Shop lights

[Bedrok]

I'm getting ready to wire my shop for lights and I have decided to use the Lithonia T-8 lights (tc 232 -1/4 geb 10) and they have 4 4' bulbs each. This is a hobby shop for car repair. I'm looking for some recomendations on how many to install. My shop is 32' deep and 42' wide with 12' 4" ceiling height.
Thanks, Bedrock

 

[fastbuick]

From what I have read in other posts, 100 lumens per square foot is the standard goal. I'm at the same point on my shop project and have figured how many lights to install in my shop. Just get the amount of lumens output per tube and divide that by your square footage times 100 for the number of individual tubes to install. For example for my shop portion of the garage which is 320 square foot I'm installing 6 two tube T8 lights with 6500k 2700 lumen tubes. 320 square foot shop x 100 = 32200/2700= 11.92 tubes = 6 fixtures

My ceiling height is 10 ft.

Should be plenty bright enough with white ceiling and white walls.

 

[nate379]

100 lumens per sq ft would be way overkill!

My garage lighting figures out to be about 40 lumens per sq ft and I have found that to be just fine.

Sure you can light the place up so you need sunglasses, but I bet you still need a trouble light under the hood at times.

 

[Grape Ape]

I would go with T5 (4 tubes each) fixtures. 8 of these should give you about 80 lumens per sq. ft. and they will be the most energy efficient.

This sight has some good info and a calculator:

http://www.ultraluxlight.com/t5_high_bay_235_prd1.htm#here

Buy local if you can.

 

[73Chevy]

My shop has over 170 lumens/ft and I could still go for some more...

 

[Grape Ape]

Suggested Light Levels:

http://www.ultraluxlight.com/suggested_light_levels.html

I think it is important to determine the lumens your fixtures will create down where you are working. A fixture rated at "X" lumens won't throw that same amount of light near the floor.

 

[yzair]

My shop is slightly smaller than yours with the same ceiling height and I've installed 8- 4 lamp t-8 troffer lights and the lighting is perfect since your shop is a little wider than mine maybe 10 fixtures for you. I also split the switching so I can turn on only 4 fixt @ a time to save energy.

 

[bmfenn]

I have 3 of those same fixtures in my 14x28 garage. They start from where the garage door track ends. I added a third, set up as a strip with one of them, because my workbench wasn't getting enough light.

 

[aqr81]

This is a posting about lighting and a calculator I used HERE

I used T8's from HD and just got them up the other day. My build is HERE

 

[regguy1]

20 T8 2 tube 48" w/plastic diffusor, 6500K tubes in 26' x 30'

 

[rrangus]

100 lumens per sq ft would be way overkill!

My garage lighting figures out to be about 40 lumens per sq ft and I have found that to be just fine.

Sure you can light the place up so you need sunglasses, but I bet you still need a trouble light under the hood at times.

Most forget to figure in deterioration of the lamps over a period of time. My shop was calculated at 100 fc by an electrical engineer. I had begun to think my eyes were going bad, but over time, the output had diminished to less than 70 fc. Always allow a little for inefficiency.

 

[Steevo]

I have 17 8-foot, four-bulb T8 fixtures in my 24x40 shop, with 12foot ceilings and all white ceilings and walls.
The bulbs I used are 2350 lumens each, which works out to 166 lumens per sq ft.
This much light in my shop is not overkill.

 

[Ryan Wilke]

Fellas,
Many of your garage lighting pictures indicate you're not using diffusers.
Isn't a diffuser a good thing to use to reduce the glare and keep the bulbs clean?

It would seem to me that without diffusers, a person would/should be wiping down - washing those bulbs at least twice a year in order to allow all the light out of them...

Ryan

 

[mrgm]

basic edition is free
http://www.visual-3d.com/
tutorials
http://www.3d-visual.com/Training/Video/InstructionalVideos.asp
just find your light, download ies files and insert per instructions.

in the shop Id go with 50 foot candles at 30" above floor. Nice and bright. the lighter and brighter your walls (gloss white), the less light you need. I would not go by lumen per foot, unless all your shops are the same color, dimensions, etc. And like stated above, if you run no shields or diffusers, wipe down or blow off the fixtures when you notice them getting dusty

 

[73Chevy]

And like stated above, if you run no shields or diffusers, wipe down or blow off the fixtures when you notice them getting dusty

Definately a good idea. I just took down all the 8' T12 tubes in my shop to clean them, YUCK! Obviously they had never been cleaned. The resulting light output was amazing, I actually removed 16,000 lumens worth of tubes and didn't notice.