Shop Lighting Help

[matt74]

Im building a 50x80x18 shop with a flat white metal ceiling and white metal walls. My electrician is recommending (6) 250w 37,500lm High bay LED's. From my research, that seem too bright and not spread out enough. Im thinking more like (12) 150w 20,000lm High Bay LED's. The building will be mainly used for general shop work, maintaining vehicles, and basketball on one end. Any help or experience is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[tarmy]

I put in tube LED lighting in my 56x32 and love the brightness.

 

[dave*99]

I put in tube LED lighting in my 56x32 and love the brightness.

The OP has 18' high ceilings. This would not be a good solution for him. He needs high bay lighting.

 

[matt74]

Very nice shop and well lit but with 18' ceiling height I think I need more output.

 

[Bert_]

6 fixtures is not enough. The shadows will be bad no matter how big the fixtures are.

12 is probably marginal. 3 rows of 5 for a total of 15 fixtures might be ok but guessing 4 rows would be better.

Dialux is a great free program to calculate light levels.

 

[u2slow]

More points of lights is better. Might want to trial & error a bit before you fully commit. Can ask the electrician to run a couple circuits in conduit and JBs across the ceiling that you can tie into later.

I have a 19' ceiling in my unfinished shop. Just got done arranging 25 4' sticks of light in there and none of it attached to the ceiling - under mezzanine, edge of shelving, etc.

 

[mm08822]

^^^^^^This(Bert's reply).

Go on line to the lighting fixture mfr and pick a few fixtures of the style you want.

Use their lighting app with your dimensions and play around with # of rows and #/row.

Consider 50 ft candles for design input. ( lookup lighting charts for suggested ft candle levels.)

Lights lose output over time and surfaces get dirty.

From there you can decide on # switches and switching pattern.

 

[matt74]

6 fixtures is not enough. The shadows will be bad no matter how big the fixtures are.

12 is probably marginal. 3 rows of 5 for a total of 15 fixtures might be ok but guessing 4 rows would be better.

Dialux is a great free program to calculate light levels.

I agree 6 lights do not seem near enough and that shadows may be a problem.

 

[matt74]

^^^^^^This(Bert's reply).

Go on line to the lighting fixture mfr and pick a few fixtures of the style you want.

Use their lighting app with your dimensions and play around with # of rows and #/row.

Consider 50 ft candles for design input. ( lookup lighting charts for suggested ft candle levels.)

Lights lose output over time and surfaces get dirty.

From there you can decide on # switches and switching pattern.

I actually went to Sunco's website and put in my building dimensions and it says I only need 6 lights 240w led high bays. It says each light will cover a 26ft diameter at 18ft. That was very surprising.

 

[mm08822]

At what foot candle levels?

You will always feel like a stalker is following you.

Working in shadows is miserable!

Now is the time to do it right. You will not regret the extra ft-candles.

 

[Dagny]

more is better and if you are having fans stay away from them.also there is more labor on more fixtures

 

[RegeSullivan]

Another consideration might be your age and what/where you can get task lighting in the shop portion. As I age I want and can afford more light. My only experience with a building that size was a warehouse with a small 20x30 assembly and packing area. We found the recomendation from the contractor was just ridiculous once we moved in. The correction was costly.

 

[Rubicon914]

I’d definitely go with the UFO lights (5000K) but put them all on dimmers. This way they will never be too harsh and you can adjust for the task/need at hand. Look for lights that are 0-10 volt dimmable and you’ll be able to simply wire them all together (on a couple of circuits) and yet control various banks of lights or even individual lights on their own separate dimmers, as 0 volts will mean that the light is OFF.