enough can lights?

[Vintage Veloce]

I'm planning a 525 sq ft shed/garage, 21' x 25'.
The inside of the garage will be completely finished. There are no windows on the garage, for security reasons.
I hate how tube lighting looks on the ceiling, so I am considering can / recessed lights.

I'm thinking 9 can lights, evenly spaced in a 3 x 3 array. With LED PAR30 bulbs, probably 75W equivalents.

Does that sound adequate? I like lots of light...
Any other genius ideas that are not tubes and look good on a finished ceiling?
C

 

[theoldwizard1]

I'm planning a 525 sq ft shed/garage, 21' x 25'.
The inside of the garage will be completely finished. There are no windows on the garage, for security reasons.
I hate how tube lighting looks on the ceiling, so I am considering can / recessed lights.

I'm thinking 9 can lights, evenly spaced in a 3 x 3 array. With LED PAR30 bulbs, probably 75W equivalents.

Does that sound adequate? I like lots of light...

3 rows of 4. Use 50W equivalent bulbs and get "dimmable" ones if they are not too much addition, or at least put each row on a separate light switch.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Thats not many can lights for that big of an area.
Which way do the dimensions run?

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Thats not many can lights for that big of an area.
Which way do the dimensions run?

The door is on the long side (25' side), 2' from the end. So there is a 6' deep area on the other end for the workbench etc, space.

Going from 9 to 12 is easy. If I put 12 can lights in a 3' x 4' grid, that has them about every 5 ft on the ceiling. (The ceiling is 8' high, if that matters).

OK, I'll go for the 12 in a 3x4 pattern. More?
C

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Id rough in 4 rows of 4 in an area that big. Id start around 4' 2" from the front wall to center of 1st can then space the next 3 the same with a little fine tuning.(depending on actual inside dimensions of garage)
On the big side Id start around 5' from the left and space them the same with a little fine tuning.(again depending on actual inside dimensions of garage)
Im just going by the dimensions you gave,Im guessing those are outside dimensions.
So youll need to adjust to match inside walls.
Can lights are pretty cheap,Its much easier/cheaper to have extra lighting than to decide later that its too dark/add more lights.
Another thing about cans is they generally tend to light an area directly under them around 4-5',it takes a lot of them to flood a room with light.

 

[jdsac]

Look into the led retrofits from feit @ costco. 1250 lumens, run cool &use 21 watts.
price here is pack of 4- in store they have singles & two packs most retrofits are only around 600 lumens, these are bright.

http://www.costco.com/Feit-5”-6”-LE...-50,000-Hours-|-4-Pack.product.100116152.html

for cans, these are pretty good & cheap, if you put them side by side with other brands, the internal wiring & socket is the same.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerci...tight-Housing-6-Pack-CAT7ICATA-6PK/202256649-
a deal @ $38- for a 6 pack

as cheap as they are, don't be afraid to use a lot of them. If you can, divide them on different switches so you can control how much light you have.

 

[CJ7VFR]

I agree, use a lot of them, and put each row on a separate switch. No one ever said gee, I wish I had LESS light in here....except when they are sleeping...

Jim

 

[Falcon67]

Our kitchen counter work area is 10x12. I put 4 cans with BR30 75w equiv LED bulbs, not recessed. It's way plenty of light, no shadows on the work surfaces. There is under cab lighting (LED) for areas where the work surface is in shadow of the cabinets. But depending on where you are in the space, you don't really need it.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Ok!
I also looked up kitchen lighting and they do recommend recessed lights every 4 feet with 8ft tall ceilings
So, TWENTY recessed lights in a 4 x 5 array. In my 21 x 25 foot garage that will be about every 4'.
Wow, that seems like lots of lights.
C

 

[Shiftless]

You're right, that's a lot. But ask yourself if you need high levels of illumination on every square inch of your space. If a lot of it is storage, you don't need nearly as much light as you need over a workbench or over a table saw. If you want to install fewer cans, I would plan ahead of time where you need the most light. I found that can lights don't do a good job illuminating shelving especially if you have deep cabinets. In my garage, I put a row of floodlights on the ceiling a couple of feet out from the shelving angled downward and toward the shelves. You want this kind of lighting over your tool chest too.
Works great!

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Good ideas shiftless.
A factor I'm considering is that I've just become old enough my near vision is getting weaker in dim lights. I've just started wearing reading glasses in the past year. So I would rather over-light and dim as necessary. I think the only time I will curse the extra lights is when paying the bill and changing the bulbs...

 

[CJ7VFR]

....I think the only time I will curse the extra lights is when paying the bill and changing the bulbs...

I think that by installing multiple switches, and making them dimmers, you can actually tailor the light output to the task you are doing.

This will actually end up making your electric bill SMALLER because you won't be turning on every single light, at it's full brightness, every time you go to do something!

Jim

 

[bdresch]

I'm curious why you are sticking so hard to can lights? You can get many different varieties and styles of tube lights. You can't touch them for efficiency and cost. Especially if you factor the cost and time to wire and install so many cans.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GDPossehl]

I also prefer the look of cans and will likely be using them when I remodel my garage. I like the LED BR30 bulbs that I've swapped the rest of the can lights in the house to.

 

[cybrdyke]

Dont use PAR30 lamps in recessed cans that are that low. Use the BR30 lamps instead.
CD

 

[Shiftless]

Dont use PAR30 lamps in recessed cans that are that low. Use the BR30 lamps instead.
CD

Good advice!
The beam spread on the PAR shaped bulbs is too narrow for overall lighting unless you have higher ceilings. You could however use a PAR spotlight over a specific fixed working spot such as directly over the vise bolted to your workbench.
I have 4 BR30 led bulbs mounted on swiveling outdoor spotlight style bulb holders pointed into my 12 foot wide wall of 16 inch deep shelves. Makes it easy to find little stuff up on those shelves. Those are controlled by a separate switch right inside the door. Many times, the only reason I go into the garage is to get something off of one of those shelves.
Main overhead lighting is controlled by a separate switch.
A row of 3 separately switched BR bulbs point straight down over my main 7 foot wide workbench.
My ceilings are really low...7 feet.
More than most guys do for a small 2 car garage but it works for me!

 

[black00lightning]

In my 30' x 32' x 12' finished woodshop I used an equally spaced 6 x 6 layout for 6" cans. I ended up using Phillips A2 100 watt eq bulbs listed at 1600 lumens, 5000K. Even at night it looked like bright daylight.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

black00lightening, that looks great. How high is that ceiling?
C

 

[black00lightning]

Thanks. The ceiling is 12 feet high. The shop still needs more work to be totally finished. Doing some floor leveling before vinyl planks are laid down followed by door casing, baseboard, crown molding and 2 carriage doors to replace the temporary plywood doors.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

I've read with higher ceilings the bulbs can be further apart as there is more room for the beam to spread. I actually read 4' apart for a 8' ceiling, 5' apart for a 10 foot ceiling. So your 6' apart with a 12' ceiling makes sense. I'm also likely to use 75W LED bulbs in the cans I am looking at. So 4' still looks like the way I should probably go in my building. ;-)

 

[cybrdyke]

I'm also likely to use 75W LED bulbs in the cans I am looking at.

You mean 75 watt EQUIVALENT bulbs, right?
CD

 

[Vintage Veloce]

You mean 75 watt EQUIVALENT bulbs, right?
CD

LOL. Right! 75W LED bulbs might make the ceiling look like the surface of the sun.
Typical 65 to 75W equivalent PAR30 or BR30 LED bulbs seem to draw around 10 to 12W each.

 

[Wirepuller]

I'm thinking 9 can lights, evenly spaced in a 3 x 3 array. With LED PAR30 bulbs, probably 75W equivalents.



Does that sound adequate? I like lots of light...

Any other genius ideas that are not tubes and look good on a finished ceiling?

C

Depends on the intended use. Is the garage going to be a finished man cave type area or is it for work? That's a lot of light.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

I intend to work in there. As some have said, I can always use a dimmer. ;-)

 

[ybnormal70]

I'm thinking that we might have been separated at birth or something black00lightning! First time I've seen your shop and here are some in progress pics of mine. I surface mounted conduit with keyless fixtures with 7 rows running length wise. Shop is 30'x60' with 12' walls at the edge and about 15' in the middle. I'll have almost 100 fixtures when done. I shouldn't have any shadows. We have similar lighting, same ceiling fans (I'm installing 4 of them) and even down the the color of the scaffolding we have .

Just thought I would share.

Kevin

In my 30' x 32' x 12' finished woodshop I used an equally spaced 6 x 6 layout for 6" cans. I ended up using Phillips A2 100 watt eq bulbs listed at 1600 lumens, 5000K. Even at night it looked like bright daylight.

 

[black00lightning]

So your my long lost brother? lol

 

[Vintage Veloce]

To recap, here is what I ended up with.
The interior of the garage is 20' x 24' with an 8' ceiling.
I went with 20 shallow recessed 6" can lights placed about 4' apart. The inspector let us get away with standard screw receptacles because we used LED retrofit trim kits.

For bulbs I chose the brightest trim kits I could find:
The Feit 1285 Lumen 5000K 5 & 6 Inch Dimmable Retrofit Kit LEDR56HO/850
These work fine with my dimmers but as is typical with LEDs they do not dim all the way to zero.
View media item 62921
And how is it? Well, just as I expected from my calculations, it is bright, but not bright as I would dream. Think of it as a bright living room. But if you want to read a lot of fine print or work on a small mechanism you will want task/area lighting for that.
I actually plan to put some spot lighting above my work areas and I left extra switches and wire runs to the attic for that.
View media item 62922
So, if you want can lights like I did, you can do them and get good light, but it is hard to get full super bright task lighting that way. Maybe someday you will be able to get brighter trim kits, I couldn't find anything brighter than these. But the cans look good (if you like the style like I do) and you can add task lighting as necessary.
C

 

[fastsvo]

To recap, here is what I ended up with.
The interior of the garage is 20' x 24' with an 8' ceiling.
I went with 20 shallow recessed 6" can lights placed about 4' apart. The inspector let us get away with standard screw receptacles because we used LED retrofit trim kits.

C

One question about those Feit 5000k lights - do they produce the slightest hue of a blue tint?

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Not sure how to judge the blueness... Sorry.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Thank you so very much for this information. I am at that point in my 34x32 and your information is invaluable.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Uncle Fester: Having lived with the lighting now for while, I'd say for a working garage, it isn't enough for 55 year old eyes. Somehow, I'd put in double the lumens if I were doing it again.