How do you guys have your garage lighting setup?

As many and and bright as possible. The "industry standard" for industrial lighting is 100 ft candles (a foot candle is 1 lumen per sq foot). I did about 120 ft candles in my barn when I built it. It also matters how diffuse the light is and how tall your ceiling is

For my 720 sq foot barn with a 10 foot ceiling, it equaled 8, four bulb, T5 florescent fixtures. Its REALLY nice to have that much light. I have very few shadows.
 
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yeah my garage is decently sized for a 1 car i'd say 14ft wide by 22-24ft deep. I am sure these 4 will be sufficient for my needs and wont overload the current breaker as it is a 30a circuit. I will in the spring be upgrading to a 50a circuit as I will eventually have a welder out there and my in house breaker box is a 200A already so I don't have to worry about upgrading that either.
 
I did something similar in my garage. I converted all my 4" fluorescent fixtures to LED by pulling the ballasts and rewiring the terminals. I really liked the outcome. With the reduced current draw of LED, I was able to install a few more fixtures.


As many and and bright as possible. The "industry standard" for industrial lighting is 100 ft candles (a foot candle is 1 lumen per sq foot). I did about 120 ft candles in my barn when I built it. It also matters how diffuse the light is and how tall your ceiling is
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I agree about more is better, especially as I get older, I need more light. I really like the light quality of LED compared to fluorescent. 20 years ago they remodeled my office and put in new T8 fluorescent fixtures. It hurt my eyes, so I removed every other bulb.

I've done a few lighting designs for my clients and used the IEEE lighting standards. There are/were some nice on-line lighting calculators hosted by several lighting manufacturers. You enter the room size, ceiling height and pick a fixture. The graphic output would show the lumen output in different areas.
 
Mike_H said:
As many and and bright as possible. The "industry standard" for industrial lighting is 100 ft candles (a foot candle is 1 lumen per sq foot). I did about 120 ft candles in my barn when I built it. It also matters how diffuse the light is and how tall your ceiling is

For my 720 sq foot barn with a 10 foot ceiling, it equaled 8, four bulb, T5 florescent fixtures. Its REALLY nice to have that much light. I have very few shadows.
Click to expand...

@Mike_H is correct. If you want effective lighting you need to have enough fixtures to "erase" shadows. I ordered these from Sam's club and am very impressed with the quality for the price.

https://www.samsclub.com/p/linkable-10pk/prod21062241?xid=plp_product_1_2
 
Apparition said:
LED’s are the only option
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Now they seem to be. 5 years ago, when I built my shop, the output wasn't there. I would have had to run triple the fixtures to get the same light output I have from my florescent lights. Plus, florescent bulbs illuminate light around the whole tube, which means you can reflect light back down, which increases output. LED is directional, so you need more fixturess for the same output (or did).

If I were doing it now, I'd go LED too.
 
My wife is the kind of person who keeps all the lights turned off, and I am the complete opposite. She follows me around turning lights off all day and night. I tried to install nice bright shop lights in the garage. But we compromised and did what she wanted instead.

I use this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DCNS9YX/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
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A pair of twin tube, 4 foot fluorescent fixtures. I'll upgrade to LED some day.

The ones I really miss from a former residence were a pair of triple tube, 4 foot fluorescents "Bathtub" fixtures. Those were VERY nice, but they haven't been made in 60+ years. I'd love to find another pair and convert them to LED. They probably weight 40 lbs each!
 
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tworley said:
I am still incredibly happy with the prime lights. I'll buy these again in a heartbeat when we move
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That’s good to hear. I’m very satisfied with them as well.
In fact I have three more sitting in my garage waiting to be installed.

I have a rather large ceiling crack to repair. After that I’ll paint the ceiling and then install the new lights. Just as soon as it quits being 110+🔥🔥🔥
 
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Shop came with 9 ceramics the PO adapted florecents to. Changed five to 100 watt LED bulbs, four to the winged LEDs that Home Despot sells and three Maximma 4 foot LED for workbench lighting.

IMG_1720.JPG
 
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