Garage Lighting Recomendations

[MCraven210]

I am in the wiring stages of building my dream garage. It has 3 bays. The first bay is 38' long 14' wide with 12' ceiling. The second bay is 48' long and 16' wide with 16' ceiling. the third bay is 44' long 14' wide with 12' ceiling. I have had a few recomedations but would like to get some other thoughts. The walls and ceiling will be painted a shade of white. I am looking for good general lighting. It will be used as a shop and for storing my toys. I like the idea of soming flush mounted lights for a clean look but with the tall ceilings they were not recomended to me. Thanks for your input.

Mike

 

[casaleenie]

That's called a "warehouse" where I come from

 

[ultgar]

Mike...where in Colorado are you located? I've got a good friend out there (Colorado Springs) who owns a lighting company...he's also a car enthusiast . Steve

 

[Rex Ruby]

I have a 30 X 24 garage. I have 16 double 4' flouresents and 3 8' doubles.

 

[MCraven210]

I live in the north Denver metro area near Brighton.

 

[Luckydevil]

That's almost 2000 sq.ft. for just the bays! Sounds more like an aircraft hangar than a garage.

Please post some pics when you get a chance.

 

[Vethead]

I have a 30 X 24 garage. I have 16 double 4' flouresents and 3 8' doubles.

Rex Ruby is that enough light for you? I will have a 32X24 shop, and was planning on using 8 4' 4 bulb assemblies. That is less than you will have, and I am wondering if it is enough. I saw a classroom that is roughly the same size and had the 8 lights I am looking at, and it seemed bright enough, but the shop may be different. Will have white ceiling and white walls, possibly white epoxy floor.

 

[kgwld1]

Mine is 26x26 I have 6 Eight footers and 10 recessed lights.

 

[bmwpower]

All depends on how bright you want it (footcandles), what quality of light you want (color rendering) and how much you want to spend. If it were me, I would use T5HO or T8 lights. To get the proper lighting you really should have a lighting design drawn up. This will give you the footcandles at a specific place (at a specific work height) in the garage (see below).

 

[BetterDays]

20 X 20 here.

10 double bulb 4 footers.

 

[DaveL.]

30 x 40....(15) 8' dual flourecents. I have them wired in 3 banks, 5 each. This way if I am working in one area of the garage I can light just that section.

Dave

 

[ChucksCrib]

Iwill have 9 double 8 foot HO fluorescents in my 28x28x11 foot garage

 

[SteveL]

38' x 22' over sized three car here. 12- 4' T8 double bulb fixtures wired in three zones so they all don't have to be on at the same time. Plenty of general light but will most likely add some task lighting over work surfaces once they are in place.

I also have two large windows on the north side, glass panels in the the top sections of the over head doors and a rear entry door with glass upper half on the south wall. With the pull down shades open on the windows, it adds a lot of light. Big thing for me was choosing a very light paint color for the walls, ceiling and floor. This is like adding a bunch of extra light fixtures in it self.

 

[SANDOVAL]

I am using all track (30 units total) lighting in my show/work garage. Your Garage makes mine look like a shed I don't think this would work for you.

 

[byrdman]

These are 4100K 40W t12 with reflector, 2 bulbs per fixture. It's adequate but not as bright as I thought it would be.

 

[bmwpower]

Everyone here use fluorescents? No metal halides in the bunch?

 

[96MysticSVT]

I would think the biggest thing to consider in lighting is the height of the light, there are allot of responses here about the squarefootage of peoples garages and the lights they use, but most have comparatively low ceiling heights. I have 2 garages, one with a 14’ ceiling the other with a 10’ ceiling, and you would be amazed at the amount of candlepower you loose in just a couple of feet. I still haven’t found a light I think will be adequate enough in my garage with the 14’ ceiling, so I’m very interested in this post as well. I want as close to 100 foot candles of light on my floor as possible, so I think the lumens of the light will have to be about 20,000. So far my research has directed me toward metal halide high bay lights.

 

[BetterDays]

my lights are wired into one switch. But, I ran outlets for the lights, so I can simply unplug them when I don't need them.

Right now, I have 4 turn on to provide main light, since I have not been working on any projects lately.

 

[...dave]

20 X 20 here.

10 double bulb 4 footers.

Holy cow. Can you even see the ceiling through all those?

...dave

 

[BetterDays]

Garage is 20 X 20.

I have 10 fixtures (2 bulbs per fixture) (4 directly down, 6 at angles from the walls)

I will turn on the lights and take a pic of the garage at night (once it is cleaned up a bit)....

It's a little bright in there..

(oh yeah, not even 8 ft ceilings)



They have their own breaker.

 

[wythors]

Have you guys seen these?

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=13014

 

[kartracer55]

I have a shack of a garage compared to you guys, its 2 cars, and there usualy 2 cars in it, but one pulled out when we are working, sometimes the other is two. I have 2 4ftx2 bulb T8 i believe they are called lights. I have them suspended from the cielcing about 7 feet about the ground using chain. It is adequate to light up most of the garage wheen the door is open. The one problem I get by having this is that I get alot of shadows at night because of the lack of lighting. When im doing aproject under tha car, I have a 500 watt halogen light inthe back to corners on shelves about 5.5 ft high, angles so they ar eout of my eyes, (im 6'1") but iluminate the garage. Works well enough, and I dont mind using a trouble light when im workin under the hood anyway. Itmeans more money for tools

My basement where most of my tools are stored, has one 4ft by 2 bulb fixture above the work bench about 6 ft high, so it is out of my way, but lights up the whole work area, or at least most of it. I also have another ficture liek this about 10 feet back, and another one abotu 10 ft over and it gets the job done. My basement was built in the 20s, and when they built this house, they were more focused on having hardwood floors and tons of woodwork EVERYWHERE rather than the garage. I make due with what I have. The rest of the house is really spacious, the problem is I cant turn my living room into a machine shop lol.

But I know when I go to move into my own house, If it doesnt have at LEAST a 2 car garage, i dont even wanna see it. That is of course, unless I can build another aircraft hanger like MCraven210.

Jim

 

[BetterDays]

When I purchased my first home 2 yrs ago (same one that I am living in now), my two biggest prereqs were a basement and a 2 car garage.

Yes, I may have gone a little overboard with my garage lighting. However, it only has one car in it (my project Mustang), as my Sable and the GF's Liberty sit outside all year.

the lights that I purchased are the $7 special from Home Depot. When I redid the power to the garage, I put a separate breaker for the lights since I added outlets for the lights. Therefore, when needed or when I move, I can take the lights with me (if I want to) and the power hookup is still there.

I am starting small on this as well. Little by little, the tool collection increases, the workbench gets better, or the garage gets a little more organized. Starting at the bottom is not bad...

Best of luck with the garage!

 

[imported_banzaitoyota]

25 x 32 Pioneer Steel Building, 16' tall peak

8 8' long Metalux HO Industrial Flourescents

 

[TOMWELDS]

96" HO fixtures are the way to go. Tons of light and they wont flicker when its cold (below 50 deg.).

 

[JoeKramer]

Upgrading?

96" HO fixtures are the way to go. Tons of light and they wont flicker when its cold (below 50 deg.).

Where to get em? I'm looking to upgrade from my 48" 2 bulb crapo lights I got a Lowes.
The ones I got now flicker and go dim in cold weather. And they all make lots of sound.

Guess thats what I get for spending $7 per fixture! But I got 24 of em...
(Garage is 48' X 30' with a 16' peek and cross beams at 10' that the lights are on.)

 

[96MysticSVT]

96" HO fixtures are the way to go. Tons of light and they wont flicker when its cold (below 50 deg.).

Do you know how many lumens they put out? Based on the lumens, I can calculate if they will work for my application.

 

[TOMWELDS]

I but them at Graingers. It tells you the lumens in the catalog. They're 110watts.

 

[imported_banzaitoyota]

I got my HO's from a lighting supply house. Much better selection than the box stores