Shop Lighting Advice Requested

[Brian Kent]

I am about to purchase the first 2 light fixtures for my garage shop. I want to have the whole plan in my head, so each time I get fixtures, it will be a part of a best-possible scenario. (And yes, I know that Jack L. Lindsey wrote the definitive article in 2002. I have tried to glean from his comments without paying $35 for the online Fine-woodworking subscription).

My working area is 18' x 18'. The whole garage is 22" x 22'. The difference is laundry, utilities and storage. White ceiling is 10'. The walls are currently yellow, cabinets black, but those will all be painted white.

I am shooting for 200 Foot Candles at table-height (rather than 100 because I am over 40 years old). According to Jack's formula, (18' x 18' x 200 Cf / 2850 lumens) I will need 22 T8's. I'll use 24. If I use the full garage dimensions I'll still get 147 Cf at work level.

I would like to get 4 of the 6-lamp fixtures by Lithonia Lighting:
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

I'll start with 2 of the fixtures on the side of the shop that includes the hand-tool workbench, table saw, and router table. I'll add the rest when I have time and money for round two.

What do you think? The reflective fixture seems to really help with light intensity. The only down side I can think of is that 6 4-bulb fixtures would risk less shadows than 4 6-bulb fixtures. I'll use 5000K bulbs with at least a CRI of 82 and 2850 lumens.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom and experience.

Brian

[glenn bradley]

Lowe's has a 2-lamp T-8 electronic fixture for about $18. Three of those would be cheaper than the 6 lamp unit you show and allow some flexibility. My 16 or so 2-lamp fixtures started out in a very mathematical pattern to provide even light everywhere. At least four of them have been moved to some extent to eliminate shadows caused by the uniform fixture pattern meeting my non-uniform machine layout. A couple others were added for "corners" ;-)

Just food for thought. The 6 lamp or 4 lamp fixtures would look better but, as you mention, cut back on flexibility. I was going to hang-tough with my mathematical pattern and enhance the light field with location-specific lighting but, those fixtures turned out to be a bit pricey and did not yield as good of a watt to light ratio. I was looking at adding another circuit and redistributing the fixtures to use the "spot" lighting method. Those watts add up fast.

[Brian Kent]

I also need to check the current wiring on the light switch to the ceiling lights. I do not want to over-do the circuit.

[glenn bradley]

I also need to check the current wiring on the light switch to the ceiling lights. I do not want to over-do the circuit.

I should have mentioned that I have two 20 amp circuits off my sub-panel for most of the lights and then a 15 amp circuit off the house main panel that runs 3 fixtures. My logic (although it has never been tested in real life) is that I don't want to be left in the dark if I blow the sub-panel ;-) So, 16 (IIRC) 2 lamp fixtures (32 watt T-8) across 3 circuits. This is well within the circuit's capacity.

[Greg R Bradley]

This is way more complicated than just x number of t-8 bulbs. There is also quite a difference in the light output from a 32w T-8 bulb according to the ballast that you are using.

The good news is that these have Litonia's MVOLT 120-277 volt ballasts and the light output per bulb is excellent. If you are looking at HD and the cheap crap Lithonia's that are built for HD, stick with the ones labeled MVOLT 120-277 and you will get excellent light output per bulb. The last time I looked they tended to be in brown boxes and the even-lower-end Lithonias were in white boxes and labeled 120volt. I was in one HD and they had a lower end Lithonia 120v 2-lamp T-8 fixture for $25 next to an identical looking Lithonia 120v 2-lamp T-8 MVOLT 120-277 for $35 and the difference was obvious. It is well worth paying alot more than the $10 difference to get the higher light output, the better starting in cold temperatures, and the longer life of the MVOLT ballast.

These are High Bay Fixtures and the minimum mounting height is 12' above the floor. Their typical application is to replace the Mercury Vapor lamps in warehouses and are usually mounted at 16-22'. They also cannot be surface mounted! They specify a foot or so but in reality an inch clearance would be fine unless they are going somewhere really hot. These "low-end-crap for HD" skip about half of the steel in the real Lithonia lights and all of the structure at the top of the fixture except the narrow box that contains the ballasts. This is fine if you are mounting your own lights and are careful. They just won't take any rough handling and you have to suspend them carefully because they will twist easily. The real Lithonia equivalent is about $180 in quantity at a commercial supplier that will only sell to businesses. Those reflectors behind the lamps are shiny as a mirror. If you want to spread the light out more for lower mounting, you could dull them a bit, put more holes in them to bounce more light off the ceiling or remove them completely.

I have 4 of those exact lights in my 24x34' garage and they are mounted at 10'. However, they are above my line of sight since most of the center of my garage has the ceiling at 8'. Since these are two complete 3 lamp fixtures internally, I just have one ballast run through a pull switch and normally run them with 3 lights. Then when I want more light, I pull the chain and get more. I have 8 more two lamp and one four lamp fixtures in the garage. These are all the units with plastic covers like you would have in an office since they are down at 8' and surface mounted. A total of 44 T-8 bulbs but virtually never all turned on at the same time.

The Lithonia MVOLT Lights at HD are a great deal as long as you are aware of the difference. HD's website is horrid for trying to get the info you need on these lights and is also full of inaccurate information. I suggest you go in-person. If you only have a Lowes nearby, I suggest you avoid them for their flourescent lights of this type. I also suggest you avoid T-5 lights for your application since they have delays in starting and difficulty starting in cold temperatures. Virtually all serious high bay warehouse lighting is now T-5 because they are run many hours a day and they usually don't get real cold inside an operating business. You can justify the cost of T-5 lighting in energy savings if you are operating 24x7x365 pretty easily.

ETA: I thought I would add that I don't have anything against Lowes over HD. It is just that Lithonia has lots of info about their lighting on their website and HD just sells low end versions of those. Lowes sells Utilitech and there just isn't much info out there that I have found.

[Brian Kent]

Thank you for this information, Greg. Yes, they are MVOLT 120-277. I have a 10' ceiling so 12' mounting is not an option.

[Bryan Wellman]

I agree with what Greg has pointed out completely. The Ibeam lights are really intended for warehouse industrial use. I believe its actually @15' - 40' is their effective range. I would definitley stick with a more traditional shop light for your application. Even at 10' the reflectors in those fixtures are pretty hard on the eyes. I just installed a bunch of these at @ 14' in a welding shop and it was pretty intense if its anywhere in line of sight. And he's also right about the needing them off the ceiling. Even with the reflector, the tops of the lights get pretty darn warm.

I'll be going thru the same situation shortly. Just deciding whether to get nice new fixtures, or do the reballast/relamp with all my old T12 fixtures. Much cheaper to reballast than it is to buy a quality fixture.....and the box store fixtures are definitely not the same unless you're getting their high-end stuff.

[Neil Brooks]

Thank you for this information, Greg. Yes, they are MVOLT 120-277. I have a 10' ceiling so 12' mounting is not an option.

Not a *simple* option, you mean.

Come on, Man. Where are your priorities ?



Neil
Worked 6yrs and -- later -- lived 18mos in Escondido

[Bryan Wellman]

I just clicked on the link you referenced....are these used with a white reflector or their metallic reflector. Because that would make a big difference. All the IBeam hbays that I've installed were the commercial metallic reflected ones. From the pic from the HD website it almost looks white.

OK. Had to look into this more.....(piqued my interest) and found that the metal reflectors are downlighting specific, while the white reflector was designed for widespread distribution. Even at that, the spacing requirements don't change unfortunately.

http://www.lithonia.com/commercial/F...D%20High%20Bay

[Brian Kent]

Hi Neil. You are right, I could always raise the roof or lower the floor.

Bryan, I also just read on the Lithonia website about the 15'-40' range. I'm sort of back to square one, wondering if any of the 2 or 4 bulb fixtures will last a decent amount of time. I'll use them a couple of hours per day. My basic pattern is that I want to do this right, this time around, because I'll never get around to re-doing it. On the other hand, I am hoping for something in the range of $50-$60 max for a 4 bulb fixture.

Glenn Bradley - I just noticed that was you writing. You changed your avatar again.

One more thing, Neil. I went to High School in Escondido and now live there again, but I was born in Northern Colorado - Greeley and raised in Westminster.

[Bryan Wellman]

My problem as well!! Like I said, I might just do the reballasting thing since I can get quality lamps and ballasts for about $20 per 2bulb T8 fixture. Then its just the time to do it.

Now if you want to go nuts I just went to a specialty store the other day to rewire some demo lights to run new LED replacement tubes!! They fit right into a standard 4' fixture, but you remove the ballast and run the fixture straight 120V. Each bulb has 300 led's and side by side with a new t8 they look incredible. Plus they dont deteriorate like flouresants will and they will last on average 11-12 years. Right now they are $60 a bulb.....but I assume that will drop rapidly as they get mass produced.

[Neil Brooks]

Brian-

I'm in Fort Collins.

NEXT time, we ought to slap hands, as we pass each other by

[Greg R Bradley]

It would appear that my brother has changed his avatar more times than I have posted on this site.

A friend just told me that HD no longer carries the Lithonia basic dual T-8 fixture with the good ballasts. They only have the low end unit for $27 but you really, really want the ones with the MVOLT ballast. They do have a 8' two wide and two long unit available both with the cheap ballasts and the MVOLT ones. The good one is $56. That should work very well surface mounted against a white ceiling in rows to make wiring easy. I would say that is a good solution from HD for a shop with a 10' ceiling.

The High Bay that is at HD has the mirror finish reflector. I can't imagine mounting them a couple inches below a 10' ceiling where they are in line of sight. I looked and the ones in my garage are actually at 11' but in high bays since most of the ceiling is storage mounted on top of the rafters that are at 8'.

Lots of info on light including calculators on Lithonia web site. I looked over the article on FWW and it is very dated. I'm guessing it was out of date when originally published in 2002. After reading it, I was shocked to see the date at the end as I was expecting a decade earlier.

If anyone has quality fixtures that were T-12, it is easy to buy ballasts and bulbs. This is less practical if the fixtures are anything other than 4' as any other size of T-8 bulb costs a bunch more. Good quality 4' T-8 bulbs are about $1 from my supplier.

FWIW, I prefer 3500 degree bulbs in my garage. Don't you want the color and tone of what your working on to match your house? Maybe go to 4100 degree, but 5000 is pretty cold to me.

[Bryan Wellman]

FWIW, I prefer 3500 degree bulbs in my garage. Don't you want the color and tone of what your working on to match your house? Maybe go to 4100 degree, but 5000 is pretty cold to me.

I forgot to mention coloring. LOL Nothing drives me nuts more than walking into a home where somone has put 5100K curly-q bulbs in their living room lamps. I have a few of the 2700K bulbs in the house and you literally can't tell the difference from a standard 60W incadesant. 3500K would be a good comprimise for shop lighting. Better than the "yellow" incadesant, but definitely not the "white/blue" of an over 5000K bulb.

Heres a good color chart if anyone is interested...

[Neil Brooks]

Incidentally, one of the most useful tidbits I learned, when wiring my shop, was to put your lighting on (at least) two separate circuits.

It's great to be able to control what's lit and where.

In the alternative, you can put ALL the lights on two circuits, rather than segregating a circuit to a given area.

In other words ... if your shop uses 20 evenly spaced fixtures, just put 10 on one circuit, and 10 on another.

That way ... you can have the light you need, and save a few bucks -- like ... when you have full daylight coming in, but want to knock down shadows.