I have nothing but the light in the opener at the moment. I was thinking of LED tube lighting, prolly the cheaper ones at Lowes. The garage is 24x24ish. Eventually will be doing who knows what type of work, so I am trying to plan ahead. Open to any suggestions.
I've got a few 4' double T-8's in the shop with the daylight tubes. Nice color, and bright. The LEDs still seem a little pricey to me, but I'd love to do some of those.
I have been looking at a shop lighting upgrade myself. Not scared to 'engineer' my own from foreign components ... The BBS offerings here right now are vastly overpriced. I'm waiting for lumen output to get upped a bit ... I don't remember where I saw it (which Web site), but a user named 'roncoinc' did quite the LED lighting job in his shop.
Also debating on throwing up six boxes and cheap fixtures with CFLs for now. There's a little party here next weekend, and I need something.
Yep, white ,painted all my pegboard white too No real suggestion ,my pole barn 24x28 , I have florescent's and task lighting. florescent's are 4' , three ,4 tube fixtures, and five 2 tube, some have daylight tubes
This may be what happens for now. I could probably get buy with some general lighting and a good one over my workbench. My garage is fairly new. The old man down the street somehow turned into the driveway, gassed it and bounced off the house and demolished the garage, a few years before we bought the place. The guy that owned it at the time didn't wire anything when the garage was rebuilt, but put 2" conduit into the basement. There is just a single 14/2 wire out there right now for the door opener. One of these days there will be a proper 60 amp sub panel.
I did my garage in porcilin base's and cfl's, far cheaper than the 4' tube's and easier to transport. When i planed for the lighting i looked at the led 4' sticks, to expensive, the 4' flourescent's are reasonable but the fixture's add up quick. I decided the cfl's were cheapest, and with the different wattage available i was able to get the desired light level i wanted. You might also put in 2 circuits, one for wandering thru with out killing yourself and another to light it for working. Painting the ceiling and walls white seems to have helped also. edit: a couple clamp light fixture's hung up temporarily let's you test the output quickly
Once I get rid of my electric range, water heater, and dryer, that should leave me plenty leftover for enough juice. Baby steps. Just need some light for now.
Somebody I worked with bought about 10 4' fluorescent fixtures for some product testing (on the company card of course). Once the testing was complete I volunteered to "dispose" of them, they really helped light up my garage and storage area of the basement! I might start converting them to t8 LED's as they blow out, but for now I'm fine with the flourescent tubes.
I just put up eight boxes and ceramic fixtures with 23 watt CFLs. I had the bulbs, switches, and wire 'in stock', so I have another $22 invested. It's plenty bright, so something over the bench in the near future will take care of that. On to something else.
A friend of mine has just put up some 4' led lights he got at Lowes. They light it up nicely. I think they were around $40 and are 4000 lumens.
Ive got no experience with the LED Shop light style tube lights, i did notice the different in lumens though between the LED setups and the standard fluorescent bulbs. Theres quite a difference, and brightness makes a difference to me. The LED's being the lights not putting out as much lumens.. I am still curious though and will probably try some out sometime. The lumen difference could of just been the bulbs i was viewing.. I was only at an Ace store afterall..
I am using 60 watt LED flood light. All the light I would want. I only paid $2 each at HD. They are brighter and better in every way than CFLs. I don't have the LED tube lighting yet. Still too $ for me, but give it a year and see what comes. In the mean time, some cheap ceramic fixtures and the LED floods and you are all Lighted up like a torch. My new living room and kitchen hall have pot light with them in it. I have dimmers on them because they are too much light for me.
Ceiling height? I would suggest t5's with the mirror deflectors. The problem with them is there actually an ideal height for the light output to max out. I have 6- 4 bulb 4' fixtures in my shop. I use 2 bulbs in each. 4 bulbs on the 12' ceiling actually leaves shadows on the work tables as you lean over. That being said I am redoing my garage and am doing t 8's just for costs of bulbs and fixtures plus task lighting over my work bench Also, depending on projects and other natural light sources pay attention to the color temp. A lot of 2700 k lights (close to a flame temperature) are better for the eyes than fewer 6000k lights. And it affects colors you see if there are any painting projects and such involved. Kinda like if your socks are blue or black when looking in the closet with fluorescents
When CFL's came out, they were expensive. However; the government really wanted us to adopt them. As a result electric companies instituted heavy rebates to make CFL's more cost effective. Then came LED's. They were very expensive at first, and their prices have slowly edged down. Within the next couple of years, I expect LED's to be on par with CFL's. Plus I personally believe that LED's are a much better option. Keep in mind that the debate between CFL and LED is on going.
My garage has ceramic light fixtures and I found LED fixtures that screw into them. I've been happy with them and painting the garage white helped. Consider a fan if you have tall ceilings
