Lights for over the workbench/low ceiling?

[Ron_J]

I added a loft above my workbench and now need to add some lighting under the loft. I installed hi-bay lights in my garage (12' ceiling) and am very happy with them. I have one left over and was going to put that under the loft (8' ceiling). How bad will I hate them? The light I have is a 12k lumen 90w.

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[Shiftless]

You’ll hate it a LOT!

The glare will be terrible.

If you want something that mounts very close to the ceiling of your workbench space I would get a 1x4 edge lit LED panel

The ceiling over my bench is only 7 feet above the floor which means 4 feet above my workbench. I settled on 3 LED floodlight bulbs spaced about 2 feet apart mounted in porcelain bulb holders in a run of exposed EMT.

 

[Terry D]

Way too much light at 8 ft. High bays are around 15 to 20 ft. Even at 12 ft. is a little low

 

[cybrdyke]

I'm a lighting pro. I did what you're asking about. I had a nice vintage light over my workbench and decided it was time to give it a full restoration, so I took it down. In it's place, I put up a 14,000 lumen highbay that I had laying in the corner. This was just temporary.
It was Brrrruuutal. Being only about 4.5 feet over the surface of my work bench, it was hurtful to try and do anything on the bench for more than a minute or two. Cringe.
It's really bad for your eyes, too.
CD

 

[mikedodge]

I wouldn't even use hi bay's at 12'. They're meant for super high commercial type heights.

 

[vwpieces]

Says the fixture is dimmable...
But how far can it be dimmed is the main question.
I would hook a cord and a dimmer SW to it for a test.

 

[Innovate1]

I put some LED puck lights under a small loft for a bathroom and a couple feet over a shop sink and bench. If you are doing detailed work a bit more light might be good but for my situation it was great. I forget what the wattage was but think they were equivalent to about 60W incandescent. Got a pack of 5 at Menards.

 

[sparky 1971]

I think the cheap plug in shop lights are junk. Now that that's out of the way, I must admit that since my eyes are getting older,, I have one over each of my two benches, drill press, miter saw, and parts washer. The wood shop has 7' ceiling and the garage ceiling is 9'.

 

[Czechsix]

I just went with some of the cheap LED 3k lumen lights from a big box store. Not too bad in a small wood shop. Ceiling height the lights are installed under is 7.5'. Seems to be a good balance, but I'll probably upgrade once these die off.

 

[Ron_J]

Just a word of caution to those that might read this wanting advice one lights, ignore all the comments about 12' not being high enough for these lights. I did it at the recommendation feom Platonic here and i couldn't be happier.

 

[Ron_J]

As for the original question, i hung the light since i had it already and i didnt think it was terrible. I'm going to leave it up for a while to see how it works for the long haul.

 

[rsparks64]

I have two similar lights, but they are not over my work bench. I put a dimmer in (make sure it is compatible with your lights) just in case I might need it. The lights are very bright, but not really too much, even at about 9.5 feet up. I keep them at about 50% to save electricity until I need them and then adjust to 100%. I have about a 6,000 lumen, 4k, 4 ft led, and it works pretty well but I could probably use a bit more light sometimes.