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Garage Lighting

JDBoston

Well Known Member
I am in the process of setting up my garage and need opinions on lighting.

I have a two car garage with nine foot ceilings. I am initially going to build in just one side of the garage. Currently the only lighting is a single bulb on each side of the garage (and the openers which don't count).

I am having an electrician come in a couple of weeks to add a subpanel, and while he is there I will have him install some lighting. Is the standard answer T-8 (four foot fixtures) the way to go here? With this small a space and this low a ceiling, should I consider some other type of lighting ?

Thanks
 
I had 2 fixtures that had 75watt bulbs in them and I replaced them with 2 - 4 ft high reflective fluorescent.

I found this to be plenty of light!

You will still need drop lights and flash lights for tight spaces.
 
I built in a three car garage with a 12 foot ceiling. I installed 5 - 8 ft 110 watt per tube fixtures. I dry-walled and insulated the walls and painted ceilings white and walls off-white. I still think I could have used more! Having good light is important! I also installed 2 ceiling mounted retractable work lights.
 
Go with those thin T8s, I can't remember what they are called, but they provide better lighting in my opinion. Mine are 14 ft off the ground and provide good lighting that does sometimes need backed up by the occasioal drop light.
 
It is always better to turn off unneeded lights, than to wish you had more lights. Overall cost of the plane/cost of lights= insignificant $$

While the electrician is there, talk to him about a 220v circuit for the air compressor.

Yes, you do want a 220V air compressor even if you dont know it yet;)
 
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A couple of tips ...

The calculations that lighting designers use depend heavily on both mounting height and surface (mostly wall) reflectivity. Said another way, never underestimate the effect of white walls. Nine foot ceilings will have some reduction effect, but not bad ... nothing like 12' . I would stick with 4' T-8 fluorescents ... reasonably inexpensive, available everywhere, and the new de-facto energy standard. They put out a ton of light.
Oh yeah ... if you have a wall workbench, make sure you hang some lighting directly over it. If the light is behind you on the ceiling, you'll always be working in your own shadow. Ugh.
 
I agree on the 4' T8 solution.
However, wall reflectance in most shops or garage is typically not there. The wall is taken up with equipment, tools, shelves, hanging stuff, etc...
Ceiling reflectance will make the biggest difference IF you have a finished ceiling. You do not need a reflector if you have a white finished ceiling. Save some $.
Most of the "residential" hangars (there is really no such thing by code) we are doing with simple 2 lamp in cross section, T8 strips. We will use a reflector (white, not mirror) for open to structure ceilngs. White is over 90%reflective and you don't get the glare of a polished reflector.
I did recently complete a new hangar with some premium architectural fixtures, primarily for the look. They call his hangar the "Taj Mahangar". Still, 2-T8 in cross section, continuous rows in this example, with alternate fixture switching so he could have general lighting or blast all of them on when needed.
 
T-8

I second the @ T-8 s. I had two in a standard two car garage. Way too little. Two more (total) is perfect. It's very bright and I still use a drop light with a 100 watt CFL for close work.
I also have a 220 outlet and glad it's there. You can never have too much air!
I built two EAA benches and used the leftover to build a table for the electrics. I have a drill, sander, band saw, grinder and vice mounted on it with a surge strip mounted on it for power.
 
I'm building in 2 bays of a 3-car garage, 12' ceilings. As noted, walls are covered with "stuff" so even with white paint are not much help.

Right now I have an 8' T8 (four 4-foot tubes) riveted to the bottom of a storage rack hung about 30" down from the ceiling over b y the work bench. I have two more 2-tube 4' T8 fixtures hung from the ceiling. It's OK over by the workbenches, but NOT enough light by the wing stand. I'm going to put in a couple more 4-footers.

It would be tough to over-do the lighting. There's a guy in the neighborhood who has 4-tube fixtures mounted on his walls... I've thought about that, but my walls are covered with all the **** that I needed to get off the floor to give me room to build!
 
More light!!! I have the eight foot fluorescence lights spaced every four feet. Also, on the ends I ran the tubes perpendicular. This has the effect of throwing light in a different plane, very useful. The banks of lights are on two twitches.
I have never had to much light. I have had to little.
Also when you wire, I put in 110 outlets every four feet around all the walls and 220 outlets every eight feet for machines. I have never been sorry.
Do your own wiring, it is not hard. Just make sure it is up to code.
 
Too Much?

I'll pipe in...

I am in the "never enough" camp. I have 72 linear feet of 2 bulb fixtures (36 4' 6500K T8s) in my shop. I have them separated into 2 groups on 2 switches.

One group has the 24 linear feet over the bench cabinets you see in the picture. The rest are over the "field" of the shop in 2 rows covering the remainder of the length of my shop. If I feel it is too bright when working over the bench, I can turn off the field. When working in the field, turn off the bench area if needed.

Turns out, I have not needed to.

I also painted 2/3rds of the wall and ceiling with a semi-gloss white.

I can tell you this much...if I drop something, I am not looking for it long with the excellent lighting and distribution of that light.

Too much...well, when you have a neighbor that cuts you a good deal on the fixtures, I say the more the merrier.

2012-03-09-21.01.38-575x432.jpg
 
Jeff,

Maybe a trip down to visit my house in Plymouth sooner rather than later to see how I lit up my shop and to hear the compressor run one night next week would be a good thing to do.

I have 4 two lamp high output flourescent fixtures installed on high ceilings and they work very well. I am also a licensed master electrician. (Not looking for work, though!)

Call me sometime sunday and we can find sometimefora visit I am sure.

See you soon!

:). CJ
 
If noise is an issue, get a bigger comperessor. That ten gallon tank will be running all the time. Get something with a 60 gallon tank that runs on 220V... you will be happier. (I had a small one, then went large and am much happier) PS- I am at Nashua (KASH) if you want to stop by sometime. You can see lighting, plane and compressor :)
 
+1 on more light. I've got six of those 4' T-8 fixtures, and a 2-bulb 8' fixture in a small two-car garage and it's a bit meager.

Also +1 on putting them over the work benches. But also put them over where the wings will be assembled or the fuselage.

Dave
 
Jeff,

Maybe a trip down to visit my house in Plymouth sooner rather than later to see how I lit up my shop and to hear the compressor run one night next week would be a good thing to do.

I have 4 two lamp high output flourescent fixtures installed on high ceilings and they work very well. I am also a licensed master electrician. (Not looking for work, though!)

Call me sometime sunday and we can find sometimefora visit I am sure.

See you soon!

:). CJ

I will give you a call on Sun :) Maybe even just a quick visit to check things out will help.

Thanks everyone
 
I built the LongEZ's in a 2 car garage with a lot of light with white ceilings and walls. 30 years later I don't see as well, and before I get busy on the 14 I just installed six 4 tube T5HO fixtures. I'm of the opinion you can't have too much light and the quality of work is directly proportional to the lighting. My daughter is a physician and tells me she could operate in the garage now :D
 
Lots of light is good but glare is not. T5HO is a 5/8" diameter bulb pushing 5000 lumens in a 4' lamp. Compared to a T8, 1" diameter with 2850 lumens, the T5HO has a lot of surface brightness. They can be really harsh on the eyes.
I don't recommend T5HO for anything under 14' unshielded.
 
I have the T5HO's at 12' above finish floor with pattern12 acrylic lenses; Lithonia products. The garage may get brighter when it's filled with shiny aluminum structure :D
 
I used to design lighting, as I believe a couple of folks on VAF do. Some thoughts...

4 ft fixtures are designed to be installed in offices. OK, not the fixture, but the ballast inside them. And that means that they are also designed to be quiet.

8 ft fixtures (with 8 ft tubes), High Output (HO) fixtures of any length are designed for warehouses, and are accordingly are often noisy.
The really cheap fixtures often use cheap ballasts that fail to produce full light output. I usually take a close look and will pay a bit more for name brand fixtures such as Lithonia or Alkco. I believe that Home Depot sells both of these brands.

As others have mentioned, light paint helps! White paint reflects about 70-80% if the light reaching it, while dark unfinished garage walls reflect less than 10%.

Remember that light output goes down as the lamps get older (in terms of hours used). Expect to lose 15-20% of the light by the end of bulb life (which will be well after you finish the plane).

I'd aspire to 50-60 footcandles on the top of your workbench (2-1/2 ft off the floor). Use the low end if you are under 40, and the high end if you are over 55 or so.

There are fancy online calculators to calculate light levels. You will need room dimensions and the initial lumen rating of the bulbs that you are using. For a F32T8 4ft tube use 2850 lumens per tube. They vary a bit by manufacturer and color; however that's close enough. I found a calculator at http://www.gelighting.com/LightingW...sistant-toolkit/lighting-layout-estimator.jsp that will tell you how many fixtures you need for a given light level. I put in 50 footcandles as a target. You can get a more precise answer at http://hewilliams.com/Layouts/quick...section=Strip&InputURL=strip.xml#.UaltAWPn_X4; however you'll need to spend some time figuring out the values of parameters.
 
FWIW... I installed 8x 4 foot T-8's in my two-car garage. My work benches run down the sides of the garage, and I placed the two fixtures closest to them so that the inboard (facing the center of the garage) edges were aligned with the front edges of the work benches. That way, even when standing at the workbench, I have light on my work and my body doesn't cast a shadow on it.

The other fixtures are evenly dispersed across the ceiling. They provide great lighting throughout the room. When they've been on for half an hour or so and really warm up, I daresay you could perform surgery under them.

One significant downside, however, that I didn't foresee when I did this: My handheld iCOM that I hoped to plug in and listen to while working in the shop (I live within the circuit for my local airport), just squeals when the lights are on, regardless of squelch setting. I suspect the lights are very poorly shielded. If you're hoping to listen to an air-band radio, plan on a well-shielded external antenna.
 
Something not mentioned, I just finished a new garage/airplane factory and thought i chose lighting wisely. The problem I ran into is that I did not put any light that would be above the open garage door. Since the shop is air conditioned, the doors are normally closed, and there is a dark spot near the garage door. Some sort of recessed lighting will probably become installed there before long.
 
I just finished putting in lighting in my 24 by 24 garage with a 10' ceiling. I put in four 4' T5 light fixtures. Four bulbs in each fixture with polished aluminum reflectors. It is incredible how much light is thrown off by these things. I have yet to do any work in the garage, but I figure that I can always put in a couple of more if I need them. The fixtures cost $100 each at HD and got bulbs on line for about $2.50 each (if I recall correctly).

ken
 
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