Help with lighting choice

[IGOR]

Hey gents-

I am just finishing up my shop - stick built 36x44 with 15' ceiling. Two garage doors, one 12 wide x 10 tall, one 12 wide x 14 tall







My dad has (15) 2'x4' fluorescent lights new in the box that he has had in storage for about 5 years but never used that he will give me (contractor was blowing them out for $20 each for a box of two)

I don't know much about them - but here is the tag on the box.



I'm wondering:

1) Are these lights "good" lights?
2) What kind of lumens these will provide -
3) Is (15) of these lights sufficient for this building?
2) If CFLs would be a better option?

 

[Nick_Wa]

Can't really help too much on the lighting as I am also trying to figure out mine right now. I will say though, that looks like an awesome shop and an awesome truck. Can't wait to see more build pictures.

 

[Diverbill45]

When I remodeled my shop a few years ago I changed from the old style 4 foot fluorescent light to the new T8 fluorescent light with "daylight bright" tubes. I had the old style lights in the shop for about 12 years and they worked alright, except in the winter, when it was cold. A couple of them didn't want to come on when it was real cold and it took all of them longer to heat up and get real bright, when it was really cold. I live about 75 miles south of you, so I'm sure we both share the same weather conditions and this is the problem I had with the older lights.

After adding a new addition to the shop and remodeling and using the T8's it's made a BIG difference in how bright it is in the shop now. Also the T8's aren't effected by how cold it is, compared to the old style tubes. Granted, I did add an electric furnance to the shop, but I only run it when I first go out there, just to knock the chill off and don't run it all the time.

Since you already have a source for your lights and might not want to spend the money on T8's, I'd say go ahead and use the lights you now have, but remember, and the talk is, they're going to phase out the older style tubes and sooner or later you'll only be able to get the newer style T8 tubes, in the future.

Having already switched over to the T8's and seeing what a big difference it's made in my shop, I'm glad I made the switch.

Hope this helps.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

May have to show us the light fixtures themselves. Google didn't find anything. Are these T12 bulbs or T8 bulbs?

Charles

 

[motormitch]

After extensive search I went 6 tube high bay florescent (T8) fixtures. My shop is 4000Sq. and I have 36 fixtures evenly spaced on 6 rows running the long direction of the building. I have every row on a switch. I can use every other row for normal projects and all rows for really detailed work. I love it.

 

[madosta]

After extensive search I went 6 tube high bay florescent (T8) fixtures. My shop is 4000Sq. and I have 36 fixtures evenly spaced on 6 rows running the long direction of the building. I have every row on a switch. I can use every other row for normal projects and all rows for really detailed work. I love it.

Niiiiice! How high are your ceilings.

OP might be able to get away with T8 HOs since he's got the room, but the T8s are hard to beat!

 

[IGOR]

May have to show us the light fixtures themselves. Google didn't find anything. Are these T12 bulbs or T8 bulbs?

Charles

So I looked at these lights tonight, they are 3 bulb T8s


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[IGOR]

Can't really help too much on the lighting as I am also trying to figure out mine right now. I will say though, that looks like an awesome shop and an awesome truck. Can't wait to see more build pictures.

Thank you, it has been a long work in progress. I've been thinking about posting a garage build.

Truck is an 02 GMC 2500HD with a Denali front clip I put on several years ago.

 

[2ManyProjects]

Hey gents-

I am just finishing up my shop - stick built 36x44 with 15' ceiling. Two garage doors, one 12 wide x 10 tall, one 12 wide x 14 tall

My dad has (15) 2'x4' fluorescent lights new in the box that he has had in storage for about 5 years but never used that he will give me (contractor was blowing them out for $20 each for a box of two)

I'm wondering:

1) Are these lights "good" lights?
2) What kind of lumens these will provide -
3) Is (15) of these lights sufficient for this building?
2) If CFLs would be a better option?

So I looked at these lights tonight, they are 3 bulb T8s

That appears to be a "parabolic reflector/diffuser" design, which are typically designated as a "High Bay" types. Given the 15-foot ceilings, I would expect them to work well for you, at least in the open main portion of the shop. In the areas where the ceiling is lower (under the loft, near the tool/workbench area, etc.), they may produce somewhat "spotty" light (very bright right under the fixture, but shadowy just beyond it). OTOH, it is likely that you would want more light intensity in those areas anyway; so you could simply bring the spacing closer together to avoid the hot-spot/shadow effect.

How "good" they are will largely depend on things that don't really show up in a pic, such as construction quality, mounting provisions, etc.; but at least being T8s, they are not already obsolete (if they were old T12 types, I would be recommending you avoid them).

A typical 4-foot F32T8 will produce around 2,800 lumens, at least initially. Three tubes per fixture means 8,400 lumens -- which is quite a lot (particularly if the reflectors built into those fixtures are reasonably efficient). But this is partly offset by the high mounting they are presumably intended for.

I think 15 fixtures, total, should be adequate, possibly well more than adequate. But you would be well served to put some serious thought into the exact layout, in order to get the light distributed in the most effective manner. Beware of your overhead doors, which will play hob with simple row/column spacing schemes. I would also urge you to split up the lighting into several independently switched "banks", so that you can control not only the overall brightness, but also put the light only where you need it at that moment.

I'd use something else entirely for the bathroom, in the stairwell, and MAYBE up in the loft itself.

CFLs can be effective; but being point sources, they tend to be even more problematic from an "even distribution" standpoint (i.e., you'd need many more of them, vis-a-vis the T8 fixtures, unless you went to semi-exotic high-power CFLs, which tend to be pricey, and mounted them very high). They are also generally not as efficient as linear tubes in terms of cost/lumen (both operating costs and purchase price).

 

[motormitch]

Niiiiice! How high are your ceilings.

OP might be able to get away with T8 HOs since he's got the room, but the T8s are hard to beat!

My walls are 18' with the a rise to about 23' in the center. The lights are hung at 18'

 

[Charles (in GA)]

These lights LOOK like a 2ft x 4 ft parabolic troffer light with 18 cells. I tried to match it up to something from Lithonia to use their Visual software.

If you CLICK HERE you get a screen with the photo metrics for a very similar Lithonia light. Parabolic reflectors, dividers to break it up into 18 cells, 3 T8 lamps, troffer installation.

From the photometrics screen click on the menu box at the top right that is "Interior" and then you can input your dimensions, height, etc. and get an idea of what might work and what would not. (click cancel when it asks you to log in)

Spend some time playing with the numbers, reflectivity of walls and ceiling, if the floor is to be painted, raise its reflectivity somewhat.

With the full dimensions, not accounting for the loft, and setting 80 foot candles at a 2.5 ft working height, it calls for about 28 lights. Increasing the wall reflectivity from the "standard" of 50% up to 75% brings the light total down to 25 lights.

Personally, I would install all 20 lights to cover the high area, and then use some open strip lights under the loft area. Open strips will give a lot more light spread which is what you will need, given that they are much closer to your head.

My biggest concern is what kind of ballast are in the lights, how they may preform in cold weather (I suspect since they look like troffer lights for a drop ceiling, they are intended to operate in a heated space), and how much noise they may make, both physical, and electrical. But hey, free is well, free.

Went back and changed the dimensions to 34 x 36 knocking off 10 ft for the loft end, and it still comes out to about 20 lights.

You will probably need, as I noted, a different light with much more spread under the loft, of course the loft will need its own lighting for whatever uses you have planned for it, and I would plan on some high intensity light of some sort in the back area that is not the loft, which looks like you planned for it to be a workbench area.

You might get away with the 15 lights in the 34x36 area but it will be close.

The "w/lamps 8862-1191" tells me, after thinking about it, that it is saying T8 and the 62 tells us the lamps are 6200K daylight plus bulbs. This is a numbering scheme I've seen on fluorescent lamps.

Charles

 

[IGOR]

These lights LOOK like a 2ft x 4 ft parabolic troffer light with 18 cells. I tried to match it up to something from Lithonia to use their Visual software.

If you CLICK HERE you get a screen with the photo metrics for a very similar Lithonia light. Parabolic reflectors, dividers to break it up into 18 cells, 3 T8 lamps, troffer installation.

From the photometrics screen click on the menu box at the top right that is "Interior" and then you can input your dimensions, height, etc. and get an idea of what might work and what would not. (click cancel when it asks you to log in)

Spend some time playing with the numbers, reflectivity of walls and ceiling, if the floor is to be painted, raise its reflectivity somewhat.

With the full dimensions, not accounting for the loft, and setting 80 foot candles at a 2.5 ft working height, it calls for about 28 lights. Increasing the wall reflectivity from the "standard" of 50% up to 75% brings the light total down to 25 lights.

Personally, I would install all 20 lights to cover the high area, and then use some open strip lights under the loft area. Open strips will give a lot more light spread which is what you will need, given that they are much closer to your head.

My biggest concern is what kind of ballast are in the lights, how they may preform in cold weather (I suspect since they look like troffer lights for a drop ceiling, they are intended to operate in a heated space), and how much noise they may make, both physical, and electrical. But hey, free is well, free.

Went back and changed the dimensions to 34 x 36 knocking off 10 ft for the loft end, and it still comes out to about 20 lights.

You will probably need, as I noted, a different light with much more spread under the loft, of course the loft will need its own lighting for whatever uses you have planned for it, and I would plan on some high intensity light of some sort in the back area that is not the loft, which looks like you planned for it to be a workbench area.

You might get away with the 15 lights in the 34x36 area but it will be close.

The "w/lamps 8862-1191" tells me, after thinking about it, that it is saying T8 and the 62 tells us the lamps are 6200K daylight plus bulbs. This is a numbering scheme I've seen on fluorescent lamps.

Charles

Wow - that website makes my head hurt - where do you see the recommended quantity of lights?

I am working on some lighting layouts and will post them up when I get them done...

 

[Modifieddriver]

Wow - that website makes my head hurt - where do you see the recommended quantity of lights?

I am working on some lighting layouts and will post them up when I get them done...

I used that web site tool for my lighting requirements. It's actually fairly easy to use. Number of recommended light fixtures is on the left.

Make sure you have the correct #s of bulbs and size (watts).

There's also a table I found on line that lists the recommended lighting requirements for the application, i.e.. body shop, office, machine shop, warehouse, etc.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Just count them, they are illustrated correctly in the pic. Also, as noted, the quantity is on the left.

The fixtures I used for that were as close to what you showed us as I could find. Three T8 32 watt lamps and with parabolic reflectors and the 18 cell grid deflectors. Of course there are differences in manufacturers in the design, the height of the grid dividers, etc, but it is fairly close.

Charles