Garage Lighting

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Houatie
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Garage Lighting

Post by Houatie »

Since I get to rebuild my garage to my specifications I have been looking at new lighting. I have a 2 car garage, 20'x20', about a 12 ft ceiling, with a 16 ft door. Looking at putting in two 4' 4 or 6-lamp fluorescent fixtures on each side of the center chain, towards the outside tracks and towards the entrance, and two 4' 2 or 4-lamp fixtures across the width behind the door opener. Do I need the 6 lamps? Or just go 4 all the way around? 35 watt or higher? 5000K or 6500? I'm tired of crappy diffused yellow light from a 4' 2-lamp garage light and want to be able to see. My old eyes aren't helping things.
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FlyByNite
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by FlyByNite »

You may want to look into LED shop lights. More light but use less electricty.
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mike-tracy
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by mike-tracy »

I'd also recommend LED's. As far as color goes, the lower the better as higher numbers makes for harsher perceived lighting. The closer you can get to 4300k, the more natural lighting everything will be, leading to less eye strain.

Talking about fixtures, you'll probably be more than fine with 4x 4-lamp fixtures. You can wire them in a way that with 2 light switches, you can put 2 of the 4 LED bulbs on each switch, so you can choose between half brightness or full. Alternately you could get a dimmable switch and dimmable LED's to have a similar effect.
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kamesama980
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by kamesama980 »

What do you plan on doing in the garage? occasional oil change and swapping winter tires or serious repairs? Are the floor, walls, or ceiling painted? A white room needs less illumination than a dark colored one or one full of stuff.

I have a dozen 4-tube fixtures and 3 2-tube fixtures in about a 2-car area where I work on cars and I have a pallet of additional 2-tube fixtures to add to the rest of the garage. If I'm doing surgery on an engine, I like it to be lit like an OR lol.

As for color, I found that a 50/50 mix of 4k and 5 or 6k (don't remember exactly what I got years ago) bulbs actually gives better color rendering and look than uniform 4300-5k tubes. Kinda like speakers needing a mix of tweeters, midrange, and woofers to get a fuller sound. With as few tubes as you'll be using that may or may not work as well.

Not enough experience with LEDs to have suggestions there, still cost more than florescents up front but that's changing rapidly, and they're generally better in the long run and across temperature ranges.
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greymud
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by greymud »

As far as using LEDs, I worked in a factory where we looked into replacing florescent and halogens with LED. We got one as a test and put it in a corner of the maintenance shop. The light was more diffuse than what we replaced - less shadows on what you have on the table.

We did a cost analysis of replacing everything, but the company wouldn't make the investment, so I can't say what it's like in a larger area. It was definitely preferable for everyone that looked at it.
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kingearth
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by kingearth »

What I have in my garage is a flood light like teh seize of a regular computer. I agree regular round bulb can't do its job!
harleyjohn45
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by harleyjohn45 »

I had a shop that had T-12 bulbs, they were bright enough, but ballast and bulb changing was constant. I decided to go the LED route, that was a mistake. They were expensive and didn't put out enough light. My new shop now has T-8 lighting, its very bright and in 15 years I have yet to replace a bulb or ballast. LED bulbs do burn out also.
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kamesama980
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by kamesama980 »

harleyjohn45 wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 2:14 pm I had a shop that had T-12 bulbs, they were bright enough, but ballast and bulb changing was constant. I decided to go the LED route, that was a mistake. They were expensive and didn't put out enough light. My new shop now has T-8 lighting, its very bright and in 15 years I have yet to replace a bulb or ballast. LED bulbs do burn out also.
LEDs from 15+ years ago have exactly zero comparison to modern units. Even the cheapest chinese LED shop lights are orders of magnitude better than the expensive ones 15 years ago.
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harleyjohn45
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Re: Garage Lighting

Post by harleyjohn45 »

I'm sure there have been improvements. I guess I'm still old school. I use led's at my house now.
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