Downsize No More - Now Preparing to Move In

[dusty]

The house (old shop) has been sold. We close on the new house next Friday. Then it will be time to prepare for moving in.

First two tasks:

Paint and Install Overhead Lighting.

What color to paint is my biggest concern right now followed by what kind of lighting do I want.

Suggestions (preferably based on experience) would be greatly appreciated.

The floor will be a light gray Rustoleum Epoxy with small white and black flakes. The shop floor measures about 20' x 20' and the ceiling is lower than my old shop (about 9').

[Gene Howe]

Now is the time for LED shop lights on bright white ceilings.
No experience with LEDs, just lots of You Tube research, watching other shop installations and recommendations. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-gAoZqNHtlU&t=631s is my most recent veiwing and the most helpful....so far.

[joedw00]

Congratulations on your move.

[ryanbp01]

Dusty-
I installed LED lights in my shop last October after having older fluorescents up for 17 years and all I can say is WOW!! No dimming and waiting for lights to brighten due to cool conditions. I purchased mine at Lowe's. After wiring in one unit, I just simply plugged in another unit to it (after affixing the housing to the ceiling) and that was it! One word of experience: purchase LEDs rated for "daylight", not for "brightness", unless you want a bluish hue. These units are 4' long and look like 2 fluorescent tubes side by side when unlit. Do not be fooled, the LEDS are in fact protected by a clear plastic housing. If you want to know the specific manufacturer, pm me and I'll get that to you.
BPR

[dusty]

I have always had a white shop (walls and ceiling) and would like to experience something else. My concern is lighting. I do not see like I used to and am concerned that introducing a color into the shop will have an adverse effect even with better lighting.

While the shop is EMPTY I want to get this done and done right. No snap decisions.

[beeg]

I'd say paint the walls white, maybe a gloss paint. Also install PLENTY of lights.

[heathicus]

The ballasts in my old florescent shop lights started dying recently so I'm slowly converting them to LED lights. But, as usual, I'm doing it the cheap way. I bought several rolls of 5630 LED strips. Each roll is about 16ft long (5 meters) with 300 LEDs for about $5.

To convert the fixture, I simply take out the old florescent tubes and discard them. Remove the housing cover that is directly behind the tubes and covers the ballasts and wiring. Clean that cover real good including a wipe down with alcohol. The LED strip has an adhesive back so it's just peel and stick. Each strip is long enough to make 4 rows back and forth. Re-install the cover and extend the wiring to my power source.

My power source is an old PC power supply unit. On the PSU, I cut off all the connectors, cut back everything but the yellow (12v) and black (ground) wires, and tied the green to a ground wire (so the unit will power on when it receives power - it's like pushing the power button on the computer). The PSU is in a protective box on the ceiling plugged in to the same outlet my lights were plugged in to and controlled by the switch by the door.

I've been very happy with this lighting. The LEDs are brighter and better light than the florescent. I've converted 3 of my 8 fixtures, doing it as they fail, but will do the others as soon as I get time whether they fail or not. I'm out of new bulbs and I have a couple that have started flickering and driving me nuts.

Power is an issue since the LEDs are 12v DC, 2.5Amps per 16ft strip.
The 12v rail on my PSU is rated for 18Amps. So I can power 7 of my 8 fixtures with it although I'll probably only do 6. Finding individual 12v power supplies for the other two fixtures shouldn't be too hard.

Total cost was about $40 for 8 fixtures. The drop in LED replacement tubes I saw at Lowes were $20 to $50 per tube. Multiply that x2 then x8 and that comes out to be a lot more expensive.

[twistsol]

LED lights are the way to go. My shop has 20 recessed can lights with 100w equivalent LED floods. They are bright white, not soft white, so I painted the walls a pale yellow to give better color in the shop. The wall started out as antique white, but everything in the shop looked sick, I was like shop of the living dead.

The ceiling is basic white ceiling paint. I've found that BEHR ceiling paint from HD is a brighter white than Valspar and whatever the brand was that I picked up at Menards. I have no experience with other brands.

[heathicus]

I'd say paint the walls white, maybe a gloss paint. Also install PLENTY of lights.

A buddy of mine recently converted a storage shed into a workshop and put far too much research into paint and lighting (he went in with me on ordering the LED strips so we could get better pricing). According to him, a satin finish is better for more even lighting than a gloss. And, a primer paint is better than a top coat paint. It has something to do with the thickness and the amount of aluminum oxide in it. So his conclusion was to use a satin white primer and leave it at that. And with just a couple LED strips, his shop seems "well lit."

[reible]

I wish I could empty my garage shop and do all the things you are going to do, well except the lighting as I really happy with that now.

I started out years ago with the T8 tubes and magnetic ballasts which at the time was a good bet. But as the progress of lighting went along it was clear that the lighting I had was less then wonderful due to energy use and color.

I removed all of that lighting and went with the T12's and electronic ballasts and moved to a white light. Brighter, more energy efficient and a much more preferred color temperature. But again progress in the field left me wanting.

As the old tubes were wearing out I began looking at LED's. Not only were they more efficient and going to last a lot longer but I could get the color balance I liked. The down size was the price. When they finally hit my price point I started doing a replacement by buying new tubes and doing the modifications needed to use them to the fixtures. The new electronics in the fixture made it more of a job then just cutting a couple of wires and putting some parts changes in but still not all that bad.

Now all of my lights are the LED tubes. I still like the tubes because I can if needed just replace them like the old tubes with a twist. Some of the new fixtures are made so that the whole fixture needs to be replaced if the lights wear out or are damaged. I don't like that idea but that will be up to you if you can live with it or not.

I have my lights on "circuits" so I don't have to have them all on at the same time but find now that I have these lights the energy usage is not so bad that I end up turning them all on when I am working in there.

It is so nice to have a well lit shop now. While not a problem for you, they also come on right away when it 35 degrees and they not only come right on they don't flicker.

I think the only choice is which LED light.

Ed