Lighting help on new 4 car garage

[beldar]

Hi,

So I'm building a new house with hopefully a great garage/shop. Looking for light layout advice.

Its a 3 car with 3rd bay having a tandem 4th bay. 23' x 32' with 4th bay being an additional 20' deep. 10' 6" ceiling. 18' x 8' main door, 8' x 8' doors on front and back of bay 3 and 4. I've linked a layout of cars/toolboxes/bench and detailed blueprint PDF below. I can PM the DWG if anyone's interested.

It seems the LumeGen 2ft.-10,400 Lumen - 80 Watt - Dimmable (link) is the way to go. No real budget constraints, so I don't mind coating it with lights, I just need to know where to install them.

I'm guessing a general lighting layout will be fine for 2 car part, but what's best for brighter or more lighting in 3rd and 4th bay where I will be doing most work? Maybe there will be enough light with general layout everywhere?

Work in left 2 bays will be light auto maintenance (oil changes, brakes, etc), Woodworking. Work in bays 3 and 4 will be woodworking, Electronics (soldering, etc), and other bench work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Long time listener, first time caller here

Detailed garage/house blueprint PDF (link)

Garage car/tool/bench layout (link)

 

[cory58]

Isn't your ceiling a little low for high bay lights.


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[75gmck25]

If you just install switched ceiling receptacles in all the possible locations, it will give you a lot of flexibility to set up your lighting. Most of the plug-in lights come with about a 5 foot cord. That gives you the ability to move them around and make final adjustments/additions if you need more lights, or they need to be off in one direction to give the best light. Most of the new LED lights also have such a low current draw that adding more lights will never be a problem.

Since GFCI is now a requirement for all garage receptacles, just add one in the switched line to the lights and put it down on a wall where its accessible for reset.

Bruce

 

[red94chev]

I have a 30'x42' and one corner of the shop (10"x12" is its own little room with its own lighting. So in the rest of the shop, I just hung 18 of these here and it came out great. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0728P14FR/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I think they're awesome. Just like 75gmck25 said, they come with short cords and I ran a series of outlets in the rafters for each row. I have most on one circuit and a few on another so I can choose how much light I need at the time (not to mention you can turn individual lights off with the pull cord. I'll try to get some pictures tonight.

 

[beldar]

Thanks guys. I had seen those lights specified before for a normal ceiling height (I think), but I could be wrong.

I actually have switched ceiling outlets in my current garage but I have not moved lights in the 11 years I’ve been here. I was thinking hardwired lights would have a cleaner look.

Although with the higher 10.5’ ceiling I may not notice outlets as much.

Red94, how many lights length vs width in your 30 x 42?

Thanks

 

[red94chev]

Hopefully this picture shows up. The left rear rectangle is a room with its own lighting. And this is with 10' ceilings.

18 total lights. Each on is 4' long, 4100 lumens, and 5000k temp.

 

[red94chev]

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[beldar]

Thanks! That's very helpful! Appreciate the layout pics.

 

[red94chev]

No problem I originally thought I may need lights where the garage doors go up but I don't think it's necessary for what I'm doing. Most of my work area is the back of the garage.

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[beldar]

Yeah, that's an issue I have now. I didn't consider where door would cover the lights.

This time I'm probably going to "frame" around them like you did to maximize coverage with doors open. I may put just one light where door will be in up position, but I don't do much car work with doors closed.