Lighting a shop I am about to go bald or grey

[olly]

I have a 72' x 48' shop 17' ceilings. This guy wants it bright, bright so he can see under the hood when he is working on cars. I have contacted 5 lighting reps, they are all over the board... Some wanting to sell me 5k in lighting with an average foot candle of 50. Others saying 25 foot candles is adequate, all have provided a simulation or foot candle projection. I was on a round LED UFO high bay kick, now I am leaning to a 4' x 2' high bay fixture for the way it spreads light opposed to straight down like a round high bay UFO. If any one knows of a good lighting guy contact please let me know. right now I am thinking about pulling the trigger on a 4' x 2' LED fixture 162W high bay and putting 10 of them in there and having a dimmer on them. This fixture is only $165.00 each

 

[ptonsparky]

He will still need task lighting under the hood. Those LEDs make some good shadows.

 

[brantmacga]

I usually kick it to the Lithonia rep, or sometimes do it myself in agi32..... I think 10 of those high bays is plenty. We have an almost identical size shop at the farm and I have 9x T5 96” high bays and one 400w HID in the center for when I need extra light working on equipment and it’s plenty bright. That said, if I’m working under the hood of something i still usually need a light stand next to it as the hood is going to cast a giant shadow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cow]

The last time I used a lighting rep for a 40x60 building, I added 50% more light than they recommended. When it was done, I probably could of went even more fixtures to get it where we thought it should be.

Since then, we do it all ourselves with trial and error and experience. No complaints so far.

Does the shop have white walls? I'd think with 10 of them and white walls you will be plenty bright. If your doing a 5x2 pattern, you're going to be roughly 14.4' on center lengthwise. That's a pretty tight pattern.

Don't forget to look at the photometrics of the fixture you want, to see how it'll broadcast the light out at that height.

 

[topgone]

I have a 72' x 48' shop 17' ceilings. This guy wants it bright, bright so he can see under the hood when he is working on cars. I have contacted 5 lighting reps, they are all over the board... Some wanting to sell me 5k in lighting with an average foot candle of 50. Others saying 25 foot candles is adequate, all have provided a simulation or foot candle projection. I was on a round LED UFO high bay kick, now I am leaning to a 4' x 2' high bay fixture for the way it spreads light opposed to straight down like a round high bay UFO. If any one knows of a good lighting guy contact please let me know. right now I am thinking about pulling the trigger on a 4' x 2' LED fixture 162W high bay and putting 10 of them in there and having a dimmer on them. This fixture is only $165.00 each

Let's do a quickie:
room square area = 72 x 48 = 3,456 sq. feet
A workshop requires 30 footcandles, so:
lumens required = 30 x 3,456 = 103,680 lumens
From the data of your fixture of choice, lumens = 21,200 lumens.
Number of fixtures needed = 103,680/21,200 = 4.89 ~ 5 units!
But you are going to install these lights high up in the ceiling, so perhaps, 10 LED high bay lights could not be overkill!?#
Cheers!

 

[LarryFine]

If there are service areas like in most auto shops, where the cars are pulled in facing a wall, ceiling lights mounted on the wall provide a great amount of light in the right direction. Another option might be boom-mounted lights similar to those on trailer loading docks.

 

[sw_ross]

Where do you get the 30 foot candles from?
Is there a guide or standard that has those numbers available for various different structures or layouts?

 

[PaulMmn]

For those of you who subscribe to FineWoodworking magazine, there is an excellent article on planning lighting for a shop: Lighting for the Workshop

Tips for figuring how many and what types of fluorescent lights you need to create a comfortable working environment


By Jack L. Lindsey #154–Jan/Feb 2002 Issue

You have to be a subscriber, or take the 30 day free trial to read the article.

I followed the guidelines in one ell of my basement, and the light is nice and even and un-shadowy!

The author does mention that no matter how evenly lighted the area is, sometimes task lighting is required!

 

[topgone]

Where do you get the 30 foot candles from?
Is there a guide or standard that has those numbers available for various different structures or layouts?

Please see IES Standard Illumination levels by space. Google is your friend. To download a copy, specify "f i l e t y p e : p d f" ( no spaces) in your search keywords. Hope that helps.