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Seeking input regarding hangar lighting

B

Brett H

Active Member
Patron
I am having a 51' wide by 64' deep by 12' high hangar built.

The front 40' will be hangar and the back 24' will be an enclosed shop.

The electrician is proposing using Eaton LED lights.

1.) Regarding the shop area, if the CRI greater than 80, what is an appropriate temperature? Namely, with the CRI greater than 80 should the temperature be greater than 3500 K?

2.) For the shop area, is 50 FC a minimum or recommendation? My goal is that the shop area should be lighted like one would for a work bench. So, since this new construction, it would better to cover the need now rather than add later.

3.) The proposed lights are the Eaton Metalux Value High Bay Linear LED VHBLED-LD1 lights. Any concern that in the shop that they will only be at an a 10 1/2 foot height due needing to be 1 1/2 from the ceiling and at 12 foot height in the hangar (i.e. mounted between the rafters)?

Thanks.
Brett H
Columbus, IN
RV-12 Finishing Kit
 
80 CRI is good. Color temp is subjective. I like 3500-4000k. I do not like higher Color temps but some do.
50 FC is what I recommend for general lighting and building. You may need to supplement on your work bench for fine work but it is a waste to light any higher across that large of a space. I have lit dozens of hangars and shops to 50 FC. It works well as long as your uniformity is good.

That fixture appears to have good optics shielding the LED array. For your low mounting height, you would want the wide distribution, not the narrow. You also want the lumen package on the lower side of what is available in that product.
FC are an average. You can get 50FC with higher lumen fixtures, and fewer fixtures, but your "Max to Min" gets out of whack and you lose uniformity. There is a balance between cost and coverage.

If you have the layout they are using feel free to send it to me and I wcan review it for you.

All in all, I think you are on the right track.
 
JonJay said:
80 CRI is good. Color temp is subjective. I like 3500-4000k. I do not like higher Color temps but some do.
50 FC is what I recommend for general lighting and building. You may need to supplement on your work bench for fine work but it is a waste to light any higher across that large of a space. I have lit dozens of hangars and shops to 50 FC. It works well as long as your uniformity is good.

That fixture appears to have good optics shielding the LED array. For your low mounting height, you would want the wide distribution, not the narrow. You also want the lumen package on the lower side of what is available in that product.
FC are an average. You can get 50FC with higher lumen fixtures, and fewer fixtures, but your "Max to Min" gets out of whack and you lose uniformity. There is a balance between cost and coverage.

If you have the layout they are using feel free to send it to me and I wcan review it for you.

All in all, I think you are on the right track.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response. I sent you a Private Message.

Brett H
Columbus, IN
RV-12 Finish Kit
 
A friend of mine has a wisecrack that was originally about something else, but it applies to lighting, too:

"Too much is almost enough."

With lighting, that applies especially as you get older.

The thing about airplanes and workbenches, at least in my experience, is that the work tends to shift around the shop as the construction progresses. So uniformly good lighting is a good thing to have.

Dave
 
RV7Guy said:
I live in a residential airpark and have seen a diversity of lighting. My neighbor just put these lights in and they are amazing. We have 1800 sq ft hangars, 45x40 with 15 foot ceilings. Another neighbor and I are ordering these lights. Very easy to install. Sort of expensive but you don't want to sacrifice on the lighting.


https://www.eledlights.com/led-lamp...-5000k-120-loop-mount-black.html#.Wnz032aZPow
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The Eaton product the OP's electrician is recommending is better suited for a 10' mounting height. Better distribution and better glare control = better visual acuity.
19000 lumens is too hot at that height. Surface brightness /shielding come into play. You don't want to introduce low angle brightness.
13-15' mounting height for this tyoe of product can do well although a 19000 lumen product better have good glare control even at that height, especially with the lack of any refractor except the flat lens.
 
We are an Electrical Distributor (No name mentioned here since not an advertiser), and sell most major brands of High Bay lighting.

Our most popular High Bay fixture is the Philips Day-Brite FBX in the 24,000 lumen package, 5K color temp. Other lumen packages available up to 45,000.
http://www.lightingproducts.philips.com/our-brands/daybrite/fbx-led-high-bay.html
One unique feature of the Philips FBX fixture is that an optional factory installed feature called Spacewise can be ordered which will allow the grouping of fixtures from the ground using a remote. This feature allows groups of fixtures to turn on/off or dim depending on occupancy without additional building wiring.

Some other brands to consider would be Eaton Cooper Lighting, and RAB Lighting, all good quality lighting with confidence you would be able to get replacement parts if needed down the road. There is many off shore fixtures that at first look seem to be a good deal, but if problems come up down the road it could be a problem.

Most Electrical distributors will gladly do a lighting layout for you free of charge. This will help you predict the FC, and placement of fixtures.

.
 
RogerG said:
We are an Electrical Distributor (No name mentioned here since not an advertiser), and sell most major brands of High Bay lighting.

Our most popular High Bay fixture is the Philips Day-Brite FBX in the 24,000 lumen package, 5K color temp. Other lumen packages available up to 45,000.
http://www.lightingproducts.philips.com/our-brands/daybrite/fbx-led-high-bay.html
One unique feature of the Philips FBX fixture is that an optional factory installed feature called Spacewise can be ordered which will allow the grouping of fixtures from the ground using a remote. This feature allows groups of fixtures to turn on/off or dim depending on occupancy without additional building wiring.

Some other brands to consider would be Eaton Cooper Lighting, and RAB Lighting, all good quality lighting with confidence you would be able to get replacement parts if needed down the road. There is many off shore fixtures that at first look seem to be a good deal, but if problems come up down the road it could be a problem.

Most Electrical distributors will gladly do a lighting layout for you free of charge. This will help you predict the FC, and placement of fixtures.

.
Click to expand...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WV4H4G...00-pcomp-feature-scomp&ref=bit_scomp_ask_sav0
 
RogerG said:
We are an Electrical Distributor (No name mentioned here since not an advertiser), and sell most major brands of High Bay lighting.

Our most popular High Bay fixture is the Philips Day-Brite FBX in the 24,000 lumen package, 5K color temp. Other lumen packages available up to 45,000.
http://www.lightingproducts.philips.com/our-brands/daybrite/fbx-led-high-bay.html
One unique feature of the Philips FBX fixture is that an optional factory installed feature called Spacewise can be ordered which will allow the grouping of fixtures from the ground using a remote. This feature allows groups of fixtures to turn on/off or dim depending on occupancy without additional building wiring.

Some other brands to consider would be Eaton Cooper Lighting, and RAB Lighting, all good quality lighting with confidence you would be able to get replacement parts if needed down the road. There is many off shore fixtures that at first look seem to be a good deal, but if problems come up down the road it could be a problem.

Most Electrical distributors will gladly do a lighting layout for you free of charge. This will help you predict the FC, and placement of fixtures.

.
Click to expand...

Good advice for a Highbay in a warehouse or high ceiling but not for the OP's 10' mounting hieght. The 12000 lumen product would work well.
The wireless control options are readily available in most major brands now. They are neat but I don't feel the added cost is worth it for a Hangar but it does add a lot of flexibility and the cost keeps going down. 0-10vdc dimming is resident for free if you want to pull the control wires, but I never have had a need to dim in a hangar or shop. The energy use is so low across the system zoning doesn't really pay back.
Eaton, Rab, Philips, all good brands, but now you did it and I am going to tell my buddy Greg Parnely on you for not recommending Lithonia!
To your point, the major brands may cost a bit more, but you get what you pay for. That said, it is getting harder and harder to differentiate as LED technology continues to improve dramatically across the board and the pricing is a race to the bottom. Traditionally Manufacturers, Reps, and Distributors are going to have to figure out how to add value before they go the way of the dinosaur as lighting suppliers out of stock or flow. My two cents.

Edit - Neal was typing as I was and just reinforced my point.....
 
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I installed 24 of the 4' LED shop lights from Costco. The brand is FEIT. I went with these because the price is great and I had experience with them in previous hangar. My hangar is 60 X 40 feet and I am very happy with the results. I joined them up length wise to make 8' fixtures out of them and this worked great. I just joined them up with 1/8th X 3/8" flat bar from the hardware store. They hang easily with small chain. They are hung about 16' from the floor and evenly spaced in two rows. These fixtures can be joined into longer fixtures if desired off of the same electrical input on one end. I think as many as 4 or 5 of them can be fed from one end.

Pricing at Costco for these lights is less than $28.00 per 4' fixture so I was able to supply good lighting to a 60 X 40 hangar for a very reasonable price, under $700 for the fixtures. I could not find anything on line that came close to this.

I hired an electrician to run the conduit and wires but hung the fixtures ahead of time myself off of a rented scissor lift.

I think the color number was 4000 but like I said above, I avoided all the analysis of light intensity and color because I already know I liked them in my previous hangar.

Now if I can get the floor coated in a reflective durable epoxy, that is the next big step for me.

Anyway, I wanted to let people know that this lighting worked out very well for me and I believe I saved considerable cash over the alternatives available.
 
Randy - if your happy that is all that matters. The FEIT fixtures are on the very low end of the quality and performance scale. They don't meet any modern standards for LED. They don't meet any IES standards. "Average life of 50,000 hours" isnt how LED fixtures are tested, again showing they don't meet standards, along with their other dubious claims. You just have to take their word for it as they are not tested by any independent lab.
Fortunately, most hangars have such low usage you may never see any problems.
Like anything else, you get what you pay for. Again, if you like them and they do the job for you, enough said..... I couldn't, and wouldn't , recommend these products as a lighting professional however, but the choice is ultimately up to the user.
 
Twenty years ago I built a shop, 45X35. I lit the shop with 18 4' shop lights from the big box store at a cost of $9 each. The 4' tubes cost 99 cents each. The shop has been well light.

Not one light has failed to date. Did I need better? I guess not. But I am not a lighting expert and maybe that's why I installed such a cheap lighting system.

Costco just had their LED shop lights on sale for $20.....
 
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the last time the lighting subject came around [last 3 months] i decided i was going to replace my 20 yr old 4' fluor. for new stuff. my shop is 16' x 22' and the 16 bulbs really lit it up. after shopping around and looking at cost, lumens, expected life i realized that if you throw in a few led bulb failures new lighting technology is to save fossil fuels, not save us money.
a 40 watt fluor. can be had for $3 for 3000 lumens and lasts 20000 to 30000 hrs. and are very reliable. add up the cost of new fixtures and bulbs and a few new item failures and i won't be around to see any savings.

i did manage to cut my elec. cost in half on my old fixtures though. spent half a day rewiring my fixtures to 2 switches instead of 1. now 95% of the time in the shop can be spent with only one switch on.
i would certainly say go for it in a new installation but the numbers did not add up to replace my old setup.
 
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