Finishing out my attached garage and have roughed-in the electrical for nine 4' ceiling light fixtures. Garage is ~28'x28' with 8' ceiling, two 8' garage doors (lights will not be installed in garage door space in ceiling). All walls and ceiling painted bright white. Both garage doors have a row of lights near the top and there is one small casement window on one of the other walls.
One bay of this area will be used for metal working machinery. In my woodworking shop (separate area) I am converting all of the 4' t8 florescent two bulb units to LED as the bulbs burn out. It's a very easy conversion with the kits from Home Depot, $20 each kit, which includes two LED triangular tubes and the tombstones for the setup - easy peasy.
The tubes for these conversion kits come in three different hues; after some trial and error I've found the best fit for me is the one called Daylight Deluxe. In the link you can see the various values. In the new shop area I'm considering these LED units. From a "lumens" perspective they are much brighter than the ones previously mentioned, and I assume will make the work area much brighter overall. In my woodworking workshop I use quite a bit of task lighting and also plan to do the same in the new shop area.
May seem like an unlikely question, but is there such a thing as too much light in a shop? Don't want there to be an uncomfortable glare in there. Fixtures will be set flush to the ceiling.
10-28-2022, 12:15 PM (This post was last modified: 10-28-2022, 12:18 PM by fredhargis.)
(10-28-2022, 11:00 AM)Tapper Wrote: May seem like an unlikely question, but is there such a thing as too much light in a shop? Don't want there to be an uncomfortable glare in there. Fixtures will be set flush to the ceiling.
Thanks,
Doug
You will find as you age that you need more light. So in my (aged) opinion you can't have too much. One thing I did before LED lamps became available was to put the lights on multiple switches; kind of a zone lighting arrangement.But that was to save money on the electric bill, with LEDs I don't worry about that, so the current has 1 light switch for the entire room. But if you're worried about too much light, you could have them so you only run the ones you need.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
If you have very bright lights that are spread too far apart, you can wind up with some shadows that are problematic. Tools like BS, RAS, planers, drum sanders, and over-arm routers can be subject to this.
My shop has 16' ceilings and I upgraded to 3 very bright LEDs when the landlord replaced the 2 incandescent/gas lights. That makes a world of difference, but task lights are critical for the grinder and the lathe.
Putting rows of lights on separate switches can be great for putting the light where you want it.
"the most important safety feature on any tool is the one between your ears." - Ken Vick
A wish for you all: May you keep buying green bananas.
(10-28-2022, 11:00 AM)Tapper Wrote: Finishing out my attached garage and have roughed-in the electrical for nine 4' ceiling light fixtures. Garage is ~28'x28' with 8' ceiling, two 8' garage doors (lights will not be installed in garage door space in ceiling). All walls and ceiling painted bright white. Both garage doors have a row of lights near the top and there is one small casement window on one of the other walls.
One bay of this area will be used for metal working machinery. In my woodworking shop (separate area) I am converting all of the 4' t8 florescent two bulb units to LED as the bulbs burn out. It's a very easy conversion with the kits from Home Depot, $20 each kit, which includes two LED triangular tubes and the tombstones for the setup - easy peasy.
The tubes for these conversion kits come in three different hues; after some trial and error I've found the best fit for me is the one called Daylight Deluxe. In the link you can see the various values. In the new shop area I'm considering these LED units. From a "lumens" perspective they are much brighter than the ones previously mentioned, and I assume will make the work area much brighter overall. In my woodworking workshop I use quite a bit of task lighting and also plan to do the same in the new shop area.
May seem like an unlikely question, but is there such a thing as too much light in a shop? Don't want there to be an uncomfortable glare in there. Fixtures will be set flush to the ceiling.
Thanks,
Doug
First,
In my previous life I was an energy manager for our school district. When I had convinced our district to switch over to LEDs, our maintenance supervisor made up a schedule to make the switch as his supply of incandescent and metal halides ran out, … as you plan to do. When he showed that schedule to me during our monthly meeting with the superintendent, I looked at him and said, “We’re switching over to LEDs to save energy and money. I guess the only question is when do you want to start saving that money?”
Superintendent eyes got a little wider, and we ordered the conversion hardware the next day.
Second, not sure about t-8s, I used those thin puck lights, but I over did it on lighting. But I made sure the bulbs were dimmable. I always have just the right amount of light for the task.
Thanks to all for your comments. I do have the lights divided up into two groups on different switches. Was at the local Home Depot store today and saw another offering they stock that I had overlooked. Want to take a closer look next week; may just buy one, bring it home and sample how it does in the space. I did notice that some of the cartons stated that they were dimmable. Had not even thought of this option - thanks for mentioning.
Will report back when I take a look at this "trial."
I went with these - flush mount to ceiling. I have always had at least 4 of these 4’ units per garage bay and have never found myself wanting for general lighting since
(10-29-2022, 01:17 PM)MichaelS Wrote: I went with these - flush mount to ceiling. I have always had at least 4 of these 4’ units per garage bay and have never found myself wanting for general lighting since
These look interesting. I have already pre-wired for direct hookup (two wall switches) so not sure they would work without modification. Price is certainly attractive.
I just completed my new shop which is 40 ft x 40 ft metal building. Insulation backing is bright white and the bottom of the shop is sheeted with plywood painted white. The eve height of the building is 12 ft but fixtures are hung at 9'-6". I have installed (17) 6724 lumen per fixture, spaced evenly. Lumen density is 77/ft sq or 77 fc
I have attached the recommendation lighting sheet as reference material. Recommended lighting for woodworking is between 60-80 Lumen/foot square. The end result is I have very even and bright work area.
I also ask others on the forum about lighting before I started and the theme that was in almost every response was install as much as you can.
As usual I'm a few days behind in responding. You might want to go shopping and find a few stores that have converted to LED and wander around for awhile and see if you have any ill effects from the LED lighting. For me it starts causing focus issues, when I first experienced it I thought I had some sort of bug coming on because I was somewhat sick to my stomach. Once I was out of the store I recovered fairly quickly. Took me awhile before I realized that it was the LED lighting. Basically the longer I am in it the more it effects me. I'm OK close in but say I look across the store. I get kind of nauseous and I can't focus on anything. I was told by a lighting guy that the LED lights can/do flicker in the 60 cycle wave, some people can see it while other cannot. I can't say that I see it per say but I can tell you that something about the light screws with me. It is actually somewhat controversial because those that can't see it think that those that can are crazy, yes I have been called crazy. Gym retrofit lights kill me....... The other thing that I was told by the same lighting guy, the light spectrum is is not quite the same as the later fluorescents were, no matter where you are in the spectrum the light is whiter. We played with some changeable color spectrum flat panels in our conference room at work. I cannot see a difference in the light output between warm and cool white, it all just looks like bright white, where with fluorescent bulbs I can see the color difference.
Dave
"Amateur Putzing in Shop." Northern Wood on Norm 5/07
"Dave's shop is so small you have to go outside to turn around" Big Dave on my old shop
So I built a new shop. (Picasa went away so did the link to the pictures)
Went with the LED lights from Home Depot in my original post (EnviroLite) - military discount helped. I installed them in the ceiling earlier this week and my electrician is coming out tomorrow to help me finish up the trim-out of all the receptacles, switches and install the breakers in the load centers, both single and three phase. Hopefully we'll "light up" everything tomorrow and see how it goes.
I've converted a few of the florescent units in my woodworking workshop with the LED kits from Home Depot and like the feel of the light. When I get these new ones energized will report back on the results.
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