Shop lighting layout

[Michael Cummins]

I assume your bulbs are approx 3000 lumens, as this seems to be pretty standard for a T8. So you have 48,000 lumens in 360 sq ft, or about 133 lumens/ft. My initial layout and light fixtures is 625 sq ft with 86,400 lumens with all lights on, or 138 lumens/ft. Take into account the 9' ceilings, and I'm guessing my first layout would be more evenly distributed lighting than your shop, but probably significantly lower footcandles at the work surfaces. 2nd layout with the much higher output lights is 120,000 lumens in 625 sq ft, or 192 lumens/ft if all lights are on. I'd likely not use all of them most times.

I've been amazed at how much lighting it takes to fully light a shop. I do think the 100 fc thing is a little on the overly ambitious side, but this process has saved me from likely completely redoing my lighting after building, as I had only planned on about 12 3200 lumen fixtures originally. It probably would have sufficed, but not been a great working environment, especially over time as my eyes get older and less responsive.

Thanks for the comment and pics, gives me something more concrete to compare to.

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.)
Attachment 394397

Attachment 394398

[Greg R Bradley]

Another important consideration is ceiling height and type. A basement shop frequently has a low ceiling so it may become a challenge to get even light.

LED Emitters have a very narrow pattern, typically 90 degrees or so in a round pattern. Fluorescent Tubes emit light 360 degrees. Each has advantages and disadvantages and it helps to plan your lighting accordingly.

For example, a basement shop with a 7.5' white ceiling will really benefit from Fluorescents. In the pics in the post above, you can really see how much light is hitting the ceiling and being distributed around the room evenly. Even light on your project really helps you to be able to do detail work and avoid eye fatigue. It won't seem as bright as most people are judging how bright it is by looking at something directly under a light or by looking at the light.

In the picture above which has Fluorescent Wrap Fixtures, you could probably use LED conversion tubes well by choosing ones that can be rotated and rotating each tube 30-60 degrees toward the outside. This doesn't work well with low light height and bare tubes since you end up looking more directly at the LED Emitters and they are irritating.

It's been well know that even light was important, which is why high end shop Fluorescents had choices in the amount of Uplight. They had highly polished stainless steel reflectors that were really efficient at getting the light going up being redirected down but had a choice in the amount of slots through the reflectors to allow 0%, 15%. or 30% to go up and bounce off the ceiling. I used 0% Uplight Fixtures in our heavy equipment repair shop because most of the work is down low but we had to mount the lights at 30' for clearance. A warehouse in another business had pallet racking 24' tall with lights mounted at 30' so it benefited from 30% uplight.

[Jim Becker]

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.

4100K is quite cool and close enough to daylight to keep color rendering reasonable. I could see 5000K for serious photography, however, as it's closer to "true daylight". The only places I use "warm" lighting is in the bedroom and social areas of our home. Everything else is at 4000/4100K.

[Tim Janssen]

I assum..................s get older and less responsive.

Thanks for the comment and pics, gives me something more concrete to compare to.

You're quite welcome!
I'm sure, I benefit greatly from the white walls and ceiling.
And I checked the ceiling height it's 7' 1" not 7'4" to be accurate.
Cheers,

Tim

[Michael Cummins]

Yes, this is critical to consider - just some simple testing with an app in my basement (not my shop, but a dark place I could do good testing of some fixtures), and the distance from fixture changes Lux/FC rating very quickly. Also harder to spread out the light. I'll be at 9' height, and planning on mostly white ceiling/walls, other than the equipment/cabinets/etc. Think that will work out pretty well. Also, the lights I'm leaning toward have 2 rows of LEDs mounted at an angle rather than one straight down, so think the dispersion should be better than typical LED strips. If my lights are 4' apart (assuming all are on), and 6' from the work surface, I think that will be great coverage. If half are on and they're 8' apart, probably good enough, but not quite as even.

Another important consideration is ceiling height and type. A basement shop frequently has a low ceiling so it may become a challenge to get even light.

LED Emitters have a very narrow pattern, typically 90 degrees or so in a round pattern. Fluorescent Tubes emit light 360 degrees. Each has advantages and disadvantages and it helps to plan your lighting accordingly.

For example, a basement shop with a 7.5' white ceiling will really benefit from Fluorescents. In the pics in the post above, you can really see how much light is hitting the ceiling and being distributed around the room evenly. Even light on your project really helps you to be able to do detail work and avoid eye fatigue. It won't seem as bright as most people are judging how bright it is by looking at something directly under a light or by looking at the light.

In the picture above which has Fluorescent Wrap Fixtures, you could probably use LED conversion tubes well by choosing ones that can be rotated and rotating each tube 30-60 degrees toward the outside. This doesn't work well with low light height and bare tubes since you end up looking more directly at the LED Emitters and they are irritating.

It's been well know that even light was important, which is why high end shop Fluorescents had choices in the amount of Uplight. They had highly polished stainless steel reflectors that were really efficient at getting the light going up being redirected down but had a choice in the amount of slots through the reflectors to allow 0%, 15%. or 30% to go up and bounce off the ceiling. I used 0% Uplight Fixtures in our heavy equipment repair shop because most of the work is down low but we had to mount the lights at 30' for clearance. A warehouse in another business had pallet racking 24' tall with lights mounted at 30' so it benefited from 30% uplight.

[John K Jordan]

I'm not able to read all the posts now so sorry if this one aspect of lighting has been discussed. My shop light is bright - when I turn on all bulbs in the T5 fixtures some have joked they needed sunglasses. When designing the lighting I was careful not to position a bright fixture where the glare from the shiny table wouldn't annoy me when working at my PM66.

The other thing I'm glad I did - I organized the lighting circuits into zones I can control separately. For example, I leave the bright lights off in the wood storage area until I need them.

In addition, all fixtures are wired to use just one of every pair of adjacent bulbs until I want the extra light - most of the time just 1/2 the brightness is sufficient. This capability is a feature of the electronic ballasts used in T5 fixtures.

And most important to me - the lighting at my lathes is different. Broad, diffuse lighting such as evenly spaced overhead fixtures is the worst light possible for evaluating compound curved surfaces when turning. What's worse, diffuse lighting can hide scratches and defects like concentric ripples, dimples, humps, and inflections in what are intended to be continuous curves. For this, smaller "point" light sources are far better. At the lathes I use less light from the ceiling and more from a variety of smaller, positionable task lights. Even if not woodturning, such lighting can be helpful in sanding and finishing areas.

JKJ

[Greg R Bradley]

Yes, this is critical to consider - just some simple testing with an app in my basement (not my shop, but a dark place I could do good testing of some fixtures), and the distance from fixture changes Lux/FC rating very quickly. Also harder to spread out the light. I'll be at 9' height, and planning on mostly white ceiling/walls, other than the equipment/cabinets/etc. Think that will work out pretty well. Also, the lights I'm leaning toward have 2 rows of LEDs mounted at an angle rather than one straight down, so think the dispersion should be better than typical LED strips. If my lights are 4' apart (assuming all are on), and 6' from the work surface, I think that will be great coverage. If half are on and they're 8' apart, probably good enough, but not quite as even.

If you have a 9' ceiling and you are surface mounting the lights, you should be in really good shape. If the lights you are using have two rows at an angle then you are even better than good.

[Michael Cummins]

These are what I'm considering, but haven't decided for sure.

https://www.omniraylighting.com/coll...r-led-fixtures

If you have a 9' ceiling and you are surface mounting the lights, you should be in really good shape. If the lights you are using have two rows at an angle then you are even better than good.

[Michael Cummins]

Great input. I don't know the final layout of my shop, and am guessing it will change a number of times, so just trying to do a nice diffuse light over the whole space for now. I'll have double 110 outlets about every 4 feet down the walls (on sep circuits) so lots of places to add in task lighting as needed. As my lights will be plug in style, I can also eliminate some as needed if that comes up. The plan is to have a number of circuits, not sure exactly how many as I don't have a final layout yet... I can't really do "zones" per se, as I don't know the layout, but figured I'd just do areas of the shop on a number of switches and I can do every other "zone" if I want (probably sufficient for most times), and add to that with the other lights as needed.

I'm not able to read all the posts now so sorry if this one aspect of lighting has been discussed. My shop light is bright - when I turn on all bulbs in the T5 fixtures some have joked they needed sunglasses. When designing the lighting I was careful not to position a bright fixture where the glare from the shiny table wouldn't annoy me when working at my PM66.

The other thing I'm glad I did - I organized the lighting circuits into zones I can control separately. For example, I leave the bright lights off in the wood storage area until I need them.

In addition, all fixtures are wired to use just one of every pair of adjacent bulbs until I want the extra light - most of the time just 1/2 the brightness is sufficient. This capability is a feature of the electronic ballasts used in T5 fixtures.

And most important to me - the lighting at my lathes is different. Broad, diffuse lighting such as evenly spaced overhead fixtures is the worst light possible for evaluating compound curved surfaces when turning. What's worse, diffuse lighting can hide scratches and defects like concentric ripples, dimples, humps, and inflections in what are intended to be continuous curves. For this, smaller "point" light sources are far better. At the lathes I use less light from the ceiling and more from a variety of smaller, positionable task lights. Even if not woodturning, such lighting can be helpful in sanding and finishing areas.

JKJ

[Michael Costa]

Hi. I just posted in the thread titled LED ship lighting. You should go read it. In this month's edition of "Wood" there is a great article on shop lighting with LED.

Two take home points:

1) 75 lumens per sqft of shop space.
2) Be in the 4000-5500 kelvin range.

Higher than that can distort vision. Lower than is like being in your living areas.

I recently bought six, 8 foot LED shop lights. The bulbs put out 5000K. I couldn't be happier with the lighting. Personally, I feel you should bump from 4000 to 5000K.

[Michael Costa]

After reading a bit more I'll add that my lights are 11 feet up. I also paid attention to what my garage doors would cover if open. Lastly, I stood at places where I know I'd be doing something to get an idea of where to put lights. Then of course I had to make it all symmetrical to look nice. If you email me I'll send you pics of exactly what I have going on. mlcostapharmd@gmail.com

[Bill Dufour]

My father came up with a good solution about 70 years ago. he mounted switch controlled quad boxes on the ceiling of his basement shop. then he plugged in several hanging florescent fixtures. By the time I was born he had settled on there locations and only changed a few around when he replaced some fixtures with newer non starter ones.
in other words he used outlets so he could add and move stuff if he needed to. A fancy lighting design is great if you plan to never add any new equipment to the shop or if you plan on not letting your eyes get older so they need more light, or God Forbid you change hobbies, or the new home owner, and get rid of some big machines and replace with other stuff.
Bill D.

[Jim Becker]

Bill, I will admit that I'm happy that long ago I placed switched outlets on my shop's ceiling as it really has made relocating things over time easier. That combined with the ability to daisy-chain many of the LED fixtures I've moved to has proven to be very useful. If I were starting with a blank space that was unencumbered with anything like the stairway I have that bisects my shop, etc., I'd be less concerned about the actual connection type, however, because a regular grid could easily be laid out for overall even lighting across the shop, so even hard-wired would be less of an issue.

[Michael Costa]

Peter, I'm staring at an article right now (dated this month) with a chart that says noon day sun is at 3000K and overcast cast sky is at 7000K

[Peter Christensen]

Well since I’m the only Peter so far in this thread you’re statement must be directed at me. I think the article you’re reading has an error it’s 3:45pm and a bright sunny sky. Sundown will be at 6:27pm. My phone app shows 5300 Kelvin right now so there is no way it will be 3000 Kelvin at noon. Likely 7000 Kelvin and 3000 Kelvin on an overcast day if that low. Take your cell out and check yourself.

It really doesn’t matter to me what you put up in your shop as long as you get a warm and fuzzy feeling whenever you switch on the lights. I like what I’ve done but it’s only important that I’m happy in my shop and you in yours. There is no right or wrong just preferences. Go with what you want or go to a lighting store and have them show you what LEDs with different temperatures look like and decide from there. All the best.