Affordable shop upgrade: Paint & Lights!

[Patrice Lemée]

From time to time I see shops with what looks to be poor lighting and dark walls. I think good lighting is essential and one of the cheapest upgrade you can do to your shop. A bright white paint on the walls and ceiling will also help lighten up the place. What made me think of posting about this is the fact that even though my shop is pretty well lit (or so I thought), I added another fluorescent fixture last week and realized how much it was needed afterwards. It was not even 20$ including the 2 fluorescent tubes. Now if I could only find cheap adjustable task lights. The ones they sell in the stores now usually only take 75W light bulbs max.

Here is shot of my lights. I have:
7 fluorescent lights (2 tubes)
5 adjustable task lights
And as you can see, I have a small shop.

I even need one more fluorescent and a few task lights.

 

[12345678910]

Now if I could only find cheap adjustable task lights. The ones they sell in the stores now usually only take 75W light bulbs max.

White paint is said to reflect 85% or something like that.

I like those compact fluorescents in 6500K daylight, They call them 150 watt equivalent, but the actual wattage is 20 someting, so you're not stressing the switches and wires.

They are fragile if you give them a whack with something.


I've tried halogen lamps too, but the high heat killed one fixture with a plastic socket/switch and made me nervous.
Now I skip those lamps and make sure I use ceramic based fixtures.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

I just today got 4 replacement fixtures with 4, 4ft fluorescent tubes each. They will be replacing older 2 tube 8 ft. fixtures.

 

[GrizzlyBear]

A friend of mine recently relit his shop using those compact fluorescent bulbs. Bought fixtures for them and placed them like every 3'. Then he used the 100W equivilent bulbs which have like a 25W draw. It's bright...too say the least. And doesn't draw ridiculous power. They come on in cold weather too without having to have that special ballast some shop do, just takes a bit to get up to full brightness.

 

[Big Chris]

I have been tossing around the idea of replacing my single light with some flourescent tube fixtures.
Will they work well even with low ceiling height. I don't think my shop ceiling is quite 8'?

 

[dperk]

The more lights, the better. They don't always have to draw a lot of power and heat up the shop.

If you are concerned with cost to run or heat, there is always LED lighting. I have replaced one of my fixtures with these:

4 foot LED tube

They cost more, but run very low consumption. This 4' bulb is 17w and uses 300 LEDs. They are easy to swap, you just open the fixture and bypass the ballast. LED tubes run straight wall power and put off next to no heat.

In my experience, they put light more directly down and less spread due to the LED chip not having any lens really.

Just another option for lights if you want low energy draw w/o heat.

 

[JGarrison Knives]

I need more light bad, I barely have the headroom.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

I like those compact fluorescents in 6500K daylight, They call them 150wat equivalent, but the actual wattage is 20someting...

Gotta take a look at those Sam. Maybe they would work in the cheap 75W adjustable fixtures? I know they are a little longer than incandescent lights so they may stick out too much. But then a baffle would be easy enough to make. Thanks

Chris, my ceiling is also not quite 8' and the fluorescent tube fixtures works great. They provide small chains to hang them from and you can hang them real close to the ceiling like I do.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

My shop is bright, I have shop lights overlapping each other and doubled up over workstations. I use a mix of cool and warm bulbs; the mixed spctrum makes it easy to see what is going on. I also have lights for each tool but am working on a better one for grinding as my current one isn't working out...

Flat white is the most reflective but tougher to clean that satin.

Good stuff Patrice! It is easy to overlook the cheap upgrades. I try to buy a new shop light every few trips to the hardware store as they are so inexpensive.

 

[Gary Mulkey]

I'll agree that fluorescent lighting is an inexpensive means of general lighting. If it is for your blade finishing area however, I would go with incandecent or halogen lighting. Fluorescent lighting is intermittant by nature and makes it harder to see fine scratches (I know from first hand experience). When I had fluorescent lights above my finish bench I would often go to a show that had good lighting and say, "Where'd all of those scratches come from?". Just a thought .

Gary

 

[Hengelo_77]

I like white and I like light

Aluminum foil used in the kitchen adhered on mdf is a good and cheap way to reflect light

I

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Aluminum foil used in the kitchen adhered on mdf is a good and cheap way to reflect light

Great idea! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Britt_Askew]

I removed a 8' florescent light with 75w bulbs and installed 2 - 6500k daylight 100w compact florescent blubs and the 8" lights were brighter. I have been thinking about changing back to the 8" lights.

 

[JCaswell]

This thread is right on!:thumbup:
Very easy and important way to improve your performance.


At the risk of sounding like Martha Stewart, I'll admit I chose "Swiss Coffee" in eggshell for the shop.
The reason for "Swiss Coffee" is it's a good neutral color (true white is way too jarring. It's what I'm replacing after more than 10 years--some of my shop is still in white), "Swiss Coffee" is repeatable (if you need more, you just call it by name at Home Depot), and eggshell is good because it's not shiny/reflective, but it's easier to clean than flat.

For lights, I love these new-generation fluorescent R65 replacements. They put out lots of light and all the lights in these pictrues together account for about 310w. There's no way I'd be able to run all these bulbs incandescent without special switches and rewiring.--Not to mention the heat. They last a long time and the light from these new ones really look like incandescent. They're cheap at Costco in 3-packs.
I'm looking forward to LEDs once they get cheaper.

It's best to have your finish area next to a window. Nothing beats natural light. I find fluorescent sufficient in conjunction with natural in the finish area.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

That "Swiss Coffee" looks great. I will probably use something like that if I build my dream shop one day. White works well but as you say, a tad bright. Good thing that my shop is so small that I don't have much showing.
Thanks for sharing.