How Many Garage Lights Do I need?

[Dwight]

8' high output fixtures for unheated shops. (cold weather ballast)

My shop is 30' x 50' - 10' ceiling and I have 6 high output 8' double tube fixtures in the center. I have them in groups of three so I have one on each side of a car and one at the front end of the car. I have 4' fixtures every 8' above my work bench and one over the welding table. All my fixtures are surface mounted. The wall and ceiling are gloss white. I'll try to post a picture.

Dwight
PS I'm a electrican and get paid to do this.

[Jeffs_66SC]

My shop is 30 x 30 with a 10 foot ceiling, heated and cooled, painted one coat of base white. I used eight 8-foot double tube lights arranged in four rows. Left a little room at the center of the ceiling and placed the rows a little closer to the walls to get good light bounce. It's all the light I need. Originally was going to put up 16 4-foot lights. Glad I went with the 8 footers instead. Also have 2 8-foot work benches with two 4-foot lights each. My wife calls it the "man building."

[Mark Husar]

The best lighting bang for your buck is the following:

Use what is called a T-5 5000 kelvin lamp/fixture. There are four high output t-5 lamps controlled by two ballasts. This is great for energy conservation as you can wire a two switch controller and bring in two switch legs to operate either two or four lamps depending on the need for light.
you can most likely get by with one on either side of the car and one in the front. If your bays are side by side, use one on the left, one in the center and one on the right.
Put in the appropriate number of fixtures at the front of the car depending on your needs.

They put out huge lumens and will take care of your need for "extreme" light when it gets dark.
I install these all the time and they cost about a hundred bucks each. A little pricey, but man, will you be happy!!
Leave me an email if you would like more info.

Mark

[KM480]

My shop is 40x40 and I can tell you that the more white walls the better. I found that using FRP (fiberglass resinous panelling) is much better than paint but more expensive. It is very durable and impervious to chemicals, at least the ones I have exposed it too. Easy to dust off once it gets a little dirty. I have the first four feet up covered with this stuff and am planning to use vinyl covered hardboard for higher up. This really helps reflect a lot of light.

[Madmiles442]

You definitely want to go with strip fluorescent. Be it T12, T8 or T5 lamps. T12 size bulbs are the standard ones you see at Home Depot. The T8's are 3/4" dia and the T5's are even smaller. The standard T12 fixtures are cheapest, but the least effecient in lumen output. HO T5 are most effecient, but initial cost is higher.
The color of the light is measured in Temperature. A real yellow light will be 2800K and a really blue-ish light will be 5000K. Get ones at least 3500K.
You'll want the fixture to be bare-lamped, no plastic diffuser over the bulbs. They block too much light. You might want a cage if you think you'll hit the lamps.
The fixtures come in 2 lamp or 4 lamp. 4 lamp basically puts out twice the light, although not exactly, more like 150% more light, but you get the idea.
Spacing should be no less than 6 feet apart.
A neat trick is to put some strips along the wall at the engine bay end of the garage, like the picture below. This gives you side directional into the engine compartment.
Another cool trick is to put a couple of strips on each side of the car, down low on the wall at the floor, aiming up and out at 45 degrees. This way, when the car is up on the lift or jack, you have general undercar lighting. Someone here has a photo of that, but I can't find it right off.
Sounds like a great project - enjoy the Garage Majal!!