Shop Lighting

[Oldwood2409]

I am in the final process of building a new shop (worked out of a two car garage for 30 yrs). My question is around lighting. There are recommendations that I should use between 60 and 80 foot candles (fc)per square foot, but there others that state that I should use up to 125 fc/ft^2

My question what is the community using in their shops and any recommendations. Bottom line I get one shot at this.

Oldwood2049

[sweensdv2]

I have no real specific suggestions unfortunately but I will suggest that you put in as much lighting as you possibly can and your budget allows. Eyesight gets nothing but weaker over time as we all know so the brighter you can make the better you will be able to enjoy your shop down the road.

[marcb]

I am in the final process of building a new shop (worked out of a two car garage for 30 yrs). My question is around lighting. There are recommendations that I should use between 60 and 80 foot candles (fc)per square foot, but there others that state that I should use up to 125 fc/ft^2

My question what is the community using in their shops and any recommendations. Bottom line I get one shot at this.

Oldwood2049

80 is IMO a minimum for shop work, 110 is pretty good without getting blinding even for older eyes.

I'm going to be installing LED T8 tubes this weekend in my new shop.

[MarkWells]

I am in the final process of building a new shop (worked out of a two car garage for 30 yrs). My question is around lighting. There are recommendations that I should use between 60 and 80 foot candles (fc)per square foot, but there others that state that I should use up to 125 fc/ft^2

I recently re-did my shop.  Expanding it was more than I wanted to spend, so I decided to make the one car garage I had (10'x20' on the outside) as nice as I could.



The walls and ceiling are both white.  The inside space is a little over 9'x19'.  The ceiling is vaulted, but there are ceiling joints.  The lights rest on top of the ceiling joists, about 8' 6" above the floor.



I ended up with two sets of 4' LED shop lights I tried:

4 x Hyperikon 5000K, 4100 lumens, 84+ CRI (Hyperikon went out of business, but these were well-reviewed lights.)

6 x NorthLux 5000K, 4200 lumens, 95 CRI (https://store.waveformlighting.com/produ...4781539430)



Some observations:

* I could totally tell the difference between the 84+ CRI and the 95 CRI, especially when looking at red and orange.  The NorthLux looked better.

* Four sets of light of either kind were not enough.  I tried to make it work with four, but it really wasn't enough.

* The Hyperikon had a cover so you couldn't see the individual LEDs, but the NorthLux does not.  I prefer the cover, but I think it impacts the color rendering.  Without the cover, it is difficult for me to see the edge of hand plane blade I'm sharpening.  The individual LEDs reflect too intensely from the sharpened surfaces.  I'm still working on a solution for that.

* I like white walls and ceiling.  I was concerned it would have glare, but that's not an issue.
* I thought the 5000K would be "too blue," but I actually like it.  The color is very similar to daylight.



If you don't want to flood the whole space, another option championed by Adam Cherubini in article called the "The Ultimate Hand Tool Shop" is to use a bunch of clamp worklights above your workbench  to provide focused illumination.  Before I redid my shop I used that method and it worked very well.



Longer version if you care:  I was going to order the NorthLux lights in December, but they were out of stock.  I was also hesitant to order because they were expensive and there were few reviews.  They kept pushing the availability date until it was months and months later.  I thought I couldn't wait any more, so I decided the Hyperikon lights would be good enough, especially since they were so much cheaper ($120 for four vs $500 for six).  After more construction delays, I put the Hyperikon up and concluded I needed two more.  I went to order more and found that all the Hyperikon listings were gone from Amazon.  Then I learned Hyperikon went out of business.  By this point the NorthLux lights were back in stock and I decided to just bite the bullet and spend what I thought was a completely ridiculous amount on lights.  For my eyes and my situation, the more expensive lights  were totally worth it.  I assume that eventually the high CRI LED lights will become more standard and they will be much less expensive.



Mark

[lift mechanic]

I have been my shop for 6 years now. I think the lighting is very good through out the shop. I installed 18 - 48" LED lights in a 32' x 48' area on 3 separate 3 way switches. I just took a guess on how many to install. When I wired for the lights I just put in 12 - 2 gang outlets in the ceiling so if I needed to move or add lights it would be easy. I hung the lights from short chains. Main problem with the lights hanging like this is they gather dust. I just open all the doors and windows and blow out the shop once each spring.

[Just_Dave]

When I built my shop 16 years ago I asked questions of professional lighting design guys (yeah I knew those guys) and I did a fair amount of searching on the internet.  I had pretty much decided what fixtures and lights I was going with and my layout when I stumbled onto an article that had been published in one of the woodworking magazines a few years prior.  The article was written by a lighting engineer and was for wood working shops.  I don't know if I still have it saved somewhere or not??  But as it turned out my choices in lights and my planned placement was very close to the writers recommendation except under his recommendations I needed two more lights.  The bummer was with my ceiling design I could not do it.  So I added supplemental lighting where I could and hoped for the best.  Fast forward 15 years and I am starting to wish that I had found a way to get those two lights installed.  Old age is hard on the eyes..........  I went with an 8 foot T8 fixture with 4 4 foot tubes.  The bulbs are as close to daylight as a guy can get and I have no regrets on the choice.  The bulb was a F32T8/TL850/ALTO 
As for LED's here is something to ponder.  #1 and most important to me is I HATE them.  Being in a room or even a business with them after about 20 minutes I start having problems focusing on things across the room.  It is almost disorienting, then my eyes start hurting, and I swear after an hour or so my eyes feel like they are going to pop out of my head.  It took awhile for me to realize what the issue was so this was not an isolated situation.  I have problems pretty much anywhere I go that has been retrofitted with LED's.  LED's are bright no doubt but I have found that the light does not throw out or fill the room if that makes sense?  I have never felt that the color rendering is correct.  Bottom line for me is that they need to get more within the color spectrum before I would consider them.  I also think if they can get more into the spectrum they won't make my  eyes bug out.  Although at this point I should have a life time supply of replacement bulbs so I doubt I will ever change them out.  I know a few car guys that have put the "Costco" 4 footers in their shops and have ultimately taken them out because the colors don't look right.  Especially guys that paint cars they are finding that color matching and painting is tough.    
Oh and +1 on white walls and ceilings, that makes a big difference too.

[Philip1231]

Shop area is roughly 400 square feet. I have 24 T8 (32 watt) tubes, 5000K (I think they are the same ones Just Dave mentioned above) and supplemental LED spots over the bench and at various work stations.

[fredhargis]

Some good stuff above, but above all listen to the advice about aging. You will be amazed at what a few years can do to reduce your perception. That said, my solution was the ceiling receptacles like lift mechanic mentioned. This allows hanging (mine are surface mounted) lights where they are needed. It works much better now that we have a wide selection of LED fixtures. With LEDs you can put in a lot of lights without overloading a circuit (which should be on it's own breaker...or even 2) and they are so light in weight installing them is a breeze. If you've ever wrestled putting in fluorescent fixtures with that heavy ballast, you will appreciate the LEDs. Plus I've found that using drywall anchors in the sheetrock is plenty of holding power for the lighter LEDs....no more arranging to hit a truss. But back to the increased lighting die to age, I built mine with what I though was a good number of lights (4 years ago) since then as I've worked in various spots around the shop I've added maybe 5 more fixtures to increase light, this was a piece of cake with the outlets and LEDs, the LEDS can also be daisy chained to each other within limits. I'll admit that having those plug in cords hanging on the lamps looks like chit...but it's something I can live with.

[Philip1231]

Fred: you mean something like this?

[Gary G™]

My 512 Sq. ft. shop has 6 8’ double tube LED tubes using daylight (@5600) on 4 switches.
It’s plenty bright and with transom windows around the perimeter, I also get plenty of natural light in the daytime.
The 4 switches allow me to light just a specific area if needed.