Researching Garage Lighting

[MerlinsBeard]

I've been in the process of improving the garage and have decided to invest in some better lighting. I don't mind spending a bit of money, so prefer quality over price. I saw garage lighting thread and see a lot of experience, so hoping to tap into that as a complete lighting noob.

My garage is a 2-car garage that is 20'x20'x12'. There are three ceiling installs for incandescent style bulbs, and a garage door opener.

Two lights and the garage door opener bisect the garage across, where the two simple incandescent light fixtures are approximately 56" from edge of wall on both sides at 12', and garage door opener is in the center with the lights inside at a height of 7'6".

There is an additional overhead incandescent light fixture for a workbench in the rear of the garage. In that area, the light fixture height is lower at 11', and the ceiling transitions from 12ft to 11ft with a 22" wide drywall (seems like it would be for transporting air for ventilation), but I don't know how close drywall is to the metal.

rear               y  door
+-------------------|--------------------+
|   60"  o          x                          | - incandescent fixture 11' height, 
|                                                 |    11" from rear wall
|                                                 |
|                                                 |
|                                                 |
|                                                 |
|  56"  o                G          o  56"  | - o = 2 incand. fixture 12' height
|        ........                                 | - G = garage door opener 
|       .        .               ..............   |
|       .        .              .              .  |
|        ........               .              .  |  - . represents overhead shelves
|                                ..............   |
|                                                 | 
+-------------------|--------------------+
0'                       10'                         20'

x - light switch for workbench, garage door opener close by too, y - light switch for other two incandescent fixtures inside house

I really prefer to use the existing wiring locations, and was looking at using
ceiling mounted or hanging LED lights, but not sure on the styles. I think
I want a ceiling mount for the workbench area (6'x2'6") on left side in the
rear of the garage, and have some wall control pegboard (I got the good
stuff that doesn't glare).

Closer to the garage door, I have a ceiling mounted storage shelf of 4' x 6' that is 1 ft away from the bottom right of the diagram. I also have a 4' x 4' overhead storage shelf. They both hang down about 28".

I quickly realized that I don't have a good feel for what to get. I'm thinking
of getting 3x 4ft LED style lights, probably ceiling mounted, but don't know
what brand or bulbs or style to get.

+-------------------|--------------------+
|      (====)                               | - 4ft ceiling mounted LED light, 
|                                                 |    11" from rear wall
|                                                 |
|                                                 |
|                                                 |
|                                                 |
|    (====)         G         (====)      | - 4ft LED length light (hang or ceil mount)
|        ........                                 | - G = garage door opener 
|       .        .               ..............   |
|       .        .              .              .  |
|        ........               .              .  |  - . represents overhead shelves
|                                ..............   |
|                                                 | 
+-------------------|--------------------+
0'                       10'                         20'

I guess my questions are what lumens I should look into for good workbench lighting and overall ambient lighting. Any other suggestions for shopping will be helpful (good brands, whether 2 or 4 LED strip fixtures are better, shop vs strip vs wraparound vs troffer vs high bay). I know the lighting isn't going to be perfect, but looking to optimize what I can with the constraints I have.

Sorry for the hacky diagram, hope it comes across ok enough.

Thanks for any ideas!
John

 

[pioneer1]

I may not be much help, but if you haven't looked at The Best Light Fixture Ever thread.https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=278420
I would start there.
I have pretty much done what you are wanting to do by just replace existing fixtures with 4ft LED 2 tube fixtures. I went with 5000K and it has made a LOT of difference.

 

[MerlinsBeard]

I may not be much help, but if you haven't looked at The Best Light Fixture Ever thread.

I would start there.
I have pretty much done what you are wanting to do by just replace existing fixtures with 4ft LED 2 tube fixtures. I went with 5000K and it has made a LOT of difference.

Thanks for the response. I've been browsing that thread in pieces in between shopping. I'm thinking of putting in a

FMLWL 48 840 for the workbench area, and LBL4 LP840 for the two ambient.

That seems like a decent baseline to start with. Is there a reason to choose 5000K over 4000K? I do some maintenance like basic car/lawnmower stuff in the garage, but I usually hang a light for those tasks if I need it for under the hood. I do want the workbench to be well lit for potential electronics type hobby work down the road.

Now I'm trying to compare other options against those. It's hard for me to pull the trigger without some kind of math or rule of thumb to make sure I'm not under or over-doing the lighting.

 

[pbon]

I have 30 4’ LED in 800SF. If you use 3 in 400SF it will be better than what you have but but great. At a minimum, I would convert the fixtures to outlets and plug 2 into each. I’d also try to add an outlet to even out your lights.

The 12’ height area might be best with high bay lights or with shop lights on chains.

 

[tfi racing]

Doesn't sound like you are planning to do much work in there, three 4' fixtures will be adequate if it is only used for parking. Your sketch is difficult for me to visualize, but I would go with two strips of three 4' fixtures, and another fixture or two above your bench in a space that size to start with.Thousands of options out there, these are a decent one, similiar available under a variety of brand names. My preference is 4K for colour temperature, just don't like the garishness of 5K however many think they do and thats fine.

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/210975/TCP-10322.html

 

[MerlinsBeard]

Doesn't sound like you are planning to do much work in there, three 4' fixtures will be adequate if it is only used for parking. Your sketch is difficult for me to visualize, but I would go with two strips of three 4' fixtures, and another fixture or two above your bench in a space that size to start with.Thousands of options out there, these are a decent one, similiar available under a variety of brand names. My preference is 4K for colour temperature, just don't like the garishness of 5K however many think they do and thats fine.

Thanks for the responses. I have a picture of what I'm working with (taken at night so the lighting ain't great), the other side of the garage just the one incandescent on the other side, and instead of workbench, has a toolbox and large cabinet and couple of shelves.

I was thinking "Yeah, I can figure out what garage lighting I want this weekend.", then it exploded into information overload. It looks like I need to take my time to figure out a plan on what to do.

I'm definitely not a garage junkie, though I've spent a moderate amount of time and money over the last couple of years trying to leverage all the space. I'm not particularly skilled either, so converting a fixture into an outlet would take me some time (my personality is someone who will cut 1 3/4" tape strips to mark studs for example), but I'm not opposed to the idea. I appreciate the ideas, hope I can chip away my ignorance on this in the next few weeks. I imagine I'll eventually stumble onto some other ideas from 20x20' garages in the big thread as well.

After I'm finished, wife plans to park vehicle on left side, and the right side I have a mini bench and floor space for lawnmower and such. I have a few novelty kinds of things I plan to put up a personal display above the pegboard. I suppose it's possible that I could mount some kind of task lighting just above the pegboard that could light up the workbench well, but I was hoping I could ceiling mount something there and avoid that. And I didn't want to have a shop light hanging too low since it would kind of occlude the wall space above the pegboard.

I've just found and started playing with visual photometric 3-d tool, but still trying to figure it out.

 

[Gentleman Adventurer]

I have a couple sets of these around the perimeter of my garage, and 2, 4 foot overhead lights in the middle. They do a good job lighting up the area. Simple to hang from some J hooks in the ceiling.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Stonepoint...-Light-Plug-In-Bulbs-String-Lights/1000387677

I have them plugged into my garage door opener and use the switch to turn them on and off.

 

[pbon]

I would use hanging shop lights at a minimum, evenly spaced. It is not hard to change a light fixture to a standard duplex receptacle. There are DIY all over the Internet and almost certainly here as well. Most start with turn the power off first. If you don’t want to do that or pay someone to do it, there are screw in single receptacles that replace the bulb. You could then use an 8’ hanging shop light plugged into each screw in receptacle. The good news is you can’t lose; you are starting with such little light that just about anything will be an improvement.