Need help on estimating shop lighting requirements

[jeepcj7]

Whats the best way to estimate shop light requirements? A few years ago I built a 24 x 26 garage with a 10' ceiling. The interior walls and the ceiling are finished with standard unpainted OSB and the concrete floor is painted white (you would be amazed how much that helps lighten up the inside of the building). I finally got around to running 100 amp service to the building and I will be using conduit and boxes to run all the wiring. I am tryng to determine what type of light fixtures would work best in this appliation and how many fixtures I will need. I prefer a brightly lit building interior over a dimly lit building interior. Would appreciate some opinions. Thanks.

 

[KennyG]

In my pole barn (12 foot ceiling Osb walls bare concrete floor) I have T8 fixtures 1/2 watt per square foot with 1 watt per square foot over the work bench. I find it quite good for my old eyes.

 

[s219]

I have three T8 fixtures, two 48" tubes each, in my 17x24 workshop and that is a nice amount of light. It's what the electrician recommended for that size, and I think he was pretty much on the money. Walls and ceiling are finished drywall painted off-white, floor is concrete. Prior to final trim-out, we had ceramic bulb holders in the same room for temporary lights, and the lighting was hideous.

 

[newbury]

Slide on over to Sawmillcreek forums they've got a good sticky on workshop lighting in their workshop forum..

T8 sounds like it will meet your needs.

 

[Murfster3]

I have white metal ceiling with white osb on walls, It took me a while to figure out what I was going to use for lights maybe cause I have been an electrician for 20 yrs. With the price of t-8 lamps just keep going up I took a chance and put the old porcelain fixture up (plastic now) I put them every 6' And with a 23watt compact fluorescent 6000k . The price of under $10.00 for box,fixture and bulb I haven't had a problem with needing extra light.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have about 24 T8 tubes in something a little bigger then a two car garage. That and a couple of 500 Watt Mogual base Eddison bulbs that I rarely use. They are original lighting.

The fixtures were cheap, two tube units on sale at TSC. Not sure I would use them again, but they have not failed me yet. They are failing, one by one where I put them in at a friends welding shop. They are used everyday for long days! Or is it the welder spikes killing them?

I have just built a 28 X 72 Foot drive shed and am not sure what I will use. It actually has been two years and I just have not needed to do anything in the dark in there. There IS temporary lighting. Six more of those cheap TSC T8 fixtures.

Recently I have been using the vapour tight fixtures. I used some in a new wood shed. The bugs don't get into them and you can clean the lenses quite easily. They are kind of pricy, but I would like to use them in my drive shed. I would want lots and lots of them! I like LIGHT but this will be a very costly project.

I installed them at a friends place. Another welding shop, and I upgraded all the ballasts, in these brand new fixtures. He likes to listen to the radio, and many cheap ballasts give off piles of RF interfereence! Bit of a PITA, but they didn't stock the vapour tight fixtures with the better ballasts.

Another (you guessed it) welding shop buddy just replaced his eight foot fixtures with large reflectors from warehouse style commercial lighting to which he added sockets and very large spiral CFLs. One each per reflector. Didn't work out too bad for light.

 

[Teikas Dad]

Slide on over to Sawmillcreek forums they've got a good sticky on workshop lighting in their workshop forum..

T8 sounds like it will meet your needs.

:thumbsup: This - Sawmillcreek has a lot of good info!

 

[thirdroc17]

Three times as much when you're 55 as you needed when you were 25.

Just saying..... :shocked:

 

[kuboter]

I have the same size garage with OSB and I have 16 8ft T8 fixtures with 2 bulbs each. I wired them in 2 banks so I can turn every other one on or all of them on. Spreading them out evenly is just as important as having enough so that you don't get shadows. I almost always turn all of them on.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I rigged my lights up with low voltage relays so I can operate them from different locations or only have certain ones on. You simply run power to all lights and then through a relay to each light or set of lights. Going to do this in my drive shed as well.

Worst thing (so far) about getting old. Can't see worth a darn without light.

Just thinking. By the time I do the driveshed lighting, maybe LED stuff will be better and affordable!