Shop Lighting

[lshuck]

I am relocating my shop to an area about 16X40 with an 8' shed type roof with exposed 2X8 rafters with galvanized corrugated roofing.

I thought this would be a more-or-less simple decision but I have not found too many options as of now.

Thus I wonder what kind of reasonable cost lighting some of you may be using.

Les

[bleeth]

You can go with the cheaperst tube fixtures at the big box store or satisfy all codes anywhere and spend the bucks for vapor/dust proof enclosures. For bulbs I like brite white in the shop. We have mercury vapors as well but I only turn them on when we need big light for something special cause they burn power like crazy.
It all depends how carefully planned you want to be!!

[signtist]

The very first thing I would do BEFORE you move in, rent a airless sprayer and paint EVERYTHING white! This helps almost as good as the lights!

[lshuck]

Thnx Dave:

I have 8' 2 tube fixtures in my garage shop and they seem to work OK so it looks and power consumption is reasonable so, it looks like some more of these will be OK

[lshuck]

John: I the walls are light colored and the ceiling is bright from the galv sheeting but the rafters are natural. I can see that the whiter the better but I was hoping to get away form paint the darned things. Thnx for the comment

[nailzscott]

Les, I have 14 1/2' ceilings in my shop and a pile of 4' 2 tube 40 watt fluorescent lights. It just seemed dark in there in the day time. I then put in a few 8' high output lights from Menard's (I think on sale for around $65/70). The high output are more expensive than the others, but they are amazing by comparison. I unplugged 8 of the 4 footers, put in 4 of the 8' high output - and it seems 3 or 4 times better than it was.

[Gary Campbell]

Les...
I have just done this and was pleasantly surprised with the results. The former tenant left behind a number of "big box" troffer style enclosed 4' 4 tube fixtures with T80 daylite bulbs. I hung them using suspended ceiling wires at 10' off the floor with conduit between and BX up to original boxes. Very good light source and hopefully the enclosure will slow dust buildup on the bulbs. At $30 per fixture I would consider them an economical solution.

[bleeth]

Gary:
Put out the lights and get some sack-tomorrows another day!!

[lshuck]

Scott:

What is the approx sqft of your lighted area?

[nailzscott]

Les,

My shop is 45 x 50, with about 1/4 of it with a lower ceiling due to a loft area above it. Near the shopbot work table and over a machine shop area I hung the lights to about 9' off the floor, but these things are bright enough I probably could have kept them at 14'. I tried a couple of lights that looked like they came out of a gymnasium, but they took too long to get to full brightness. I still like the idea of painting the ceiling white, but these are working so well, I'll probably never get around to it.

[taskins]

I have used 8 ft tubes in the past but in my present shop (16x 32 + 16 x 32) I went with the compact flor. exterior flood lights. They use a small amount of juice and you won't have to replace the ballast. The cost of two fixtures and bulbs for the compacts are about the same as the 8 footers, Unless you buy the top of the line fixtures and tubes they will hummm like crazy when it's cold. You might also try putting the foil backed foam insullation board on the ceiling. Nice reflective quality and not so many $$$.

[nailzscott]

Les,

One last point - the prior owner to my place had placed 10 flood lights in various places on the interior walls to try and light the place up. With all of them on, it is still no comparison to the 4 - 8' high output fluorescent ones.

[lshuck]

All:

Thnx for all of your comments. I have decided to go with a 2 circuit plan. I will relocate some existing 8' high output on one switch and then experiment with other lighting suggestion you all made on the 2nd switch.

Les