Please Help with Lighting

[hamholfarm]

Hello everyone!

I have read many posts on lighting, but the more I read, the more I get confused on what to do.

Please help me resolve my lighting needs.

My shop is 50’ x 40’ x 14’ with a white steel ceiling, walls are bare insulation (for a while), and the floor will be concrete, sealed, but original color. The 50’ side is the “front” and there are three “bays” across the whole building, basically all the same size (1/3 of the floor space)(an exterior picture is attached). I would like the brightness of the lights to be “medium high”. I plan on putting the lights on 3 separate circuits, one for each bay area, and will use area specific task lighting around the walls for work benches, equipment usage, etc.

with my 14’ ceiling do I need to use T5 High Output lamps, or can I get away with T8 lamps?

If choosing T5 HO lamps, should I use 2 or 4 lamp units? How many units and what would be the best layout?

If choosing T8 lamps, should I use 2 or 4 lamp units? How many units and what would be the best layout?

If choosing the T8 lamps would the Home Depot units be sufficient, or would I need to go with commercial units? Any specific brand recommendations?


Thank you very much for your assistance!


Chip

 

[icnsltmfg]

I went with the T8's (4' 2 bulb units) that I bought a HD, but are the Lithonia units with a wrapped cover. With several different bulb choices, they tend to be very reasonable in price. I am putting three strips in 3 rows, and then 2 in the rear perpendicular to the rest. I have been told this could be over kill, but I like light.

 

[hamholfarm]

Thanks for your input Adam.


Anyone else?

Thank you

Chip

 

[bluesman2a]

I went with the T8's (4' 2 bulb units) that I bought a HD, but are the Lithonia units with a wrapped cover. With several different bulb choices, they tend to be very reasonable in price. I am putting three strips in 3 rows, and then 2 in the rear perpendicular to the rest. I have been told this could be over kill, but I like light.

I did pretty much the same thing... Same lights, from HD, except I used 2 rows of 5 fixtures and 2 additional fixtures on either side of the garage door tracks. There are a total of 14 fixtures now.

Once it gets a little colder, I'll put in another row of 5 fixtures in the area covered by the garage door when it's up. Not much call to run that strip when the door is up, so I'll put that on another switch.

So, yeah, I understand... I'll have 19 total 4 ' long 2 bulb fixtures for my 24 X24. I can wear my at night...

 

[mhoffm911]

How about a glow in the dark floor? No joke. Link below:

http://www.garagecoatings.com/After-Glow-Flakes.htm

I ran across this earlier today on my never ending search for the right garage floor product and thought it was pretty cool. I have to admit it has me kind of intrigued.

 

[Franz©]

Go with T8 tubes, and do some reading up on variuous light temperatures to decide what tube will be best for you.
Remember, you will need to match the tube wattage to the ballast wattage, something for which you can send a thankyou note to the Brilliant AlGore for saving you all the energy and giving you crappy lights.

Be aware that 14 foot mounting height will leave you with a somewhat dark floor.

 

[hamholfarm]

Franz,

You recommend to go with T8 tubes, but you also say with a 14 foot ceiling/mounting heigth the T8's may make it dark near the floor.

A main part of the shop's purpose is for re-building cars, so should I use the T5 High Output lights to see better nearer to table and floor heights?

What do you think of the layout shown in the attachments below? This work-up is for 16 - 4 tube T5HO units. Would this be sufficient light, or over-kill?

I know the T5HO units and bulbs will be more expensive, however I don't want to put up something that is not bright enough. Still confused

 

[shocksystems]

How about a glow in the dark floor? No joke. Link below:

http://www.garagecoatings.com/After-Glow-Flakes.htm

I ran across this earlier today on my never ending search for the right garage floor product and thought it was pretty cool. I have to admit it has me kind of intrigued.

Very interesting. The web site is very hard to follow though. I can't determine what flake color options exist and how to order them....

Jim

 

[Franz©]

The T5 envelope is a hyperexpensive tube designed mainly for showcase and special purpose illumination, not something I'd recommend for general purpose lighting.

There are a couple things you need to understand about fluorescent lights.
Tube diameter governs a number of parameters including how hard the ballast needs to drive the tube to emit lumens.
Fluorescent lights in any tube configuration other than the old 1500ma Power Groove tube do not throw lumen output the way other light sourses do. I suggest you visit a shopping center and note that in large stores that have ceilings higher than 12 feet the majority of lighting will be Mrtal Halide rather than fluorescent. Merchants know if the customer can;'t see it they can't sell the merch.

The old T 12 tube offered a lot of benefits that are no longer available in the T 8 tube. My feeling is that the life span of the T 12 is limited, and there is little reason to install the current production of T 12 fixtures because you probably won't be able to buy lamps for them in the near future. This is becoming a very costly situation for America, with damn little benefit in power savings to offset the cost.

The entire fluorescent industry has suffered a major change since the Brilliant inventor of the internet stuck his thumb in the light socket, and it hasn't been for the better.
Today there isn't a single tube made in the US, and there never will be again due to the stupidity introduced to the industry. I've looked several times for a decent website offering solid information, and have yet to find one that is complete.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

A good T8 fixture and bulbs beats a T12 installation hands down. Go to wal-mart and look around. Most have done away with the metal Halide fixtures, they were all open bottomed and became a liability, hot broken glass, and sunburn potential from the broken bulb have driven everyone away from open bottomed MH fixtures. The T8 system is more cost effective for the box box stores. My local wal-mart had MH fixtures, and one day I was in there and kept thinking something was different, finally realized they had done a complete change over in a matter of a couple of days, from MH to T8. Some guy here in Atlanta bought thousands of them that wall-mart and sams removed, and I bought 13 of them for $40 apiece, they normally bring a hundred each used.

The T5HO fixtures I've seen and looked at on the internet were designed to replace MH fixtures in high bay installations. They will become very common as soon as the price drops some.

Charles

 

[rocco]

Ok, here is my suggestion (i do this for a living btw)

I'd go with a 4 lamp industrial with uplight apertures.
1 - 8ft luminaire will have 4 x 32w 4ft T8 lamps.

Please use a Lithonia part # TLA 2 32 MVOLT 1/4 GEB10IS - with 4100K lamps(this is what my desight is based off of.)
This can be purchased from any local Electrical wholesale distributor that carries the Lithonia line.
Stay away from the HD, lowes, etc.. they use a lower quality offshore ballast instead of a quality lower THD commercial grade.

Alex

 

[hamholfarm]

Alex,

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. I appreciate your time and effort in doing this for me. It is good to know you do this for a living also.


Thanks again,

Chip

 

[W-Cummins]

Go with the t5's if you can afford them. The retrofits at the local stores here are from 400wt metal halides to t-5 ho. The t-5s put out a bit more light than the MH fixtures and operate using less $$. IF you have 320w pulse start MH's the swap is almost a wash, but for the older 400wt fixtures it will pay off over time in lower operating costs. I'm sticking with my 400wt mh fixtures as I got them for about $8 each with bulbs (used) and it would take quite awhile to make the t5's pay out.

William...