Placement of lights

[simple man]

I am planning the lights for a new garage and have a question about the optimal placement of the general lighting, excluding workbench lighting.

As far as size, the structure will be 26' x 28' with 12' ceilings. Also, there will be a two post lift on one side. The lighting will be via T8 fluorescent tubes.

At this point I am planning to put the one bank of lights each on the left and right side of the garage as well as a bank going down the center.

The lights on the left and right side would be mounted on the side horizontally facing in towards the garage on the sidewalls approximately 7' off the ground. The reason for mounting them horizontilly is to provide better lighting for working under the lift.

Does this make sense? Will regular fluorescent fixtures with reflectors work or would they need to be special fixtures?

Any comments.

Rick

 

[Ray916MN]

I don't think this will work well.

- The lights on the walls will shine directly in your face when you face the walls they are mounted on.

- When there is nothing on the lifts, not only will the lights tend blind anyone facing a wall they are on, the lights will light the ceiling more than the floor since they are closer to the ceiling. Unless you're looking for a Sistine chapel effect, there isn't much of a benefit from lighting the ceiling.

- Unless you lift vehicles above the height of these lights they will not do anything but light the floor underneath a vehicle on the lift

Work lights will do a much better job of lighting under lifts than any fixed placement lights. Unless you get lights which are intended to be mounted on the wall (eg. sconce lights), mounting lights designed to be mounted on the ceiling on the wall isn't going to work well. Lights designed to be mounted on the wall generally light the area closest to the wall and are not going to do a good job of providing overall room lighting.