Garage lighting: T5 vs T8, fixtures and ballasts

Curmudgeon wrote: If the walls in a shop can be painted white, damn does it ever make it brighter inside.

Ceiling as well. Don't underestimate how much of a difference a painted ceiling can make.

Make sure that the inexpensive T8 fixtures (especially shop lights) have T8 electronic ballast. Some have hybrid T12 / T8 magnetic ballast that do not perform as well or have the energy savings of a true electronic T8 ballast.

Also, for temporary lights you can always cut up a cheap 100' extension cord and add male plugs to make the cords on the lights long enough to get to accessible outlets.

In my barn I installed big metal reflectors on all the lights and it doubled the usable lighting at the expense of illumination where I can't use it. Super easy, screwed into the bulb bases and then the bulb screwed into it. Later I swapped 100w incandescent for 200w 'equivalent' cfls and 5 bulbs are enough for most anything in a dirt floor. 40x40 space.

Ian F wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: If the walls in a shop can be painted white, damn does it ever make it brighter inside.

Ceiling as well. Don't underestimate how much of a difference a painted ceiling can make.

For sure. My next shop is going to be semi gloss white walls and ceiling. I'm iffy on light gray epoxy floor paint, I'm really hard on it: grinders, welders, hot tires etc.

Curmudgeon wrote: For sure. My next shop is going to be semi gloss white walls and ceiling. I'm iffy on light gray epoxy floor paint, I'm really hard on it: grinders, welders, hot tires etc.

The floor is worth it, lighting-wise, even if you know you're going to ding it up. Also helps to keep dust down and makes clean-up easier. A few scratches and chips just add character and let folks know it's a shop where stuff gets built vs. a pretty showroom. Heck, look at videos of Leno's shop building (not the "garage" buildings) - the floor is beat to hell.

Curmudgeon wrote:

Ian F wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: If the walls in a shop can be painted white, damn does it ever make it brighter inside.

Ceiling as well. Don't underestimate how much of a difference a painted ceiling can make.

For sure. My next shop is going to be semi gloss white walls and ceiling. I'm iffy on light gray epoxy floor paint, I'm really hard on it: grinders, welders, hot tires etc.

I put in a light color porcelain tile. It holds up to all of those things as well as the engine block I (accidently) pushed over on it and the 60 lb bench vise that fell on it from about 4 feet. Wasn't all that expensive, either. About $3 per square foot, including all materials and labor.

Basil-

Pics Please!

Here is a pic of the garage right after the floor was finished. You can see some of the lighting, too, but most of it is obscured by the garage door from this angle.

Trans_Maro wrote: After doing some reading over on the Garage Journal, I ripped out all my fluorescents in my 25 x 25 shop and replaced them with four (yes, four) 105 watt CFL's. These things are supposedly the equivalent of 400 watts of incandescant light each. They're great, check it out: http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Studio-Photography-Fluorescent-Spectrum/dp/B005FRCUHY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hi_1 I've had them in for about 10 months now and no burn-outs yet. They work well in the cold too, -10c was no problem this winter, they take about 30 seconds to warm up fully when it's that cold. Shawn

What kind of power do they draw? Did you need a dedicated circuit?

In reply to jimbob_racing:

Umm... 105 watts each? Or about 4 amps total (bit less). You wouldn't want any large tools on the same circuit, but some small stuff should be ok.

That said, it's generally good practice to keep shop lighting on a separate circuit from other receptacles. That way if you do pop a breaker, there is less chance you'll be standing in the dark holding something dangerous.

I need to add lighting to my shop however I basically need to rewire the entire thing first. I have most of what I need to re do the wiring I just need to find time to get my buddy over that is an electrician.

Nice floor Basil.

Trans_Maro wrote: After doing some reading over on the Garage Journal, I ripped out all my fluorescents in my 25 x 25 shop and replaced them with four (yes, four) 105 watt CFL's. These things are supposedly the equivalent of 400 watts of incandescant light each. They're great, check it out: http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Studio-Photography-Fluorescent-Spectrum/dp/B005FRCUHY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hi_1 I've had them in for about 10 months now and no burn-outs yet. They work well in the cold too, -10c was no problem this winter, they take about 30 seconds to warm up fully when it's that cold. Shawn

Those are more efficient than T8 fixtures? Closest thing I found that listed lumens was this: http://www.growlightsupply.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_59_67&products_id=83

47 lumens/watt, or about 1/2 the efficiency of T8 fixtures. I do like the simplicity though. 4 of these would be roughly 7 times the light I currently have.

@ProDarwin: The 4 foot T8 bulbs put out ~1600 lumens so you would need 3 to match the CFL. Actually you would need 4 because I have never seen a 3 bulb fixture.

So it figures out that a 4 bulb T8 fixture would give you 25% more light and use ~25% less electricity. But it would take up ~90% more space.

In reply to Hal:

I think you are off a bit. A T8 is approx 3000 lumens per bulb. A standard 2 bulb fixture would put out 20% more light (6000 vs 5000) and use 39% less electricity (64 watts vs 105 watts). It would take up more space... on my ceiling, where space is not at a premium. Since the bulb in a socket is likely taller than the T8 fixture, its really at a space disadvantage as well.

@ProDarwin: Yep, I just did a quick search and came up with the 15 watt T8's.

From my GE lamp catalog:

T-5 normal - 28W - 2900 initial lumens; 2726 mean lumens* - 20K hr rated life
T-5 high-output- 54W - 5000 initial lumens; 4700 mean lumens - 20K hr rated life
T-8 - 32W - 2950 initial lumens; 2800 mean lumens - 20K hr rated life

(* mean lumens - average lumen output over the life of the lamp as output degrades over time)

However, there's more to it than the raw lumen output of the lamp - fixture flector design plays a very important role in how you light a given situation.

To be honest, while you can get the same raw lumen output using 4 lamps in a wide spacing, the lighting tends to be uneven. This is fine in a warehouse application - I do it all the time - but in bench-work applications where fine detail needs to be seen, I usually design for between 80-100 foot-candles at 30" A.F.F. with as even distribution as I can get. Linear fluorescent fixtures still rule here (although LED's are making headway, the fixtures are still too expensive).

Trans_Maro wrote: After doing some reading over on the Garage Journal, I ripped out all my fluorescents in my 25 x 25 shop and replaced them with four (yes, four) 105 watt CFL's. These things are supposedly the equivalent of 400 watts of incandescant light each. They're great, check it out: http://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Studio-Photography-Fluorescent-Spectrum/dp/B005FRCUHY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hi_1 I've had them in for about 10 months now and no burn-outs yet. They work well in the cold too, -10c was no problem this winter, they take about 30 seconds to warm up fully when it's that cold. Shawn

Ho.Lee.Crap.

These are amazing. Unscrewed the single 100 watt incandescent over my workbench. Screwed one of these in. It doesn't even look like the same room.

CLH wrote: I've been looking at this as well since I'm bringing a new garage up to viable "workshop" spec. I had been planning on five 4-tube (8' tandems) T8 fixtures, but the CFL stuff is intriguing. The recipe seems to be this + this + this. My concern is how far they would protrude downward from a 10' ceiling. I'm afraid I'd smash one by mistake at some point if I'm not extra careful.

I needed to do something in the 20x20 garage at my new house and was looking for something quick and inexpensive. I figured that I'd give the above idea a try since I already had two porcelain light fixtures installed in the garage.

Wow! What a difference. I cannot believe how easy it was to make such a huge improvement. I bought a total of four bulbs and I'm going to install the other two (wire in new fixtures) in the near future and have to get the full effect.

I highly recommend these lights.