Noob question for small garage

[Rakk17]

My garage is roughly 24' x 22'. I'll try to describe it the best I can. If you are standing at the front of the garage (facing inward) with the large garage door open this is what it looks like:

Against the back wall (opposite the big garage door) I have three work benches lining pretty much the entire wall.

To the left I built shelving that is attached to the wall and runs up to the rafters.

3/4 of the garage is open rafters while the back 1/4 (over the work benches) is finished. I believe it is for a fire break but not positive.

Here's my plan.....

At the present I have (4) 4ft 2 bulb flourescent light strips (T12 unfortunately) starting at the beginning of the rafters. They are paired into two large strips if that makes sense. There is no lighting over the finished portion of the garage which makes working at my benches extremely difficult.

What I want to do is add another circuit to my breaker box, run that circuit to the garage. Add a new box with two switches on the on the wall at the door going into the house. Then I want to run a long strip of plugs long the wall above my work benches. Thinking around 9ft long.

I want to get rid of the (4) light strips I have now. Replace with (2) 8ft 2 bulb T8 Lights. Then I want to run either the (4) lights I have or go buy (4) 4 ft T8 light strips and run those width wise over my work benches and along the edge of the finished ceiling.

I know this is a little winded but I want to make sure I am doing this the correct way. I made a quick diagram of what the garage looks like. I can take a picture if that would be better.

 

[antolod]

What you are planning will work, but if it were me, I'd just use all 4' fixtures. The advantage is you only need 1 type of bulb for spares and the 4 footers are easy to hang, inexpensive and put out plenty of light.

Install some switched outlets to plug the 4' fixtures in. Most of them have a cord, so plan on where the lights will go and try to set the outlets mid-way between hanging areas. I think 3 fixtures along the bench width would give you tons of light there and 4 or 6 spaced out in the parking area would probably give you better light than 2 8' fixtures. My garage has 4 double bulb 4' fixtures and for general lighting it is okay(barely), but when I get around to finishing it out, I'll be doing something similar to what you have drawn with a bench along the back wall and better lighting.

 

[Rakk17]

Thanks for the info. I bought a high output 8' T8 2 bulb light. It's actually two 4' lights that are fastened together so it uses 4 4 foot bulbs. Guy at Home Depot said it would put off about 800 lumens more light than two standard lights. And these can be fastened to the ceiling rather than hung which is what I was looking for.