Garage lighting suggestions

[13mo]

Hello,

I am going to be building a new house with an attached 32' x 28' x 12' three car garage and am looking for suggestions on lighting. This will be used for parking vehicles only. I would like some suggestions on lighting this area. My current garage is a 31' x 24' three car and has three screw-in E26 light fixtures that I changed the PO's 40 watt bulbs for 300 watters. It helped a lot but it still is a darker than I'd like and a bit uneven. My last garage was a 32' x 30' and it had six of those fixtures, also with the PO using 40 watt bulbs that I switched out for larger ones. I was limited to 200 watt bulbs there else I'd trip the breaker. It was okay but a little dark as well. I never used LEDs in that garage as this was a number of years ago and they didn't exist at that time and the CFLs available then weren't as bright as 200 watt incandescent bulbs. My guesstimate would be 6 of the 300 watt bulbs would be about fine for this size of a space, but impossible to actually run due to the large current draw so I would need to use something else.

My thoughts are either use linear fluorescents, linear LEDs, or some 200-300 watt equivalent screw-in LED bulbs. 10 years ago, I'd have used 8' T12HOs and called it a day, and I did just that in a metal outbuilding I had during that time period. They worked fine, as opposed to the regular T12s that the PO had that I replaced, as they were very dim unless it was warm out. I am not sure how well T8s would work as I've never used T8s in an unheated area and never used T8HOs at all. I've also never used any LEDs except for E26 screw-in bulbs of 24 watts (150 watt equivalent) or less.

Any feedback would be welcome.

 

[Platonic Solid]

You start with:

"This will be used for parking vehicles only."

then go on to talk about wanting more light. You don't need much light for basic storage and parking.

 

[13mo]

You start with:

then go on to talk about wanting more light. You don't need much light for basic storage and parking.

I would like more light in the new garage than I have in my current garage. I am estimating that I would be happy with about twice the current light level of my current garage. As I see it, my options are to use 1) tubular fluorescents, 2) removable linear LED bulbs in a fixture (such as in the sticky threads), 3) integrated LED fixtures, or 4) screw-in LED bulbs in standard E26 fixtures, and use more of them than are in my current garage. I am asking for opinions of which of these choices you would pick and why, or if there is something else I haven't thought of.

 

[Platonic Solid]

No less than 9 fixtures for even distribution.
9 (3x3 pattern) 5000 lumen 4ft 2-lamp LED strip lights as in post #1 of best light fixture sticky (link in sig below) yields ~38fc @ 30" work plane (about the level of your average office).
9 7500 lumen 4ft 3-lamp LED strip lights yields ~56fc @ 30" work plane.
9 12500 lumen integrated LED lights yields ~94fc ... (recommended level for automotive mechanical work = 93fc)

 

[13mo]

Thank you for the recommendations. I will likely go for the first option as that should be about the right brightness level.

On a similar question, I will also have a woodworking shop in my basement with unfinished 9' floor joists overhead and concrete/stud walls, and a concrete floor. I was intending on using linear LED fixtures similar to the ones you recommended for the garage, but since the lights will be mounted to the bottom of the floor joists instead of to a drywalled ceiling, should I use fixtures with reflectors or use the same reflector-less strip lights you recommended for the garage?

 

[Platonic Solid]

Retrofit lamps are very directional = no need for reflectors. Same fixture for both applications.

 

[Shiftless]

13MO:

Platonic (as usual) has great suggestions.

BTW, more than a few of us might be a bit jealous of your 900 sq.ft. garage with 12 foot ceilings devoted solely to parking 3 cars.

 

[13mo]

13MO:

Platonic (as usual) has great suggestions.

BTW, more than a few of us might be a bit jealous of your 900 sq.ft. garage with 12 foot ceilings devoted solely to parking 3 cars.

I do appreciate the suggestions.

I am glad to be able to have a location where I can finally put up whatever I want, and that includes a nice garage and a big outbuilding. I've lived in town in the past where there was no garage, and later had a tiny two-car (18x21x8?) garage that it was a very tight squeeze to fit a midsize car and a small SUV in. I had to shoehorn the push mower underneath the front bumper in that one! Currently my 31x24 is a tight fit for an Explorer, a truck, a ZTR, tiller, and a bunch of garden stuff and kid toys. The added space will be wonderful!

 

[bigguns69]

I finished my house garage last year. It is a 3 bay garage, 36' wide, 2 bays 30' deep, 1 bay 36' deep with 11 ft. ceiling height. I put in 25 single bulb light fixtures and use the 100w equivalent LED bulbs. It is bright, the materials were cheap, but I did spend about two solid days getting everything wired up.

 

[Platonic Solid]

bigguns69 - My calcs say it's not anywhere near bright enough (but if you can see what you need to and you're satisfied, that's all that really matters). Typical el-cheapo screw-in bulbs are inadequate for 11ft mounting height as you're wasting more lumens on walls. They also have a much shorter life span than 4ft retrofits (10,000 to 15,000 hrs compared with 50,000 hrs.). In the long run I'd expect a higher cost of ownership with lower performance than 4ft retrofits.