New Garage: Can you recommend light configuration?

[JoeGarageHand]

New to posting but I have been lurking for months while my garage plans get finished.

I plan to buy the HD Lithonia 4-Light Flush Mount Ceiling Electronic Fluorescent Tandem Strip Light 518902.

My question is, how many should I get and how should they be laid out? My architecht keeps telling me I dont need as much light as the 2W per sq ft rule states.

I have attached the drawing of the garage. The ceiling height will end up being somwhere around 11-13 feet.

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[bspf]

I'm assuming you will be doing lots of projects in your garage. I have a 30 X 30 garage and have two circuits of lights. One does the outer perimeter and the second does the interior. Depending on my situation I will only use one or both. For just general messing around, getting in and out of the car or getting supplies I just use one circuit. If i have a project I am working on I use both and wish I had more. My lights are eight foot double bulb flourescent with electronic ballasts. When I planned out my garage I googled something like garage lighting and ended up looking at some sight by the lighting association (this was ten years ago) which really helped on laying out my lighting plan. I thought I was really overdoing it but now I am considering adding more llight. My advice is to use more than one circuit and it is amzing how much light you will need. At night if all the lights are on in my garage and you look at the window from the outside it is like one of those alien landing shots from the movies. It is just a big white glare. I hope this helps. Just my experience.

 

[ymerej]

2 watts/ sq ft sounds like a lot of light when using 32w fluorescent tubes. My 24x24 garage has four fixtures, each with four bulbs and is fairly bright. Six fixtures would probably be overkill for my place, but of course you can never have too much light, and I only have 10' ceilings, which will make a difference.

When laying out the lights, you'd want the overhead lighting to be spaced evenly throughout the area. For example, if you have 22' between walls to be covered by two rows of lights, you'd want each light 5.5' from the walls so each row covers an 11' wide space.

Here's a quick layout sketch to give you an idea of what I probably would do given your building and chosen lights:

It would probably also help to adjust the positioning some to avoid being blocked by open garage doors if possible. You'll still want to supplement the general lighting with task lighting that you can move around so you can see under your car's hood or a light over a workbench.