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.

 

[scrivy69]

I called electrical supply this morning they said t5 H0 may be too much for my application with a 10' ceiling, (he said their rated for 16' or taller) then recommended a t8 8 footer w/4 bulbs might be better for me. he asked if I was doing detail work. I guess the application makes a difference in what we use. now the question is how many? At $61 they come w/lamps.
he also mentioned t8 HO 4 footer they are $150-$200. feel free to chime in guys

 

[beppington]

I'll reiterate ... Get a bunch of el-cheap-o 4 footers from HD/ Lowes. Cheap fixtures, cheap bulbs, work great.

The lights I discussed in my posts are in my garage/ barn (born '03) ... enclosed but not sealed (i.e. open trusses, no ceiling).

I also have about 10 more of the HD/ Lowes el-cheap-o's in my garage, been in there since '92. I've changed some bulbs but not a single fixture/ ballast has gone bad in 18 years.

 

[kennyd]

I called electrical supply this morning they said t5 H0 may be too much for my application with a 10' ceiling, (he said their rated for 16' or taller) then recommended a t8 8 footer w/4 bulbs might be better for me. he asked if I was doing detail work. I guess the application makes a difference in what we use. now the question is how many? At $61 they come w/lamps.
he also mentioned t8 HO 4 footer they are $150-$200. feel free to chime in guys

Mine are mounted at 10' also...never "to much" light for me.

 

[kennyd]

I'll reiterate ... Get a bunch of el-cheap-o 4 footers from HD/ Lowes. Cheap fixtures, cheap bulbs, work great.

The lights I discussed in my posts are in my garage/ barn (born '03) ... enclosed but not sealed (i.e. open trusses, no ceiling).

I also have about 10 more of the HD/ Lowes el-cheap-o's in my garage, been in there since '92. I've changed some bulbs but not a single fixture/ ballast has gone bad in 18 years.

The light fixtures they made 18 years ago are much different from anything you will buy today from a BBS (big box store).

 

[dstig1]

Hey everybody thanks so much for all the suggestions I was checking online and found this
View attachment 178002
Commercial Electric 4 Ft. Shop Light with Lamp Grid and Pull Chain Switch
$22.68/EA
at Home Depot pretty good rating what do you all think?

I needed to light up my garage 2 yrs ago, and used those exact same 4-footers from The Borg. I wasn't expecting much, but it was a temporary application so I figured it would be OK. I was very pleasantly surprised by them. They are actually cold weather rated so they light up instantly in the cold (note: Wisconsin...garage...unheated...), and without flickering like the other older lights I have in there do. They were pretty cheap, and they are working great so far. Having the cages is a great thing if you are handling long things like lumber or pipe where you tend to flip a board from time to time and it can whack things. I broke bulbs in my other fixtures in the past (guards on them now) but these things have enough cover to stop that. Very happy with them, and honsetly, surprised by that.

Previously I used mostly 8' fixtures (also from HD) in my wood shop but some 4' ones in the smaller spaces, and they have worked quite well. I don't believe I have ever replaced a bulb since new - in either the 8' or 4' ones. And that was 11 yrs ago. My wood shop time tends to be concentrated so either they are on a lot, or they are not at all. Fluor bulbs are limited essentially by the number of times you switch them on and off, not really by the hours of use for most applications. By comparison I have replaced 4' bulbs twice (so on the third set) in our Master BR closet, in that same time period.

8' bulbs are available at HD and other places but they are limited, and scary to transport and install. But I hate the 2-pin setup on the 4' ones so that detracts from them too. It is a tough call. But based on my experience, the ones in your post are a very good choice, at least for now. If you find they are not to your liking down the road, then decide what you want and change it, but these are so cheap and pretty good quality that it is hard to argue against them here.

From the BTDT files...

-Dave

 

[scrivy69]

INteresting Topic
To get T5-HO performance out of a T8 fixture, the high-lumen / high-performance lamps
are usually specified. These lamps provide more lumens (approximately 15% more than
standard 700 series lamp) without drawing any additional watts; providing the highest
lumens per watt of any fluorescent lamp. Couple these lamps with a high ballast factor
ballast to safely overdrive the lampç—´ output another 12-15%. With this lamp and ballast
combination you will have a fixture capable of producing 3658 lumens per lamp. The
700 series lamps are as common today as the T12 lamps were yesterday. Their price
is very low and they can be found in most hardware and DIY stores (Home Depot,
Loweç—´, etc.). The higher performance T8 lamps, and for that matter, the T5-HO lamps,
are only going to be stocked by lighting and electrical distributors. Keep in mind; a wellstocked
distributor may stock all of the lamp types we spoke about earlier, so be
specific about what you want.
http://www.lightingassociates.org/i...s/FAQs_T8_or_T5-HO_-__Which_should_I_use_.pdf

 

[bugboy]

I recently put up 6 light fixtures in my 40 x 60 building with 12 foot walls. The fixtures are commercial style, tandem 4' twin tube T-8 fixtures. That means they are 4' fixtures but connected end to end and have 4 four foot bulbs in each fixture. They light up the 40 x 60 pretty good and I have them on 3 switches. I may need to add some "task lighting" later on.

 

[srs]

scrivy69, I have a 30 X 40 with a 10'+ ceiling. As far as the the cheapest you could go with the keyhole type sockets and just put in light bulbs. What I did (on the cheap side) and quite pleased is I went to Lowes or HD and bought the 4 foot 2 bulb shop lights with electronic ballast. I think they are T-8 bulbs. I place outlets in the ceiling controlled by wall switches to turn the lights on. I have a total of 4 rows of lights. 3 in the front, due to the garage door opener, 4 in the second row, 4 in the third row, and 3 in the back, due to a small room there. Haven't had any problems with humming due to the cold winters and if one should fail I'll just buy a new shop light. The lights have been in 3 years now and I'm very pleased. I'm sure the 8 foot bulbs as suggested may be better but like I said I went cheap. Let us know.

Here is a picture of some of my lights.

 

[scrivy69]

Thanks srs and everybody else who has replied to this thread. I guess Ive got another week to decide what I want, electrician postponed till next Saturday. Like I said yesterday I called the electrical supply company yesterday, and they give me some prices and recommedations. I am just as confused today as the day I started this thread. LOL I went to Menards & Lowes last night and found 8' 4 bulb t-8 fixures, some t-12 HO fixtures, 1 t-5 non HO fixture. the more I think about it the more confused I get. (t-5 HO, T-8, and T-12 so many choices, different prices and so on ) I guess I need to pull the trigger on something before next Saturday. Im leaning toward the T-8 fixures still have not decided 4' or 8' and still undecided on how many? View attachment garage layout.pdf

 

[Mace Canute]

A few years back I help a friend wire lights into his 28' by 32' shop. He had bought several used 4 foot x 4 tube lighting fixtures, the kind that look like a rectangular box, and since we had so many, I convinced him to install almost all of them. He would have had to store the unused ones anyway and what better place to store them than on the ceiling and all wired up? We put up four rows of six fixtures each for a total of 96 four foot tubes with 4 switches splitting them up. To say he was impressed with the results is an understatement and it's like I told him, "Most people are so used to working with such poor lighting, they don't know what good lighting is."

It's highly unlikely you will ever rework your lights in the future, so make sure you install enough initially, maybe even more than you think you need...you will never regret it.

As a side note, I had to replace some of my 8 foot tubes this past week. My garage is 24' by 28' and I have 8 double tube 8' fixtures and 2 double tube 4' fixtures recessed into the ceiling above the roll-up garage door.(I wish I had more light.) I bought a carton of tubes, 14 in all, for the sum of C$46.95. That's C$3.13 each. I certainly can't complain about that price!

P.S. While you are at it, you might want to consider wiring in a few electrical outlets in the ceiling. A friend has done that instead of wall receptacles and uses the self retracting extension cord doo-hickeys. It is much nicer than having cords running across the floor and there is never a problem getting to an outlet, plus they're self storing once you are finished with them. It would take very little extra to wire them in now while you are wiring in your lights. Just a thought....