Garage Lights

[bobs72chevy]

Hello,
I amd building a new garage which is 36' w x 40' d x12h. I am ready for lights. What type should I get. The garage will be used for my hobbies of making wrought Iron railing, working on my hotrod, and general relaxation/tinkering. I have been reading about T8 and T5 lights, but I really am not clear on either. Any suggestions will be appreciated

 

[2ManyProjects]

Hello,
I amd building a new garage which is 36' w x 40' d x12h. I am ready for lights. What type should I get.

Now THERE is a wide-open question.

I suggest you spend some time perusing the existing threads in this Forum, where this topic has already been extensively discussed.

The garage will be used for my hobbies of making wrought Iron railing, working on my hotrod, and general relaxation/tinkering. I have been reading about T8 and T5 lights, but I really am not clear on either.

Given the 12-foot (at most -- I suspect that is an exterior dimension?) ceilings, you will near-certainly be best off sticking to conventional twin-tube fixtures based on standard F32T8 tubes. Beyond that, with so little information to go on, it's anybody's guess.

 

[gasaxeman]

I have a similar sized workshop.
I used 6 lamp high bay type fixtures.
Lamps are F32T8-850
They are 5000k which is nice and bright white.
I put in 15 of these and switched them in rows and areas so I can use only what I need for the job.
I purchase the fixtures from Menards here but I know they also sell them at HD.
Probably a little over kill but I despise working in a dimly lit shop.
I am a commercial electrician and we install these fixtures quite often.
In the higher ceiling applications we tend to use the T5 HO type. They cost more but do put out more light.
Hope that helps a little.

 

[CNGsaves]

Now THERE is a wide-open question.

I suggest you spend some time perusing the existing threads in this Forum, where this topic has already been extensively discussed.

Given the 12-foot (at most -- I suspect that is an exterior dimension?) ceilings, you will near-certainly be best off sticking to conventional twin-tube fixtures based on standard F32T8 tubes. Beyond that, with so little information to go on, it's anybody's guess.

^ ^ Congrats 2MP on concise answer !!

OP, first Welcome to GJ and there are ooodles and oodles of information about shop lighting, so you'll need to slog through all the prior threads on GJ. Suggest you read for 2 or 3 days straight, then you'll get idea of what you might want to use.

Use GOOGLE if necessary to search within GJ:

. . . . . . T8 lights site:garagejournal.com
. . . . . . T5 lights site:garagejournal.com
. . . . . . CFL lights site:garagejournal.com

Also, there is fabulous thread by VENO where he used CFL lights and normal screw-in porcelin fixtures. There is type-O in title so Search as "CLF lights" which I've done for you in link below.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38658&highlight=CLF+light

 

[NUTTSGT]

The majority of my lights are T8 strip lights. I choose them over the shoplights to allow the white ceiling to reflect the light instead a reflector on the fixture.