Shop lighting layout

[Michael Cummins]

I have researched a ton, and read the sticky article posted here, among many others, about how to best light my shop. I feel that some of the recommendations are over the top as far as required lighting levels, but have tried to consider them and incorporate a couple stages of lighting to allow for more/less as needed desired in case I'm wrong or my needs change over time.

Anyway,

I'm in the process of building a new shop, and wondering what people think of this lighting plan. Its based on 4' LED strip lights, probably about 3200 lumens at 4000K, or something similar. Basing that off some Commercial Electric ones I've used from HD, but am open to other suggestions.



White lights in the pic I was thinking would be the main lighting circuit, with the grey ones on a separate switch, so I could do higher or lower level of light as desired, but without getting too complicated with the wiring, etc.

I thought wrapping the entire room with strips would give a nice pleasing wall wash and make all wall workspaces well and evenly lit. I also took the sides further into the corners than just making a box, to try to avoid a dark corner.

Think all relevant dimensions are marked in the pic, other than that the ceilings will be 9' high, and the perimeter lights are at 3' from the walls.

Also, this is a 2nd floor above a garage (urban area, only way to get a decent space and we really need the garage for cars - crazy I know)... so there is no concern of dust collection piping getting in the way of closely spaced lights. It will be run inside the floor trusses and come up through the floor to each machine, with cyclone in the back corner of garage.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc from the more experienced out there? This will be my first proper shop space, want to get it as close to perfect as possible from the get go. Nice thing with these kind of lights is they're plug in and use linking cords, so can be rearranged a bit as necessary - but would be nice to get something that works well from the beginning.

Thanks everyone!

[Peter Christensen]

You have almost twice the illumination that I have in my 23.5' x 27' (inside dimension) shop with scissor truss ceiling, so 9' along 2 walls and 11' along the peak. I have 5', 4000 lumen, 6000K LED lights direct on the ceiling in 4 rows of 4, parallel to the peak. 16 in total bought direct form China. Rows 1 and 3 on one switch and 2 and 4 on the other. There are no shadows or dark areas and I like them but some tell me they are too bright. They can wear sunglasses. You might want to consider making 3 or 4 circuits to divide the lighting to allow a broader range of illumination.

[Jim Becker]

I like your design as I've become a believer in "flooding" the workspace with light since I did my LED conversation in the past year. It makes a big difference for me, for sure. The only task lighting I need/use is at the bandsaw and (sometimes) at the lathe. Otherwise, I have light pretty much everywhere with limited or no shadowing.

[Michael Cummins]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply. Looks like you have 64,000 lumens at 6000K in a shop of 635 sq ft. The drawing above is 67,200 on the main circuit, plus an additional 19,200 on the second, in almost the exact same square footage (when you factor in that little extra space in top right corner). So we're roughly in the same ballpark (with my main circuit only), other than your ceilings being a bit different and your 6000K temp. You like it that cool? I have a hard time imagining working in that cool of light. In my house, anything over 3000K bothers me, and I prefer 2700. 4k was a compromise to get closer to daylight, plus my workbench will be near the big windows at bottom so should have lots of natural light when I need it. Would you go 6k again if you were buying now? I def won't go higher than 5k, but thinking I'll stick with 4k ATM.

The main thing I was looking for in the setup was good even distribution with no dark spots (so more fixtures at lower output/fixture), and trying to factor in the recommendations for 50-100 FC at work surface height. I just can't imagine needing anywhere near that much, but figured I'd shoot higher than I think I need rather than lower. How far from your outside walls are your first/last row of lights? Do you get good lighting there without shadowing issues at that spacing?

I've been trying to think of how to split up that design into more circuits as well, without going nuts on the wiring. Plan is for that ceiling to be suspended on a Resilient channel to help a bit with sound transmission, then surface mounted outlets and plug in linkable light fixtures. Wiring it up this way would be pretty easy on the 2 circuits, but haven't been able to figure out a way to divide up the lighting more without wiring like 20 outlets on my ceiling... any thoughts of how to do that? Was considering alternating lights on separate circuits, but would require a ton of outlets, or a ton of 6foot linking cables to bypass the next light in the row... might not be a terrible idea if I could figure out how to get it set up just right...

[Michael Cummins]

Hi Jim,

Fellow PA-er here, but I'm on that other side of the state (Pittsburgh).

Thanks for the input. Do you know about how many lumens you have for the square footage of your shop? Did you go the 5000K plus temperature route?

[Peter Christensen]

Your right about the lumens. For some reason I was calculating 4000 lumens per fixture for you.

I have no problem with the 6000K because it is very close to the kelvins of noonday sun. I would get them again without any hesitation. The lower kelvins are fine when you want to hang around in the house but for working in I prefer the colours to be closer to midday light and not morning/evening light. With the 8 windows in my shop there isn't a noticeable transition between bright window light and the shop light. Everyone is different and I suspect their might be some Neanders that like to work under candle and oil lamps.

The rows of lights are about 4' from the walls and peak with about 8' between the two. Something like wall, 4' | 8' | 4' ^ 4' | 8' | 4' wall, if that makes sense to you. The 5' tubes linked with the provided connectors total 20' so there is a couple feet at each end before the walls. Someday I'll paint the place white benefit from the reflectance. One thing you need to be aware of is that the lights will have a limit to how many can be linked together. Mine would be 5 of the 5' and more of the shorter and fewer of longer. It was 20,000 lumen total through the first fixture.

I have a pair of switches by the door and the lights are wired into a box at the end of the row nearest the door so the wiring was simpler and cheaper for the electricians to set up. You could do the same with 5 or 6 rows on 3 switches across the room. All horizontal as viewed in the drawing. With that many lights they can all run in the same direction. You don't need to have a set running close to each wall as you would have the end of two or three lights above you anywhere you stand.

[Thomas Crawford]

I just did mine. I have 44 LED tubes @ 2340 lumens in about 480 sq ft. I'm a nerd and did the electrical myself so I put them on 5 different switches. I don't ever plan to have them all on at the same time. I also have 12' ceilings, the calculators I found online seem to say I'll have between 80-100 lux at bench height.

[Gary Radice]

Assuming that you will be working at benches or machines that are up against the perimeter walls, you might consider moving the perimeter lights a bit closer to those walls. The reason being that if you are standing, say, 2.5 feet from the wall to work at a 2 ft deep bench, then with the lights at 3 feet from the wall they will be behind your head, and your hands and whatever you are working on will be partly in your shadow. In other words, you might want to mount those lights directly over the benches or machines that are against the walls. That would also increase the amount of light reflected from the walls.

In my shop, the lights are 2.5 feet from the walls and I find it works fine.

[Michael Cummins]

Peter, thanks for clarifying and the extra info. Yes, the layout makes sense. How has the lights being 4' from the walls worked out for you? That has been one thing I've been debating a bit, and Gary brought up as well. Most of the 4' units I've seen are about 6, some as high as like 9, linkable units. As much as the full wall wash thing could be nice, I'm thinking that horizontal rows might actually be smarter as you suggested. It also so happens that one of the suppliers I'm looking at sells them in cases of 25 units for a pretty good price, so 6) rows of 4 lights might be perfect (plus one in the nook at top). Way simpler wiring too, one run of conduit down the middle of the room...

38th Garage Lighting 2.jpg

Thanks Thomas. I am a contractor by trade who went into real estate investing, so def can handle the electrical myself as well. I don't mind doing a bit of extra work for more versatility, just wasn't coming up with any good ways to split up my design that wouldn't be a total mess of wiring... How many of those lights do you use at once? You're over 100k lumens in not a ton of space, i'd imagine about half of them would be the max you need for almost any task...

Gary, I was hoping someone would chime in on that specifically as well. As I design my kitchens, I almost always do 30" off the walls for can lights over kitchen counters. I wasn't sure if that would apply the same in a shop space or not, as I don't plan on a lot of benches along walls. I like open space, my main bench will probably be pulled out from the wall down where those 2 windows are. Other tools I figured will be used out from the wall a bit, as my shop is small and I'll have to have most things on mobile bases. Miter station usually has to be deeper than 2' for the tracks, even if you get an articulating Bosch or something, so probably 30" min there. What stations other than a workbench if you like that against the wall would you be working that close? Not trying to argue, and I'm not fixed on the 3' dimension, just curious.

Any thoughts on the layout option above? If I did use the lights I've been considering, I can get them in 3733 or 4800 lumens per 4' fixture, so a total of 93,325 lumens, or 120,000 lumens in 635 sq ft. I'd probably do every other row on one switch in that scenario, so most times would probably only be using half of that. Or it wouldn't be too hard to do each row on its own switch in that setup, so I could have a lot of customization ability with 6 switches to light up just the parts of the shop I'm using at the time...

[Peter Christensen]

Michael if you used the short cables between each fixture, mine were about 10” long, the total length ends up around 18’/19’ long. That puts the ends of the light a foot or so from the wall. There will only be a trace of a shadow in front of you if you are directly under a row because of the row on either side fill it in. The only way to have any kind of shadow is if you put a deep shelf above the bench or machine. Even then it won’t be really dark. My lights if I remember correctly had a 150 or more degree angle of dispersion. The light spread is so good that once in a while a pencil line is hard to see because it doesn’t reflect the same as when there is a single source light. If you went with 6 switches you can tailor the light to whatever you’re doing and wherever you are working in the shop.

Paint the walls and ceiling white and get a tan while you’re working.

[Jim Becker]

Hi Jim,

Fellow PA-er here, but I'm on that other side of the state (Pittsburgh).

Thanks for the input. Do you know about how many lumens you have for the square footage of your shop? Did you go the 5000K plus temperature route?

I didn't do any calculations...I just put up a "bunch" of LED fixtures. And more than I had with the T12 fluorescents. I think you could roast a chicken on my CNC and work bench. LOL All of my lamps are 4100K. I find that sufficiently "daylight" to keep me happy. The only LEDs I run at 5000K are in the fogs and DRLs on my Grand Cherokee so they match the HID headlight's color temp.

I actually do have plans to install two more fixtures at the front of my shop to fill in more around the bandsaw where I find the light seems to fall off because of being a little farther from the closest fixtures. I'll do that when I catch a sale and remember I need them at the same time.

[Michael Cummins]

Glad to see there are others here who are like me and don't want the really cool light temp. Dunno why, but daylight being cool doesn't bother me in the least. Artificial light being cool drives me crazy. I'll have a good bit of natural light I can use as needed from the large windows behind my bench. Should be good enough for me.

I didn't do any calculations...I just put up a "bunch" of LED fixtures. And more than I had with the T12 fluorescents. I think you could roast a chicken on my CNC and work bench. LOL All of my lamps are 4100K. I find that sufficiently "daylight" to keep me happy. The only LEDs I run at 5000K are in the fogs and DRLs on my Grand Cherokee so they match the HID headlight's color temp.

I actually do have plans to install two more fixtures at the front of my shop to fill in more around the bandsaw where I find the light seems to fall off because of being a little farther from the closest fixtures. I'll do that when I catch a sale and remember I need them at the same time.

[Greg R Bradley]

In one business we did an extensive study based upon the work that an employee could perform under various light source and energy saved with various light sources. Out electric bill 15 years ago was $30k and we were operating 24/7 so you can imagine how much productivity mattered. Even light was far more important than anyone would have believed. 4000k was optimum but we did slide toward 5000k for the clean room because it fooled the customers and didn't hurt productivity too much in that mostly automated environment. 6500K was just foolish.
Last year I talked with one of my customers who just did the same study for a large manufacturer who came to the same conclusion.

[Michael Cummins]

Thanks for this input. I see so many woodworkers insist on 5000K plus as the only way to go. I just don't get it. Great to see that there's some science to my feeling that I wouldn't work well in that cold of lighting.

Probably a different type of working environment than a woodshop, but what other conclusions did you come up with? Optimal footcandles at work surface? How much variation in light caused problems? I have a free app on my phone, which I"m sure isn't super accurate, but gives an idea of the footcandles or lux hitting the screen. I played around with this and some LED shop lights in my basement where I could isolate other light sources. Rigged up lights on the ceiling at different spacings, and then took readings directly below them about 6 feet (distance from my new shop's 9' ceilings to work surfaces), and moved to the sides to see how much it changed, as well as closer and further. Its pretty amazing how much small changes like that alter the footcandle levels.

Most things I've read target between 50-100 FC at work surface. This seems to require about 200 lumens/sq ft output at ceiling height to get to that upper lighting level, assuming you have normalish ceiling heights (8-10 feet). Higher ceilings would increase this. My last layout with 6 horizontal runs of lights could hit 120,000 lumens with all on (about that 200/ft target), with the 4800 lumen fixtures I found. I just wonder how often I'd want that much light. If I have every other row off, now my lights are 8' apart and 6' above the work surface... wondering if that would give very uneven lighting at the midpoint between fixtures... One good thing about those light fixtures is that they're "V" shaped - have rows of LEDs mounted roughly 45 degrees out in both directions, rather than straight down. Guessing that light distribution would be more ideal than many fixtures. I know my Commercial Electric shop lights from HD drop off fast at 6' away as you move to the sides.

In one business we did an extensive study based upon the work that an employee could perform under various light source and energy saved with various light sources. Out electric bill 15 years ago was $30k and we were operating 24/7 so you can imagine how much productivity mattered. Even light was far more important than anyone would have believed. 4000k was optimum but we did slide toward 5000k for the clean room because it fooled the customers and didn't hurt productivity too much in that mostly automated environment. 6500K was just foolish.
Last year I talked with one of my customers who just did the same study for a large manufacturer who came to the same conclusion.

[Tim Janssen]

My basement shop is about half the size of yours. 31' 4" x 11' 6", 7' 4" Ceiling. I use 8, 4ft 2 tube fluorescent fixtures, 2 rows of 4 fixtures.
Ample illumination as you can see in the pictures below. Walls and ceiling are painted white. The floor has light grey vinyl tiles on it.
No problem with shadows.
I don't think you need as many lights as you are proposing. My $0.02(Can.)
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