Good layout for fluorescent light fixtures ??

[Westbank]

Hi,

I'm currently planning to finish my garage and I need your expertise on how to properly place the lights. This is a new construction (attached garage). I'm not planning to use the garage as a workshop. It will used to park our two cars and for car detailing (as a hobby).
I'm thinking about going with T8 (8ft Tandem T8). I want to make sure I have the best configuration possible. I certainly prefer to go overkill. Too much light is rarely a problem.

So if you look at my garage plan below, you will notice that the attic access door is fairly big. It's also causing me some issues when planning the layout for the lights.
Please let me know what you think about my plan. Good layout ? Enough lights ?

Plan:

Lights:

Thanks

 

[trainer]

If you work with the garage doors open, you will have 2/3 of your lights blocked by the doors.

I'd put three rows in........ Two rows of four fixtures each (16 feet) and one row of three fixtures (12 feet) with the centre row directly between the doors, and the outer rows pretty much where the ones over your garage doors are, only extended with the 12' row stopping short of your attic hatch.

I did three rows of six fixtures each in my 28x28. It's very bright, even with a few burnt out bulbs

 

[Westbank]

trainer
I'm glad I've posted this because I didn't think about the lights being blocked by the garage doors (when opened). Thanks for mentioning that.
I'm not sure I completely understand what you're proposing. 3 rows total: 2 outer rows of 16ft and 1 center row of 12ft ?

I came up with another option:

 

[Steevo]

I'd go for more lights, like this:
But you'll need one 4-footer

 

[gabeancounter]

How high is your ceiling?

Mine is 10ft and I have one 4' T8 fixture for every 100 sqft. Plenty bright. I like the bottom design just change to 3 - 4'T8's per row. Other areas of my basement I wired outlets in the celing instead of hard wired. This would allow you to double up the amount of lights if needed. Good luck.

 

[Westbank]

Steevo
Thanks for the suggestion. This setup would really maximize the amount of light.

gabeancounter
Ceiling is 10.5ft high. I think your suggestion would provide enough light for the size of my garage. A total of 9 x 4' T8 should be enough for a 20ft x 20.5ft garage ? That's about 576 watts (18 x 32 watts) for 410 sq/ft.

Like this ?

 

[trainer]

I'd put the outside two rows of lights closer to the walls like in Steevo's diagram
this would put more light on the sides of your cars when your detailing them.

 

[Zengineer]

9 dual 4' T8 fixtures will give you over 100foot-candles, which is pretty decent for fine detail work. As with others comments, try to get your lights closer to the edge of your room, otherwise you will end up with shadows all down the sides of your cars.

 

[gabeancounter]

Yes, the layout and number of lights looks good. I would just turn them going East & West instead of North and South. This will help with the distance from side walls.

Hmmm ...I know your concerned with the light around the attic opening. Having one light offset while the others are in straight rows will not look bad. I see you are trying to keep center of the garage doors. It will look fine without being dead center. Really when you look at the light layout , you notice it in refernece to the ceiling, not the walls. Meaning you will notice that the light is not in the center of the room or spaced evenly across the width of the ceiling before you notice is does not line up with a door.

 

[Westbank]

Zengineer
You're bringing a good point. I should move the lights closer to the walls.

Last one. Overkill ?

 

[regguy1]

Steevo
Thanks for the suggestion. This setup would really maximize the amount of light.

gabeancounter
Ceiling is 10.5ft high. I think your suggestion would provide enough light for the size of my garage. A total of 9 x 4' T8 should be enough for a 20ft x 20.5ft garage ? That's about 576 watts (18 x 32 watts) for 410 sq/ft.

Like this ?

Center placement will create shadows around the cars. this isn't a good layout. Keep them to the outside as in the other drawings.

 

[regguy1]

Zengineer
You're bringing a good point. I should move the lights closer to the walls.

Last one. Overkill ?

I think this is the better idea.
I have 20 48" with 6500K tubes and it's very bright in there 26' x 30'

 

[regguy1]

I'd go for more lights, like this:
But you'll need one 4-footer

This would also be good

 

[Steevo]

I put 17 4-bulb 8-foot T-8 fixtures in my shop, for a total of 68 tubes, at 2850 lumens per tube, for a total of 193,800 lumens.
The space is 23 x 39 inside dimensions, for 897 square feet, or 216 lumens per square foot.
I like it well lit . . .

 

[gabeancounter]

Steevo, holly sh*&. Now I see why your wearing the sun glasses.

 

[Falcon67]

I put 17 4-bulb 8-foot T-8 fixtures in my shop, for a total of 68 tubes, at 2850 lumens per tube, for a total of 193,800 lumens.
The space is 23 x 39 inside dimensions, for 897 square feet, or 216 lumens per square foot.
I like it well lit . . .

The word "Tanning Booth" comes to mind. However, my shop plan calls for one 48" dual 6500K fixture every 50 sq/ft.

 

[rsa]

Guys, thanks for the lighting stats and pics. I'm working on a plan too, and the software mentioned in other theads doesn't run on OS X, so these examples are very helpful.

If some is good,

I have one 4' T8 fixture for every 100 sqft. Plenty bright.

more is better,

I have 20 48" with 6500K tubes and it's very bright in there 26' x 30'

and too much is just enough.

I put 17 4-bulb 8-foot T-8 fixtures in my shop, for a total of 68 tubes...The space is 23 x 39 inside dimensions, for 897 square feet

Assuming 32W/bulb, I make the three examples 0.6W/ft², 1.6W/ft², and 2.4W/ft². The OP's last diagram weighs in at 2.0W/ft², which matches perfectly with recommendations I've seen here for 2W/ft².

In hindsight, I got lucky with my mother's bathroom remodel. The dimable general lighting fixtures I specified work out to 2.2W/ft². I can't see going less than 2.2W/ft² in my (future) garage, so I'll follow Steevo's lead.

 

[Gwhizman]

Don't over think it...

 

[btoner69]

One cool idea i've seen on this forum is if the garage doors had windows in them, that the lighting was in line with the windows.

 

[Slaman37]

New guy here, but I recently put up lights in my 20X24 attached garage. I picked them up off C.L. 3-8 ft and 12-4 footers for $80 with etra bulbs. I still have 6 of the 4 footers left over for future use...

Anyway my attic access messed up the center row but I've plenty of light in there now everywhere...