lighting for a small workshop, cfl/led?

[cruzzer]

Ok, so I'm renovating a small room the previous home owner had used as a bedroom in the basement. It was basically really a storage room that adjoined the garage and they really screwed up the wiring, insulation and so on. I have some other threads going in general more related on other things. The electrical I know how to do the majority of. I'm thinking of going with CFL's and either 4 or 6 simple fixtures in the ceiling, most likely run from one box with conduit. I plan on going over to LED's as money allows. The ceiling height for the room is not quite 8 feet and its about 13x14 room. one entire wall will be a workbench and the other my snap on roller box that is about 8+ feet long. I do not like long fluorescent tubes as its easy (for me at least) to catch them moving stuff. Big target. I plan on using caged lights like the vapor proof type but leaving the glass out to let the light have cooling. Thinking 23w 5000 or 6500k cfl's? would make this room like daylight? Floor will be black rubber tile and walls grey paint, ceiling not sure on color but most likely grey as I have several gallons left from a previous job.
Anybody have recommendations on led bulbs that would be good for this? May just go right to LED's if they are not too bad $ wise..
Thanks,
Steve

 

[gatchel]

Usually the cost to get an equivalent lumens per foot between LED's and CFL or tubes doesn't add up. The color temp, you'll have to figure out which works for you. There are now probably 100's of lighting threads here with varying degrees of information in them. Personally I like 4100K, Some people like 5000K or 6500K. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. In short, I would do tubes, then CFL's then LED's in an occasional use space.

 

[cruzzer]

problem is you cant search "cfl" too small a "word" so unless its recent. I found a couple threads and I went back 15 pages. None dealt with lower ceilings that the average large multibay garage. You know, lights 15-20 off the ground and 105-188w cfl's. Nice info but not really right.. I'm going to have to go with what I gathered and do trial and error I guess. I just dont want huge long tubes taking up space. They are a PIA to dispose of and easily damaged in a low ceiling shop, at least it is with me. May just run the boxes into the ceiling thru conduit and swap out stuff till it looks right. I have an 800sq ft basement that I could re-use almost anything.

 

[Falcon67]

I'd use 4' T8 fixtures with a wrap lens. Seems to me that's less of a target than some twisty CFL hanging down from the ceiling. I have two T8 shop lights in the house garage , each with two 6500K 32w bulbs. These hang on either side of a "100w" 5000K CFL Just one of the 4' shop lights blows the CFL out of the water as far as light output.

 

[James-W]

I am using 12 100 watt CFL's in my garage and it works well for me. The only downside is that it takes a couple minutes for them to warm up to full brightness. I realize the 8 foot fluorescent tubes work really good, as do the 4 foot ones, but as you suggested they can be a real pain when you have a ceiling that is less than 8 feet.

Mounting canned light fixtures in the ceiling may be an alternative, but I doubt you would get as much light as you probably want from them since the light beam would be directed more toward the floor rather than out into the room.

This may be a dumb idea, but maybe if you had 8 foot fluorescent lights mounted on to walls it would work better for you. If you were to mount the fixtures close to the ceiling they would be, for the most part anyway, out of the way when you moved stuff around and therefore less likely to be broken than if they were mounted on the ceiling. It's just a thought, and maybe not something that would interest you, but I think in some instances it could be a viable alternative.

 

[kaffine]

problem is you cant search "cfl" too small a "word" so unless its recent..

Try searching for CFL*

 

[cruzzer]

Thanks that works much better. I've been doing some looking at T8's and warming up to them a bit. Still not a fan tho. The CFL's seam like a good alternative to spread the light around the room. As its not a big room I remeasured, 12.5 x 13, to go with T8's I would have them in most likely the worst places and it would be only 2 or 4 at the most. 4 would be way too much light I think in such a small area and 2 would be good light but from only 2 sources may cast a lot of shadows. I may have to leave the final lighting decisions till the room is complete and then the lights will be left. Just leave the temp lights in till its done. The CFL's I was thinking of using would get re-used in the basement if I did not keep them. T8's I'd end up having to sell as there is no where else I would use them.. and as far as wall mounting,, I dont think that would work out. not 8 ft walls and some walls will have cabinets and one wall will have my snap on box which is only 4" shy of the ceiling. This weekend is replacing the window and fixing the insulation. Hoping within the next couple the new outlets will be in and drywall back up.