I need new lights for my garage. What do you have, and what should I get?

[plowhog]

My new garage is finally going up. It's 3,600 ft, 60ft x 60ft.

My engineer designed for 9 light fixtures, 3 rows of 3, using "4-lamp T5 equivalent." I need to choose just what that "equivalent" fixture is!! When shopping I found there is great variation of wattage, lumens, and cost.

Some calculate lumens per square foot. Other say light emitted from a fixture (lumens) has nothing to do with how much light gets down to the floor. The higher the fixture, the less light. Mine will be up about 18-20 ft. Some fixtures have wide diffusion of light, others not.

Here is a light fixture I am considering:
LED "Saturn 1" UFO High Bay, 2 watt, 26, Lumens, Comparable to 4 and Higher Watt Fixtures, 12-277V - WL-UFO-2W-5K-DM | Warehouse Lighting If I put 9 of those in I would certainly add the dimmers as well.

What would you install? I am open to either the LED "tube style" or the round "UFO" style.

 

[Peter 315]

Hi look at this Visual Interior Tool

 

[RNeumann]

I’m confused- what are you asking TBNers? It sounds like your engineer already did the calcs for lumens. They would know height, type of light, wall finish and color etc to figure the lumens needed for general shop lighting.
If you need to figure the lumens of what was speced so you know the equivalent let us know. Or are you just trying to figure out what fixtures others are using and you will figure the lumens needed?

 

[plowhog]

He was the engineer for the slab. He also drew an electrical page based on input from others. I don't think he knows lumens/ft or whatever spec is best.

Maybe it would clarify if I said I've seen "T5 4 lamp equivalents" advertised for sale with as low as 8900 lumens per fixture up to about 19,000. The link I posted earlier (I think) is an equivalent to a 6-lamp T5.

Outside of what he put as a spec, what do you think is good to excellent lighting considering the space to be lit?

 

[dstig1]

Depends on your plans for the space. My shop is for detail working, so I wanted it well lit. I put 9x 4 lamp T5 HO fluorescent fixtures in one side (32x50') and 6 in the other side (32x30') 2600 or so total SF. 9x for 3600 SF would be very inadequate for my needs. Mine are essentially 2x 2-bulb fixtures, end to end making them 8' fixtures with 4 bulbs total. In only the past 4-5 years since I put these in, the LEDs in a similar form factor have gotten so much better and cheaper, they are probably the way to go now, but I get great light from mine.

 

[dalola]

I just recently rebulbed my shop, replaced eight 8' florescent tubes with Hyperikon 8' LED tubes, 5K frosted white. Wow, fantastic lights! They are pricey (~$120/4 pack), but forever done with failing ballasts, flickering light, dim cold starts, etc... Highly recommend these for shops/garages.

 

[KennyG]

I'm not sure what size of lights you are looking at but it seems way too little. My building is only a little over 1/2 the size of yours and I have about 25 two lamp 4 foot fixtures. It's about right for working space. If it's just storage, about half that many might be OK.

 

[RNeumann]

If the walls are the steel or insulation (not drywall painted white) most of the lumen calculations will be low. If the electrical isn’t done I’d be looking at a 3x4 or 4x4 grid instead of the 3x3 as speced. The UFOs are nice- and very easy to install. With that many you would do at least 2 circuits and probably 4 switches.

We have had good luck with these-
https://www.greenledzone.com/17-663...0v-dimming-ip65-dlc-and-ul-listed-400w-equal/

We don’t have the dimmer unit and haven’t looked into it. With a normal switch they work fine. Ours are at about 16’. We have white drywall and white insulation at the ceiling. The space is 25x50’ of office. We usually have 2 of the 4 available lights on. With all 4 on it is too much for computer screens- but would probably be nice for a shop setting.

If the plan is to have you install the lights have the electrician install plugs on the grid at ceiling height and also have them install eyelets next to the plug. With that done the fixtures will only take a few min to install.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Increase your light at floor level by painting the floor white. I just this winter went with the eight 2 tube 4' LED surface mounts in my 20 X 20 garage. Fantastic, haven't done the floor yet, summer job. Wife want her car inside in winter.

Ron

 

[rustyshakelford]

My 40x60 has atleast 20 of the 4’ Cosco lights and there’s times during the day I wish I had double that.

Brett

 

[BLSXJ]

Your guy spec'd out 9, 4 bulb T 5 fixtures....lets assume he's talking about 4ft bulbs, and a standard t5 bulb uses 54watts to produce 4000 lumens.

So your guy suggests 144,000 lumens of light. ( just under 2000 watts)

Personally, I wouldn't bother with T5s. I'd either save my money and go with T8's or jump up to LED.

I'm hesitant on LED's becasue I haven't seen the build quality and life out of them they they seem to promise. combine that with having to replace the whole fixture when it dies, seems very wastefull

 

[lostcreekranch]

I’m using these fixtures in my shop.

EnviroLite 8 ft. 4-Light White Industrial LED White Strip Light with T8 LED 5K Tubes-ST74T185 - The Home Depot

8’ fixtures, with 4 x 4’ T8 LED tubes, mounted on chains 16’ above shop floor.

 

[GSVette]

I have spec’d the following for my 40x60 shop-5 rows of 3 lights-each row separately switched. LED Dome High Bay, 139 Watts, 140 lumens/watt (19,448 lumens), 5700K color temperature.

I anticipate adding some additional, local, shop style tube fixtures at specific locations.

 

[mikester]

I've got a similar sized shop and switched from 4x sodium high bays to 4x 8 bulb 4 foot T8 CF. I've swapped out the CF with LED T8's from Costco and they are instant on, super bright and no flicker.

The LED's are brighter and faster than the sodiums/CF and I cut my lighting power consumption from 2 kW/hr down to 0.5 kW/hr.

I would recommend the tube style LED's - so far no problems 2+ years. I've had more burnouts with the CF bulbs and ballasts.

 

[JerryK]

A normal shop fluorescent 2 tube shop light puts out approximately 5000 lumens when the white fixture is squeaky clean/reflective and the top of the bulb is not dirty. As everything gets covered in dirt, eventually this drops down accordingly. The bottom of the bulb usually stays reasonably clean, depending. I had tons of fixtures in use in my barn, and just gutted them/rewired for LED. I put in two Barrina 4' 6000K 2500lumen bulbs into each old fixture, currently about $7.50 a bulb. The LED point down, and stay pretty clean, with all the available lumens pointing down where you want them. When I add new fixtures, I buy cheap shop lights at Home Depot [$14, well built metal wise, with old school tombstone end connectors that last], gut/rewire them, and put the bulbs in. I have all my 40x80 pole barn switched over to LED, and I really like the sun like brightness of the 5-6000K LED's.

Barrina T8 T1 T12 LED Light Tube, 4FT, 22W, 6K (Super Bright White), 26 Lumens, Dual-End Powered, Clear Cover, T8 T1 T12 Fluorescent Light Bulbs Replacement, 16-Pack - - Amazon.com

 

[plowhog]

My electrician already bid conduit/installation for 9 fixtures. I would change if needed, but it seems a really bright fixture (times 9) might be very acceptable. I'm seriously looking at these:

Premium LED Linear High Bay - 3, Lumens | E-HLD3 Series | 5K

 

[woodlandfarms]

So LED's (and pretty much everything else in this world) is manufactured in China. I buy from Ebay all the time and get quality lights... if you want the floursecent tube version there are lots to choose from for around $8 a tube. Also, there are some new lights, ones designed for arenas and such that I am looking at...

 

[WM75Guy]

Depending on what you plan on doing it in the garage. If it is just parking and storage you might get by with those lights, each one would be covering a 20'X20' area. If you plan on doing any work I think you might be disappointed. I have 8 8' fluorescent fixtures in my 36'X48' stables. Each fixture has 4 T8 bulbs and covers an 12'X18' area.

 

[airbiscuit]

Here's a $100, 200 W high Bay LED. You could but one as an experiment. If you are only wired for 9 fixtures, they will have to be very bright, the right angles of light, and well placed
2W Watt LED High Bay Light Bright White Lamp Lighting Fixture Factory Industry | eBay

Feature

Durable construction
Die-casting aluminum housing makes a smooth exterior.
High efficient heat sink for extending service time.
Wider illumination range(269 sq ft to 400-7/8 sq ft), high effective.
Recommended Height: Within 16-3/8ft to 19-5/8ft height above ground.
Beam Angle: 120 Degree.

Specifications

Condition: New
Mendes not apply
Type: Security Floodlight
Brand: Vevor
LED Bulb: 1 pc, 200W
Color: Cool White, 6000-6500K
Power Input: 85V-265V, 4.5A
Lumen: 12000LM
Warranty: 50,000Hours /About 5 Years
Combinations
200W: Dim:19-3/4"Dia. x 13-1/4"H
200W(weight): 15.80lbs

I have a 30x40 building with 12' walls. I have seven 2 bulb 4' T8 fixtures, 12 100W equivalent screw in LED bulbs, and 3 LED landscape floods in the rafters pointing up at the ceiling. Nice and bright, but lots of RF noise from the LEDs I have. A radio won't play, and the wireless garage door openers won't function when the lights are on.

I'm not recommending this set up but it works for me. LEDs hadn't quite achieved their price/quality function yet, so I put up a temporary econo version until a more refined solution spoke to me. I'm guessing I'll be in this temporary state for a while. That said, my building is nice and bright and shadow free. I just don't like that RF noise.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Depending on what you plan on doing it in the garage. If it is just parking and storage you might get by with those lights, each one would be covering a 20'X20' area. If you plan on doing any work I think you might be disappointed. I have 8 8' fluorescent fixtures in my 36'X48' stables. Each fixture has 4 T8 bulbs and covers an 12'X18' area.

View attachment 541781

Can you give a link to what fixtures your using?

Thanks!