LED downlight in 19x23ft garage.

[Spyider]

hey guys. i'm thinking of using these in my 2 car side of the garage. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-6-in-Warm-White-Recessed-LED-Can-Disk-Light-CE-JB6-650L-27K-E26/203596700.. i was originally gona put T5 on that side also, but decided that i wont be needing that. and i'm going to use this side more to just park cars, clean.. show room-ish is the goal when finished. since i only got 8ft ceilings i thought that would be a nice clean look..

how many do you guys think would give decent lighting.. i was thinking 3 rows of 3, or 3 rows of 4.. so 9-12?.. is anyone else using lights like these? if so how do you like them, how many did you use and post a pic.. thanks.

 

[cg81]

I have converted my can lights in my living room and kitchen with those. I have 4 in the kitchen and 4 in the living room, and area about 14 x 28 foot total for the two rooms and it is about as bright as you would want your living room, but a little on the dim side for the kitchen. We have 8 1/2' ceilings . With that said I would want a lot more to light my similar sized garage. I downloaded a light meter for my phone. I got around 20-22 foot candles at counter height right under one of the lights, move a few feet and it quickly drops to 7-10 foot candles. If you want little to no shadows some kind of strip lights are the way to go.

 

[Greeny]

I swapped my kitchen can lights out for those and agree with cg81. They're ok, but not quite bright enough and very direct lighting. They make a distinct spot and drop off quickly once you move away from directly below them. Definitely wouldn't like them in the garage. I did install three of these LED shoplights in my 20x20 garage and love it.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-4-ft-LED-Linkable-White-Shop-Light-54103161/205331022

 

[Spyider]

hmm, well im trying to stay away from a florescent type of light fixture for this side of the garage.. if im going to use them i would keep using the t5ho lights then.. are their any other options? maybe a recessed florescent fixture.. i would just like to keep it clean looking when done. Gosh picking the right lighting can be so tricky.. haha

 

[cg81]

I don't think a flourescent can lights will be any brighter than these led ones. Buy a couple and experiment with them to see how many you will need to light it how you want. I took the guard off an old incandescent drop light and lit up one of the led trims with it to get an idea how the light spreads out and used that to give me a rough idea where to locate the lights. I think you will need a couple dozen in that space to light it somewhat even and not have shadows everywhere you look.

Next time you are in a store that uses can lights to light it see how many they use. When I worked as an electrician 16 years ago I helped wire a clothing store in a shopping mall. They little the store with commercial can lights and a lot of them. You can get good results from them if you are willing to install enough of them. When I checked out the home Depot link in your first post I found pictures customers submitted with their reviews. One person put 40 in their finished basement. It looked well lit but not overly bright. That may give you the best idea what to expect out of them. I don't have anything bad to say about the lights them selves. 4 of mine are on a Luton dimmer and they even perform well with the dimmer.

 

[Jazz1]

There should be a formula for lighting. I like those lights...but you don't want too many or possibly a dimmer switch is a option
..I upgraded a few months ago to T5s' from ancient T12's. Nothing extra. Increased lighting and got rid of annoying ballast hum. LED are priced beyond paying for themselves in our neck of the woods unless they are running 16 hours a day.
difference in light is amazing eh!

 

[Spyider]

ya i understand what you guys are saying. i think i would need almost 16 of them to get halfway decent lighting even haha. unless anyone else can think of something that is clean looking when installed.. hell i dono i may just go back to the T5ho haha.

i actually did buy some from the home depot. i got the CREE 4" and 6", also the Halo 4" and 6".. basically lit them all up and the 6" Cree seemed to be good. but in comparison i would say its = to a 60w incandescent bulb.

 

[Corsair4360]

I agree the payback on LED's assumes you are using them way more than I ever will. The T8's work well. Here the T8 to LED bulbs are about $9 USD each from Home Depot, still pricey. Next T12 conversion I'll use those bulbs instead of the T8's. I have more to get done at our home and a new garage to get built

 

[Spyider]

ya its hard to vision it, how many it would take. i know it would look clean.. but i fear it may not be bright enough and ill regret it.. i got plenty of time before i start on that side to pick lights.. still trying to finish the side ill actually be working in. haha

 

[Spyider]

well i returned all the led lights to home depot today.. and on my way home since i drive by a menards i decided it cant hurt to see what they got..
found this, https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/light-bulbs/led-light-bulbs/sylvania-4-5-and-6-13-watt-5000k-damp-rated-led-light-disk/p-1444431956833-c-7482.htm?tid=-1686069116632670684 so i got one to see how it was, and wow what a difference from the home depot ones! they are actually bright, i had this on and my T5ho on in the other room.. this was actually making light through the door into where the T5ho was and lighting up the floor over their even lol.. so ya its bright. just though ide share what i found.. and right now they are on sale for 25$ each! normal price is 35$.. so that's a bonus also.

 

[cg81]

Do they spread the light out wider than the home Depot ones? I have installed a couple of lights similar to those from home depot in a garage bathroom. 2 in an 8x10 bathroom was plenty of light. I like that you can install them in regular 4" ceiling boxes, much cheaper than installing can lights fixtures in the ceiling. How many are you going to install?

 

[Spyider]

Well, the home depot ones were 3000k with 650 lumens.. these sylvania ones are 5000k at 1100 lumens. so that alone makes them allot brighter. as far as lighting they seem to make a larger circle on the floor in the garage. i was thinking 9x of these would be good, except i got my garage door light in the center so that kinda throws off the pattern.. maybe ill recess my opener light up into the ceiling also to hide it since i got the liftmaster 8500.. or ill just use 12.. ithor way im not to worried now about not having enough light with these.. hell go to menards and just get one to see if you like it, if not just return it.. they wont know haha

 

[leo22]

There are a few steps you have to follow to get the right number of lights, first you have to calculate the area of the garage then determine how many lumens that area need, then divide the required lumen by the lumen of the bulb you plan to use, now you know how many lights you need.

 

[wind954]

Hello, So how do you determine the amount lumens per sq ft?

 

[Spyider]

i just used my eyecrometer.. lol