Metal Building Lighting?

[Lonmower]

Just finished a 40x60 building and was looking for some ideas/suggestions on lighting. I have no clue as what would be the best affordable option to install. I was thinking fluorescent or LED fluorescent may be the way to go. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[ducks13]

I'd be looking at fluorescent. Not sure what you mean be LED fluorescent but anything with LED's will be expensive or won't put out much light. What are you doing in the building, is it going to be clean or dirty, heated and air-conditioned or ? The fixture you select is as important as the lamp source. How high will you be mounting them and how much light do you need? Regardless, I'd be looking at fixtures that use T-8 lamps with electronic ballast.

 

[miketetty]

Just finished a 40x60 building and was looking for some ideas/suggestions on lighting. I have no clue as what would be the best affordable option to install. I was thinking fluorescent or LED fluorescent may be the way to go. Any input would be appreciated.

I used regular screw in light fixtures and screw in fluorescent bulbs in my 30x40. Way Way cheaper than electronic shop lights and good light with big bulbs

 

[Johnp33]

I built a 30 x 80 I used 4 ft double bulb, fluorescent with t8 bulbs I put 4 on the ends of the building and spaced them the same on the sides mine is 21 ft high the lights are at the 12 ft mark. They work great for 90% of the work I do the rest I use a trouble light or an axillary light set on a stand. The ceiling is white and the walls will be that makes a big difference.

 

[ducks13]

Miketettty is right, incandescent bulbs will the cheapest first cost so if you won't have them turned on much they would be the way to go. If they are on much you will get tired of changing bulbs and paying the electric bill.

 

[cmyoung2]

I've got a 25x40 metal shop, use a total of 10 - 4' T8 fluorescent shop type fixtures, 2 bulbs each. I also have 2 outdoor type metal halide (13' ceiling). I like a lot of light:thumbsup: Picked the T8 for economy and the cold start. Like the light, but not the reliability. In six years I have replaced more than half of the fluorescent fixtures, mostly the electronic ballast die. New fixtures($12) are cheaper than replacing the ballast ($20+). Might just be the cheap box store lights, but still The metal halide have a nice white light, but are slow to warm up and need a high ceiling. Not real cheap either.

 

[wedge40]

I've got part of my building lit with 6, six bulb T8 fixtures from Home Depot. Very nice lighting.

Wedge

 

[MotorSeven]

I have T8's in my shop. Adequate for most but a stand light is needed for some things. When you wire them in out them on two separate switched runs. 90% of the time I only have one side on at a time and that saves $.

Go to home Depot and look at their light display(bring sunglasses), the new High Output tubes(T5-HO I think) are awesome and I just bought 4- 4' double bulb sets for my basement. Bulbs were $10ea and fixtures were $30.

 

[rambler]

I put up a 48x81x15 building 2 years ago, farm-electrician recommeded 8 regular incadecent bulbs, 4 on a switch. Lights up the building well and cheaply, if I'm working on something or over the workbench I run a seperate light anyhow, the machine will shade out overhead lights anyhow.

I hear good things of the more expensive, more light for a true machine shop of the T5 fluresents. If this is your 8 hour a day job or serious serious hobby, then spring for those, they come in regular for a shorter height ceiling, or high-bay for a tall ceiling, many options, you'll shell out some real money to get them in, if you run them 10-12 hours a day every day they will pay yuou back in savings.

I think LED muight be the future, but we aren't there quite yet.

I've got a stockpile of regular incadecents on a shelf ]in the basement, the curly bulbs work very well in some caswes but are horrible in others; the T-5 setups are great if you can afford them.

Regualr incadesants are a good bang for the buck for most of us light hobby folk that need enough light to see what you're doing in a building, but use spot lights to light up most of the work anyhow on the couple days a month we need to work. Probably getting hard to find 100watts by now, but stock up on the smaller sizes this year, and I think the specialty 300wall and etc might be around for several more years?

--->Paul

 

[Lonmower]

Thanks for all of the sugestions I appreciate the info. Looks like T8 fluorescent is winning out.

 

[Todd727]

I have a 40x60x14 metal building too. I put 4 T-8 fixtures (8 bulbs total) in each 20 foot bay. The fixtures are attached to the second purlins on either side of the peak, running length wise. I calculated the total foot-candles prior to going this route and have been extremely happy with the amount of light. My building is insulated, with white plastic backing, so that also helps to illuminate the area.

The attached picture shows the lights in the first bay.

 

[KennyG]

I'm redoing a 40 x 48 building. I have two 15 amp circuits with ceiling outlets on a grid with 10 foot spacing in one direction and 12 foot in the other. That way I can put a 4 foot T-8 fixture with a 5 ft. cord almost anywhere. I've also added a third 15 amp lighting circuit with a row of outlets 3 feet from the wall over the workbench area. It's working out pretty well. I've been buying the T-8 fixtures from Menards when they have a rebate and that's the best price I've been able to find. Make sure you get the cold start fixtures.

 

[grsthegreat]

I have a 30x60 shop with 14' walls. I ran 2 lines of tandem T-8 fixtures (each fixture is 8' long with twin runs of 4' lamps for a total of 4 lamps per fixture). also switches them with 2 separate switches so they dont have to be on at the same time if needed.

i ran 5 fixtures in each line and there sure bright.

 

[kminnick]

I have a 30x60 shop with 14' walls. I ran 2 lines of tandem T-8 fixtures (each fixture is 8' long with twin runs of 4' lamps for a total of 4 lamps per fixture). also switches them with 2 separate switches so they dont have to be on at the same time if needed.

i ran 5 fixtures in each line and there sure bright.

How many total fixtures? (I have a 40 X 60 X 14)

 

[kminnick]

I have a 40x60x14 metal building too. I put 4 T-8 fixtures (8 bulbs total) in each 20 foot bay. The fixtures are attached to the second purlins on either side of the peak, running length wise. I calculated the total foot-candles prior to going this route and have been extremely happy with the amount of light. My building is insulated, with white plastic backing, so that also helps to illuminate the area.

The attached picture shows the lights in the first bay.

View attachment 269991

12 total fixtures? Is each bay switched separately? Thanks,

 

[Raspy]

I just replaced my shop florescents with LED tube fixtures and I can tell you they are great. Instant start in any temperature, no noise and no flickering. Mine are the two tube style, 4' long. Direct replacement for florescent and much more light. Cheaper to tun and longer life too.
You can get the complete fixture with the tubes and line cords, ready to plug in, for $35. at Costco. They are excellent. I'll never go back to florescent.

I installed five in a row mounted about twelve feet off the floor in an area about 30 X 30 feet. I simply screwed together (3) 10' lengths of rigid conduit and passed them through my steel trusses that are on 12' centers. Then hung the fixtures end to end and plugged them in to a controlled plug.

LEDS are definitely "there" in both price and performance.

 

[kminnick]

I just replaced my shop florescents with LED tube fixtures and I can tell you they are great. Instant start in any temperature, no noise and no flickering. Mine are the two tube style, 4' long. Direct replacement for florescent and much more light. Cheaper to tun and longer life too.
You can get the complete fixture with the tubes and line cords, ready to plug in, for $35. at Costco. They are excellent. I'll never go back to florescent.

I installed five in a row mounted about twelve feet off the floor in an area about 30 X 30 feet. I simply screwed together (3) 10' lengths of rigid conduit and passed them through my steel trusses that are on 12' centers. Then hung the fixtures end to end and plugged them in to a controlled plug.


LEDS are definitely "there" in both price and performance.

Wow, that's cheap. Any pictures?

 

[Raspy]

Wow, that's cheap. Any pictures?

Sorry, none now. Maybe I can get a couple tomorrow.

 

[LD1]

IF I were building, I would use cree 60w LED's in a porcelain or plastic "barn light" fixture attached to a round workbox. Box + fixture + cree let ~$10. And I'd put them about ever 6-8'

So, the 40' width, I go 4 lights...every 8'. IE: 8', 16', 24', 32'
And the 60' length, I'd go 9 lights every 6'.

So basically a 4 x 9 grid patter of lights for a total of 36 fixtures. (~$360)

36 LED's will consume ~300w of power, and having lights every 6-8' will make it plenty bright I would think.

I am actually considering doing my shop over again. I put up 8 metalux 6-bulb T8 HO fixtures in the main area of my 40x40x14'. Then under the mezzanine there are 4 4-bulb fixtures. And above the mez, there are 2 4-bulb fixtures. So a total of 72 4' T8 bulbs can be lit. Thats 2300watts of juice.

I do like it bright, but I think I could save a ton of money with LED's. I'd have to put up 285 LED fixtures to use that much juice. And if I did, I am sure it would be WAY brighter. Only reason I used the fixtures I did is they were all free as well as ~200+ bulbs

 

[MFWD]

Hello,
I just built a 2 story, 36x40 3 bay garage on the bottom, woodshop on most of the second floor. I put (12) 4 bulb T-8 fixtures in the garage part. They are instant on and no buzzing !!! I have 10' ceilings. That is 1536 watts if all the lights are on at once........however, I put in 3 separate circuits and 3 switches so I can only turn on the 4 in a single bay at once if I want to. Most of the time I have on only 1 row of 4 at a time and that is only 512 watts. I wired the building with my electrician friend so the cost of the extra wire and switches wasn't a big deal.
Upstairs in the shop area I used (9) of the same fixtures and again I put in 3 circuits and switches. It makes sense to me to only turn on the lights that are needed. I have a row of 3 over my workbench and table saw and that is where I'll be working most of the time......if I need more light, I'll switch on another row. I almost went with the LED strip lights that Costco has. I did buy one of those for extra light in my shed and it works great. The real attraction to those was that they only used 50 watts, but the unit wasn't as attractive (didn't have a plastic cover over the bulbs) and it did give a more harsh light. But if they are up higher than 10 feet, that might be ok. My ceiling downstairs is 10' and the shop ceiling is 9'. I think the key to this is having several circuits so they don't have to all be on at
once.....THAT will save you money, day after day !!!! Good luck !!!

MFWD