Lighting for the pole barn

[pinetree10]

What do y'all consider is cold? Like 40-50? That seems to be our lows in the winter but don't know if that will require the cold start feature?

Brett

Once the temperatures get into the 30s the cheap fixtures will start to perform poorly and it gets progressively worse as the mercury heads downward. That's what pushed me to spend the money for the high output T12 fixtures in my unheated garage about 10 years ago. They hum a bit (which doesn't bother me) and I'm told they use a lot of juice compared to the new T8s but they don't care how cold it is. They always start quickly and light the place up. When I bought my T8 fixtures for my detached garage recently the supply house guy told me the government is phasing out the T12s in favor of the new energy-efficient T8s, which use electronic ballasts and consume less power. I hope they are as dependable as the T12 lights in my attached garage because they have been no trouble for a long time.

 

[BigE_]

I replaced my T12 with T8 and really like the T8 bulbs. They are brighter and don't hum. Plus they use less power. I kept my old fixtures and just bought new ballasts off Amazon. They were about $17 each as I recall.

 

[schmism]

I have highbay metal halide in mine. 500w each i have 2. i have some 4' T12 for over benches and things, most of the time thats all i need. but when i need task lighting ill fire up the artificial suns

NOTE my highbay lights are like 20' up in the rafters of my old barn. they are high enough to take advantage of the "high bay" designs.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Sure you can find them cheaper, but, they have LED T8's.. : 18W LED T8 Tube - 4ft. Lifetime

 

[kevinwak]

What do y'all consider is cold? Like 40-50? That seems to be our lows in the winter but don't know if that will require the cold start feature?

Brett

It is normal to have -40 for at least a week each winter. The LED fixture I have on order is rated to operate at -40!

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[grsthegreat]

Regular T12 are due to stop production very soon. The high-output T12 are not on the schedule to stop production..mainly cause there deep colt use fixtures. There is a new electronic ballast available for older T12 HO fixtures. Personally i love my T12 HO's and ive stockpiled a few boxes of lamps and some ballasts in the shop. The light output in a cold shop is amazing compared to anything else ive installed.

I have a heater in the shop, but dont use it unless i plan on being in there for a few hours. As for power useage. The newer T5 HO 4 lamp lights use the same 240 watts of power as the old T12HO's. The new T5HO's work best at a height of 20 feet above finish floor, the T12HO at 10 feet. If i had a real tall shop, i guess id use the T5's, but i dont.

The 8 foot T8, 32 watt per lamp fixtures do a good job, but i have noticed alot of diminished light output when its real cold out.

 

[5picker]

:listen:These, SYLVANIA 29508 - 65 Watt - CFL , were recommended to me by a co-worker. Anyone have any experience with them? :listen:

Not those exact ones but I DO have six of these in my (unheated for the most part) pole building/garage.
I originally had them mounted vertically in ordinary screw in fixtures but recently built some metal reflectors, painted them white and mounted the bulbs horizontally.
They are great and light up the inside like a prison on escape watch.

I even retrofitted my outside pole light to accept one of these and I'm impressed with the amount of area brightness.
Temps here often zero and and below never a problem starting. They're rated for zero.
Eiko 81184 - 105 Watt - CFL

 

[Iowachild]

Not those exact ones but I DO have six of these in my (unheated for the most part) pole building/garage.
I originally had them mounted vertically in ordinary screw in fixtures but recently built some metal reflectors, painted them white and mounted the bulbs horizontally.
They are great and light up the inside like a prison on escape watch.

I even retrofitted my outside pole light to accept one of these and I'm impressed with the amount of area brightness.
Temps here often zero and and below never a problem starting. They're rated for zero.
Eiko 81184 - 105 Watt - CFL

Thanks 5Picker,

I did obtain one of the 65 w CFL bulbs to try out. So far I only have one working light fixture in my building and I have yet to be there after dark since I got the fixture wired. With the beautiful weather we have been having I hate to be stuck working inside! Once I do see the light after dark I decide if I want more or if I will go for the higher wattage bulbs.

 

[kevinwak]

I just installed a 30W Cooper LED wall pack light on the front of my pole shed. It is incredibly bright. I think it will be even better once I finish the wall and install the overhead door. Then there will be something for the light to reflect off of!

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[GManBart]

I have highbay metal halide in mine. 500w each i have 2. i have some 4' T12 for over benches and things, most of the time thats all i need. but when i need task lighting ill fire up the artificial suns

NOTE my highbay lights are like 20' up in the rafters of my old barn. they are high enough to take advantage of the "high bay" designs.

I'm looking at lighting for my new pole barn (40x64) and have seen similar lights on CL pretty reasonably priced. How much area are you lighting with the two you have?

 

[ETpilot]

I just did a light upgrade. A few months ago I needed some light for house plants that were going to be locked up for a week or two. I decided to get new fixtures and lights. After reviewing wattage, lumens, bulb life I settle on 2 regular 4' dual bulb T5 fixtures. These lights were super bright and I wound up replacing my garage fixtures with the T5. The garage is now much brighter than before.

I then looked to replace my shop, 30x40x12, light. My main light in my shop is a very old 8' 2 bulb, 214W each bulb, fluorescent that puts out 27,000 lumens. It is super bright for my work area. It is also about 30+ years old and was starting to fail, not too good in cold weather. None of the lights I looked at came close to the lumen output. That is until I looked at the T5 fixture. They make make a HO T5 fixture with four 4' bulbs. Comparing old with new, Old was 27,000 lumen at 428W, new is 20,000 lumen at 216W. This was the way to go. So I installed the new and compared light output in operation and I am happy. The new light is just a bit less bright but is using less wattage. I plan to install a second fixture on a separate switch. This will give me 40,000 lumens at 432W. Hog heaven I think. I also have 2 T12 HO in shop.

These new lights take a second or two to start up. They start up dim but go to full light after a minute or two. I had them start no problem at 15* cold day. After re-reading this thread I checked for radio interference and none exists. They are really light weight compared to my 1 ton old one. They do not have a reflector but I plan to fabricate and add a reflector. Cost around $100.00 with bulbs. So far I am satisfied.

 

[GManBart]

I took this picture at around midnight after finishing installing two lights on the 40x40 side of my barn. The lights are by Lithonia, from Home Depot and cost $199 each....talk about a lot of light for just two fixtures! They are 11,200 lumens, and put out very white, clean light...listed as 149 watts. My electrician stopped by and was very impressed with them.



Lithonia Lighting 2 ft. White LED High Bay Light-IBH 11L MV - The Home Depot

 

[wmonroe]

Those look bright!

 

[Osu98]

In my 30x40x12 I put up 4-4' 6 bulb T8's high bays. I think they are made by metalux. 32W bulbs. Paid about $70 each at menards. So far so good.

 

[GManBart]

Those look bright!

They are....that picture was around midnight, right after I finished hanging them. Four in a 40x40 space would probably be overkill for most purposes.

 

[Xfaxman]

Does anyone have this one? HomeSelects Grey LED Vapor Tight Light-6218 - The Home Depot

HomeSelects Model # 6218 Internet # 204630030

Grey LED Vapor Tight Light

Thinking about putting it in the tack room.

 

[GManBart]

Does anyone have this one?

Thinking about putting it in the tack room.

I considered that model (liked that it was 48" long), but decided it was worth spending the extra $50 for the one I linked above because it puts out over four times as many lumens (11,200 vs 2500).

 

[GManBart]

I finally got the ceiling hung on the shop side (24x40x13) and got all of the lights back up. I think it turned out well (excuse the errors you see in the ceiling...my first attempt!). I took these pics a few minutes ago (10pm) and it was totally dark outside.

From the doorway:





Looking the other direction. I didn't put a light over the one corner because that will be framed out as a bathroom with 8' ceilings and a storage platform on top.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

How easy/hard was it to install the ceiling panel? Our church property came with an existing 104' x 38' x 12' pole barn with 7 bays. One of the projects I want to do is put ceiling panels inside.

 

[KennyG]

How easy/hard was it to install the ceiling panel? Our church property came with an existing 104' x 38' x 12' pole barn with 7 bays. One of the projects I want to do is put ceiling panels inside.

That's a big barn! Ceiling panels will be easy depending on the basic structure and tools you use. If your trusses are on 4 foot centers, you can fasten the ceiling liner panels directly to the truss bottom chord. If they are 8 foot centers you have a problem. Some people have spanned 8 feet with liner panel but they are not supposed to span over 4 feet. In this case, you should string 2 x 4's on 4 foot centers across the trusses for ceiling support.

With a high lift drywall lift and a couple of rolling bakers scaffolds, you can put the ceiling up quickly and easily. As few as two or three people can work efficiently on this job.