Garage Lighting Help

[matt winchel]

Hello Everyone,
I have a 28x36 shop with 12 foot ceilings. I currently have 8' dual tube led lights throughout on a unfinished ceiling. I plan to sheet rock the ceiling over the winter and was kicking around changing out the lighting. The lighting is just fine now but with me being a little OCD I was wanting to clean it up some and was thinking of can lights? They look good being flush but how many would I need and what lumen? I do general mechanic work in my garage. I am not stuck on the can lights so talk me out of them if you want. If I did 8' tube lights I would like them to have a black housing and I am having trouble finding those.

 

[Dumber than lumber]

Can you paint the housings (for tube lights) yourself.
Go to the AMAZING sticky on lighting.
This one -> - > sticky on garage lighting
It will tell you most of what you need to know.

 

[mm08822]

I'd stay away from the can lights for a garage especially when you have plenty of headroom. Think of each can light providing a conical cylinder of light from the ceiling. (Picture christmas trees hanging from the ceiling.) Between each cone of light there will "dark spots" making the working plane footcandle level non-uniform. To get around that, you stack them tighter and/or buy wider beam angle fixtures.

Linear 8' fixtures provide a much more uniform lighting output. Since you are happy with their output level now, I would stick with them. Maybe consider adjusting row spacing to add another row and/or adding another fixture(s) to each row.

I never looked to see what it would take to paint an LED linear fixture but the bases would be easy (just don't paint everything inside the fixture).

Maybe the led strips and lenses come off the covers easily and you can paint them without needing to mask eveything. Can't really say if there would be much impact on output profile. Providing a white ceiling should help reflect some of the lost light you may have presently.

Scuff the housings with steel wool before painting.