Lighting Layout Help 26 x 30 garage

[kasander]

Platonic Solid, I've been reading all your posts with advice on lighting. Was hoping for a little help.

My garage is similar to diiulio's garage.

Summary: 26 x 30, two 9' x 9' garage doors, one man door on front. Separate entrance that leads to upstairs apartment.
10'6" ceiling downstairs
Walls and ceiling will be drywall, white ceiling, grey or white walls.


Here's my build thread: Garage Build

I wanted to go with the 1' x 4' Flat Panel LEDs

My joists are 16" on center, so subtracting the 3.5" for the truss, I have 12.5" between trusses. As with diiulio's situation, I plan to have living space above so the ceiling must be 5/8" drywall for firewall. If I put 5/8" drywall on each side of truss, I am down to only 11.25" opening... Perhaps if I use the adaptor, I can let it protrude a little below the ceiling.

Maybe I should just go with the Maxlite LSS2XT8USE4803 fixtures.

I was trying to do a layout on my own with DIALux but I didn't know which luminaire to select. I found a .ies file but not sure if it represents the right led.

Here's my dialux layout and results, but something doesn't seem right.

http://www.pelicanpointroad.com/garage/garage_lighting.dlx

http://www.pelicanpointroad.com/garage/dialux_output_v1.pdf

A few pics:

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Platonic Solid]

kasander - diiulio is using surface mount kits due to the same issue you're having with respect to maintaining ceiling fire rating on recessed fixtures. An alternate to surface mounting would be finding or making a steel box though that could make getting the LED panel in and out difficult or impossible if the box isn't big enough.

Recessing the surface mount kit won't work as you have to remove one end to install the panel. Suggest surface mounting either with a kit or finding the slightly thicker edge lit panels with drivers integrated into the side extrusion like the Commercial Electric sold at HD. Higher fixture cost, but much less hassle. Another option is this 4ft x 4inch panel - good luck finding a flange kit for that one.

Your Dialux file doesn't open for me. It launches V4 but comes up with an error. I've been using V7.1 for few years now. Light loss factor for LED should be 0.90 and workplane 2.5'. Any manufacturers flat panel IES should work. I use Lithonia's EPANL IES.

 

[kasander]

Ok, downloaded the latest version of Dialux. PS, check this file and let me know if I have set it up correctly. Also updated links in original post.

http://www.pelicanpointroad.com/garage/garage_lighting.dlx

 

[Platonic Solid]

The latest version of Dialux is 7.1 64bit which does not open dlx files, only evo format. Sorry, you're on your own.

 

[kasander]

Shoot, I was using 7.1 32 bit... Here's the .evo file...

http://www.pelicanpointroad.com/garage/garage_lighting.evo

 

[Platonic Solid]

OK, that works. Is your ceiling flat or vaulted?

 

[kasander]

Flat.

 

[Platonic Solid]

This would take way more time than I'm willing to devote. Suggest the Dialux Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDIALux/

 

[kasander]

Figured I would post an update. I temporarily installed 7 lights to see how they would look. (And to provide light until I get electrical done and power turned on. I have these running off an extension cord from the house... I actually bought 12 lights. I may slide these closer to the outer walls and install 4 additional lights turned 90 degrees closer to the center of the garage and 2 lights on the right (over work bench area).

Input is welcome.

Dialux results with 5 additional lights:

Current lighting with 7 lights:

 

[ddurrett896]

Off topic, but I'm guessing that metal beam helps supports the roof load.

I thought with Trusses, the bottom chord could only touch the two wall top plates, with no extra support in the center. Is that true? Thanks!

 

[kasander]

I spec’d these trusses so the beam doesn’t stick down so far into the garage. I am planning to install a lift in the future. The bottom chords rest on the outer walls and the top chord rests on the beam in the center. The span is 26’. Trusses are 14” tall. The beam is needed to support the 1 bedroom apartment upstairs. Trusses would have to be much taller to span 26’ without the beam. The garage already dwarfs my small ranch house so I didn’t want tall trusses that would make the garage even taller.