How bright should I go?

[pgilmore7]

I've been looking at some LED high bay fixtures and I can't seem to figure out the wattage I would need for my shop. Right now I have some old office light fixtures that came with the shop when I bought the property. I found some lights on Amazon and their listed in wattage and that affects the lumens 50 watt is 5000 lumens 100 watt 9600 lumens 150 watt 15000 lumens and 200 watt 20000 lumens. I don't want it too bright but at the same time I don't want it done like I have right now ( reminds me of a flashlight with the batteries going dead) that wattage also affects the price and I don't want to spend for more if I don't need it. The shop is a 30x60x14 I don't even know what the lumens would be on what I have now.

 

[pgilmore7]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[95vette]

Hello, Read up on high bay lights, from what I've read the do not go below twelve feet from the floor. They give more light but more heat also.

 

[jtpfarm]

Linear lighting will give you much better light over highbays especially on a lower ceiling. Most guys I deal with shoot for 75 lumens per square foot with the LEDs.

 

[cybrdyke]

pgilmore7, there is no way for you to know the answer with the information that you have. You need to ask someone for a recommended layout using the lights that you choose. You can either ask the vendor that you will be buying from, or the manufacturer, or a lighting designer. They will use the dimensions of your space and show you where to place the fixtures.
As for the level of light you want, it's up to you. It's measured in foot candles. If you want a brightly lit space to use for a machine shop or a wood shop, then 100 fc is a good target. For just storing cars in a garage, 30 fc will work. You will probably want somewhere in between. Do NOT use any "rules of thumb" like lumens/sg ft. It doesn't work.
Good luck
CD

 

[jtpfarm]

pgilmore7, there is no way for you to know the answer with the information that you have. You need to ask someone for a recommended layout using the lights that you choose. You can either ask the vendor that you will be buying from, or the manufacturer, or a lighting designer. They will use the dimensions of your space and show you where to place the fixtures.
As for the level of light you want, it's up to you. It's measured in foot candles. If you want a brightly lit space to use for a machine shop or a wood shop, then 100 fc is a good target. For just storing cars in a garage, 30 fc will work. You will probably want somewhere in between. Do NOT use any "rules of thumb" like lumens/sg ft. It doesn't work.
Good luck
CD

1 lumen/sq ft is equal to 1 FC.

 

[cybrdyke]

1 lumen/sq ft is equal to 1 FC.

Yes, but not lumens measured from the source. Doesn't work that way.
CD

 

[jtpfarm]

Yes, I know that

 

[cybrdyke]

Yes, I know that

Good. Then you know illuminance is not referred to as lm/sq.ft.

I've seen heads explode from confusion about lighting. It's not pretty.

CD

 

[theoldwizard1]

The color of your ceiling and the color (temperature) of your light source make a big difference !

 

[mobilus]

I've retrofitted some troffer lights from 277v to 120v T8 and installed eight per 20x30x12' bay x3. Six switches controlling four lights each, one breaker per bay. Seems to work out fine...definitely bright enough. Traded a couple of cases of beer to a electrical contractor who was going to scrap them. Used Robertson ballasts from Amazon, less than $10 each. Sometimes cheap works well.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[pgilmore7]

Thanks for all the info, I guess I'll just have to try something and see how I like it. I'll let you know how it turns out. Upgrading those lights looks like a good idea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ipinupin]

Linear lighting will give you much better light over highbays especially on a lower ceiling. Most guys I deal with shoot for 75 lumens per square foot with the LEDs.

yeah agreed,,I doing it too

 

[James-W]

A guy I know has a garage/shop and he has probably twice as many lights as he needs. But the thing is, he has them on separate circuits so he only turns on the lights that he needs depending on where in his shop he is working. It seems to work well for him, maybe it is something for you to consider. Just because you have the lights doesn't mean you have to turn them on all the time. Just turn them on "if" and "when" you need them. It will cost more initially, but the important thing is, you will have the light available should you need it.

 

[BillK]

pg,
My business shop is 30 x 60 x 14, almost the same as yours. I am looking to upgrade the lights and have just about decided on 8 of these fixtures:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...TXwyKEDth6GSa1hpSWXuCxoChv7w_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

They are about 17000 lumens each. The guy in the warehouse next to mine has t-5s but I just did not like the light. Too much "glare" ? I looked at LED's but just cant justify the price difference.

 

[shillamus]

lumens go down with the square of the distance

look for a spec lumens @ X feet

Say 1000 lumens at 4 Feet. at 16 ft high bays the lumens are reduced by the square of the distance (4^2=16) or only about 100 lumens at the floor..

I think the physics work like that.. but each light contributes some

Hey.. I should have googled a lighting calculator first...

http://www.gelighting.com/LightingW...sistant-toolkit/lighting-layout-estimator.jsp

 

[shillamus]

Quick Lighting Calculator
w3.usa.siemens.com/us/internet-dms/Internet/.../DA_ZCR_Calculator.xls
Siemens
2, Quick Lighting Calculator. 3. 4, Variables, Constants. 5. 6, Room Width (ft), Lamp Lumen Depreciation, 0.8. 7. 8, Room Length, Luminaire Dirt Depreciation ..

 

[cybrdyke]

lumens go down with the square of the distance

look for a spec lumens @ X feet

Say 1000 lumens at 4 Feet. at 16 ft high bays the lumens are reduced by the square of the distance (4^2=16) or only about 100 lumens at the floor

Lumens dont "travel", per se. The number of lumens reported on the box of a lamp are a measure of the output of the lamp. It isn't relevant to the number of foot candles on any given surface.

http://www.gelighting.com/LightingW...sistant-toolkit/lighting-layout-estimator.jsp

This tool isn't so bad if you know all the information. Most of it isn't very easy to find without catalogs, spec sheets or photometric info. Then, you'll still need a layout.

Good luck
CD

 

[Shiftless]

pg,
My business shop is 30 x 60 x 14, almost the same as yours. I am looking to upgrade the lights and have just about decided on 8 of these fixtures:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...TXwyKEDth6GSa1hpSWXuCxoChv7w_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

They are about 17000 lumens each. The guy in the warehouse next to mine has t-5s but I just did not like the light. Too much "glare" ? I looked at LED's but just cant justify the price difference.

I opened the link to those 6 lamp fixtures and saw that they ARE LED's !

 

[jives]

I opened the link to those 6 lamp fixtures and saw that they ARE LED's !

Not what I saw.

 

[Shiftless]

Not what I saw.

Here is a screen shot of the specs.
Look closely at bullet point number 4
Says LED doesn't it?

But to add to the confusion, the title says flourescent and there is a reference to a ballast.
But it does say LED and the 10 year statement tends to support LED rather than flourescent.

This is probably typical Home Depot sloppiness. Or do we blame Lithonia?
I bet they are NOT really LED fixtures.

 

[BillK]

I opened the link to those 6 lamp fixtures and saw that they ARE LED's !

They are T-8's, definitely not LED

 

[pgilmore7]

What stinks about Homdepot and Lowes is all their good lights are not available is stores, so you can't see them before you buy them. Those fluorescents look like a good deal compared to the LED lights, but it's a give and take type thing I guess.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shillamus]

Lumens dont "travel", per se. The number of lumens reported on the box of a lamp are a measure of the output of the lamp. It isn't relevant to the number of foot candles on any given surface.


This tool isn't so bad if you know all the information. Most of it isn't very easy to find without catalogs, spec sheets or photometric info. Then, you'll still need a layout.

Good luck
CD

Ah I see....

A foot-candle equals 1 lumen per square foot. The international standard (SI) counterpart of the foot-candle is the "lux." A lux equals 1 lumen per square meter. The equation used to convert foot-candles to lux is: 1 foot-candle = 10.76 lux.

 

[revamped]

Beware; I am in the middle of figuring out what LED's to put in my 40X40 16ft. The Lithonia LED High Bays that HD sells are inferior to the other options comparably priced for the Lithonia LED High Bay available at http://www.beeslighting.com/product-p/ibh-12l-mvolt.htm.

Lumen per foot way lower on the HD models. Also, their DIVA light model http://www.beeslighting.com/product-p/dv-hb13lmv50k.htm seems to be the best efficiency and light per watt.

I really don't know what I am talking about though. I have asked several times in the lighting layout and fixture thread but not getting much help there. I think those links are wore out and not much help on high bay solutions there.

I search on for the right combination!