Ultra low ceiling basement lighting

[farmerisland]

Hi, does anyone have an idea a recommended limitation or max lumen output on a led light fixture for a very low ceiling, so as to not blind the passerby? I have a 76.5" basement.

I'm building an attached garage onto an old house, with garage-tied access to the basement. With part of the remodel and basement expansion to make this all work, there was partial basement demo. With the new ceiling still at old height, I now get to look to rewire lighting at a very low height (76.5"). Earlier there were just a couple fluorescent bulb fixtures (not enough) but I'm liking the idea of the flat LED panels to save what looks to be about 2.5" in clearance.

Do any of you have some input on how high I should or could go for lumen output per fixture, if I go that route? It looks like a lot of these panels are 4500 or 5500 lumen and would require less total fixtures than a 1050 or 1300 lumen smaller panel option, but perhaps the second option would cost a little more and be more fixtures, but spread the light out better and not blind me?

 

[dogdog]

Dunno what would work for you
Costco have the artika flat panel lights on sale this month. But might be too bright for low ceilings. The problem is that if you get too close to the light, especially those that are close to daylight white, it might hurt your eyeballs. For low ceiling, imo multiple smaller light might be better, they do sell those disc type supposedly for recess lightings…



https://www.costco.com/artika-sunray-1'x4'-flat-panel-led-light%2c-2-pack-.product.4000209108.html

 

[rlitman]

I went a different route when renovating my basement, and I would suggest you not do the flat panel lights. The problem with a low ceiling is you are very close to the light when you're under it, and then step a few feet away and you're now in shadow. The floor may be evenly lit, but there's bad zebra striping happening at eye level, so it feels weird to walk around in a low ceiling room with a conventional lighting plan and fixtures with beam angles designed around higher ceilings.

What I ended up doing was installing a grid of 800 lumen 6" flush mount lights, but the catch is I used a lot more than you would normally call for. In a living room that could get away with four of these, I spaced NINE in a 45" x 57" pattern (no, I don't remember this that well, but I happen to have a printout of the lighting plan on my desk, LOL). In the kitchen area I have eight of these, but only spaced 33" apart.

That all ends up being uncomfortably bright, but I have everything on dimmer switches set to come on at 40%. With a normal ceiling, you usually want recessed lights to reduce glare. But here, you want large lit surfaces (that's one reason I went with 6" flat flush lights over the 4" format) that aren't excessively bright. You also want a fixture with as wide a beam angle as possible (as close to 180 degrees as possible), so that the beams of two adjacent fixtures cross above your eye level to avoid the zebra lighting, and that means you may be better off with flush flat fixtures than recessed ones that narrow that angle.

 

[The Bean]

Table lamps!

 

[Allan00]

I agree with the above. For low ceilings you want the light dispersed among as many fixtures as possible. Could even look into something like rope/string lights for a move even coverage. I know that might not give the look you want though...