Thinking of trying something different for lighting.......thoughts?

[TONE]

Im right now in the process of finishing the garage. Theres a progress thread going on it as a matter of fact.

Anyway, Im not really a fan of flourescents. I had them in my last garage and was never really that thrilled with them.

Yeah they run well and dont cost to much but in Chicago the winters get cold and they flicker so much.

Not to mention I have sensitive eyes and they bothered me after awhile. Sometimes ending in headaches.

Also, not to sound hoity toity but they design wise dont really thrill me either.

Sooooo, I was thinking about barn lights that hang down. I like them in the fact that they have the lid shade and all the light is forced downward and not up.

They look really nice and you can get some that will handle a 300 watt incandescent bulb.

The company on this sites main page sells some really nice ones.

Anyone have this kind of setup? Thanks for all thoughts-input

 

[dellwas]

We have a town here in Nova Scotia, called Annapolis Royal. They are the first town in Canada, maybe in North America to change all of their street lights to LED. Wonder how something like that would work in a garage? LED is softer and defintly cheaper, but not sure how it would work in that type of environment. I have used one flashlight that had 30 or so, to look under the hood of my F350 at night and it was pretty good, but not sure how it would work in a garage?

 

[Chris Adams]

Check the UV output of whatever light you use.
Lots of cool lights put so much UV that you can actually hurt your eyes in there.
Didn't know about that, and I used to use halogen lights with no shields. Then my wife's Ophthalmologist warned me about using those without a thick glass cover over them.
Glass blocks most UV, even clear glass. Of course that stops lots of the light.

You don't want to end up with something worse for your eyes than flickering florescent.

By the way, modern florescent don't flicker near as much as the old T12 setups.


LED would be cool, but way expensive. My LED TV cost about twice what it would have if it was just LCD alone.

Do they make Krypton bulbs for home lighting?

 

[TONE]

I owned a sign company for many, many years.

I very easily could run LED, or even neon.

I dont want to bother with either of those however.

 

[ProGun3400]

I have a few high bay lights that came from our shop at work. They replaced these with T-5's on motion sensors. I grabbed a few for my cousins hangar but he doesn't like the slow starts and went with 8' fluorescent tubes. I have the fixtures with bulbs similar to these and I'm in a suburb of Chicago. A few have the plastic covers and a few have the glass. If you can use them, let me know:
http://www.lithonia.com/commercial/HID Low Bays.html?pt=Contractor+Select

 

[Nostraquedeo]

The incandescent is going to be a lot easier on the eyes, but color of light is warmer, so it might be a little harder to see bolts dropped on the floor. The fluorescent bulbs are a lot cooler, so the light is more blue, making it easier to see the detail of things. As long as you get the foot-candle level you want at a particular height and good uniformity it doesn't matter what you use.

 

[scooby074]

Fluorescent with Cold start electronic ballast.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Check the UV output of whatever light you use.
Lots of cool lights put so much UV that you can actually hurt your eyes in there.
Didn't know about that, and I used to use halogen lights with no shields. Then my wife's Ophthalmologist warned me about using those without a thick glass cover over them.
Glass blocks most UV, even clear glass. Of course that stops lots of the light.

The Metal Halide bulbs are actually a bulb in a bulb. The outer glass of the bulb stops the UV. Problem with fixtures (like mine) is that if the outer glass of the bulb gets broken, you have 1) hot glass raining down, and 2) large amounts of UV, enough to give you a good sunburn. Mine came from a Sams Club that converted to T8's. Liability concerns over the two problems I cited, plus some energy savings, prompted them to change over. I *think* Current code requires a bottom lens on the reflector if used in a public place. Given old fixtures, it was a no brainer for Wal-Mart and Sams to convert over.

I got the fixtures for $40 each which is a good deal, and I picked them up.

Charles

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Not to mention I have sensitive eyes and they bothered me after awhile. Sometimes ending in headaches.

Also, not to sound hoity toity but they design wise dont really thrill me either.

Here is what one member did this last summer that worked quite well for him.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38658

They are Compact Florescent bulbs, real big ones, and I know you said you don't like flo lights, but these things are bright and white, 6400K "temp" rating on the lights color, and I suspect you may find you are not as sensitive to this as plain old T12 or even T8 bulbs.

If I were to do it over again, I'd have to look real hard at what Veno did in the thread above.

Charles

 

[Griot's Garage]

Fluorescent with Cold start electronic ballast.

Scooby's got it right. The electronic ballasts solve all the problems you were experiencing with your old fluorescent lights. They'll be a bit more expensive than traditional fluorescent fixtures, but you won’t get any buzzing or flickering.

~derek

 

[tcianci]

You will probably find that the newer fluorescents will not bother you as much. You can specify the "color temperature" of a fluorescent lamp. I worked an an area where color matching was critical and we used a lamp called Chroma-50, it is close to natural daylight. You can not overstate the importance of running a glass filter over halogen or the high bay lights. These lights emit a fair amount of UV and it is dangerous...it's the same energy that causes welding flashes. It is however incorrect to say that the glass filter reduces the light. The wavelength of the light in the UV range is not visible to the human eye. Energy emitted in the form we call light, ranges from wavelengths in the UV, through the "visible" range and into the infra-red. It is the fact that we cannot see the UV that makes it dangerous because you don't know that you are absorbing it. At the far end of the visible spectrum is where the infra-red range is and we perceive that energy as heat.

 

[veno]

Here is what one member did this last summer that worked quite well for him.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38658

They are Compact Florescent bulbs, real big ones, and I know you said you don't like flo lights, but these things are bright and white, 6400K "temp" rating on the lights color, and I suspect you may find you are not as sensitive to this as plain old T12 or even T8 bulbs.

If I were to do it over again, I'd have to look real hard at what Veno did in the thread above.

Charles

Thanks for the PLUG Charles....

in truth.. I like it.. still... and have NO regrets going with this solution. over all lighting is great.. and color is superb... I did find that in doing fine work I still need additional light..(closer) but over all lighting is still great and am very satisfied with the out come of my experiment in CFL/CFB lighting...

to that I finished my "Clean room" for engine building.. which is 12'x10'.. I installed 3- 42watt 5000 kelvin CFL/CFB lights and its very nice with 8' ceilings

 

[Number21]

Regardless of what type of fixture you use, incandescent light in your garage is a really, really bad idea. HID and fluorescent are way better, and will still work in those fixtures you mentioned.

New generation fluorescent tubes and electronic ballasts are instant starting and flicker free. I have two T8 fixtures in my shop side by side, one with a really old magnetic ballast and one with a brand new Sylvania electronic ballast. The difference in startup, flicker, and noise (in the cold) between the two is HUGE! They also make special cold weather tubes that should work even better if it's really cold.

 

[Todd.Brock]

I wonder if you could use Fiber optic?? I remember seeing a few home shows a number of years ago that were showcasing fiber optic. Essentially a huge highwattage light source in a box put in the closet and then the light fixtures were small "heads" that could be used to direct the light through out the house. That would up the cool factor in your dream garage anyway....