Garage / shop lighting

Put some of your lights above the benches, if you are standing over your bench, your body will create a shadow. I have the problem in my workshop now, 24x48, it has 9 pairs of 4' florescnets and it is ok for light but the benches are not lit enough so I had to add separate lights over each bench. Also LED's come in 2 configurations, one is omnidirectional light, the other is focused. The Focused do not have any frosting on the light tubes, they are like a spot light, the omnidirectional are a frosted light like a florescent. The omnidirectional will reflect light off of your ceiling if your fixtures do not have reflectors. Good lighting is not just thowing fixtures up, it take someone to look at everything you will do or may do in your garage and light placement is part of that equasion. Tim

Another thing to consider is putting your lights wider than your vehicle, if they are over the top, it will shadow underneath the vehicle, if it is more along the wall, it will help shine under it. I need to play with putting a light in the corner between the wall and ceiling, pointing generally down but also towards the center of the floor.

I agree with this. It's kind of like lighting a kitchen with over head lights and task lighting under all of the cabinets. In my 20'x20'x9' garage I have six 4' double T8 fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling, 1of the same on both of the overhead door rails, 2 of the same over 10' main bench, a directional spot light over by welding bench, direct lights over my man door, parts washer, shop press and air compressor cubby, 2 halogen spot lights in my blast cabinet ... I think that's it. I actually think I need to add some! lol
 
Put some of your lights above the benches, if you are standing over your bench, your body will create a shadow. I have the problem in my workshop now, 24x48, it has 9 pairs of 4' florescnets and it is ok for light but the benches are not lit enough so I had to add separate lights over each bench.

I'll have to come up with something else for bench lighting. My overhead shelves and cupboards won't allow me to get a light mounted directly above. Maybe some under cabinet lighting or actual led strips mounted underneath the shelf
 
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Before:

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With 4 LEDs up:

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I still have two more to put up. As you can see the big hole in the ceiling needs repaired first (water damage). This is a million a times brighter. Thanks @strumble8 for walking me thru it all!
 
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Now I can stand in here and bang wrenches together like my wife says I do. I'll paint the walls this summer, and maybe someday epoxy the floor. I also need to cover up the original electrical outlet. Right now it's open and I want to cover it
 
Let see, you have a few things left :) sell the golf clubs: buy jeep parts! Repeat with Motorcycle...move dog bed into house, put grill on back porch or make a bumper mount for it...
 
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A friend of mine in Tulsa has a small shop he restores minis in.
He purchased some budget minded led shop lights and declared they were plenty bright for his needs.
Since he is a dear friend of mine, I sent him, as a gift, a Big Ass Solutions or also known as Big Ass Fans LED 15kw shop light.
He said it makes his budget lights look dim.
I have 3 in my garage, spendy? Yes. I am at the point in my life where I prefer quality over quantity.
 
Last year I replaced my garage 4’ fluorescent fixtures with 4’ LED models from Home Depot. Incredible difference. Really happy that I took care of this project.
 
So far I am very happy with the PrimeLights. I have had no troubles seeing the last few days while working on my bike with just the four lights up. My wife came into the garage and said "its actually to bright in here...".

Heres a shot of the water pump on my motorcycle, flash is off on my camera. The overhead lights are actually on the other side of the bike (wait till I have the other two up!)
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My bench still needs additional lighting due to the overhead shelves but I have a tropher light that I plan to utilize for that. It will also be tied into the overhead LEDs with the leftover FMC I have.
 
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