New garage / shop lights, what would you recommend/use?

[HWYCRZR]

I am adding on to my standalone garage which is 24x24. It’s where I keep my Polara, has a 4 post lift and my upholstery machine and workspace. It’s getting a little crowded and I have no room for another car so I decided to add on. In the process I am re-thinking my lighting. Currently I have 8 can lights (BR 40 flood) with 100+ watt equivalent LED bulbs. It lights ok for running in and out, but I needed to add 3 -48” tube LED’s (Costco specials) on the edges over my work area. These do make it bright enough for working. But now with the addition I have a chance to revamp my lights and definitely want LED’s. Not sure if I want strip lights (8ft) UFO Flood lights or honey comb LED’s.
10ft walls with vaulted ceiling, so about 12’ in the middle. I like profile lights as when my car is on the lift it does get close to the ceiling on one side.
Looking for ideas.
Here some of my addition, the trusses are designed so that it can seamlessly connect and be open to my current garage without adding headers or support posts.
Looking for lighting options. I may start another thread on my addition process.

 

[HWYCRZR]

I have a 100’ x 40’ shop that had 14 T5 fluorescent light fixtures (6 bulbs per fixture) and replaced them with 14 of these:

Adiding LED High Bay Light, 200W 30,000LM (150LM/W) 1-10V Dimmable, 6.56’ Cable with 110V Plug, Hanging Hook,U-Shaped Bracket,Safe Rope, UL Listed - Amazon.com

They are very bright and I shouldn’t have to replace them in my lifetime.

Adding to this thread to keep in one spot
Thanks @3175375

 

[HWYCRZR]

@3175375
How high are these hung and what kind of spacing did you use? My simple math says you used 2 rows about 12’ apart? Maybe this answers my question on spacing and height.

 

[65CopCar]

You need to decide what you want. Is this an area where you do precision work? If so, you should be targeting at minimum 70 foot candles at work height. If you go to a good LED manufacturer and give them your layout they will give you a plan that shows the foot candles in all areas. In my 5600 sq foot shop I built 4 years ago, I went with RAB 4 foot LED lights. I have over $10k in lighting costs and I feel it was well worth it. Although I did use cheaper lighting in non-work areas.

 

[65CopCar]

Attached is my lighting study done by a RAB rep and light info. I targeted 70 foot candles in the precision areas and 55 foot candles in the general work areas and 100 foot candles in very high precision areas. I pretty much met those levels when I measured the light levels once the lights were installed.

The other thing was I did not want cheap lights. Last thing I want to do is have to be replacing lights that go bad that are 14 feet in the air.

 

[HWYCRZR]

You need to decide what you want. Is this an area where you do precision work? If so, you should be targeting at minimum 70 foot candles at work height. If you go to a good LED manufacturer and give them your layout they will give you a plan that shows the foot candles in all areas. In my 5600 sq foot shop I built 4 years ago, I went with RAB 4 foot LED lights. I have over $10k in lighting costs and I feel it was well worth it. Although I did use cheaper lighting in non-work areas.

View attachment 748353

I will be doing all work. Small restorations, upholstery….
Some of my challenge will be that when my car is on the lift, it will block some of the light. With your flat ceiling it looks like you have one set centered in the middle and another 2 on the edges.
My lift would be positioned closer to the side cover and about one of my ceiling vaults. But I guess if my car is up on the lift I am likely working on something underneath so need bottom up lights at that point. Thanks

 

[65CopCar]

@3175375
How high are these hung and what kind of spacing did you use? My simple math says you used 2 rows about 12’ apart? Maybe this answers my question on spacing and height. View attachment 748354

So I used similar in my storage bay (see attached). It gives good light but its not good light in my opinion to be working under. Its perfect for my storage bay, but the 4 foot LED lights prevent shadowing and produce much more even light which is important in my opinion when in precision working areas. I do occasionally work in that bay, but rarely.

I believe I have 6 of these fixtures at 14' high and the bay is 70' long.

 

[HWYCRZR]

These give great light, but maybe a little extra. Also not sure of the durability. Also only about 6 year life at 12 hours a day. So maybe 10-12 years for me. It should cut down on shadows.

 

[65CopCar]

I will be doing all work. Small restorations, upholstery….
Some of my challenge will be that when my car is on the lift, it will block some of the light. With your flat ceiling it looks like you have one set centered in the middle and another 2 on the edges.
My lift would be positioned closer to the side cover and about one of my ceiling vaults. But I guess if my car is up on the lift I am likely working on something underneath so need bottom up lights at that point. Thanks

If you look at the design from the light vendor, you can see that he designed it with no lights under the lift. He felt it would have been ok, but at the end of the the day I trumped his design and added the lights over the lift. I think at first I thought the lift would be taller than it is.

 

[65CopCar]

These give great light, but maybe a little extra. Also not sure of the durability. Also only about 6 year life at 12 hours a day. So maybe 10-12 years for me. It should cut down on shadows.

View attachment 748357

So I don't know anything about those lights, but I did look at the website. Looks like they are 6800K - I would personally never go above 5000K.

I am not a lighting expert, but I did learn enough to be dangerous as an engineer in the industrial world. I lived through the transformation from sodium to mercury vapor to T8 to T5 to LED. There are a couple important things about LED lights. First is the light looks way different to the human eye than the other lights. The human eye must get used to it.

The other very important aspect with LED lighting is it is very directional and power limited. Quick diminishing returns once you get to a certain power level, which is why my 4 foot lights have a lot of individual light elements. In order to address the directional issues, reflectors are key to proper LED light performance. It gets quite complicated. Looking at the Hyperlite, there is not much reflector so I question how those lights really perform.

My last recommendation is go to a good commercial lighting store (even a Wesco) and talk to a lighting expert. The advice and recommendations are free and guarantee you will learn something from the discussion that should help you decide what to do.

 

[65CopCar]

BTW - love your car!

 

[HWYCRZR]

So I don't know anything about those lights, but I did look at the website. Looks like they are 6800K - I would personally never go above 5000K.

I am not a lighting expert, but I did learn enough to be dangerous as an engineer in the industrial world. I lived through the transformation from sodium to mercury vapor to T8 to T5 to LED. There are a couple important things about LED lights. First is the light looks way different to the human eye than the other lights. The human eye must get used to it.

The other very important aspect with LED lighting is it is very directional and power limited. Quick diminishing returns once you get to a certain power level, which is why my 4 foot lights have a lot of individual light elements. In order to address the directional issues, reflectors are key to proper LED light performance. It gets quite complicated. Looking at the Hyperlite, there is not much reflector so I question how those lights really perform.

My last recommendation is go to a good commercial lighting store (even a Wesco) and talk to a lighting expert. The advice and recommendations are free and guarantee you will learn something from the discussion that should help you decide what to do.

I am just starting my electrical plan. I am also questioning the power of these lights reflected to the ground. The Hyperlite site has the ufo and 4 ft lights. They also provide recommendations on lighting if you provide your plan outline and ceiling heights. I only sent it yesterday, so will see what their recommendations are as well. Good idea on talking to a lightning expert.

 

[HWYCRZR]

I had florescent lighting in my current shop but updated them to LED, and the place is much brighter. I too, need better lighting as I get older.
LED lights are the way to go IMO.
It will most likely make some difference whether or not you have any windows on your build.
Mt current shop has no windows, but the pole barn has four, which hopefully helps somewhat.
I will have to run a separate line to my pole barn because the meter on the house is on the opposite side.
The local co-op electric company sent someone out to survey the site and recommended running the new line to keep costs down, but it would also include a separate bill frome the house.
When l get down to TN next, one of the things I will do is map out where the lighting will be and where the all the outlets will be placed.
I plan to install one, maybe two ceiling fans to help circulate the air. With the metal roof, it's going to be hot on summer days.
BTW Marty, the new addition looks great. You'll be happy with the extra space.

@sixpkrt Tim, I am adding this over in my lighting page so I can find it again.

 

[HWYCRZR]

Does it help lighting if the surrounding area is white, ie, ceiling, walls and such?

Yes white would help. I do have silver tin on the bottom as carsideing that maybe helps somewhat, but it seems most of my walls are covered by tools and shelves. My walls are a light tan. I don’t like dirty white walls.
This is kind of my man cave/workshop, so didn’t go for the sterile white.