garage lighting question

-
longarm

longarm

Car sold back to original owners
Joined
Feb 10, 2006
Messages
2,866
Reaction score
148
Location
central ohio
Hi guys,
I have an oppertunity to buy some metal halide lights.
They are 400 watt multi-tap 120v - 480v $35.00 a piece complete.
I have a 24 x 24 ft. shop with a 14 ft. ceiling that needs lit,
would these be any good for this purpose?
Any pro's or con's to these lights and how many would be needed
to light this shop well?
I have a choice between hanging or wall mount or would some
other type of lighting be better?
Thanks,
Carl
 
I think that the ceiling may be too low for that light to be real effective. It may spotlight and not disperse the light. We had some in our shop, and that was the result. It lit up real well under the light, but seemed pretty dark everywhere else. Edit, how many would you put up? Flourescent tubes may be better.
 
I agree with the light dispersion problem.

I would run 48" flourescent lights. You can get fixtures for as little as $10 each at Home Depot or Lowes (and then buy the lights). Four fixtures should cover a 24x24 garage with no problem.
 
Don't forget to consider the cost of operation, bet those suckers draw some watts, consider using lights that have reflectors that direct the light downward not outward. Good luck:profilel:
 
I have a 21X22 garage with an 8ft ceiling, and I have 9 flourescent fixtures 48" long.
It lights up the place very well, and the fixtures and tubes are cheap. Cheap to operate as well.

George
 
Besides the light dispersion issues mentioned by others just installing 3 of those will draw 10 amps. Don't know what you have for electrical service in your shop but that is 1/2 the capacity of a typical 20 amp circuit.

You can get 4' fluorescent fixtures for about $10 each at Loews or Home Depot. T-10 bulbs for them are 14 watts each. A much more economical way to go.
 
My garage is 24x32 with a 12 foot ceiling, and I have four 6' HD flourescent lights and they are great. They'll light off instantly even at 20-30 degrees.
 
I have a 24X24 shop with 10' ceiling that I have 6 4' flourescent fixtures. I have them on 3 separate switches so that I only light up that part(s) of the shop I am working on.
A couple other pointers. Paint the walls and ceiling, it will help reflect the light and make it brighter inside.
I live in Georgia and most of the time my 16' garage door is open. Position the lights that would be covered up by the door so that they are over the door windows. It is not as good as when the door is shut, but still very good.
C
 
Those lights work great with a high ceiling, 18' or more. I put some new style(forget the name) florescents in my garage. Instantly on, nearly twice the light as conventional flourescents, and half the energy use. Ask an electrical supply store about them.
 
Electronic ballast T-8 Fluorescents. The light you are looking at might be a bit of overkill.

The wall mount might be nice outside the garage for area/security lighting
 
Those are better suited for growing plants than lighting a shop. The color spectrum is also heavily into the blue spectrum.The heat generated by them will suffocate you in the summer too. The cost of electricity is around $15.00 a month per light too.
 
My shop has 8' ceilings and is 20' x 24' (yes, I know it's small!). I'm using 6 flourecent flood lights on the ceiling and each draws only 17 watts but is rated at 75 watts of light output. That adds up to the power of one 102 watt bulb. I also have one 4' dual bulb flourcent fixture over my work bench for detail work that pulls 80w on a seperate switch. This set up is very energy efficeint and I could probably run it off a set of solar panels, a 300 watt inverter and a good set of batteries. The bad thing is that the floods take a while to fire up in cold weather, but I can live with that for the price. Also, the lights have been in for three years with no replacements yet.

My friends have commented how bright it is and I feel that I have plenty of light to do anything except paint and body. As someone mentioned, I have drywalled and painted the interior white and I think that made a huge difference. I have a big *** hallogen 1200 watt light set on a stand that I use for body work.

I would think that you could install 23 of these floods, get great light coverage and it would use less juice than just one of the metal halides. Just food for thought.
 
i have that wall mount outside my shop for security. i would use fluorescents for the inside. start with 4 fixtures, then add 2 more if necessary.
 
catsncudas said:
My garage is 24x32 with a 12 foot ceiling, and I have four 6' HD flourescent lights and they are great. They'll light off instantly even at 20-30 degrees.
Click to expand...

HO or high output flourescent tubes are used in signs for cold temp lighting and longevity, if you shop is cold and you would be looking at alot of cold starts these are a good bet.
I know of a couple guys who got old gas station sign boxes and hung them.

Dave
 
My garage is 24x30 witha 12 foot ceiling, I painted the ceiling and walls with cheap Wal-Mart Semi-Gloss white, and hung six, 8 foot flourescents, each with high speed ballasts so they come on just about instantly when it's freezeing cold in there...Here's a pic

Ryan

lighting.jpg
 
Carl, see if you can find out if the lights in the left pic are "highbay" or "lowbay" lights. This will tell you the optimum installation height. Being your clearance is 14' you most likely will need "lowbay" lights.


Chuck
 
We have them at our shop. Those blubs are pretty expsenive also. You might get them for 35.00,but you will spent 35.00 for blubs. Not that they go offen they last long.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top