hot or dim spots. Very useable working light.

After finishing those I whipped up a Christmas gift; a pallet coffee mug holder.

 

[kingchevy]

That looks plenty bright, but I'm sure there's a violation with the the cord going through the drywall. The cord not rated for in wall use for one.

 

[Ccamp12]

It was a reputable home inspector who had been an electrician for 20+ years who installed it, I would imagine he would have mentioned a code violation or refused the work?

The cords are going through drywall grommets, and are plugged into outlets in the attic.

 

[pcrjunkyamd]

Nice G8