Bulb type/spacing recomendations

[Dave Nelson]

Building a new home in spring with a attached garage 23'x20 with a 16' garage door. Ceiling height 11', no windows, drywall walls and ceiling to be painted eggshell white. Garage will be used to store a classic car and parking for one other car. I am a retired electrician so wiring is no issue. My initial plan is to use the Maxlite 2 bulb housings that I will hardwire with at least 2 3 way switches. My questions are the total number of fixtures needed, and the correct spacing and a recommendation for what type of LED bulbs.

 

[Dave Nelson]

I forgot to add will need sufficient light to do mechanical work and detailing of our own cars. I currently have a 27x16 garage (also painted white) with 11' ceilings and have 2 rows of 3 fixtures mounted end to end directly on ceiling of T-12 F-96 HO Cool White 8800 Lumens/4100K temp. This combination works well in my current garage, but want to upgrade in new garage preferably using LED bulbs.

 

[fastevo9]

Stick with leds and a cool color temp like 4000k. Try to avoid bulbs and go with an fixture with an integral led board. I would ask you local supply house what they stock. How you plan on mounting the fixture determines what to recommend. On my new garage build i chose to recess some rather powerful 10,000 lumen high bays. I was able to get away with doing that as i had good clearance above them. my garage is 21x23 with 12ft ceiling average due to slope. I get roughly 75 footcandles of light which is great considering I wrench and millwork quite heavily. I wanted a clean ceiling and I planned on putting a lift in. led striplights are an economical option.

 

[Dave Nelson]

Checked with a supply house I deal with, and I can pick up 8' T8 quad fixtures at a very reasonable cost. Based on my dimensions in my original post if I decide to use T8 tubes in lieu of LED can someone recommend a spacing/quantity?

 

[u2slow]

Thread with useful discussion:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285702

Light directly above cars isn't very useful - you end up working in the shadows.

 

[Dave Nelson]

Thread with useful discussion:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285702

Light directly above cars isn't very useful - you end up working in the shadows.

Thanks for that link, I think I will use the layout that Platonic Solid suggested in post # 19.

 

[cybrdyke]

Thread with useful discussion:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285702

Light directly above cars isn't very useful - you end up working in the shadows.

Unless you are working on something other than cars. Most would recommend shooting for consistency across the entire floor rather than lighting for a specific task (unless that specific task is the ONLY thing you'll be doing).
If you can accomplish both, consistency and a layout that eliminates shadows in certain tasks, then all the better.
CD

 

[MeentSS02]

Unless you are working on something other than cars. Most would recommend shooting for consistency across the entire floor rather than lighting for a specific task (unless that specific task is the ONLY thing you'll be doing).
If you can accomplish both, consistency and a layout that eliminates shadows in certain tasks, then all the better.
CD

I'd vote for this as well...uniform lighting is what I ended up going for in my own garage, and it has worked out better than I ever anticipated. I use my additional lighting more than I ever thought I would. Details here if you are interested: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=410914

Also, lighting directly over a car IS useful for some automotive applications; more specifically, paint correction/detailing.

And another also, good general overhead lighting is a good place to start, but even that will not be enough lighting for some things. If you are doing a lot of work under your car or are really trying to find every last paint defect, you are going to want/need specific task lighting.

This is only my $0.02...my opinions are based on my personal experience, YMMV.