?s on shop lighting

[Jim O'Dell]

Hi all,

Alright, I think everyone has convinced me to go with the T8 florescent lights. I will probably add some can spots for task lighting above certain tools. I need to recess my florescents into the ceiling because of low ceiling height (I've temporarily scrapped the idea of raising the roof...will wait for a good hail storm or tree limb to fall and let the insurance company help me buy materials). What length units have you used? 4' with 4 lights, or 8' with 2? I was hoping to find some either with metal grates, or open with the ability to make some metal grates for them. Or will the light be too harsh? Do the plastic difusers hold up ok as long as they don't get hit too hard? Anyone found a cheap source on line, or are the box stores about the best price around when shipping is factored in? Thanks for your ideas. If the LOML will let me out the back door, I'm gonna spend the day cleaning all the junk out of the soon-to-be-shop, and get started. Jim.

[Bob Reeve]

I bought all of my fixtures from HD. They accept either T8 0r T12 and came with the plastic cover. They were 4' x 2 bulbs. I have 7 of them and I couldn't be happier. I used T8

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jim....I bought surface mount fixtures....4' T-8s ....4 bulbs per fixture with a solid state ballast. There's an interesting article I purchased and downloaded from FWW that deals with shop lighting. I purchased my fixtures from the Depot. What was interesting.....you could buy a 2 bulb 4' bulb T-8 surface mounted fixture (fixture length 4') for $39...IIRC and a 4-4' bulb T-8 surface mounted fixture (fixture length 8')for $42......ie....buying the 4-4' bulb fixture reduced my lighting costs considerably. Both units used the same solid state ballast. Even with the reduced costs of buying the 4 bulb fixture it cost me over $500 (fixtures and bulbs) to light my shop. Even though they are surface mount, they only hang down about 4" from the ceiling. One thing you should look into before making your decision is the cost and availibilty of bulbs. You might consider getting the FWW article before making the jump into lighting....it gives some really good information and recommendations on designing shop lighting taking into account, ceiling height, work surface height and users age.......

Good luck with your project!

[Steve Cox]

I used T-12s before I knew better and have 10 4' x 2 bulb fixtures in my 500 sq ft shop. I don't have any task lighting and the only place I think I might need it is on the bandsaw and that needs to be ON the bandsaw not a can above it. The biggest thing that made a difference in lighting for me was bulbs. I am using "chroma 50" bulbs which translates to 5000 degrees K color temperature but has various names depending on manufacturer. They are more expensive initially but are cheaper than using incandescents. The light is really bright to my eyes almost twice as bright as "cool white" bulbs.

[Frank Pellow]

Having just experimented with three alternatives, I am going with twin T8s in 4 foot surface mounted fixtures. The fixtures are covered with plastic but I expect to, eventualy, replace this with metal grids that I make myself. There will be 11 fixtures in my 470 square foot shop. No task lighting is currently planned but I might add it later.

I am investing in C-50 bulbs which are expensive but are worth it to me. They have a relatively high CRI (colour rendition index) of 85. By comparison"warm white" is 53, "cool white" is 62, and daylight is 100.

[Jim O'Dell]

Thanks for the info so quickly!! I should have stated that the shop is about 450 sq ft. (20 X 24 slab). the ceiling is 7' 7". Still don't understand why they built it that way. Sounds like most went with the 4' lights.
Frank, if you did 11 fixtures at 470 sq ft, that should work for me. Do you feel you get good coverage?
Ken, thanks for the FWW info. I'll look into ordering that this evening. Sounds like it will have some good info.

Thanks again! Jim

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks for the info so quickly!! I should have stated that the shop is about 450 sq ft. (20 X 24 slab). the ceiling is 7' 7". Still don't understand why they built it that way. Sounds like most went with the 4' lights.
Frank, if you did 11 fixtures at 470 sq ft, that should work for me. Do you feel you get good coverage?
Ken, thanks for the FWW info. I'll look into ordering that this evening. Sounds like it will have some good info.

Thanks again! Jim

I think that I am going to get excellent coverage but, since I have not actually installed all the lights yet, this is just a theory. By the way, I also have 3 skylights and 3 incandescent lights. The flourescent lights are on 4 different switches so that I can vary the amount of lighting to suit the circumstances.

Some others that I have talked to think that I have too many lights (). No one thinks I have too few.

[Steve Cox]

Just a follow up to Frank's post. My shop is 20 x 25 with 10' ceilings. I also have a 16' wide garage door with windows across the top and a side door with a window. My coverage is excellent with the ten fixtures I have installed and I don't have a need for extras. I actually worked in the shop for almost two years with 8 fixtures and unpainted drywall and found very little need for auxilary light (I had one over the lathe and one on the bandsaw). I added two to eliminate some shadows in the corners and also painted the ceiling white and the walls beige. Mine are all on one circuit since I much prefer to work in a very bright shop as opposed to one with shadows except where I'm working. The chroma 50 bulbs make a HUGE difference.

[Norman Hitt]

Mine are all on one circuit since I much prefer to work in a very bright shop as opposed to one with shadows except where I'm working. The chroma 50 bulbs make a HUGE difference.

If you Never work at night in the shop, I guess one circuit for all the lights would be OK, but I would be very hesitant to work at night with all the lights on only one circuit. With my luck, and the never ending presence of "Mr Murphy", some unknown thing would surely trip the Light circuit breaker during the middle of a cut, and I don't think I would like being in that situation with the saw still buzzing away and me in the dark pushing wood through it. I guess I just don't feel as Bullit Proof in my old age as I once did. Even just one Incandescent burning would be better than being in the dark.

Cheers, and "Saw Safe"..........Norm

[Randy Meijer]

Hi all,

What length units have you used? 4' with 4 lights, or 8' with 2? .....

Unless you have a very unique set of circumstances.....like a source of free fixtures or bulbs......stay away from 8 footers. Bulbs are hard to find, hard to transport, hard to change, hard to dispose of and more expensive to purchase.

[Jim O'Dell]

Unless you have a very unique set of circumstances.....like a source of free fixtures or bulbs......stay away from 8 footers. Bulbs are hard to find, hard to transport, hard to change, hard to dispose of and more expensive to purchase.

Thanks, I hadn't priced them out. I'm used to doing 8 footers,from previous work places, and I have a Ford E250 extended cargo van, so transport s not a problem. Dumpsters at work make disposal easy. But if an 8 footer is more expensive than 2- 4 footers, then it would be a disadvantage. I'll double check when I go to HD in a bit. I had planned on getting wood and starting to enclose the covered porch on the shop building, but it's raining and the porch is wet on the 3 exposed sides. Maybe I'll buy the supplies and store them so I won't have to waste "working" time to get supplies on a pretty day.
Ko,.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jim....two things I did in my new shop you might want to consider.....while you're wiring....wire in a couple of extra outlet boxes into your switched lighting circuits. Later if you need to add additional lights incandescent or fluorescent they can just be plugged into the outlets. I placed all of my lighting on 2 circuits (my shop is 720 sq. ft.). The local code inspector said I could add all the extra boxes I wanted to the lighting circuits. I also placed some extra boxes near the walls so that later if I wanted I could add some strip lights over any non-moveable assembly bench or add lights for "side lighting" a project when finishing. 2ndly, as stated above, don't put all of your lighting on one circuit....if something should fail...short...trip a breaker you are not left with a "running" power tool...in the dark.

Good Luck!

[Steve Cox]

While I can understand the idea of redundant lighting ckts, what is the likelihood? I put all the lights on their own dedicated ckt and hardwired them in just to prevent anything else from affecting that ckt. While we're at it, shouldn't we install a separate panel with a dedicated feed because if something shorts the panel we don't want the lights to go out? I feel pretty comfortable with my one lighting ckt. It would take something pretty unusual to take down the lights and I do have a light to turn on (garage door) if they go down. I can get away from a TS in the dark and I'm sure not going to be running any more boards through it at that time. The TS would be the only tool I can really think of that might be a problem to get away from in the dark. A better solution imho would be to install a knee operated panic switch that you could hit instantly to shut things down. That would take care of the dark problem and also be very useful at all times in the shop. We can't prepare for every eventuality and couldn't afford it if we could. Be reasonable, be safe, and enjoy the shop!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Steve....I'm not trying to get into a heated discussion .....ballasts....electromagnetic and solid state short.....all we are talking about is an extra single circuit breaker.......to each his own.......Jim ...Good luck with your decisions and project!

[Steve Cox]

Ken,

I'm certainly not trying to get into a heated discussion either, just re-read the post and I can see where that might have come across. Sorry. I'm sitting here writing with a little baby on my lap and she and I both had a very long night. I'm not at my best right now . There are many differences of opinion regarding how best to set up a shop and how good tools need to be etc. I guess what I was trying to get across is that there seems to be an attitude permeating the hobby side of woodworking (I don't see it as much from professionals) that tools and shops have to achieve a level of perfection that prices many people out of the hobby. I used to think it was a local phenomenon due to the large number of Boeing engineers in the area but it seems to be more widespread than that. Regarding lighting, the standard used to be run some extra boxes, then plug in a few shop lights. Then it became that you needed to have lights on a seperate ckt for safety. Now for safety you need to have more than one seperate ckt. Each upgrade in safety costs a little more, and taken with the same upgrades in dust collection, etc, really drives up the cost of woodworking especially as a hobby. I don't have an answer for all this as I like my new bright lights and I need all the dust collection I can get as I am an asthmatic. It's just something Iwanted to throw out there to think about. Once again, sorry if I offended.