Getting the lighting correct this time

[AP514]

My old T12's are going..going....gone. I am tired of having half of them out all the time due to bad ballast.
I want to go with LED lites...I have been looking at the BEST BANG set up and really like what I see...and it looks like I would even stay in budget.
The Fun Police (Wife) is making me stay with in a budget this time. Not sure where she gets that I always go out of budget.

Any way I have a 5 Bay Garage Unfinished w/ 10' Ceilings. 28' x 58'
I am looking for help on the layout....
have a small MS Paint drawing I whipped out....showing the basics.
****Wow that Image is supper small..So I put the DRAWING in my Albums***
Just click my name and go to my Albums


The 1 & 2 Zones have 3 way switches and the 3rd Zone is not used much.
As far as the work bench is concerned I could wire a switch for a few lites over the bench but I figure I always have the zone 1 on So,not sure it would be necessary.
Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[BLUE72CAMARO]

Your attachment is to small and unreadable. Here is a pictures of my 24 x 54 w/ 18 of the sams club led fixtures. Plenty bright for me and no complaints so far.

 

[AP514]

yup I know the attachment is too small trying to figure out how to make it bigger..any Ideas ?
So I posted the Image in my Albums just click my name it will take you to them.

 

[tonyciambrone]

Depends on how many fixtures and if you like the layout. You could do an LED tube direct-wire retrofit

 

[AP514]

Well, the T12's are out no matter what besides I have only 4 in the whole garage.
I want some real lite......

 

[nevesxis]

My garage is very similar to yours size-wise. In previous homes I always used high-output FL tubes, and my wife once joked that we could open our garage doors, turn on the garage lights, and use it as a visual navigation reference for jetliners queuing up for SFO or OAK...

However, this time around I decided to go a different route. Our home's interior was totaled by a broken pipe during a two-week absence. 6-inches of water for 2 weeks will basically destroy everything.

However, we'd been looking to remodel this house, and decided to use the insurance payout as an opportunity. At the same time the garage was a joke. Plenty big, mind you, but the lady who had it built got to the garage and basically didn't care. As in zero insulation, not even the doors, and zero HVAC.

When it came to lighting I decided I needed a lot of smaller fixtures rather than fewer big HO fixtures. We are kayakers and sometimes store our boats on hoists in the garage, oriented front to back in the spaces between garage doors. My fear was that having fewer old-school HO fixtures would lead to shadows and dark areas, when the kayaks were stored on the hoists near the ceiling.

Instead I worked out a measured equal grid, and installed 23 pieces of this fixture: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B018LKJGIW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. These install over any conventional j-box or can retrofit to existing cans. They have a CRI of 90, and I chose the 4K fixture because it has a slightly higher output than the 3K one.

The lighting is spectacular. We just kicked the cabinet maker out of the garage, and with it cleaned and painted it's just amazing how good, even, and bright the lighting is. Next comes the epoxy floor, cabinets, and lift...

 

[ard]

I had 16 nice 2 tube fluorescents (48") with integrated reflectors and prismatic lenses.

SO- I didn't want to toss those. Cut out the ballasts, replaced with Hyperkion direct wire LED tubes. $9.60 per bulb, shipped, Amazon. 2200 lumens, 4K color. Fantastic

My point is if your current fixtures are OK, you might just need bulbs

 

[matt_i]

I just went with CostCo Feits. In 1100sf I have 22 fixtures. Its very adequate (to me) at night with half of them turned on.

 

[Platonic Solid]

AP514 - Please see post #931 (link) in The Best Light Fixture Ever thread.

 

[AP514]

Thanks, What a cool tool for calc. the number of lite fixtures..Although it has a ridiculous amount of fixtures required for 100Fc.( I guess 100fc is day lite) It says I need 45 fixtures...So out of my budget Fun Patrol would have a come apart)
I was looking at more like 20-24 fixtures. So at 60Fc I can get away with 24 Fixtures and the workplane at 4 Feet. What is workplane anyway ?(the height above floor the lite will hit )

 

[Platonic Solid]

Work plane is what it sounds like = the plane at which most work is performed = typically 30 inches (desk top height). You should leave that at 2.5ft. If you want more light at workplane with fewer fixtures and are willing to sacrifice some ceiling height, you can drop the fixtures down. Try inserting a suspension height of 2ft, (thus fixtures would be 8ft from floor).

Another option is to start painting things white. In the long run paint is way cheaper than fixtures. And NO, do not use gloss, use eggshell for walls and eggshell or flat white ceiling paint for ceilings. If you do that you can push the reflectance values back to 70,50,20 (assuming you put them down to 20,20,20 for your unfinished wood surfaces)

I assume you realize the fixtures are only $30 each (2 lamps + 1 hsg).

 

[AP514]

oh 1 last question how many of these Fixture can be hooked up to 1- 20 amp curcit

 

[Platonic Solid]

20 Amps x 0.80 safety factor = 16 Amps x 120V = 1920 Watts
1920W / 44W per fixture = 44 two-lamp fixtures.

 

[AP514]

Great just did not know if there was a number of fixtures (limit) you can chain together.

As far as price..the Fun patrol(wife)wants to keep it at $600ish....with all the stuff that has happened here in Houston the last few months. I agree got to keep to a budget for a while to recover.