Help with lighting layout for 32x40

[dsl_mech]

New member here. Hopefully getting to the finishing stages of a shop build. Shop is 32x40 with 11' walls. The trusess are scissor trusses with a 1.5/12 slope on the interior. Shop is setup to have two bays offset to one side and a small general purpose area on the opposite side with a small washroom built in the rear corner. I am looking for help with how many lights I should have and in what pattern/spacing. I appreciate any input and ideas.

 

[rok_hunter]

My 30x40 has two banks of 6, 8' LED strips from the local big box store.

The first row is along the side with your garage doors, the second alone the side opposite the doors. I've got them wired on two separate switches with the same setup so I can use one set if I'm at my workbench near the windows or working near the garage doors, or the other set if I'm at the back wall, or of course both. I don't remember the lumens but it gave me something like 80 footcandles at my 36" workbench height and has been more than adequate for all my work.

The images have some shadowing from the camera, that's non-existent to the nekked eye. You can see the illumination from some of my projects.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[13mo]

New member here. Hopefully getting to the finishing stages of a shop build. Shop is 32x40 with 11' walls. The trusess are scissor trusses with a 1.5/12 slope on the interior. Shop is setup to have two bays offset to one side and a small general purpose area on the opposite side with a small washroom built in the rear corner. I am looking for help with how many lights I should have and in what pattern/spacing. I appreciate any input and ideas.

What are you going to be using your space for? That will let us know how bright it should be, which will help to guide us on the number/type of fixtures required and their spacing.

 

[dsl_mech]

What are you going to be using your space for? That will let us know how bright it should be, which will help to guide us on the number/type of fixtures required and their spacing.

I am a mechanic so primary use will be mechanical repairs on literally everything and anything that needs repair. I am also restoring a truck so that work will happen in there. Secondary use for the one end by the man door will be wood working hobby. I am thinking about using either 4' two bulb or 8' 4 bulb T8 fixtures and either using T8 bulbs or LED retrofits. I used these fixtures in my previous shop with T8 bulbs and was happy with them. My previous garage was alot smaller and nowhere near as nice as this one though. My main concern I am looking for help with is layout and how many lights I need. Thank you.

 

[78SC4X4]

Use this site for ideas. http://www.visual-3d.com/tools/interior/default.aspx?id=14782

 

[13mo]

I am a mechanic so primary use will be mechanical repairs on literally everything and anything that needs repair. I am also restoring a truck so that work will happen in there. Secondary use for the one end by the man door will be wood working hobby. I am thinking about using either 4' two bulb or 8' 4 bulb T8 fixtures and either using T8 bulbs or LED retrofits. I used these fixtures in my previous shop with T8 bulbs and was happy with them. My previous garage was alot smaller and nowhere near as nice as this one though. My main concern I am looking for help with is layout and how many lights I need. Thank you.

You will need about 20 of the 8' four-bulb units or 40 of the 4' units (or a combination of the two to yield 80 total T8 bulbs) to light your space to about the recommended 93 fc. 8' units require less wiring and are less expensive than two 4' units but are longer and may not work well if the space they need to go into won't handle an 8' long fixture, such as the "knee" in your trusses. The easiest way to hang these is to screw them to the bottom chord of your trusses but these can be suspended by a chain or a rigid conduit pendant if needed. I would do everything you can to avoid hanging fixtures from a chain or pendant as it's a lot more work than just screwing them to the trusses. The computerized tools recommend an equal 4x5 spacing using 8' fixtures but you probably will need to adjust this with your trusses, as their recommended spacing will only work if you have trusses 3.9' on center, which I doubt you do. I would play around with the Visual3D Interior Tool or something similar and put in your truss spacing to figure out an exact layout.You can also tell us the truss measurements (spacing between trusses, and where the scissor part turns into the flat bottom chord) and we can figure it out for you.

I do agree with the T8 strip fixtures though. I used 50 of the 8' units for my 80x50x14 and they work very well. The advantage to these fixtures is that they are inexpensive, easy to install, they work decently even in temps down to about 0 degrees, they don't have excessive glare, and since they are very low-profile, they don't interfere with overhead doors.

 

[BillK]

Another thing to keep in mind is how you are going to finish the interior. If you are going to have finished walls and ceiling and paint them white you will need a lot less fixtures than if you are going to leave it unfinished. If you look at Roks picture and the one I have attached below you will see that the white walls make a BIG difference.

My shop in the picture is 30x60 but also has 15ft ceiling which makes a difference also.

 

[dsl_mech]

Thank you 13mo this is the kind of information I was looking for. The interior will be finished with plywood on the roof and walls and painted white. For this reason I don't think I need to line the lights up with the trusses because I will essentially be able to mount them anywhere to the plywood. I did play around with the visual3d tool briefly last night. There are some options on there I am not sure what they mean. I will have to do some reading and play around with it again unless someone is able to make one for me that understands the program better.

 

[Gto7419]

I used high bay lights in my garage. Hyperlite 100w for 13ft ceilings. I used 6 in a slightly smaller shop than you have. They're cheap and easy to install. Super bright and have been reliable so far. Customer service is responsive as well. Only downside is they are from China and I'm not really into supporting what's going on over there.