Shop lighting with 300w CFL's

[IndyNova]

I've got an 8' flourescent 2 bulb fixture, and 6 3' 2 bulb fixtures, lights up very well in my 1 1/2 car garage. i installed 6 8' 2 bulb fixtures in my buddies garage with painted walls, unbeleivalble difference, his is much brighter

[kaptainkw]

I'm enjoying the discussion here...

I'm a lighting expert for my day job! The comments about painting surfaces white or a lighter color (more reflective) are spot on. It also has effect of reducing shadows and providing better uniformity.

There are several terms you should become familar with:

• CCT = Correlated Color Temperature in Kelvin (please don't say degrees Kelvin as it is technically incorrect!) 2700-3000 are "warm" whites 4000 and above are "cool" whites. The way to think about it is if you want reds, oragnes and yellows to "pop" then select warm white, if you want blues and greens to pop then select cool white. They make lamps that are in between which are 3500K
• CRI = Color Rendering Index is a measure of how well color is rendered/represented. 100% accurate is a halogen incandescent. Shop lights are in the 70's, premuim linear fluorescent are in the mid-80's, CFls are ~80. Bottom lines... cheap shop lights suck!
• Efficacy (efficiency) in lumens (light output) per watt. An incandescent is ~15 lumens/watt, CFL's are 50-60, premium linear fluorecent approaches 100 lm/W.

So what do I recommend?
Don't buy $10 shop lites... they're crap... but they are cheap!!!
Buy surface mounted linear fluorescent strip lites that use T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts. They cost about ~$20 at Home Depot. Why? Very long life (30,000-46000 hours), no hum, flicker or striations (important when woking around moving parts!), much better color and CRI and probably the most important... they are the most efficient!!!

As for switching... its true that frequent switching shortens life but a lamp that stays off has a longer calendar life. Rule of thumb is turn the lamps off if you are gone from more than 20 minutes.

As for using your lamps as heaters... yes, but if you are heating your garage with electric resistance heat then you have more spare money than I do!!!

[GregWeld]

Great info!! Thanks!

BTW - my comments here regarding "heating" the shed with lights -- is only in context of - "using" electric heaters for heat... already (EXPENSIVE) so rather than try to heat a shop with a smallish (too small) electric heater - might as well leave the lights on for "help" (keeping the average temp higher) as the wattage to heat to a certain point is the same regardless of the source using it up. I may not be correct... but that was my thinking. It certainly has worked for me for the last 4 years... although my electric bill for "the shed" is around $300 a month (but my house is over $700 so seems cheap!). While I have natural gas to the shed - I just never followed through with a gas forced air heater because it simply hasn't been needed. The lights heat it just fine.

[GregWeld]

Ah -- forgot one other thing...

I've replaced TWO - total - light bulbs in 4 years.... I'm running 16 total double tube 8 foot T-12 HO's (not the cheap versions either). And I'm still shocked at the LIFE of the bulbs...

[CarlC]

I'm with kaptainkw, Home Depot $18.00 T8's. 15 on the ceiling, three over the bench, and three across the car work area. The only time I need a droplight is when working underneath the car.

Is it overkill? Probably. Is it a pleasure to work? Absolutely.

[rwhite692]

+1 for High Output T8s

I used a total of sixteen 8 foot, four-bulb Lithonia commercial fixtures. 64 bulbs. I ordered them through my local electrical supply house.

In the Lithonia line, you want to make sure to get the low THD, instant start ballasts (the "GEB10IS", in the box label info, below)

TC 2 32 MVOLT 1/4
GEB10IS
Bare Lamp Channel
Packaging: U

These are not great pics but you get the idea. Now that the sheetrock is all up, it is crazy bright in there.

At night, when you stand outside, the windows are lit so bright thru the shades, it looks like there is a supernatural event or crazy experiment going on in there….or Indiana Jones is in the process of opening the Ark of Turin.