"Corn bulbs" for garage

[gfmucci]

Has anyone used "corn bulbs" (see HERE) in their garage?

I was going to install 2 or 3 typical fluorescent fixtures, the 4 foot long ones with two long bulbs in each like THIS.

But after seeing these led corn bulbs, I was wondering if 2 or 3 of these would be better, either in terms of light distribution or economy and longevity.

Your thoughts.

 

[bczygan]

A couple of thoughts.

That's a pretty expensive bulb, and I would worry about warranty and longevity. I would also worry about accidentally breaking it as it hangs down a lot.

I assume you aren't doing any work in your garage, and are simply using it to park cars in, as that amount of illumination for even the smallest one car garage is barely adequate for finding your way through the space and getting in the vehicle.

Plus, these are more of a point source than the 4' fixtures, which spread the light out more.

My 9 1/2' x 19 1/2' garage has 8 of the 4' 2 tube T8 fluorescent fixtures at the 9' ceiling. They light the space very well for working on things.

My advice is 2 tube 4' T8 or LED fixtures with daylight bulbs.

Bill.

 

[53Sparky]

Never trust an LED website that says that the lights are "Super bright". That usually means that they ****.

Except the website superbrightleds.com which is a decent website. But you still need to double and triple check their specs.

 

[cybrdyke]

gfmucci, the biggest difference between those two fixtures is that the corn lamp delivers most of it's light horizontally, while the Lithonia delivers most of it's light downward.
Do you have good white reflective walls?
As for longevity, the corn lamps are made by no-name company who you cant count on for quality, even though I'm sure that amazon will take back defectives. Corn lamps by design are not the greatest. The Lithonia is made by the biggest manufacturer in lighting and they normally use quality components.
Good luck,
CD

 

[gfmucci]

Thanks, guys. It looks like my ideal arrangement for my 20 x 20 foot garage will be 5, 2 bulb florescent fixtures, two on each side and one off the middle of the back wall, with each 4 or 5 feet way from the walls but toward the rear of the garage away from the garage door. No, the walls are not bright, white or reflective. I'd like them wired so that only a couple fixtures come on, or all. I have separate work space lights for placement directly over my work bench. I hate dark or dim garages. Reminds me of dingy basements with cobwebs and dirt floors. I'm meeting with my electrician next week to also get his thoughts.

 

[gfmucci]

A couple of thoughts.

My 9 1/2' x 19 1/2' garage has 8 of the 4' 2 tube T8 fluorescent fixtures at the 9' ceiling. They light the space very well for working on things.

Bill.

Wow, that sounds pretty nice. I might consider adding a couple more fixtures than I was first considering.

 

[bczygan]

Wow, that sounds pretty nice. I might consider adding a couple more fixtures than I was first considering.

I would!

And that is with bright gloss white painted brick walls.

I do get 100 theoretical foot candles, but only 50 actual foot candles at the 3' work surface.

Bright enough to do fairly fine work almost anywhere.

You don't need lights over the open garage doors, but if you do work on the cars with them closed, you might consider that.

Bill

 

[nine4gmc]

check out a thread by slodat, his upholstery shop build, he uses the CFL version of those instead of tube fluoros in his shop.

 

[jrollf]

I just installed 6 of these 'T5' tube LED lights in my 12'x12' workshop:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012ENR1IE/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Had them for about a week and I'm pretty happy so far. Easy install and relatively inexpensive. The long tube layout distributes the light pretty evenly and you can connect the lights end to end if you want.

 

[merc66rkm]

Since we're sharing our light set-ups, I installed these lamps: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CQ2ZKZO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/URL]>[/HTML]
this last summer and love them. I have 9 two-lamp fixtures in a 840sf 3-car garage. LOTS of light, I'm happy.

 

[Wpauley]

Newbie to this site and also would like to get some lighting ideas for a barn with 12 foot ceilings. Thanks Bill

 

[NitroGarage]

Here's a 17K lumen version to replace 1000w metal halide bulbs:

https://www.amazon.com/150-Watt-Rep...elpful&formatType=current_format&pageNumber=1

 

[jackblack85]

Tried these out in my garage. The problem with these is that most of the light is dispersed horizontally. I tried one similar to the one mentioned above as well as a Cone style but neither were good.

For my garage, the ceilings are 12ft up so the majority of the light was around the ceiling and never really made it down.