Strip vs Industrial (with reflector) Fluorescent?

[chemando]

I am adding fluorescent light to my basement workshop. Basement is unfinished with just the douglas fir joists and floor boards so it wouldn't be very reflective. Height to the bottom of the joists is about 7.5'.

My plan is the mount 8' Tandem T8 fluorescent strips between the joists. The tubes will end up being be a couple inches below the bottom of the joist.

I think my preference would be strips without reflectors because there are more fixtures options in my city and I think it would give a less claustrophobic look in my low ceiling basement because most reflectors are quite large.

I used Philips LightCalc website software and ran a scenario with and without reflectors. Light level with reflectors was 89 lumen and 79 lumen without reflectors (adding one more fixture to the area gave 115 with reflectors or 107 lumen without). This is a difference of 7 to 13%. Hard to say how accurate this would be but 7 to 13% isn't a huge difference.

Any thoughts on the light difference between plain strips and industrial (strip with reflectors) fixtures?

Does anyone here have strips (without reflectors) in an similar unfinished basement?

 

[astroracer]

Forget the reflectors and put strips of aluminized foam insulation above the lights. You can see the ceiling of my shop in this pic.

With the lights on.

Even though the lights I have use reflectors there is still a big difference in reflected light over a plain ceiling.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Reflectors focus the light. At this low of a height you need as much light spread as possible. I vote for the open strips.

 

[chemando]

Reflectors focus the light. At this low of a height you need as much light spread as possible. I vote for the open strips.

Great point, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

 

[PCO6]

I tried reflectors at first on my 10' aluminum ceiling and didn't like them. I switched to simple strips as the ceiling itself acts as a good reflector - not focused but generally pretty good.

View media item 36630

 

[2ManyProjects]

I am adding fluorescent light to my basement workshop. Basement is unfinished with just the douglas fir joists and floor boards so it wouldn't be very reflective. Height to the bottom of the joists is about 7.5'.

My plan is the mount 8' Tandem T8 fluorescent strips between the joists. The tubes will end up being be a couple inches below the bottom of the joist.

Count this as one more vote for the open-tube strips, OR simple "wrap"-type fixtures, such as the ones I cited in http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3685878&postcount=4. If you're still not satisfied with the overall brightness produced, the foil-backed insulation board trick mentioned by "astroracer" can help, as can a simple coat of white paint.

HOWEVER... Unless you are absolutely certain that you will ALWAYS want to treat these lights as an "all or nothing" proposition (and maybe even if you do), I would strongly recommend that you go with individual four-foot fixtures, as opposed to 8-foot "tandems". This will provide much greater flexibility in terms of both fixture placement and switching.

 

[Falcon67]

I used the 8' strips at 8' height. The light works out pretty even and no complaints so far. I could always use more light, but it's pretty good as is. The only change I may make would be to use 4 strips (add one each) on the two front-to-back sections.

I don't necessarily agree on the 4' vs 8' - I had a bunch of 4's in the old shop and it was a true PITA to change anything out or move around. Plan well and use 8' - less wiring, less hassle IMHO. If you have an area where you might want to use half a fixture sometimes, just buy another ballast and re-wire the 8' using a ballast for each two tubes, or buy a dual switch ballast for that fixture. I do use 4' fixtures for "task" type lighting over benches and such.