New Shop Lighting Sanity Check

[raynman1972]

Hi,

I have a 20' x 30' shop with a 10' flat ceiling that is currently bare studs and I am scheduling work for insulation/drywall and I want to get my wiring and lighting sorted first.

Worth noting is that the 20' side faces the street and this is where there is a roughly 9' x 18' garage door. After drywall, the walls and ceiling will be some low sheen white color and the floor will probably be some variation of gray.

Also, I intend to put in one of those low ceiling car lifts and I will be doing some tinkering on an old Buick, maybe a bit of welding/grinding, maybe swapping parts, but mostly telling lies and drinking beer where the wife can't see.

I want to try to use LED lights and when reading through endless posts on that fixture thread, I think that I might want to be around 60 FC as I won't be doing any machining or painting (I might clean rifles, but I can get a task light at a work bench to improve that specific area).

Using this tool, I come out at nine fixtures at ~4k lumens each:

http://www.visual-3d.com/tools/interior/default.aspx?id=14782

This is the fixture I am currently entertaining:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...Profile-Wraparound-Flushmount-LBL-4/203839057

Is 60 FC reasonable for my intended usage? Am I missing anything critical with my use of the tool above? Should I factor in anything else? Maybe a hard-won lesson from another member in a similar application?

Also, shooting-from-the-hip, what kind of price, do you guys think I would pay for each outlet from a qualified electrician? When we built our house, the electrician charged something like $80 per additional outlet.

 

[cybrdyke]

Those fixtures are fine and 9 seems to be about the right quantity. 60fc is plenty for general illumination. Task lighting for anytime you need to do more detailed work. You're on the right path.
Good luck,
CD

 

[bczygan]

Hi,

I have a 20' x 30' shop with a 10' flat ceiling that is currently bare studs and I am scheduling work for insulation/drywall and I want to get my wiring and lighting sorted first.

Worth noting is that the 20' side faces the street and this is where there is a roughly 9' x 18' garage door. After drywall, the walls and ceiling will be some low sheen white color and the floor will probably be some variation of gray.

Also, I intend to put in one of those low ceiling car lifts and I will be doing some tinkering on an old Buick, maybe a bit of welding/grinding, maybe swapping parts, but mostly telling lies and drinking beer where the wife can't see.

I want to try to use LED lights and when reading through endless posts on that fixture thread, I think that I might want to be around 60 FC as I won't be doing any machining or painting (I might clean rifles, but I can get a task light at a work bench to improve that specific area).

Using this tool, I come out at nine fixtures at ~4k lumens each:

http://www.visual-3d.com/tools/interior/default.aspx?id=14782

This is the fixture I am currently entertaining:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia...Profile-Wraparound-Flushmount-LBL-4/203839057

Is 60 FC reasonable for my intended usage? Am I missing anything critical with my use of the tool above? Should I factor in anything else? Maybe a hard-won lesson from another member in a similar application?

Also, shooting-from-the-hip, what kind of price, do you guys think I would pay for each outlet from a qualified electrician? When we built our house, the electrician charged something like $80 per additional outlet.

When I go to the calculator you linked, and input the values for the light you specified at HD, and used 60FC at the work surface and 10' ceiling height, I get 12 fixtures.

In addition, my experience is that the actual FC you get is half what the calculator indicates. My smaller than 10x20 has 8 fixtures with 5400lumens each. I get 50-60FC at 3'. It is nice bright general illumination using daylight bulbs.

Bill