Is there such thing as too much light..

[burlybrute]

There is so many posts about lights on here I think you could search until you found the end of the internet!!!
With that being said, so many have put so much thought into fixture placement. Is there such thing as to much light in the workshop? I mean, have any of you removed lights or pulled bulbs out?

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[CJM8515]

A friend of mine got those high powered LED spotlight things from his job and mounted 4 of them in his large car sized shed. They are so bright that if you look up at one you are blinded. So bright that with the door open they shown on someones house 500ft away and the guy called code enforcement on my friend.



So yea, you can have too much light.

 

[American Locomotive]

So there are established upper limits for indoor lighting depending on application and use. But if you look these values up, you'll see that typical afternoon sunlight is 10-15x more intense, but most people don't have an issue with eye strain outside.

I think what a lot of it comes down to is glare from reflections and the intensity of the light source itself. If your light source has such a high intensity that it blinds you when you tilt your head up, it's not very useful as a light source.

 

[Norcal]

A friend of mine got those high powered LED spotlight things from his job and mounted 4 of them in his large car sized shed. They are so bright that if you look up at one you are blinded. So bright that with the door open they shown on someones house 500ft away and the guy called code enforcement on my friend.



So yea, you can have too much light.

What was the outcome?

 

[DFB]

Many times ceiling height and/or the distance above your work station plays a role too. My bud put one the newer 4 FT 5000K dual bulb LED over the tire changing machine, it's up quite high (tall ceiling) its great. Same light hanging over my basement garage workbench with a slightly less than 8ft ceiling height was really too much and went with the single bulb unit instead 3500K maybe, much better

For me same goes for portable work lights sometimes your just much better off with 300-400 lumens than like 800-1000 or more depending on what your working on with reflection and/or glare. Big difference between lighting up large space and small area

 

[CJM8515]

What was the outcome?

Code enforcer came and told him to refrain from using it at night. Also told him to take down a harbor freight tent as you can’t have two sheds.

 

[Lightman 1]

There is a balance between too much light and not enough light. There is also an issue of the wrong kind of light or light in the wrong place. A 1500 Watt ball park fixture works well 110ft in the air but is a poor choice in a work shop. Just as a 4ft shop light would be a poor choice up on a pole.

Most wholesale electrical places have someone available to help plan a lighting layout. On big jobs like ball fields the lighting manufacture will taylor the lighting plan to the needs and provide an aiming diagram.

Many lighting places even have a computer available for the customer to play with, trying different lighting styles. TEC lighting near me is one of these. There are probably more.

 

[Platonic Solid]

DFB - 5000K & 3500K are color temperature which have nothing to do with lumen output.

 

[cybrdyke]

Health related issues from too much artificial light include headaches, eye strain which can cause permanent eye damage, sleep deprivation issues, stress, digestive issues, increased anxiety and reduced melatonin levels. It can also elevate the effects of diabetes, autism, and epilepsy.
CD

 

[American Locomotive]

No, that's not really accurate. Most of your cited issues are caused by bright light at night - usually just before bedtime. Some of your other cited issues were/are caused by barely perceptible flicker from poor quality fluorescent bulbs/ballasts.

 

[Platonic Solid]

The simple answer is: Yes.

Lighting is task and visual acuity dependent. If you’re doing a stationary task like rebuilding a carb or working on small electrical circuits you may be comfortable with 200fc at the workbench. Lighting an entire garage to this level is unnecessary and likely cause eye irritation without a proper layout.

If you’re moving around the shop performing mechanical tasks you want even shadow free light distribution. This requires several light fixtures to cancel out the shadows created by the neighboring light fixtures and the objects in the space. Once you’ve achieved fixture layout nirvana you can increase fixture output (with caveats) and maintain the same even light distribution. Increasing fixture lumen output on lower ceilings can lead to eye irritation from light fixtures that are in your field of view. In this case it is better to add more fixtures to reach the desired illuminance.

For general area lighting, the worst case scenario is a single high output light source. The reason to strive for even light distribution is physiological. Our eyes are relatively slow at adapting to different light levels. You can turn your head in less than a second, but your pupils may take 10 seconds to fully adjust to the different illuminance of the area in view. Continuously subjecting yourself to uneven lighting will cause you to become tired and may result in headaches.

Pupils constrict to the brightest luminance in view. If a light fixture is in your field of view, as is more common with lower ceilings, your pupils will constrict accordingly. The brighter the light fixture in your field of view, the more your pupils will constrict, the more difficult it becomes to see the task at hand.

 

[cybrdyke]

No, that's not really accurate. Most of your cited issues are caused by bright light at night - usually just before bedtime. Some of your other cited issues were/are caused by barely perceptible flicker from poor quality fluorescent bulbs/ballasts.

No, none of the issues I cited have anything to do with bright light at night. They all have to do with being under artificial light, regardless of time of day. And the flicker from lighting that can trigger some of these problems, is imperceptible, not barely perceptible.
Different people are more or less susceptible to these effects. There are tons of studies that have been done and are still being done by the lighting industry and the medical and psychological industries about it.
Since the question was, is there such a thing as too much light in a workshop, I'd say my answer is spot on. Being in a workshop that's significantly overlit for long periods, regardless of time of day, can produce all the things I mentioned.
CD

 

[American Locomotive]

No, none of the issues I cited have anything to do with bright light at night. They all have to do with being under artificial light, regardless of time of day. And the flicker from lighting that can trigger some of these problems, is imperceptible, not barely perceptible.
Different people are more or less susceptible to these effects. There are tons of studies that have been done and are still being done by the lighting industry and the medical and psychological industries about it.
Since the question was, is there such a thing as too much light in a workshop, I'd say my answer is spot on. Being in a workshop that's significantly overlit for long periods, regardless of time of day, can produce all the things I mentioned.
CD

I've read the peer-reviewed studies. Many of those studies are old, dealing with flickery HID lights or fluorescent fixtures with poor color rendering. Most of your cited issues come from too much light, late at night, throwing your body's natural rhythms off. More recent studies are looking into "blue" light late at night - mainly from electronic devices like phones.

One of the most commonly cited studies showing potential eye damage (and many other similar studies) from LED light use ridiculous intensity. Their test intensity was nearly 5,000 FC. Of course if you stare at light that bright for hours on end, you're going to suffer consequences.

There is nothing special about artificial light. If you have a modern LED with a flicker free driver, good color rendering and a well controlled spectrum (no spikes), your eyes will not know the difference.

 

[DFB]

DFB - 5000K & 3500K are color temperature which have nothing to do with lumen output.

Thanks

Ok got my figures mixed up

Should be 4100L for the double bulb and 2400L for the single

Still is dang bright

 

[b-boy]

I have 6 250 watt LED UFO high bays in my 30x40 pole barn. I have them on a 0-10 dimmer. I keep them at about 50% power. If I turn them up all the way it's like walking on the Sun. Way too much light.

 

[sdeeter19555]

I have two separate light circuits, one is for wandering around, the second is for detailed work when you want more light. I'm about to redo my basement lighting as my fluorescent are going bad, I will probably do the same since I do more detailed work in there...

I hate working in poorly lit places...

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[checkthisout]

Of course. That's why they have made dimmer switches and 3-way bulbs for decades.

 

[JRC3]

I bought 5 of these at Menards on Black Friday with a plan to hang them on my 8' garage ceiling around my lift placed above and near each wheel and one to shine down under the hood. https://www.menards.com/main/lighti...9-c-7546.htm?tid=-7119457219167727592&ipos=42

I hung two...It was like flying into the sun. I returned them.

So my answer is yes, you can have too much light.