Shop Lighting - your input

[Chris Padilla]

Andrew,

For paint, go with as PURE a white as you can...it will help to reflect all that great T8 fluorescents you will be installing. I used an exterior grade semi-gloss white for mine. Boring as all get-out to paint but the results are fantastic...my shop is awash in light and no shadows.

I used the 8' T8 fixtures in my shop and put up 4 rows of them (8 total 8' fixtures) in a garage that is roughly 20x24. I have the smaller 4' ones placed here and there as well. I feel like I'm on the sun in there with everything turned on and I rarely need to fire them all up!

For the bulbs/fixtures, I got everything at the orange borg and I put in a mix of color temps for the T8 bulbs...I thought that would provide me the widest spectrum of light and it works for me.

[Andrew Thuswaldner]

Chris,
Is that a total of 8 x 8' bulbs or 16 x 8' bulbs?
Thanks for the tip on the paint color.

Andrew

[Mike Williams]

Andrew - I used the FWW article Ken mentioned above to design the lighting in my new shop. The main work area is 20' x 40' with 10' ceiling height. I am 57 years old, and definitely need better lighting than I did 25 years ago.

I installed four rows of continuous 4' long 2-bulb, T8 fixtures tight against the drywall ceiling. Both ceiling and walls are painted white. So with the rows of lighting being 36' feet long, I ended up using 36 fixtures.

The light is wonderful.

[Chris Padilla]

Chris,
Is that a total of 8 x 8' bulbs or 16 x 8' bulbs?
Thanks for the tip on the paint color.

Andrew

I spanned two 8' fixtures end to end, in 4 rows so I bought a total of 8 8' fixtures. Each fixture took 4 4' bulbs. That would be 32 bulbs! Like I said, I rarely turn them all on!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Chris.....basically that's what I did. My shop is 24x30...I have 4 rows....3 rows of 3-8' fixtures...4-4' 32 watt bulbs per fixture. 1 row of 2-8'fixtures 4-4' 32 watt bulbs per fixture. Each row is controlled by a separate switch.

[Larry Fox]

My shop is about 28x14 with another little "notch" in it that probably adds about another 75 sq/ft. I have white walls and there are 8 8' fixtures with 2 8' T-12 Cool White bulbs in each and I have all of them on all the time and still use task-lighting on things like the bandsaw.

However, I like a LOT of light so your mileage might varry.

My general rule of thumb is - if you wonder if you have enough light, you don't.

[Robert McGowen]

I just took down 6 of the 4' T-8's in my shop and replaced them with 3 of the 8' T-12's. There is no comparison. I wish I had done it years ago.


Hmmmm...... I guess from the two posts following, I got it backwards.........Make that switched 12's for 8's.

[Eric Haycraft]

You replaced t8's with t12's? Why, they are not as bright and use more watts.

[Chris Padilla]

T8s are the schlitz in my book...it seems like one is going 'backwards' replacing T8s with T12s??

T8s are less noisy and come on instantly even when very cold. I believe that T12s cost less, however.

[Jack Lindsey]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments on my article in FWW. It’s nice to know that the information is being used and you are satisfied with the results.

I wrote the article almost six years ago and the consumer marketplace has finally caught up with 20 year old technology - - T-8 lamps. While these products had found widespread usage in commercial and industrial applications it was almost impossible to find them in retail outlets like “big boxes” or neighborhood lighting stores. Thus the article was based on the available T-12 technology which consisted of low priced but inferior performing 60 watt lamps, better performing but very expensive 75 watt lamps, and magnetic ballasts.

If I was writing the article today I’d recommend T-8’s for most small woodworking shops, both industrial and hobbyist. Why? Because they are a better product than T-12’s for most of these applications. There are several reasons, most stemming from the National Energy Policy Act of 1992, which banned the manufacture or sale of most full wattage T-12 lamps and replaced them with inferior performing reduced wattage T-12 lamps. It’s a long story so I’ll simply say it was a classic example of a political solution to an engineering problem and the consumer is paying the price.

The light output characteristics of T-8 lamps are similar enough to T-12’s to permit a direct one-to-one substitution for the numbers in my article. For example, if the chart calls for 9 T-12 fixtures simply use 9 T-8’s.

One caution. Many T-8 fixtures are provided with electronic ballasts. While most of them are of reasonably good quality some of the very inexpensive ones will drive lamps at significantly lower light output and may greatly reduce lamp life. I’d recommend staying with a major manufacturer with a proven track record.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I used 9 eight foot T-12 HO's for mine. I have a 25x22ish shop, and those 18 bulbs really light it up. I tried to post a pic, but I've lost patience with the stupid photo software I have. T-12 High Output fixtures use an electronic ballast, and will start fine in cold temps, down to zero I think....

I'm also getting a bunch of T-5 high bay mirrored fixtures for the big shop soon. There are some really great new flourescent fixtures out there now. These things put out the same light as those metal halide fixtures do, out of four scrawny little 4 foot bulbs. I know a contractor installing them in a bunch of big warehouses. I wonder how they might work in lower ceilings?...

[Bob Knodel]

I will be wiring up my 10' x 26' shop (with 10' ceiling) with fluorescent light fixtures. The walls will be drywall and some off-white colour. I'm planning on using the 4' fixtures with 2 T8 bulbs. The question is how many fixtures do I need for this size of shop? Thanks for your input, Andrew

I would say 4 if you use the right bulbs. I just changed out 8 of the 12 8' HO fixtures in my paint shop (I own an auto body shop) with bulbs from Lights by H&H. They are the VI-TEK 93+ bulbs and put out some SERIOUS, SERIOUS light!!!!!!!! I think my painters are going to end up with a pretty good tan with these things! I could not believe the difference between these lights and the standard 100 watt versions. The 8' versions were roughly $20.00 per bulb but come with a 3 year warranty. That was completely worth the $ for the amount of light that they put out. Our walls are a bright white and the lights are mounted at about 12'. You can check more into them at www.lightsbyhh.com. We have a rep that comes to our shop so we just order from him. Eventually we will have all of our shop lights replaced with these bulbs but I would go broke replacing all of them at one time. They are worth a look see.

[Andrew Thuswaldner]

I created a summary of the information I collected from the responses to this thread. I am using this to determine how many fixtures I need in my shop and I thought some of the other members might find it useful for designing their shop lighting. The table shows your shop area, the equivalent number of 48" T8 bulbs you are using and the number of bulbs per 100 sq ft of shop area. In the notes column I indicated if you were using something other than T8's and also if you had additional task lighting. And in the last column, my interpretation of your level of satisfaction with the result. If I misrepresented anyone, let me know and I'll fix it.

I have concluded that anything less than 5 T8 bulbs per 100 square feet is inadequate regardless of what your age is. No one complained about having too much light. To be on the safe side I am going to target a number of 8 or higher because I'd like to avoid the need for task lighting and I think I can make that work because of the small size of my shop (260 sq ft). This is actually in line with the rule of thumb (2 fixtures per 50 sq ft) that Mike Wacker posted earlier in this thread.

Thanks again for all of you input! I feel enlightened. Andrew

[Brad Noble]

I have a 16' x 24' shop. I am currently using 14 4' 3-bulb T-8 fixtures and two 2-bulb T-8 fixtures. I'm 57 years old and as they say, more light is better.

14 of these fixtures are on three-way switches and operate on 240V. That was fun.

Brad

[Jim O'Dell]

Nice compilation of information, Andrew. As a side note, part of the reason I added the task lighting, was that some say with the flicker of flourescent lights, it can make a moving blade appear to be not moving, which could be dangerous. I have not found that to be true with my T-8s. So far, the only task lights I've really used are the 2 over the DP, and that's partially because it is against the wall and a little further away from the lighting. That could be solved in most shops with running the lights around the perimeter parallel to the walls, then using the lights in the middle in what ever direction you want. My low ceilings didn't allow me to do this. I have mine recessed up into the ceiling joists to save all the head room I can.
Jack, as I mentioned a couple years ago in a lighting thread, I also down loaded your article, and found it very helpful. Glad you wrote it. The information is still relevant today. Maybe FWW would allow you to update it with some current information on the lights that are now available? Jim.