Lighting - 13' Ceiling with Lift(s)

[FlyAU98]

Yes, I read the best lights thread...I'm more interested in buying something (UL Listed) that I can hand to the new-construction electrician and tell him to install, rather than buy a bunch of parts and put them together now, or have to work on a fixture, above my head, 13' in the air when the "cheap" ballast fails.

3 car garage - intended for a 4-post in one bay, 2-post in the other, and the 3rd (lower ceiling) bay being used as a regular daily driver parking garage.

Ceiling is finished, and wires pulled for 3 fixtures above each bay. Design was for a 4-ft style light at each position, 9 fixtures total.

It seems all the "high bay" lights I've looked are designed to be hung down from the ceiling - I need something that mounts to the ceiling to preserve height for the lift.

LED and I'd prefer dimmable. They need to be available to have on hand in the near term.

Thanks!

 

[wssix99]

Ceiling is finished, and wires pulled for 3 fixtures above each bay.

I did this and regret it. My early renovation plans are to move all my lighting to be between the bays. (When cars are on the lift, the vehicle eclipses the lighting.) If you have room to reconsider, you might.

You do not have a "high bay", so you shouldn't have to worry about high bay lighting. Lowes and Home Depot are "high bay" situations. Hence, you see their true "high bay" lights hanging from pendants. (High bays don't need to light the upper areas or ceilings - just the floors.)

High bay lights have a narrower spread on how they diffuse light. Each manufacturer publishes specifications that tell you what height the light can be mounted at. If you look at any regular fixture, I trust that you will find that they are fine for 13 feet. Often, you won't find regular fixtures specifying heights, but should find those specs. with high bay fixtures.

If you use high bay lights in your situation, you'll be on the edge. There are some threads on this site that will walk you through calculating the beam spread and how your light will be covered according to the specs of a certain light. If you want to avoid that and if your lighting locations are already fixed - you can just go with normal fixtures and be fine.

(^ Given what you are describing, I'm envisioning and my comments assume a finished space, light colored walls, etc. If you will have dark color walls that will absorb diffused light, then you may want to get out your slide rule and do some calculations before you order fixtures.)

 

[dave*99]

^^ Yes, lighting along the centerline of a lift bay it quite useless. Put it between the bays.
With 3 bays, you need 4 runs of lights and also consider lights at the front and rear of the vehicles.

I opened the hood on my car (car on the ground) and arranged an 8' fluorescent such that the whole firewall was illuminated without a shadow from the hood.

 

[tfalk]

I'm in the process of expanding my garage to a 3 car and it will have (3) 4-post lifts.
This is the wiring plan I am going with, I have (2) 4 foot lights on each outer side, (2)
8 foot lights in the aisles between the lifts and (3) 8-footers along the back where most
of the work will be done. Afterwards I'm also going to add a few aim-able spotlights on
the back wall and on the front wall on the sides of the center bay to be able to light
up the end of the cars as I am working on them. Hopefully it helps.

EDIT: My ceiling will be 11 ft 6 inches on the outer left/right sides and slope up to collar ties at 15 ft.

 

[FlyAU98]

It looks like my solution will be 8ft lights to give me some light to the side of the cars... 10k lumens each, I think should do it. We'll see.

 

[ycgoat]

If you look at the lights specifications they usually give a diagram of how the spreads and defuses. Most of the light is going straight down and out at an angle from the sides it does not go out very far from the ends. If uou can get above the ceiling it might ne better to move the cable

 

[Noltz]

In my commercial shop there is no lighting above the cars. All the lights go around the perimeter of them. High bays hang in general areas like tool and along the walls. LED tubes hang lower towards the front of the vehicles to help illuminate under the hoods. Behind the vehicles we also have some hanging LED tubes to prevent shadows.

 

[racecougar]

Here is my 13' ceiling with lift solution. Note the placement of the lights (between bays). Each strip is three 4' Barrina LED fixtures linked together to make a 12' LED mounted directly to the ceiling.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DNPL2VC/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Mesozoic]

Dialux Evo is a free to use tool that helps with designing lighting.

 

[Dagny]

listen to your electrician he wont steer you wrong.

 

[cybrdyke]

listen to your electrician he wont steer you wrong.

Nah, electricians are trained on how to install them, not on how to lay them out for best results.
CD

 

[Mesozoic]

I've designed several workshop lighting arrangements using Dialux Evo. Highly recommend if you're into designing your own thing, but being an engineer probably makes that a fun project for me. Hire someone to design your workplace lighting if you're not keen on doing it yourself.