Shop Lights

[JTknives]

I'm getting ready to order my lights for the new shop and thought I would just double check with you guys to make sure I'm not over or under thinking this task.

My shop is 20ft wide by 40ft long and I love light. My last shop had one light in the middle and then a bunch of extension cords running to clamp lights on the rafters. Thy where CF bulbs and I hated them. Slow to warm up when it's cold. So my plan is to go all LED like the house. Being that the shop is 40ft long it has the trusses spaced every 10ft which gives me 4 10ft bays. My thought is to use 8ft tube lights between each bay. Each 8ft light would hold 4 4ft led tubes at 2200 lumens each and 5000k at 90+CRI. I'm thinking of running them parallel off the wall 40ft walls and 5ft away. This would be close to being over the benches. This would mean I would have a total of 32 tube lights putting out 2200 lumens each. My only concern is will it light the center well or be dim.

The other option is to add a 3rd string down the center with another 4 8ft tube fixtures. This would bring the total to 48 bulbs with an output of 105,600 lumens and 132 lumens per square ft. I could put this middle string on a separate switch so I can turn it off when forging.

I know the general consensus is your shop can't have to much light but when is enough enough. Especially in this case that 3rd string adds a good chunk of change to the cost. If I'm not going to be happy with just the 2 then I will pony up and go all out.

Thanks guys.

 

[Augus7us]

From what I've read on GJ everyone seems to prefer LEDs. The only drawback is or was price. I just bought a new place myself with a big shop on it and I'll be revisiting this subject in the near future. If I had to make a decision right now this is my preference in order of cost: LEDs, LEDs with supplemental T5's, finally T5's. My hope is the LEDs have come down in price since last i looked at them, then I'll go all LEDs.

-Clint

 

[JTknives]

Thy have come down a lot and I honestly don't see how thy make them for the price thy do. The fixtures I'm looking at are $25 each and the bulbs are $250 per 24 pack. It puts me just under $1000 if I do all 3 strips of lights with 48 bulbs. You can find cheeper bulbs but thy are 1600 lumens and the CRI is much lower but you can find them for like $6 each. I found some really good rated bulbs with a 5 year warinty for customer happiness lol

 

[mete]

Always remember the basics " Decent overall lights and various work lights " With the LEDs you also have to decide the K color temp .

 

[Wowbagger]

I'm getting ready to order my lights for the new shop and thought I would just double check with you guys to make sure I'm not over or under thinking this task.

My shop is 20ft wide by 40ft long and I love light. My last shop had one light in the middle and then a bunch of extension cords running to clamp lights on the rafters. Thy where CF bulbs and I hated them. Slow to warm up when it's cold. So my plan is to go all LED like the house. Being that the shop is 40ft long it has the trusses spaced every 10ft which gives me 4 10ft bays. My thought is to use 8ft tube lights between each bay. Each 8ft light would hold 4 4ft led tubes at 2200 lumens each and 5000k at 90+CRI. I'm thinking of running them parallel off the wall 40ft walls and 5ft away. This would be close to being over the benches. This would mean I would have a total of 32 tube lights putting out 2200 lumens each. My only concern is will it light the center well or be dim.

The other option is to add a 3rd string down the center with another 4 8ft tube fixtures. This would bring the total to 48 bulbs with an output of 105,600 lumens and 132 lumens per square ft. I could put this middle string on a separate switch so I can turn it off when forging.

I know the general consensus is your shop can't have to much light but when is enough enough. Especially in this case that 3rd string adds a good chunk of change to the cost. If I'm not going to be happy with just the 2 then I will pony up and go all out.

Thanks guys.

I have found the walls, ceiling, benches, even the floor color (white vs dark ) has a huge amount to do with how well I can see and work.

Take a look at this work space. <<<<<<< link. Once you get to the web site wait for the slide show to start and look at the ones with the white floor.

I can throw a rock and hit this school from where I live and have been there. It is like walking into a space ship or operating theater. Call these guys and discuss lighting.
THEY GOT IT DOWWWWWWN !

 

[kuraki]

Are you going to put up white steel in the interior? That drastically improves lighting conditions.

I would probably do the two runs you plan on but leave a junction box available for the middle in case you want to add in the future. Unless you're getting a deal now buying all at once it's not much work to add them later.

 

[Wowbagger]

Always remember the basics " Decent overall lights and various work lights " With the LEDs you also have to decide the K color temp .

Hahaha I haven't studied it much but check out the dif in the color of my work bench when I went from incandescents to high efficiency florescence (the twisty ones that screw into an incandescent socket).

Guess that's why they call it "purple heart" wood.

 

[tim37a]

Costco has 4' LED shop lights which look pretty good. I have a bunch of them which I'm hoping to get up in the next week or so. Will let you know how they work.
Tim

 

[Geoff Flato]

Painting the walls of your shop white makes a huge difference. I've always liked the big 4 tube florescents myself, but LEDs would probably be even better. I still have a desk lamp with an led flood light bulb on every machine, and at the benches.
You definitely seem to be on the right track, should be quite a nice shop

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Again- paint the walls and ceiling white.

 

[Will52100]

First thing I did when I built my shop was to paint the walls and celling bright white. My shop is 24'x30', and my lights are two fluorescent high output 8' fixtures, 2 bulbs to each fixture. That combined with a bunch of swing arm lamps provides plenty of light. I checked about a year or so ago about going with LED's, but they are still to expensive. The HO fluorescents are not as good as they were 15 years or so ago when I worked in the sign business, but bulbs and ballast are a lot cheaper now than they used to be too.

 

[12345678910]

I tried some new T8 tube fluorescent

There is almost instant on in the cold.

I prefer the 6500K colour blue white daylight - that colour seems to add more brightness for me.


Lights do lose output with age and use.
Hydroponic users will replace tubes yearly

85% ish reflected light with white paint


Windows still give the best light, put your benches there.

 

[Hengelo_77]

Aluminum foil (like you use in a kitchen) reflects a lot of light!

 

[jdm61]

I don't know about the tube bulbs, but the "regular" LED bulbs are heavy as hell.

 

[Adam Buttry]

I put T5 HO fixtures/bulbs in my shop and I've been more than pleased with them so far. I got the fixtures at Home Depot and the bulbs at fullspectrumsolutions.com

93+ CRI, 5900 Kelvin, and 5200 Lumens PER BULB.

 

[LCoop]

Any good electrical supply shop should be able to print out a layout of lighting with height and lumen output at your work bench height! LED no doubt no doubt. I'll say it again LED. The price is down to beyond reasonable now a days and incredibly better that Fluorescent. FYI there is ONLY one country that makes florescent fixtures and bulbs and as a hint it's not America and it starts with the letter C. Sams etc is selling 4 foot strip lights for $35 but some are available for $25 if you shop around. Problem is with the cheaper models they are plug and cord connect and not hard wireable but that's a easy enough fix.

 

[JTknives]

That's good specs on a bulb. I never thought about going T5 I just was thinking t8 led replacements. I also like the upper high 5K range and the high CRI is really nice. You might have opened my mind a little bit. I was dead set on LEDS becaus I thought florcents where a thing of the past and lacking. My only issue is cold start up. I don't heat my shop when im not in it so my CF lights took forever to warm up and get bright. Thank you

 

[Adam Buttry]

I was against fluorescents as well, because I had been using T12s in my old shop and hated them. However, while building my new shop and researching what lighting to go with, I came across the full spectrum website. Using their bulbs as a reference, I started comparing to every LED I could find. NONE of them even came close to matching the lumen output of the T5 HOs which was critical for my needs. Not to mention the other impressive specs as well. After a year of use, I can safely recommend them. Instant on with no cold start issues. The only "con" I've found is the RF interference. No worries though as I mainly listen to Pandora or Spotify in the shop. My shop is 14' x 14'. I used the 4' 2-bulb fixtures. 5 fixtures, total of 10 bulbs. This gives me approximately 265 Lumens per square foot.

 

[JTknives]

This is what I want as concerned about using Florcents