How much lighting do I need?

[bmw_racer]

Hello everyone,

I just bought a new house a few months ago. I am finally getting around to setting up the garage.

It is a pretty small 1-car garage (around 10" x 18"). No windows.

Right now, the plan is to improve lighting, epoxy the floor, paint walls/ceiling and install storage cabinets at the end with a small workbench.

I will be doing some work on my cars and at the bench.
What kind of lighting should I go for?

I was thinking maybe 4-6 fixtures (4") along the length and 1 or 2 flood lamps near the workbench to light up the workbench and the engine bay area.

Would that be sufficient? Do I need more light?

Suggestions more than welcomed

Thanks in advance!

 

[hobie1dog]

6 double tube fixtures spaced evenly should be great for that size of a garage.

 

[nate379]

I think 3 or 4 would be fine. Run them lengthwise on teh 10ft section.

My garage just has 4 housings and it's plenty bright.

 

[bmw_racer]

So 4-6 is in the ballpark.

Thanks for the tips guys. Appreciated!

 

[therealjakeg]

You need to put like 6 eight footers in there. Trust me you can never have enough light. Trust me.I have two eights in my two car and want to put two more in there. Just gotta chill on my electrical bill right now.

 

[StingRay]

I have 6 8 ft fixtures in my 24 x 28 and while it's pretty good there are times I'm working on stuff that it could stand alot more light.

 

[Tylerb43]

Did you say (6) 8-ft fixtures in a 10X18? Really? With 4-32w t-8's per fixture, that comes to nearly 4.3 watts per sq ft!

 

[Matti]

Based on previous research, 1 to 2 watts/sq foot is the desired range if I am correct. 1 watt/sq foot is reasonable and 2 is very bright. I went with 1.25 watts/sq ft (Daylight tubes?) with light colored walls/roof and a painted floor and am happy. The 4-6 fixtures should put you in that range. Proper placement will make a difference as well.

 

[mikeyr]

how old are you ? as you get older you need more light to see things clearly. When I was a kid, my garage had a single 125watt light bulb hanging from the rafters in the middle and that was fine. Now I am the downhill side of the big hill and some people complain they need sunglasses to walk into my shop when the lights are on...me I am looking to add more light.

4-6 fixtures should be fine for that size...start with 4 but plan on making it 6 in 10 years or so if you are still there.

 

[bmw_racer]

1-2 W/ft^2 sounds good. I'll aim for that.

That's 180 to 360W for the garage. What's the rating for one 4' tube? 32W.
That would give me a range of 6-12 tubes or 3-6 fixtures.

I am 30 BTW and don't plan on staying in this house forever

Walls and floor will be light colors.

What would be a good placement for 6 fixtures?

I was thinking 4 fixtures along the length (2 per side), and 2 perpendicular (1 in front and 1 in the back).

 

[nate379]

I put lights in a garage right about the same size as yours and we put 1 in line with each wall. Mainly because there was a bench against 3 of the walls so it put light over the bench.

I would probably just divide the 18 ft and put a light 6 feet from the wall, another 6 feet from that one and the final 6 feet from teh wall.


I do agree it's nice to have lots of light, but in the same respect you can have too much light and it will tire your eyes. Plus electricity isn't free, so the less you have the better.

4 vs 6 would cost me $0.34 less per 24hours.

 

[rsanter]

if you put 6 of them in I would put 2 on one switch and 4 on another.
that way you have the potential for 3 different light levels depending on why you went out ot the garage

bob

 

[bmw_racer]

if you put 6 of them in I would put 2 on one switch and 4 on another.
that way you have the potential for 3 different light levels depending on why you went out ot the garage

bob

Good idea! Thanks!

 

[Jack Olsen]

It is a pretty small 1-car garage (around 10" x 18").

That is pretty small. It reminds me of a tiny Stonehenge, with dwarves.

 

[auto-x fil]

I used to have 10 2x32W T-8 fixtures in my 20x22 garage. As storage slowly took over the clean white walls, I've gone to 20 fixtures, each with 2 40W T12 bulbs - these were $9 each at Home Depot, and have electronic ballasts. They seem much nicer than the Wal-Mart ones I had before.

The 4100k bulbs are rated at over 3000 lumens, but the 6500k look brighter to me, despite being rated at 2300 lumens or so. I have one of each in each fixture, but I'll probably go all 6500k as I replace them over the years.

This gives me almost 4W/ft^2, but it's not too much - I'm never reaching for sunglasses or anything. It's very nice being able to roll under a car and see without a shop light, and it really helps for detail work.

If you can keep clean, white walls exposed, 4 twin-tube 4' lights would do the trick. But, I'd just run two rows of four 4' units down it - that's just a touch over $100 with bulbs, and it'll make working in there so much nicer!

 

[pinkertonk]

DEFINITELY go with the new T12 bulbs. MUCH brighter, ballasts last much longer and are cheaper. I had 20 4' T-8s and eight 8' T-8's. Bought a case of 4' and 8' ballasts on Ebay and a case of each size T-12 bulbs from Bulbs.com. As the old ballasts fail, I swap them over to the T12. HUGE difference in light. Plus they use less power.

I second the idea of splitting up the lights on multiple switches. It's a pain to have to turn on the whole shop light network just to see to go grab something. If I had it to do over...

Btw, last time I was there, Lowes had a really nice deal on 4' T-12 fixtures with bulbs...30 something bucks.