Lighting,distance from floor

[countrypapa]

I am redoing my garage and have a question about the height of the lights above the floor. The garage is 30'x30' and 11'ceiling.Iwill be painting the ceiling and upper part of the walls with semi-gloss white and lower part semi-gloss of a color to break it up a little.My question is,should I mount the new lights,4',t8's up on the ceiling or hang them down on chains and if the latter how low should I go? I am concerned with overall lighting in the garage I have other lighting for over my 16' work bench. This is a hobby shop garage,not commercial,just working on street rod,motor-cycle,lawn tractors and polish the wifes car occasionly. Appreciate any help I can get.

 

[BPJOOP93]

I say tight to the ceiling so they are less likely to get hit by something like boards or whatever.

 

[Jack Olsen]

The flipside is: the intensity of light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the light source. So every time you double the distance between your light fixtures and your work, your work gets one fourth the light.

But it does **** to bang a light fixture with a 2x4.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Mount them down slightly, a couple of inches, for cooling. Beyond that, 11 ft is not all that great, as Jack noted, you lose some light, but you also get a better spread of light, the higher it is. Everything is a trade off, but don't hang them down on chains (except possibly over work benches).

Charles