Here's an article that answers a lot of shop lighting questions that are so often asked here.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/content....y-Jack-Lindsey
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Here's an article that answers a lot of shop lighting questions that are so often asked here.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/content....y-Jack-Lindsey
This is awesome. I've kept the original FWW article handy over the years. This is a great update. Thanks, Jack and thanks, Ken for doing this.
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Thanks to Jack!!! Very well written and useful.
Great info, well written by an expert in the field. Can't asked for more than that.
I will be relocating and replacing my shop in a few months and this information is both timely and exxtremely helpful. Thanks.
Just added a T-8 light fixture to the Dungeon shop. BIG difference! Got two "Sunlight" type of bulbs in it, 48" long. Lights up the entire work area.
I have to set up a temporary shop in the house to do a kitchen and that will come in handy but it can't be permanent.
On another note but related, I grow heirloom tomatoes and peppers and start plants indoors. I have "overdriven" T8 fixtures by adding an extra ballast; they are on the 2nd floor in front of a window and are bright enough to light up the face of my garage 55 feet away at night.
It's just come to my attention that HD is selling a 2' LED high bay light http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-...2#.UbHyLuc-anI for $220. Supposedly puts out 11,000 lumens. Has anyone tried one?
I read the article by Jack Lindsey, which was very helpful. Perhaps someone can answer a question I've got. In the shop I'm building, approximately 20'x20', there's a hip roof with 5/12 pitch. So my ceiling, which will be painted white, is not horizontal. Can I mount strip lights to it around the perimeter a few feet away from the walls? In that case they'd be angled toward the center of the room by about 23º. Or does it make more sense to mount them to a 23-67-90 triangular profile stick or bracket that's attached to the ceiling? Or should I be using industrials instead?
The reason I don't want to run the lights in rows is that in the center of the room, there's a clerestory cupola, approx 7'x7' with 8 big windows about 13' above the floor, so I'll be getting a lot of natural light there. In addition to the flourescent lights, I'm going to put flood lights or some other kind of lighting in the four corners of the cupola for night use. I'd appreciate any advice someone might have.
Jane,
If Jack Lindsey doesn't see your post, don' t hesitate to look him up in the members list and send him an email or PM (private message). I am sure he'd be happy to provide his professional opinion.
He's a super nice person!
Jane, based on the description you've given I think I understand what you are building but I don't want to provide a design based on "I think". Do you have drawings you can post, email, or snail mail? A floor plan, elevation, and section showing the cupola would help. It doesn't sound terribly complex but it's easier to do it right the first time than to correct it later.
Here are a couple of photos. Thanks so much for your help. Attachment 264856Attachment 264857
That helps, Jane, but not enough is shown of the ceiling structure and clerestory. Can you post another pic taken from the same location but with the camera angled upwards to show a lot more of the ceiling? Thanks.
Sure, and thank you. Here are a couple of drawings and a photo from before the cupola was built. You can see the way I drew it the 4' lighting fixtures (shown in pink) are about 8' 8 1/2" off the floor, about in line with the height of the upper collar ties. Here I drew them horizontal as though mounted to a bracket of some sort. The photo really distorts the pitch of the ceiling, which will get strapping and then sheetrock. If I mount strip lights directly to the ceiling, the angle they would be tipped to is about 23 degrees. I didn't draw in the additional lighting that will go in the corners of the clerestory. Also, around the edges of the room, I intend to have some small goose-neck type lamps, such as over the drill press and bandsaw. I left off the layout so as not to make the drawing too confusing. Thanks again. Jane
Attachment 264902Attachment 264903Attachment 264904
Jane, there are several ways to light your shop based on what you are going to be doing and the visual environment you want to create. I'm going to pm you my phone number. Please call me so we can discuss it.
Great straightforward article, helped me answer what lighting I need in my new to me 14 x 24 foot shop in the bowels of the earth.
Glad that it helped, John. Thanks for taking the time to read it.
Thanks ken for the link it was certainly a helpful article. I think shop and home electrical inspection of existing panels, systems, machinery and wiring are also equally important in maintaining a safe working environment free from electrical hazards and fire. Shop and home safety inspections along with appropriate up gradation of cables and connections can help in increasing life span of various electrical equipments.
I'm curious, being we are at the later part of 2015 and newer technology in lighting upon us has there been any changes in the shop lighting area? Myself I just got through doing a remake along with an addition to my shop which included replacing all fluorescent lighting with LED flush mounted lighting, by doing this it added better lighting also lifting my ceilings by 5+ " once after removing the fluorescent fixtures.
Hi Ben
I used both Halo's and Commercial Electric, the Halos are surface Mount Lumens 675 soft white and the CE's are recessed T65's Lumens 670 not much difference between the lumens and the mounting as for as relation to the ceiling and their depth go.
Attachment 320340
Gotcha. Hadnt though of doing recessed lighting like that. All of my current fixtures are 4FT dual tube fixtures with exposed romex running to them. Looks like a network on my garage ceiling. Been thinking of upgrading to LED but trying to figure out the best and most cost effective way.
Ben the surface mounted are made to fit into your existing ceiling light boxes, if you buy the boxes that have the sheet rock clips on them you won't need stud mounted boxes and you can put as many as you want and where ever you want in your shop, I did that to a few areas in my shop.
The recessed are designed to go into cans but as I mentioned there's not really much difference they both fit flush up against the ceiling, I believe I have just under $300 in cost for 9 lights.
I'm sure this is a great article but I got turned off when I saw that the author neglected to consider LED shop lights. I have a number of these two-tube LED fixtures now and find them to be cost-effective at $35 for a two tube fixture, which has light output comparable to the light output of a 2-tube 40 W fluorescent fixture. And they come right on when the temperatures are low, compared to what I am used to with standard florescences.
Anyway, thanks to Ken for posting this…
Actually Bill...Leds were not readily available when the author first wrote this article for FWW in 2002 nor were they that available when he revised it for use here.
IMO.....and I am a fan of LEDS. The upstairs of my home is gradually going to all LEDs....our new remodeled kitchen is totally LEDs......but in my shop, I get better even dispersion of light using fluorescent tubes where LEDS are more lighting for specific work areas. Thus, I prefer the fluorescent tubes for my shop. I have good lighting everywhere that is not limited to just a particular work area.
It's subjective IMO. Each to their own.
I have replaced my garage lights with Pixie flat lights from Home Depot, we (my 4 person lighting design practice) specify them all the time. They are in the short run more expensive ($190 for a 2' x 2', which is brighter than a 2 lamp 4' fluorescent fixture) but we prefer the quality of the light. For me, it is a bit warm (2700K) and the 3000K color I want is even more expensive and I'm waiting for the price to drop on those, which it will. On the other hand, the inexpensive 4000K light, while a bit blue, is a better light for seeing detail.
these are edge-lit panels and the light distribution is better than the fluorescent tubes, and it's suprising how much hight the ciel feels when you swap 3" thick fixtures to 1/2" thick fixtures.
There are a lot of other manufacturers but they seem to have some downsides, like a J-box mounted in the back that sticks out and makes the installation tough. The Pixie's are 1/2" all in.
Side note, a fantastic task light is the Reliable UberLight 3000TL which is also somewhat blue-white. In general you see detail (increase in visual acuity) about 30% better in blue-white light than in warm white light. The combination of flat panel general lighting and a couple of UberLights is about as good as it gets at this point.
Brian(J)
Brian,
I really like LEDs. I remodeled our main bathroom about 12 years ago. It's extremely small and I installed a 48" light bar on the wall above the vanity. Initially it had 6 - 60 watt decorative globe incandescent bulbs in it. Now as the incandescent bulbs are dying, I am replacing them with the equivalent globes in LEDs. It's amazing how much more light the LEDs produce at a much lower power consumption. Currently 3 LEDs are in that 6 bulb fixture....1 at each end and 1 near the middle to attempt to balance the light from the fixture.
LEDs are just beginning to be more readily available to the average person. So far, I haven't seen the incredible increase in life as they advertise. I have experienced about 30-40% failure rate in the 3 years since I started buying them. But the savings in power is incredible!
We just did a major remodel/expansion on our kitchen. Every light in the kitchen is LED. An island separates the kitchen from the dining area and as the incandescent lights fail in the chandelier over the dining table, they are being replaced with LEDs. The LED strips under the upper cabinets provide mood lighting but also light the kitchen enough at night to do minor things like make a sandwich but the strips only consume IIRC a total of 3 watts. That's very little power consumed for marginal lighting. Even when we turn on the main recessed LED cans in the ceiling for real light, the entire consumption of power is less than a 60 watt incandescent bulb would use.
I'm a fan!
Ken,
the early failure rate for screw-in replacement LED lamps was all over the map, we are not seeing many failures, at all these days. A project I did a year ago used 430 LED lamps (SORAA Snap MR16) and I think we lost two the first few weeks and none or few after that.
For under cabinet LED is, I think, the very best option, nice thing about most LED's is they are easy to dim so we put in bright ones and dim them back.
Have you seen the Phillips Warmglow? Fantastic lamp, and when dimmed it shifts just a bit warmer.
I tested the Pixie panels in 4000K last night and I am installing them in my shop. More money but much better light output and light quality.
Brian,
Those Pixie Panels look very interesting. For someone that doesn't have lots of ceiling height, I can see them working out very well. If they really have 4000 lumens spread evenly over almost 4 square feet, that should be impressive. Add nothing sticking down to glare directly and a smooth surface that won't hold dust and they would seem worth $189.
I have 4 myself (2 car garage), will be getting another 4 (shop) and have about 40 on projects currently. When replacing 8 year old 4' T5 2-tube fixtures/wrap around lenses with the Pixies the perceived light is brighter but not 50% brighter. The ceiling gets less cluttered and with an 8' ceiling replacing a 4" thick fixture with 1/2" makes a difference in ceiling height, as you generally feel the ceiling to be at the bottom of the light fixtures.
I like them a lot.
I recently moved into a lifelong dream dedicated shop. Using Ken's info, I designed the lighting program for the general shop and the separate finishing room. My general and electrical contractor folks were, at first speculative of "overdone", but when complete both were impressed with the result and cost effectiveness. I'm a very happy camper. THANKS Ken.
Bill,
Thank Jack Lindsey the retired lighting engineer who wrote the article. All I did was help get the new, updated version published here at SMC. The credit goes to Jack.
I hate replacing light bulbs. One room in my current shop has 11 recessed lights, groan. Thus I like the idea of LED's. My temporary answer to the issue has been LED task lights:
Attachment 337694
Another thing that hasn't been discussed here is color accuracy. In lighting there is color temp and color accuracy. Most people easily pick out color temp. See the bright white daylight bulbs on some driveways at night and the neighbors have warm incandescent. Less obvious is color accuracy. You've probably noticed how cheap fluorescent bulbs make everything greenish. That's not color temp, it's color accuracy. Incandescent bulbs and sunlight have very consistent intensity across the color spectrum. Cheap fluorescent bulbs and most LEDs do not consistently light all colors.
I am an avid photographer and color balance is critical to pleasing photos. Super hard to do in reality. The lighting impacts it, the camera has inaccuracies, the computer display, and the printer. Photographers go to great lengths to calibrate and adjust for each step.
Here is a link to an article, there are many. https://www.cnet.com/news/shining-a-...cri-led-bulbs/
CRI is one measure of color accuracy but sadly the bulb makers, especially LED can game the test. They add different materials to the LED to change the colors. If you dig deeper you will find that LEDs have output peaks at the colors that are tested for CRI results. there is a movement to move to a new more stringent test. Also, the higher the CRI rating, the lower the efficiency, so accurate color comes at a cost from an energy perspective. http://indiecinemaacademy.com/comple...i-cqs-tm30-15/
I think color accuracy is important in the shop, especially for finishing. Just today I was spraying a clear (ish) finish on walnut. I am trying to match other furniture. I tinted Endurovar water based poly and in daylight the color is nearly a perfect match. In my shop I have 87 CRI fluorescent bulbs and the same two samples, original and new finish look very different with the new one looking slightly greenish. Unfortunately I'm not sure what lighting my friend will have where the makeup desk is going.
I have CREE High CRI LEDs by our chairs in our main room. They aren't too bad. Every year or so I try the latest high CRI LEDs for our landscape lighting and all so far look pretty greenish.
I am building a new shop and I will for sure be putting in the latest high CRI lighting.
Just found this link too. http://www.accessfixtures.com/color-rendering-index/
I bought 4 sylvania 4100k led bulbs for replacement of bulbs in a 4 bulb troffer. Can't seem to find a wiring diagram. These bulbs have pins on both ends. The salesperson said these bulbs eliminate need for a balast.
You just wire one end hot and the other neutral. Tie all the wires at each end together
Jim,
Did you get your bulbs installed?
Here's the installation information according to Sylvania for their T-8 ballast-free led bulbs http://assets2.sylvania.com/media/bi...de%20(002).pdf .
Couldn't get the Sylvania bulbs to work, so returned them. Picked up some GT-lite 2packs GT-2pk-T8- 3IN1 and wired them with 1 hot wire to one end and 1 neutral wire to the other end and they WORK! Light is pretty similar to the other daylight t-8 fixtures I have, but my idea was to eliminate the ballasts so I could add another layer of insulation without cutting holes over the ballasts.
I ended up getting several Honeywell-branded 4' LED fixtures shaped like normal shop lights at Sam's Club for $30 each. Love them. The chain drop is actually useful in my space, which has 10' ceilings.