LED lights for low ceiling workshop

[Talber8]

any recommendations for LED lights for a low-ceiling basement work shop?
Room section approximately 15x 15
Ceiling height only about 7ft
Work bench on one wall, lathe on other.
‘Tinned’ ceiling.
Replacing current halogen light fixture as I want to use this circuit to save current draw on that circuit.
I’m concerned about shadows/blinding with the low ceiling height.

I was thinking maybe 4 - 2ft sections ?, but again don’t want to be blinded by them.

 

[cybrdyke]

Low ceilings almost certainly means glarey lighting, unless you recess the source. The normal strategies for low ceilings are to use something that has a lot of horizontal light to utilize wall reflectance, something on the wall that bounces light off the ceiling (like a wall sconce), and task lights over tools and benches.
Flat panels and wafer lights can be used, but they are super glarey, unless you get them with a small recess.
Track lights, strategically placed, can be a good solution, too.
If you choose to use surface mounted linear fixtures, try to orient them in the direction that you will mostly see them from the end, rather than the side.
Good luck,
CD

 

[pbon]

Does a diffuser help reduce glare? I have 10 4’ LEDs with diffuser cover on an 8’ ceiling and they seem fine to me. But 8’ is 15% higher than 7’

 

[cybrdyke]

Does a diffuser help reduce glare? I have 10 4’ LEDs with diffuser cover on an 8’ ceiling and they seem fine to me. But 8’ is 15% higher than 7’

It definitely can. There is quite a bit of technology in some diffusers. Green Creative, for example, uses a glare reducing optical film in their diffusers that really works well.
Cheaper diffusers are just white colored translucent plastic.
CD

 

[pbon]

I have the cheap diffusers....,

 

[Chuck S.]

Just got 2 of these for my 3 car garage.
Pretty good light.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerc...MI6Oyanv3M6AIV1P_jBx0lEgNfEAQYAiABEgKAb_D_BwE

 

[buildyourown]

Bumping this instead of starting a new thread. I have basically the same issue. 7.5 ft ceiling with open joist in much of it. Because the ceiling is so low I have the fixtures tucked up between the joist bays to be flush.

Lighting isnt horrible but even with quite a few lights there are a lot of shadows.
Of course, its a small shop so its tough to get lights on walls
As the shop gets more organized I'm able to convert more of the space from storage to work area and I need to add more lights and not sure what to buy.
Thinking of these:

These

 

[mike93lx]

7'3" ceilings checking in. I have a bunch of open single bulb 4' fixtures that do decent, but I would love to upgrade at some point.

Interested in any other experiences too

 

[sparky 1971]

I have 7 foot ceilings in my 20X13 basement office/gym/ utility room. I just used four 4' strip lights with 40k frosted led tubes. Worked perfect.

 

[Terry D]

I just installed some of these in my basement with 7 ft ceilings for a new workshop area.
Spaced about 6 ft apart. The light output is awesome. Would highly recommend

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lithonia-L...t-Actual-48-in-x-2-62-in-x-2-16-in/1000704806

 

[ticklechicken]

I put these recessed lights in my garage. They work great and they're only 1/2" thick. It takes a bunch of them to get enough light, but they're only $6-7 each in quantity. I've had a few friends use these too. No issues after several years.

 

[Shiftless]

I also have 7 foot ceilings. I too just recessed the twin tube 4 foot LEDs up between the ceiling joists. I put one in every other joist cavity. Works OK for me.

My garage is 70 years old. It has a steel I beam running along the center to support the deck above. I ran EMT along the side of the beam. One receptacle for each fixture eliminates dangling wires all over the ceiling.

(Yes, it’s GFCI protected.)


.

 

[kroc0005]

I also have 7 foot ceilings. I too just recessed the twin tube 4 foot LEDs up between the ceiling joists. I put one in every other joist cavity. Works OK for me.

My garage is 70 years old. It has a steel I beam running along the center to support the deck above. I ran EMT along the side of the beam. One receptacle for each fixture eliminates dangling wires all over the ceiling.

(Yes, it’s GFCI protected.)


.

Where did you get these from?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[kroc0005]

I just installed some of these in my basement with 7 ft ceilings for a new workshop area.
Spaced about 6 ft apart. The light output is awesome. Would ....

The lowes picture is interesting. Are they twin tubed or singular? Or was there a crusted cover over the twin tubes?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[Terry D]

I just installed some of these in my basement with 7 ft ceilings for a new workshop area.
Spaced about 6 ft apart. The light output is awesome. Would ....

The lowes picture is interesting. Are they twin tubed or singular? Or was there a crusted cover over the twin tubes?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Not really tubes, they are made to look like a 2-tube strip light, I know the description says single tube. But for the price, they are a decent hardwired fixture. the light output is great.

 

[dogdog]

saw this while I was at Costco, but pretty sure you can find it in Amazon or what not places... the latest and newest is these skylight panels , its about 1" thick that is it...and dim-able if I remember correctly... but also pricey... but hey... da looks... I wanted them for my basement too...


There is also a thread here some one bought a tape wheel of LED string lights and used a router to embedded them into the joist surface.... that looked pretty nice as well... but it is a custom thing...

this is the costco link.

https://www.costco.com/skylight-flat-panel-by-artika.product.100526320.html

 

[Shiftless]

Where did you get these from?

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I got those from Costco. FEIT 4000 lumens 42 watts 4000K color temperature. They have been up for several years and I have had no problems. They aren’t the very best of course, but I’d say at $20 each on sale, they give you good bang for the buck. They are all wired together on a dedicated switch controlled circuit. My garage is unfinished, just bare studs and open ceiling joists. Original 70 year old smooth concrete floor complete with a few cracks.
If I had a beautiful finished garage like lots of GJ members, I would probably go with flat edge lit LED panel fixtures.