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Hangar Lighting

GigAir

Active Member
I am having a new T hangar built, (KTIW) and am choosing the electrical layout and lighting options. Does anyone have any definitive advice on high bay lighting (20'+ ceiling) options for a T hangar. There are a myriad of choices out there. I am not sure LED is the way to go, just yet. Thank you!

Greg Novotny
fledgling RvAviator
 
LED or not is an easy choice. Estimate how long each day you will use the lights, get the electrical rate, and see what it costs per watt. If you use the fluorescent bulbs - tubes or LED bulbs, is just a math problem.

I would suspect the difference in energy cost will not make the LED worth it over fluorescent for a hangar. That doesn't mean LED is not a great choice. It comes on instantly, you can dim it, and I believe it will last longer. There are always programs by the local energy companies that reduce the price of the bulbs to a reasonable amount. In Lansing MI, you can get 60w equivalent (so they say) bulbs at home depot for less than $5. I have no experience with the LED T-8 lights.

I just spent about $80k changing parking lot, outdoor hockey rink, and indoor basketball courts to LED. After 3 months experience, it will pay for itself in 1.9 years.
 
I agree with Rockwood. If you are going to run them 8 hrs a day or more, there is no choice other than LED. Less than 8 hrs and it is your choice but you may not recover the initial cost anytime soon. We sell bay lights to gas stations for their conopies and the ROI (Return On Investment) is less than 2.5 years in most cases but they run theirs from sun set until sun rise plus a little on each end. Finally, if you do run them that much, expect about 17 years between replacement and very little or no service between!
 
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I recently upgraded my hangar lights. I hung four high bay four tube T-5 high output fixtures in my T-hangar. Very happy. The supply house where I bought my fixtures had various units hung up in their building. They did have one LED fixture that looked promising but he didn't have any more on hand and couldn't say when he could get more so I went with what was in stock.
 
Couple questions

How big is the hanger?
Are you planning on doing a lot of building in the this hanger, or is it just storage?
If you are planning on building in this hanger, you want around 75 foot candles.
That's a lot. The spacing of the fixtures is also very important. Shadows can cause lots of frustration.
Portable task lighting is also an option.
The 6 lamp T5 high bay fixtures work great and put out great light. You can also set up dual level lighting for when you just need egress lighting as opposed to work lighting.
Good luck
http://t.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-L...-White-Fluorescent-High-Bay-IBZ-654/203629843
 
A couple of points:

-I sell LED lights and just installed 6 lamp T5 fixtures in my hangar. I don't run them very often so this is fine. (I sell these also)

-Most electrical suppliers don't have much LED information or inventory and most big box stores don't have any LEDs to sell. They are sold through different supply channels for now.

-There are a lot LED choices but few of them are easy to get and very expensive on line.

-Finally, all of the above is true because it is a new industry just growing out childhood and the electrical supply houses are not quick to move into a product that has in the past been rapidly changing, for the fear of getting stuck with some brand new but obsolete inventory. Can't blame them. The industry was loaded with a lot of problems with the quality of the LED diods and with the power supplies. Much better and much more stable now.
 
If you do a search for hangar + lighting, you will find a lot of stuff in the forum.
For 20' mounting heights, T5HO is going to be your best bet. I design to 50 fc maintained, more than adequate for the bulk of your build. You can supplement over a work bench for electronics and small work if you feel it is necessary. The quality of light is far more important than quantity. T5HO gives you good color rendering standard in the lamps. Not true of other sources.
If you are only storing your rig there and only doing maintenance, you can get by with 20 fc and a portable shop light when you need it.

LED's have come of age. About 40% of what we sell today is LED. However, I have yet to do a hangar with them. Most simply do not have the $$ to spend and the utility isn't there as mentioned previously unless you spend a lot of time in the hangar.
T5HO lamp life, depending on cycles (starts) is 25k-35K hours.
I have T8 in my hangar, 20k hours rated. Installed over 10 years. I have had one lamp burn out. (lamp life is when 50% fail, mean failure rate).

Regardless, pick a quality product with a name brand ballast or driver.
 
I too have T5HO in my hangar (70 FC at night with the doors shut); perfect for maintaing the EZ's and will be fine for constructing the RV-14
 
Just a word of caution on the T5HO. They are a very bright source from a surface brightness stand point. I do not recommend them for mounting heights below 14' or so.
I absolutely do not recommend mirrored reflectors. Some in the industry use those to direct the light more downward, making them appear more efficient. That is not necessarily good.
Some up lighting is a good thing for your eyes, and to make the space look less cave like. I recommend white painted reflectors, or no reflector if you are mounting direct to the ceiling, and a white painted ceiling.

Remember, we are human animals. We can operate in daylight of 10k fc and navigate a parking lot at night in 1 fc. That is a pretty amazing spread.
However, brightness can produce glare which is not good, and contrast in a space between dark and light can lead to fatigue.

Good lighting design is just like any other science. Lot's involved.....
 
I'd also remember that unless you're parking an airliner, they don't have to be 20' up. Lower will mean less light output will be needed.
 
I'd also remember that unless you're parking an airliner, they don't have to be 20' up. Lower will mean less light output will be needed.

Yes and no. Depends on the reflector/fixtures. Here at my place of employment, we recently retrofitted one of our college gyms with 36,000 hr T8s. After looking at all the various solutions, at the end of the day the fluorescent was a straight-forward, cost effective solution that provided nice quality light with no ballast/lamp noise and instant response. Not sure the LEDs are quite there yet if you're working less than a 10 yr ROI (major renovation planned within 10 yrs on this facility). And the technology is advancing so fast, I'd hate to sink the money into something like this and have it surpassed by subsequent technology in 2 years that halves the ROI period.
 
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T5HO

It never ceases to amaze me, the depth of knowledge in these forums. I thank every one of you for responding. It appears as though T5HO is the consensus favorite. So, can anyone tell me, in a 1200ft2 T-hangar, with 20' ceilings where the lights will be suspended, how many T5HO 4 or 6 bulb fixtures will I need to achieve approx 50 cpower? I am planning to build, not just maintain in the hangar, so am leaning toward more light. My 61 year old eyes need it. Again Thank you.
 
Without going off the deep end, see this page:
http://www.gelighting.com/LightingW...sistant-toolkit/lighting-layout-estimator.jsp

Remember that you want 50 fc at 30" off the floor, so effective room height is the distance between the fixtures an bench top, not ceiling and floor. That has the most impact on spacing...

White paint will be your friend for a bright hangar.

Search the old threads on this topic for a ton of additional considerations, or headaches, depending on your disposition at the moment. Avoid trying to being too precise, because in the end a ton of thinking won't change the answer by much.
 
can anyone tell me, in a 1200ft2 T-hangar, with 20' ceilings where the lights will be suspended, how many T5HO 4 or 6 bulb fixtures will I need to achieve approx 50 cpower? I am planning to build, not just maintain in the hangar, so am leaning toward more light. My 61 year old eyes need it. Again Thank you.

I can't quantify what the result is but I have my four 4 tube fixtures hung 10 feet off the floor and it is plenty bright. A friend has a single 6 tube fixture in the back of his hangar and I go there to get my sun tan.
This picture was taken about 22:30 with the hangar doors closed and only the center two lights running. With all four lights on, the shadows you see under the chair for instance are nearly non-existant.
IMG_2110_zpsab092e93.jpg
 
Don't forget color temperature and ballast quality

GigAir:

I tried negotiating the learning curve on hangar lighting 18 months ago.

I eventually had JonJay spec and provide the lights for the hangar I finished building last year here on Dietz Airpark in Canby, Oregon. He has software that tells you just how many footcandles you will have at each location with different lamps, fixtures and configurations in your hangar's dimensions.

Note that footcandles is not the only consideration you should consider. Quiet, quality, ballasts that come on instantly in the cold are a must. Different flourescent lamps produce different color temperatures. Ceiling height and colors of walls, ceiling and floor are also a consideration. I eventually went with T8, 3500K lamps, but I only have 12' ceilings. I also had them wired so I can switch on every other fixture. I am very happy with the lights and configuration.

You are going to be living with the lights for a long time, so I suggest you get professional help in selecting your light fixtures and lamps. I am sure glad I did.

Also, if you haven't sheeted your hangar door yet, you might want to consider sheeting all or some of it with three wall translucent polycarbonate sheeting. It has an R3 insulation factor, and lets in lots of ambient light. I don't need to turn on my lights when loading, pre-flighting, or fetching something from the hangar during the day.

You are welcome to fly down and check out my lights and door.
 
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I've replaced almost all the lights in our leased warehouses to T5HO 6 bulb units. Nearly 80 fixtures in total. We have had them in service for 1 to 5 years without a single bulb failure. Some of the units are unheated. We have them hung from 18' and as low as 12'. I highly recommend the T5HO ... I know LED has come a long way and prices are coming down ... but right now I think the break even is around 10 years. A suggestion is to have several circuits so that you can turn on just the amount of light needed. IE if you have a total of 10 lights in your hanger, have one circuit with two lights on it and two with four each ... this will help keep the electrical costs down and give you the light that is needed for the task.
 
Just to clarify terminology

Just to clarify something in another post. When you are talking to your electrician (if you are hiring one) you would be calling the added circuits 'added switch legs'.
He only needs to install the number of circuits required for the load of the fixtures (probably just one to two circuits).
What you are adding to get different light levels are switch legs.
Just meant to clarify the terminology when you are speaking to contractor or electrician friend that may be helping.
 
I do not have a hanger but the when I built the barn my RV project is in I did not know what to do about lights. After some study I put some 8 foot 2 tube fixtures on the wall mounted horozontally about ten feet apart about ten feet off the ground with the idea that I could add more if needed. Then I put 2, 2 tube 4 foot tube fixtures above my work bench hanging on chains about 7 feet off the ground. This has been more than enough light. I can turn the rows of 8 footers on individually and I rarely need to run both rows. I almost always run the 2 4 foot fixtures. A couple of things to remember, the higher the fixtures are off the floor the harder they are to change bulbs in, and the 4 foot bulbs do not hum as much as the 8 footers.
 
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