Shop Lighting

zmanjohn

zmanjohn

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After many searches and not really coming up with a good answer, I thought I would ask the group. I am currently trying to budget some money to add some much needed lighting into the garage/shop area. I have installed a couple of the cheap fluorescent lights from Home Depot/Lowes. They seem to do ok, but the bulbs seem to change the true color of things at times.
My question is what type of lighting and fixtures are you using?
Do you recommend 4' or 8' single or double row?
Type of bulbs: T5, T8 or T12?
Daylight, Neutral, Natural?

I am curious as most of my work will be done if the evening, I would like to see what you guys are using.

Any help or guidance wold be greatly appreciated.
Feed back please

Thanks,
Bill
 
What size is your shop? Mine is 22 x 20 and I have 2-4 ft t-8's on either side, 2 in the middle and two in the front. I think mine are bright white and I have plenty of light.

Stay away from t-12's and I haven't tried t5's yet but t'8's work great for me. Also 4 foot bulbs are much easier to handle.

This is not a very good picture but maybe it will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Hope this helps.

View attachment 17614
 
ezriderga said:
What size is your shop? Mine is 22 x 20 and I have 2-4 ft t-8's on either side, 2 in the middle and two in the front. I think mine are bright white and I have plenty of light.

Stay away from t-12's and I haven't tried t5's yet but t'8's work great for me. Also 4 foot bulbs are much easier to handle.

This is not a very good picture but maybe it will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Hope this helps.

View attachment 17614
Click to expand...

I have a 2 1/2 car garage. I have a lot of junk I am trying to clean out, but the area is 18' x 30'. The big issue that I have is that the ceiling is not very tall, so the lighting needs to be fairly low profile to clear the garage door.
Thanks for the info on the lights, I do have a couple T8's, but we are switching over to the T5's at work. We have lights that are 30' mounted on the ceiling and you can get a sun tan off them at floor level, but the fixtures are $3xx each. Of course these are for industrial applications, not that I would need that. The only reason I was thinking was for the efficiency, they cost next to nothing to run.

Thanks for the pictures, looks like you have a really nice shop, I hope to have mine look that good.

Thanks,
Bill
 
general use: t8 fixtures. fluro bulbs in the daylight spectrum with CRI of 90 or better

I also have a few CFL bulbs along the walls. still could use more horizontal lighting. and if I do interiors in the shop I wear a headlamp (IMO just can't duplicate how well natural lighting helps with interiors)


for paint correction I turn off the fluros and rely on a handful of LED flood lights I have mounted. PAR38 single diode LED bulbs in the daylight spectrum

more info in here

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...garage-how-started-extreme-shop-makeover.html
 
Gurge said:
general use: t8 fixtures. fluro bulbs in the daylight spectrum with CRI of 90 or better

I also have a few CFL bulbs along the walls. still could use more horizontal lighting. and if I do interiors in the shop I wear a headlamp (IMO just can't duplicate how well natural lighting helps with interiors)


for paint correction I turn off the fluros and rely on a handful of LED flood lights I have mounted. PAR38 single diode LED bulbs in the daylight spectrum

more info in here

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...garage-how-started-extreme-shop-makeover.html
Click to expand...

Re: Shop Lighting
Check these out...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ggestions.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ts-garage.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...me-please.html
Click to expand...

Thanks so much guys, this will really help. I appreciate the suggestions. I never thought about turning fluros off and using the Halogens, I have three two bulb Halogens each on stands, I many have to dig out the other two and try that also. :cool::thankyousign:
 
Gurge said:
general use: t8 fixtures. fluro bulbs in the daylight spectrum with CRI of 90 or better

I also have a few CFL bulbs along the walls. still could use more horizontal lighting. and if I do interiors in the shop I wear a headlamp (IMO just can't duplicate how well natural lighting helps with interiors)


for paint correction I turn off the fluros and rely on a handful of LED flood lights I have mounted. PAR38 single diode LED bulbs in the daylight spectrum

more info in here

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...garage-how-started-extreme-shop-makeover.html
Click to expand...

Pureshine said:
Here is my set up i use daylight bulbs.
Click to expand...

Todd, that looks great. I like the (4) bulb lights, I was thinking about that, they look like T5's. I am planning on pricing the fixtures out based upon all the feedback, some really great links. I would love to add the lights on the walls, almost like a light booth, but in my case this is not possible. I think I will just need to work with the Halogens for that. I saw post for the LED rope lights, this is intriguing.
I think I will start with mapping the area out and as you have in your shop I also have duct work to work around as well as storage racks, tool boxes, etc.. :thankyousign:
 
zmanjohn said:
Thanks so much guys, this will really help. I appreciate the suggestions. I never thought about turning fluros off and using the Halogens, I have three two bulb Halogens each on stands, I many have to dig out the other two and try that also. :cool::thankyousign:
Click to expand...


try large single diode LED bulbs. much less power and much less heat.
 
When I'm doing paint correction I turn off the the top lights. I got mine at Home Depot they are mostly T5 daylights.
 
This is what I use,t8,daylight
6582a18a54ce4a13a057113c83b0e40a_zps86014f79.jpg
1385f1cf08e8219e966812a1d5c68d5b_zpsefbffde0.jpg
 
Here's a great thread from Autopia Car Care Forums that has allot of good info on shop lighting Finally a comprehensive review of the best bulbs out there... - Autopia Forums - Auto Detailing & Car Care Discussion Forum

I just do my own cars so didn't want to invested too many $$$ in lighting upgrades. In my two car garage I have a 2 bulb T8 fixture running length wise centered over each half of the garage and 2 T8 bulb fixtures at each end (centered between the 2 lengthwise fixtures) which form a box so if I pull the a car in the center of the garage it is surrounded by the 4 fixtures. Then I have 2 100W CFLs in clamp lights positioned low on each sidewall for lighting of the vertical panels. I've found it enough light for general detailing like washing, quick detailer and applying a coat of LSP. When polishing I have a 90W single diode LED on a photographic light stand that is easy to move around and position on the work area (shown in the above mentioned thread) that does a fantastic job of highliting swirls when polishing with all the florescent lights turned off. All the bulbs are 5000K which is a very neutral light--6500K is too blue and 4100K are too yellow.
 
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I am using led lights in my garage.. It is much brighter and very effective than the standard light bulbs.. Also, it is long lasting, use less electricity and are very powerful..
 
If i remember correctly Jason Rose from Meguiars said on Ammo NYC's podcast that you're looking for lights around 5,800K
 
The color temperature of mid day sun rays is 5578 Kelvin, so effectively ~5600K.

I have just (last week) published an article behind the science of how light works and its impact upon elements of correction. It briefly speaks of the current lighting technologies and their application toward detailing, but this will be covered in greater depth in another installment.

There are MANY MANY MANY facets of lighting technology and lighting techniques that beg discussions... many of these I will touch upon in the subsequent parts of the series. It was impossible to include in one article, even if it was 9 pdf pages. :D

I will say this however: directional LED's are far and away the most effective manufactured lighting source for paint correction.
 
Christopher.Brown said:
The color temperature of mid day sun rays is 5578 Kelvin, so effectively ~5600K.

I have just (last week) published an article behind the science of how light works and its impact upon elements of correction. It briefly speaks of the current lighting technologies and their application toward detailing, but this will be covered in greater depth in another installment.

There are MANY MANY MANY facets of lighting technology and lighting techniques that beg discussions... many of these I will touch upon in the subsequent parts of the series. It was impossible to include in one article, even if it was 9 pdf pages. :D

I will say this however: directional LED's are far and away the most effective manufactured lighting source for paint correction.
Click to expand...

I went to your site and read the article, which I found to be very informative. Thanks for taking the time to write it, and I'm looking forward to future installments and lighting recommendations.
 
I know this is a really old thread but for 48" light fixtures, do you recommend the placement of the fixtures parallel with the car (vertical) or horizontal? I am planning on placing 2 fixtures per car space (4 fixtures total). Thanks.
 
I put mine vertical or parellel with the cars and am very happy. I have four dual bulb T5's and two 100w+ LED's in my door opener and combined have over 41k lumens. It's bright. I have a 22ft x 22ft garage.

The T5's are High Output. For $37ea at Home depot they can't be beat. Bulbs are like $10ea. I looked at LED's but they are half as bright and cost 2-3x as much per fixture.

Here's a reflection of it off my hood :dblthumb2:

Here you can see how it lights up the cars at night.

Night shot of a customers car under the same lighting. This is off to the other side too. Center position is great for lighting and where I do most of my details.
 
pdqgp said:
I put mine vertical or parellel with the cars and am very happy. I have four dual bulb T5's and two 100w+ LED's in my door opener and combined have over 41k lumens. It's bright. I have a 22ft x 22ft garage.

The T5's are High Output. For $37ea at Home depot they can't be beat. Bulbs are like $10ea. I looked at LED's but they are half as bright and cost 2-3x as much per fixture.

Here's a reflection of it off my hood :dblthumb2:

Here you can see how it lights up the cars at night.

Night shot of a customers car under the same lighting. This is off to the other side too. Center position is great for lighting and where I do most of my details.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! I'm assuming you also have 2 2-bulb fixtures per car spot as well. Are they directly above the vehicles? Is it possible to provide a picture of the placement of the fixtures with the care underneath? Thanks!
 
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