Lighting Tips

[dougmac]

I have learned a few things about shop lighting over the years and wanted to share some tips with guys that want a well lit shop.

1) Paint the walls white. Also having the floor as light of color as possible will make a tremendous difference when it comes to lighting the shop.

2) Natural light. Windows and skylights will bring in a lot of light.

3) If you are working on cars you need light on the sides of the vehicle. So place your lights so they light the sides of the vehicle. You don't know how many times I have seen lights just in the center of the bay.

4) Be aware of the shadow the doors create. Hang lights below the tracks if it is possible.

5) Make sure that you have lighting far enough forward in the bay to light the engine compartment without the hood creating a shadow on the engine.

Here a few picture of how I dealt with the shadows created buy the bay doors:

 

[Possum]

Good tips! Thanks!

 

[thomask]

Nice job in making your own mounts there?

 

[ket-tek]

Great contribution of visual aids. Hopefully your time spent will help out other members lay out their lighting more effectively.


And I like the sideways track mounted fixture below. Creative idea and good execution.

 

[jvitez]

Excellent graphics! Thank you very much for taking the time to post these great tips. Much appreciated!

 

[deathbound]

Excellent tips. I've been wanting to add/change the lighting in my garage & this helps a lot!

 

[Wingnut65]

Thanks for the tips. I have blue tape on my ceiling as I plan where I would like lights to be placed. Now I gotta go back and see how close I have them to being most effective.

Thanks Doug.

 

[daveroy]

THANKS!!
The bracket spanning the door is exactly the problem I have been facing with no Ideas for solution! You have given me hope! Is that hung from the garage door rails? or from brackets directly into the ceiling? If from the rails, how does the vibration of the door affect bulb life, etc...

ok, just went out and looked at my garage door... I don't think I can use the idea! (bummer!)
The garage is not much wider than the door so the bracket would have to go from wall-to-wall. That in itself is not insurmountable. But it would also have to be lowered to clear the connecting arm for the opener. andI'm afraid that would make the whole light assembly too low! (back to the drawing board)

Still great information! thanks.

 

[Cryptic1911]

Nice tips! My plan for hanging the lights seems to cover all the gotchas already, but its nice to see it in picture form.. it just makes alot more sense

 

[wbrian63]

I've got 2 sets of 8' T8 fixtures hanging below the door in my shop. The door is 10'w x 14' tall. I used a couple of pieces of uni-strut and some long lengths of all-thread to create a place to hang the lights. The uni-strut is only 10' long, and the flanges on the tracks are about 10'-6" apart, so the all-thread is canted a little, but is plenty stable.

My lights hang down a fair bit from the track height - all of the lights are about 9'6" from the floor.

As far as vibration goes - far as I know, there's nothing to shake loose inside a florescent light. Wouldn't want to vibrate the heck out of it, but the normal vibrations associated with opening and closing the door shouldn't matter much.

 

[regguy1]

Nice post...........

 

[southpier]

gloss white paint. reflects and wipes down easier

 

[LSVLance]

The original post in this thread pretty much describes every mistake I made with the lights in my garage... Where were you 9 years ago when I laid them out the first time?

Thanks for the post Doug, I'll use it to fix the mistakes of my unexperienced youth...soon hopefully.

 

[PhantomEB]

Another idea would be to mount the lights directly into the ceiling/wall corners on 45* brackets. This has always been a thought of mine, perimeter lighting with a few more 4 bulb fixtures spread out evenly in the middle.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Great post.

One other idea is to position the lights underneath the roll-up door.

 

[williaty]

I did lighting professionally for several years. This is exactly the kind of stuff most people don't think about.

Bravo!

 

[bchee]

Awesome post and pictures.
When I installed my lights I didn't take any of this into consideration, however just by pure luck I guess I installed them the way you show.
I've also seen some people put lights on the walls, low to the ground.

 

[dougmac]

Great post.

One other idea is to position the lights underneath the roll-up door.

That is a neat idea Jack ......

Are the pennants on a flexible cord? Do they lay against the door when it is closed? How did you route the power?

 

[Jack Olsen]

They stay in the same place when the door is open or closed. For me, that works fine -- but I don't park a car on the right side, obviously. It wouldn't be a good solution if you need maximum clearance on both sides.

The power goes through the square tubing that makes up the supports. The lights are made out of inexpensive cake pans.

 

[dougmac]

They stay in the same place when the door is open or closed. For me, that works fine -- but I don't park a car on the right side, obviously. It wouldn't be a good solution if you need maximum clearance on both sides.

The power goes through the square tubing that makes up the supports. The lights are made out of inexpensive cake pans.

Oh .... i see, they hang on brackets below the door. They looked like they were attached to the door. Cool idea!

 

[bchee]

cake pans LOL I had no idea

 

[Disney]

Bringing this back up TTT. Thanks again for posting the info in this thread!

Any chance someone with the know how could post some more info on T8 vs T-12?

 

[hevnbnd]

Bringing this back up TTT. Thanks again for posting the info in this thread!

Any chance someone with the know how could post some more info on T8 vs T-12?

BUY THE t8s and be done with it! More energy efficiant, cheaper, not making t12s for much longer.

 

[Hairscrambler]

Awesome post, thanks for sharing.

 

[nwav8tor]

Great info - thanks for all the "food for thought" and shedding some light on the subject (pun intended)!

Paul

 

[The Frisco Kid]

great post! Thanks for the info.

I would add that the shape of the fixtures that you use makes a HUGE difference in light transmission.

 

[roche]

Great thread to read while planning lightning in my new garage thanks!