Need Help lighting for new garage

[kennyd]

By them once, stay away from the Home Cheapot/Lowes crap. Go to a EL supplier and get the T5 54 watt HO tandem fixtures. These are the new style that has the very thin (about 3/4") bulbs. Here is a picture of the ones I put in my pole barn, more pictures are in the link below in my signature.

 

[nickel plate]

If you are going to leave the ceiling open with the trusses exposed, have your electrician run all of the wiring on top of the bottom chords thus hiding the wiring from view. Costs a little more but won't look like an wire spider web. Make sure that the wiring has plenty of clearence over and around all of the sharp edged truss plates (code).

 

[buck12]

By them once, stay away from the Home Cheapot/Lowes crap. Go to a EL supplier and get the T5 54 watt HO tandem fixtures. These are the new style that has the very thin (about 3/4") bulbs. Here is a picture of the ones I put in my pole barn, more pictures are in the link below in my signature.

That is what I have in my shop. An industrial electrcian friend told me to go to an industrial supply house to buy the good stuff and to stay away from HD/Lowes for shop lights.

 

[kennyd]

That is what I have in my shop. An industrial electrcian friend told me to go to an industrial supply house to buy the good stuff and to stay away from HD/Lowes for shop lights.

Yup, They are awesome! So bright you can hardly look at them directly. And they are quiet because of the electronic ballast's.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have "shop lights" in my basement and garage. In general they are junk. I have a pile of them that need new ballasts, some after less than a year. I've replaced most of my T12's with T8's. But, shoplights are the quickest cheapest way to start, then you can upgrade later.

 

[scrivy69]

Yup, They are awesome! So bright you can hardly look at them directly. And they are quiet because of the electronic ballast's.

Thanks again gentleman. Im going to call the electrical supply house on friday , Ill keep you all updated.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have a 30 x30 shop that I have lighted up well with only 6 individual units with double bulb 8 foot fluorescents that I got for $10 each with bulbs on a closeout deal. Since I have regular garage doors (2) I places 2 units directly at the end of the raised garage door centered at 7.5 feet off the wall. The other 4 are spaced equally across the back of the shop where the ends are equidistant from the wall to the other lights. I think that was about 6 feet. In order to light up under the garage doors, I places a couple of cheap double bulb outdoor spot light fixtures on each wall so I can aim the bulbs toward my work area. With all the lights on, it is bright as day inside. When these go bad, I wont be going back with those fixtures though as I think they will shortly quit making the bulbs for them. When I built my new house I went with all LED recessed lighting on 6 foot square grid. As my wife said, a blind man can see it this house. Not the cheapest way to go initially but I figured it would more than pay for the cost in electrical savings. Claimed life on LED is about 20,000 hours. I have at least 19,500 left to go to see if that is true.

 

[hr3]

By them once, stay away from the Home Cheapot/Lowes crap. Go to a EL supplier and get the T5 54 watt HO tandem fixtures. These are the new style that has the very thin (about 3/4") bulbs. Here is a picture of the ones I put in my pole barn, more pictures are in the link below in my signature.

Kenny, T5 lamp is 1/2 inch.. all lamps are sized in 1/8" increments,, It's good to see you used the T5 fixture It was a good choice.. they do tend to run a bit hot but other than that they put out great light in a small package,,

 

[irvingj]

Ditto what George2615 said- if your garage is likely to be cold in the winter, "normal" fluorescents won't work, or will take forever to warm up enough to light off completely.

I used a combination in my garage: four 26W CF bulbs on two switches, followed by what I could find inexpensively: three 8-foot doubles, and one 8-foot single. All are on their own pull-chain switches. Later, I added two more 26-watt CFs in sockets, also with pull switches. That way, even if I turn on both switches when I enter the garage, I have reasonable light and only a bit over 100 watts. I can then pull chains to get more light where/when I need it.

I also used the outlet-on-the-ceiling route, but used "4-holers." That way, I can easily move light fixtures around later, as the garage evolves....:laughing:

One of the biggest favors you can do for yourself is to get some white paint on the walls & ceiling; makes a HUGE difference in how the light gets spread around. I used el-cheapo $7 Home Depot 7/16" wafer board and slapped a coulpla heavy coats of white primer on them. My garage is 32 x 32, but (unfortunately!) I went with an 8 foot ceiling. (Wish I had more height now!)

 

[ray66v]

I decided to try something different. This is not the little spiral bulbs that are so miserably inadequate in the house, they are giant spiral bulbs.

Amazon.com: 65 WATT SPIRAL CFL 50K COMPACT FLUORESCENT FULL SPECTRUM LIGHT BULB 10,000 HOURS LIGHT BULB SPECTRA BRITE: Home Improvement

This bulb can be had a Home Depot for $20.

After seeing everyone testing them for 2 years at the airport in hangars, I will be installing 8 of these in my 30x30 shop. Just 2 of them in there now, are providing ample light for the drywall work.

They put out very bright light, (300 watts of light), full color spectrum, are designed to start in cold temperatures, install in a simple ceramic bulb holder, and importantly they are silent, NO HUM!

The cost savings over a cold start tube fixture and bulbs, is substantial.