One more Fluorescent reality check

[jhendric]

Guys,

I have been reading the posts on lighting for quite a while now. I am refinishing my garage and am almost at the point where I need to make a final decision on lighting.

I need a reality check...I am sold on T8 Fluorescent as the best bang for the buck. From this thread I read the article from Saw Mill Creek...

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165763&highlight=Fluorescent

While that article seems very much to be a good authority on shop lighting. By their calculations my 1000' shop would require 71 T8 bulbs. That's 18 of the 4 bulb strips.

That seems like a lot of lights!!

I will be doing some fine tinkering in this shop....including things like rebuilding carbs...so I want it to be well lit.

I'm looking for real world expierience...is 72 bulbs too many?

 

[pattenp]

I think that is on the high end. I've got around 1.60 watts of light per sqft and the light is fine to me for general use. Your calculations are giving you 2.3 watts per sqft. I think you can cut it down to 14 of the 8' 4 bulb fixtures. That should be around 1.8 watts per sqft. You can add task lighting at the work bench for the fine detail work.

 

[D KRAGER]

I'd say 72 bulbs is plenty. I have 960 sq feet and have 60 bulbs.

Do your lighting in banks so you can turn certain ones off. Put extra lights over your workbenches close to the wall to eliminate shadows. I have 4 - 2 bulb fixtures all along my workbench.

 

[pattenp]

Lighting for detailed mechanical work is recommended to be from 1500 - 2000 lux/m2. 72 4' lamps will give you almost 2200 lux/m2. 56 lamps will give you right at 1700 lux/m2. This is using a standard lux of 2800 per lamp.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Personally I dont think i've ever been into a shop with that many bulbs in it.. I think theres some sort of bell curve when it comes to lighting...at first adding bulbs make a big difference in lighting conditions, and eventually you get to a point where going from 75 to 100 bulbs only makes a difference in your electric bill.

I Was all panicked and concerned about the lighting in my new 30x50...both design and quantity...couple weeks ago I strung up 4 temporary boxes and used "100w" Daylight CFL's...now this is nowhere near the amount of light I want, but by the same token, for 10.00 of lighting materials its bright enough to work in there. After thinking about it I just think to myself, heck if I used 4 of the 2 bulb T5-HO's or 4-bulb 8' T8's and direct swapped those 4 temp lights, It would probably be more then enough..

 

[jhendric]

Personally I dont think i've ever been into a shop with that many bulbs in it.. I think theres some sort of bell curve when it comes to lighting...at first adding bulbs make a big difference in lighting conditions, and eventually you get to a point where going from 75 to 100 bulbs only makes a difference in your electric bill.

I Was all panicked and concerned about the lighting in my new 30x50...both design and quantity...couple weeks ago I strung up 4 temporary boxes and used "100w" Daylight CFL's...now this is nowhere near the amount of light I want, but by the same token, for 10.00 of lighting materials its bright enough to work in there. After thinking about it I just think to myself, heck if I used 4 of the 2 bulb T5-HO's or 4-bulb 8' T8's and direct swapped those 4 temp lights, It would probably be more then enough..

That's kinda what I was thinking....maybe I havn't really been counting....