Perfect Garage Lighting -DIY

[Jack D]

Since your located in CT you could contact a manufacturers rep and they should help at no charge. Once the product is selected they would send you to a local distributor and let you know roughly what your expected to pay for the product once you get there. I also don't mind helping with the layout as lighting is all i do for a living. Once we determine layout and product used you could shop for the product locally in your area.

The problem with a manufactures rep is that I am not sure what I want. I have an idea and that is what the store consultant is supposed to help me with. Maybe I want too much. I would like light and style. This is not a 2x4 stick shed on crushed stone base so I am conscious of a budget but I don't want to cheap out at the last step. This garage will cost me what a small house does and that is why I am so concerned with the lighting.

Since I lobbed a grenade into his management staff he seems to be quite responsive. Maybe this is not a big order for them, but if you advertise a service I assume that you would follow through.

What would you charge for a photometric plot?

 

[fastevo9]

I don't charge anything for photometrics as I ask my clients to compensate me by using my products instead. It ends up working well for me as architects and engineers flood me with business in exchange for all the work I do for them. Unless you hired a designer and signed something your not obligated to pay for any design services someone renders. When I design a project I do more than photometrics so putting a number is not something I have ever thought of. If you run into issues let me know and ill help you out if need be.

 

[Jack D]

I don't charge anything for photometrics as I ask my clients to compensate me by using my products instead. It ends up working well for me as architects and engineers flood me with business in exchange for all the work I do for them. Unless you hired a designer and signed something your not obligated to pay for any design services someone renders. When I design a project I do more than photometrics so putting a number is not something I have ever thought of. If you run into issues let me know and ill help you out if need be.

OK, the store sent me the first pass at a plan and I'm not impressed with the results. I have a call scheduled with the consultant today to discuss. They gave a plan that basically disregarded the fact that I have a catherial ceiling and placed lights at a 9' height suspended from the ceiling.

 

[fastevo9]

If you have the plan in PDF format you can send me a PM and ill give you my email address. Ill review it for you if need be.

 

[Jack D]

If you have the plan in PDF format you can send me a PM and ill give you my email address. Ill review it for you if need be.

I do have it in PDF and I don't like it so I will be suggesting to the sales rep what my vision is/was when I visited him and I will ask him again to look at my plan. When I left him a month ago I think I communicated what I wanted and I expected that, if he could not make it my plan work, I expected that he would show me why and offer an alternative. My vision was to have an older 'look' '50s look using the porcelain covered barn lights but using modern 'corn cob' LED lamps.

What I got was a plan that had industrial lighting setup and it appears they did not take into account my design inspiration. The plan he gave me was 6 LS8 8' luminaire fixtures arranged so the garage doors in the up position did not block the lamps.

This is the output and I included a cutaway graphic look of the inside of the garage plan. The view is from the back, above the wall line, looking down at the front garage door. It shows the dormer that originally I envisioned having transom windows but changed them to awning windows to capture more sunlight. From this view you can see that the garage door is taller than the virtual ceiling line. The door is a full 9' high x 12' wide and the walls are 8'6".

 

[frankush]

I'd be willing to guess that he doesn't have the photometric data for what you want to do. The LED "corn cobs" you want are meant to replace a standard incandescent A lamp. That does not mean that they will give off the same quantity of light in the pattern that a standard A lamp would. He would be guessing at best. Have him lay it out with the fixture style you want but with incandescent lamps. It will give you the look you want. You can change out to LEDS and see if it works for you.

Another thing to be aware of is that the light coming off a typical incandescent is not directional. It radiates in all directions and some of that light is redirected in a pattern by the reflector. LED lamps will rarely have any provision for directing the light up into the reflector, so the pattern will be different and so would the photometric values at any given point in your layout. Unless you find a manufacturer that makes what you want and specs an LED lamp for use in that fixture, your designer won't have the numbers to plug into the lighting calculator. Here is one style to consider:

http://www.lightingdirect.com/progr...s_kwcid=AL!3805!3!52264345049!!!g!85826046329!

If you want something cheaper, go the incandescent route. Progress has been around for a very long time and I'm sure you can get the photometric data from them. When you raise the garage doors, your whole plan goes out the window. You need to be aware of that as well.