Large garage/shop lighting

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
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Cowman
Currently building a 36x52' shop, mainly going to be used for working on and storing old cars/trucks.

I'm trying to figure out how I want to light it. It has 14' ceilings, an 8x28' loft along the back wall, and 2 12x20' doors on the front. I want to go LED pretty much everywhere if possible.

What I'm having trouble with is I'm not sure how many lights I really need, leaning towards t8 style LED tubes in 4' 2 bulb fixtures but again just not sure.

One thought was to put 4 standard base bulb sockets or 4' fixtures going longways right down the middle for "basic" light just to run in and grab something by, then have 4-6 of the 4' LED light fixtures in line with the 2 20' garage door openings to light up the working space.

I suppose if that's not enough I can add more, it's really hard to visualize the light level without having something comparable to look at. Anybody got any thoughts?
 
I have a 24' x 24' shop with 8 100W "incandescent" equivalent LED bulbs wall mounted and my trouble light barely makes a shadow.
 
Here's a crude sketch of my general idea. The short lines are the 4' fixtures. The row down the middle are my 4 basic lights
 

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Sorry, but I would just go with standard T5 florescent lights. We have (8) 4' 2-bulb fixtures evenly spaced on every other truss in a 30x50 shop similar to your drawing, and it's brighter than daylight in there. We have them on two circuits so that we can turn on 4 at a time when we don't need to light up the whole shop. There isn't a dark spot in the place and they are many times cheaper than LEDs at the moment. They are also pretty low energy, so it would take a while to recoup the investment in LEDs for as infrequently as we have them running.
 
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I have (8) 70 watt metal halide "architectural" hanging lights in my barn. They're great...they're cool...they light up the barn like day...but they were also free...I salvaged them out of a bank building in Macedonia, Oh that became an O'Reilly.
 
I hate fluorescent lights pretty much at all temperatures.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Sorry, but I would just go with standard T4 florescent lights. We have (8) 4' fixtures evenly spaced on every other truss in a 30x50 shop similar to your drawing, and it's brighter than daylight in there. We have them on two circuits so that we can turn on 4 at a time when we don't need to light up the whole shop. There isn't a dark spot in the place and they are many times cheaper than LEDs at the moment. They are also pretty low energy, so it would take a while to recoup the investment in LEDs for as infrequently as we have them running.
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I've found a source of 4' fixtures without ballasts(which LEDs don't need) for ~$15/ea and the bulbs to go in them for ~$11/ea. I'd have to price the other option out but I don't think that works out to be a lot more expensive than traditional florescents. Saving energy isn't the only consideration though, LEDs are usually brighter and they don't have to warm up in the cold.
 
Earthled.com has some pretty good prices on 4' LED tubes. Start at $9, free shipping. I bought a mess of short neck PAR bulbs from them, two were bad, had new ones in 48hrs, free of charge, no questions asked.
 
In temps down in the teens, the T5's don't have any problem firing up. If be interested to know the output of the $11 led tubes in lumens. I have a feeling that it wouldn't be nearly as bright. Hell, LED bulbs are almost $10/ea as it is. T5's usually put out around 3K lumens in a 4' bulb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
SoonerAviator said:
Sorry, but I would just go with standard T5 florescent lights. We have (8) 4' 2-bulb fixtures evenly spaced on every other truss in a 30x50 shop similar to your drawing, and it's brighter than daylight in there. We have them on two circuits so that we can turn on 4 at a time when we don't need to light up the whole shop. There isn't a dark spot in the place and they are many times cheaper than LEDs at the moment. They are also pretty low energy, so it would take a while to recoup the investment in LEDs for as infrequently as we have them running.
Click to expand...

This is what I installed in my 30' x 30' shop with 12 ft ceiling. Work beautifully and very economical. At that time LEDs were more expensive than they are now. Regardless, the T5 flourescents work so well and cast a wide swath of even light I would do it the same way today.
 
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Chip Sylverne said:
Earthled.com has some pretty good prices on 4' LED tubes. Start at $9, free shipping. I bought a mess of short neck PAR bulbs from them, two were bad, had new ones in 48hrs, free of charge, no questions asked.
Click to expand...

Yup, that verified what I figured. The 4' T8/T12 LED tubes put out 1800 lumens. That's means the LED tubes are putting out 30-40% less light than a T5 fluorescent bulb. Now, they use 60% less power than a 4' T5 fluorescent, but I'd rather have the light output, personally. Now, if this were my home and I was using these lights several hours every day, I might reconsider. However, in a shop that I use for only a handful of hours every week when I might need light, I'd go with the fluorescent bulbs because you won't likely make up the cost investment of LED's in your electric bill for a long time when comparing similar light output.

I have some LED flood bulbs on my motion sensor security lights that are great. High output like the halogens were, cool to the touch, and they aren't affected by large temperature swings being outdoors. They also kick on frequently, so the reduced energy cost versus the halogens is quickly recouped.
 
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My wife redid our 2.5 car garage for me in Ohio. She put up something ridiculous like 15 2-bulb florescent tube recessed light fixtures with "daytime" bulbs. I loved it. You will never complain about having too much light in a shop/garage, only too little.

Our new 3-car garage I'm planning on putting up 6 fixtures, with 6 tubes each. Similar logic.
 
cowman said:
The ones I'm looking at are 2200 lumens
http://www.beeslighting.com/product-p/t818w1200bixxdf40f1.htm
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But you're going up against T5's that put out 4-5K lumens at 50-54W/ea. They also cost around $6-$7/ea. So, you can have a total of 64,000 lumens of light output for $112 (16 bulbs @ $7/bulb). Or go with LED's that will cost ~$300 (30 bulbs @ $10/ea) in order to get the same light output. That's not counting the fact that you'd almost have to double the number of ceiling fixtures, or go to 4-bulb fixtures instead of 2-bulb. I'm not discounting the LEDs can be great, and I love the low energy/long life, but if it were me, I don't think I'd bother.
 
I'm running T5HO's in the garage. The fixtures were not too bad price wise, even though I bought commercial ones. I went with 6000K daylight bulbs and it's great. I had to only gulp once on the bulbs as they are $23 each and there are 4 per fixture. I can't stand soft while or cool while lights in the shop, as they make it very hard to color match and do detail work.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Sorry, but I would just go with standard T5 florescent lights. We have (8) 4' 2-bulb fixtures evenly spaced on every other truss in a 30x50 shop similar to your drawing, and it's brighter than daylight in there. We have them on two circuits so that we can turn on 4 at a time when we don't need to light up the whole shop. There isn't a dark spot in the place and they are many times cheaper than LEDs at the moment. They are also pretty low energy, so it would take a while to recoup the investment in LEDs for as infrequently as we have them running.
Click to expand...

They had some LED tubular fixtures on the cheap at Sam's Club last time I was there.

Rich
 
Craig said:
I'm running T5HO's in the garage. The fixtures were not too bad price wise, even though I bought commercial ones. I went with 6000K daylight bulbs and it's great. I had to only gulp once on the bulbs as they are $23 each and there are 4 per fixture. I can't stand soft while or cool while lights in the shop, as they make it very hard to color match and do detail work.
Click to expand...

You paid $23/bulb?! They sell the 48" Sylvania HO out of big box stores for $10/ea. You can find them online and at other retailers for $7-8/ea these days. Heck, I just looked up GE/Sylvania bulbs online and if you buy them by the case (of 40 bulbs), it's 3.75/bulb.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
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I friggin hate that company. They are responsible for half the click-bait on the internet right now. I was shopping online for an LED lantern, and now I'm inundated with their ads on every news and social media site I visit.
 
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cowman said:
The ones I'm looking at are 2200 lumens
http://www.beeslighting.com/product-p/t818w1200bixxdf40f1.htm
Click to expand...

Do you know if these bulbs are direct replacements for the fluorescent T8s? The web site says they work with or without ballast. Does that mean I could just plug them into a fluorescent fixture that has a bad ballast?

I have a 4 car (2 deep) garage with 7 4' T8 fluorescent fixtures. I hate the damned things. I've replaced the ballast on 3 of the 7 and a 4th one is now out. What a PITA.
 
wilkersk said:
Do you know if these bulbs are direct replacements for the fluorescent T8s? The web site says they work with or without ballast. Does that mean I could just plug them into a fluorescent fixture that has a bad ballast?
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Probably not. You can check for voltage at the receptacle, but there probably won't be any. But if you're handy, you can rewire the fixtures bypassing the ballast and use "ballast bypass" LED tubes. You may have to replace the lamp holders, but they're like a dollar each.

wilkersk said:
I have a 4 car (2 deep) garage with 7 4' T8 fluorescent fixtures. I hate the damned things. I've replaced the ballast on 3 of the 7 and a 4th one is now out. What a PITA.
Click to expand...

I have no use for fluorescent lamps any more, period. In my opinion, LEDs are better in every way.

Rich
 
wilkersk said:
Do you know if these bulbs are direct replacements for the fluorescent T8s? The web site says they work with or without ballast. Does that mean I could just plug them into a fluorescent fixture that has a bad ballast?

I have a 4 car (2 deep) garage with 7 4' T8 fluorescent fixtures. I hate the damned things. I've replaced the ballast on 3 of the 7 and a 4th one is now out. What a PITA.
Click to expand...

Might not work with a bad ballast but you could do a ballast bypass and wire 120v straight to the pins on the tubes. They run most efficiently that way anyway.
 
SoonerAviator said:
You paid $23/bulb?! They sell the 48" Sylvania HO out of big box stores for $10/ea. You can find them online and at other retailers for $7-8/ea these days. Heck, I just looked up GE/Sylvania bulbs online and if you buy them by the case (of 40 bulbs), it's 3.75/bulb.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can get them that cheap if you buy the case of 40 bulbs, and can wait 7-14 days for them to be delivered. When I bought mine, Grainger was the only place that had them in stock that was within 50 miles of the house. Even the electrical supply places I use, didn't have them in stock. They would order me a case of them, but I only needed 8 at the time. I didn't have any place to store extras, and still don't.
 
Makes sense why you had to pay that much but that just stings!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just checked EBay for grins. 100 4' t8 led tubes for $500 including shipping from CA. That's getting pretty cheap. You can couple them together for 8' fixtures. I have a large clear span building that'll use 64 of them. Anybody else need 46 4' led tubes?
 
We recently redid the lighting on the front of the hotel, going from three dual-tube 8-foot fluorescent fixtures to six 4-foot LED fixtures.

It is literally like night and day. The LEDs produce a brighter, much whiter light. No flickering, no yellow, no dimness when cold. They are in an aluminum housing (essential here in salt water heaven) and are available in the Lowe's lighting department for ~$60 apiece.

In the hangar, I installed two massive 240 volt metal halide lights that light up like two suns. Unfortunately, they are on the back wall of the hangar, which produces deep shadows that make working on the airplane difficult. I'm planning to hang a bunch of these LED lights overhead to fill in the shadows.
 
I have home woodworking shop set up in my two car garage, I guess it's around 40'X50' not sure. I have six 4' two bulb LED fixtures that light it up to almost daylight, it is bright. The only trouble I have noticed with LED florescent type fixtures is they create very black shadows. I overcame this by installing more fixtures than I use to have with regular florescent fixtures. But then the regular fixtures used around 250 watts as to around 15 or so watts for the LEDs

I do love the brightness and the lower electric bills.

-John
 
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