Question on T8 lights

[BrokeEF]

We are getting 6 4' long 2 bulb T8 fixtures for free! The question is at a celing height of 12' what is the throw on the ground (so how close together/far from walls)? ANY information on this would be greatly apprciated.

Thanks,
Sean

 

[nate379]

Not sure, but the walls make a HUGE different.

I have 4 t12 lights in my 24x24 garage and it's bright. white drywall

Before this house, I had a 12x24 shed with with exposed studs, old wood. I had 6 t12s in that and there were still shadows.

 

[BrokeEF]

We have a HUGE space (We are gonna measure today) It has white walls and white celing, with bare concrete floors.

Sean

 

[mmhouse]

I have a total of 22 4' tubes, the equivalent to 11 2-tube fixtures, in a 24'x32' space with a 10' ceiling and find the light to be quite adequate. The walls are white above 4' with a white ceiling. The lower walls and floor are light gray. About half the bulbs swithced for 'everyday' lighting and the other half have pull chains for when I'm working in a particular area.

In the back of the garage I have 4 2-tube fixtures placed about 10' apart. The outside fixtures are about 1' off the walls. This placement was to keep the lights from being obstructed by the overhead doors (one is still in the center of the 16' door...my other door is 9').

If I was doing a lot of detailing in this area I'd want more light but for the work I do it is fine as-is.

Hope this is of some help.

 

[BrokeEF]

OK so we measured it, we are at 28' X 48' with 12' ceilings. All we have had for 5 years or so is 3 300 watt incandescent lights in the ceiling. So while 6 fixtures isn't really enough for 100% light out put it should be a big improvement. We have built two cars from the ground up with the light we had, so I'm looking forward to making it brighter. And for what its worth, were not concerned with the paint

Sean

 

[nissan_crawler]

I have a 19x23 with 9 4' t8 dual bulb fixtures, it's perfect.

 

[oldgoat]

Can you put T8 bulbs in a T12 shoplight? I have 6 fixtures that take T12, but I understand that the T8 puts out better light.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Nope.........

 

[BrokeEF]

OK guys here is a basic drawing of what we are working with.

The grey area on the left is a shelf that we will have to light separately. Because of that though we cant really run the lights how you normally would. My thoughts are to treat it as two separate area. So my idea is to do three lights mounted side to side spaced evenly between the end of the shelf and the wall, and from the back wall to where the shelf ends. Then in the front of the garage do the lights front to back spaced even from side to side and from where the shelf ends to the end of the garage. The only problem I see with that idea is the three circles on the drawing are existing lights and will probably be in the way. The garage is plaster, not drywall and has a textured finish that none of us can redo (we have tried and it never comes close to matching). So we don't want to take anything down. Lets hear everyones ideas

Sean

 

[walrus]

Can you put T8 bulbs in a T12 shoplight? I have 6 fixtures that take T12, but I understand that the T8 puts out better light.

Maybe, although it will depend on the ballast. You can change the ballasts and do it for sure.

 

[mmhouse]

If you're only going to use the six free 2-tube fixtures I would put one on each side of the existing fixtures oriented from the top to bottom of the drawing and leave the three existing bulbs there. Later you could add three more (4-tube) fixtures in place of the three existing bulbs.

For better lighting, you could use the six free fixtures in the top (smaller) area in two rows in line with the existing fixtures and purchase three new 4-tube fixtures for the third row in the larger section.

What kind of work will you be doing in there?