Lighting for the shop

[wgander]

Any ideas on how to determine how many, what kind, and where to place lights?
My web search only found stuff too technical for me, or things like determining the maximum allowed wattage, etc.
My shop only has one flourescent fixture with two bulbs and a couple of incandescant lights. I have several windows, so it's not too bad on sunny days. The main building is 16' long and 14' wide. One wall extends an additional 10' that is 8' wide for a total of 304 square feet.
The rafters are 8' high and there are stringers on most of them for board storage; the peak of the ceiling is probably 12'.
I don't know how to determine how many fixtures I should get and where to hang them. I plan on having the shop rewired with at least three circuits (one dedicated for the Shopsmith) and increasing the number of outlets: there are only three on each wall, and adding at least one outlet on the exterior.

[paulmcohen]

The newest issue of Fine Woodworking Workshop Solutions has a great article (with pictures) on lighting and shop electrical. It was $9.99 with shipping.

It covers different type of florescent lamps, how many and patterns to install. Basically you need about six 8 ft two lamp 60 watt fixtures for the larger room. There are three critical measurements, height from the work surface to the light, distance from the wall to the light and distance between the bulbs.

If X is the distance from the light to the work surface, the distance between the fixtures should be 1.5X and the distance between the wall and fixture should be about X. The article has much more information and you should really get the issue it is well worth the money.

[osx-addict]

We just did this in our garage (approx size is 18x20) and bought two Metalux shop lights from the local electric supply place for about $75/ea and each one is 8' long and uses 4 32w T-8 bulbs.. These fixtures have electronic ballast and use less power than the older magnetic ballast fixtures which frequently use F40 style bulbs.. Anyway, these two fixtures completely light up the garage space very well.. I'm impressed with how well they light up this space.. Anyway, they're not for the meek with installing them -- if you've got an electrical contractor, have them do the install.. You'll need to not only install your own cord (at least mine needed it), but you'll also need to install the chains for hanging it.. Anyway, YMMV!

[a1gutterman]

[quote="wgander"]Any ideas on how to determine how many, what kind, and where to place lights?
My web search only found stuff too technical for me, or things like determining the maximum allowed wattage, etc.
My shop only has one flourescent fixture with two bulbs and a couple of incandescant lights. I have several windows, so it's not too bad on sunny days. The main building is 16' long and 14' wide. One wall extends an additional 10' that is 8' wide for a total of 304 square feet.
The rafters are 8' high and there are stringers on most of them for board storage]
In my shop (aprox 25' x 25"), I use four 8' flourescent fixtures, for a total of 8 bulbs. This seems to do the trick for me; however, it is nice to have "extra" light on the subject that I am currently working on, whatever that may be.

As for placement, I like mine spread out equally around the room to displace shadows. I also like the light straight above, but slightly behind my head, so I am never "looking" at the light when concentrating on a task. When using the overhead open trusses, or ceiling joists, for storage, be careful of those flourescent tubes: If they break, they can be close to deadly. To reduce that hazard, you can purchase clear plastic tubes to slip over your glass tubes. This keeps both the hazardous chemicals and the broken glass confined in case of an accident.

As for electric load; If you have one 15 amp dedicated circuit for your lighting, you will not be able to overload it to light up the room that you describe. I ALWAYS keep my lighting circuit separate from any circuit that I may have wood working equipment operating on, for obvious reasons.

Hope this helps.

[james.miller]

I recently upgraded my shop lights from 2 40wx2 T12 fixtures to 4 32wx2 T8 fixtures. There is more area lit but the T8's are not as brite as the older T12's. I took an educated wild guess on how many fictures to get based on how well the older lights were iluminating. I still have 2 corners that are not as well lit as I would like.

When guessing at the light I needed I took into consideration something an Optomitrist told me "It takes twice as much light to see 20/20 when you are 50 as it did when you were 20".

[a1gutterman]

..............When guessing at the light I needed I took into consideration something an Optomitrist told me "It takes twice as much light to see 20/20 when you are 50 as it did when you were 20".

Ain't that the truth!

[kalynzoo]

My shop is a 3 car garage (wish it was all dedicated to me, but I do store some family stuff around). It has never seen the outside of an automobile. I have 18 4ft fluorescents in 9 fixtures. I still need a 100 watt compact fluorescent in a clip on reflector for my scroll saw and near my SS for fine, close work. I understand that new thinner fluorescents give off equal light with less draw. But with these, if I lose a ballast, it is cheaper to replace the fixture than the ballast. Fluorescents give off less heat than brighter bulbs, and in the Valley summers are well into the 100's. When you upgrade the shop put in as much power as you can. Really, does your wife NEED a hair dryer in the bathroom. She can always blow dry in the shop. Back to reality, if you get to upgrade the power think GFI. If I had a ground fault interrupter in the garage after the 94 Earthquake it might have prevented the fire that finished off the house.

[wgander]

Thanks to each of you for the ideas and info.
We had the house rewired a couple of years ago and I had the same electrician here yesterday to look at the shop. The shop is a separate building 100' away from the house, fed underground from the house main circuit breaker panel.
I'm going to see how much it would cost to have a separate service installed directly to the shop. My alternative is to dig a new trench to bury a new run from the house. He doubts that we'd be able to use the existing wire to pull a new one. We can only see where it exits the basement wall and comes up under the shop: can't tell if it's in a conduit. I think it's so old it would probably break if we pulled it and it got hung up on a turn, etc.
He suggested increasing the number of wall mounted outlets just for convenience and adding at least one outdoor outlet. I'm going to run wire to provide for a porch type light (just in case - I don't need one) and also to the adjoining garden shed (again, just in case).
I'm going to have the separate circuit for the SS fed to a retractable cord mounted overhead. I have that in my garage back home and it's a great convenience: I think it's a 30' cord with three outlets on the end (no light), and it's rated at 20 or 30 amps.
I'll probably paint the ceiling white (I've already painted the walls white) to help with illumination.
I'll be reviewing your ideas and the Fine Wood Working magazine article to determine the number of overhead fixtures.
There are several incandescent light bulb fixtures at work bench locations. They're old and will be replaced, but I don't use them enough to put them on the top of my list.

[ryanbp01]

Hi,

If you are planning on doing any turning, you should probably invest in the Utility light for the Shopsmith. I use on with a 100 W incandescent bulb. I eliminates the strobe effect from the fluorescent lights which could give you a headache. It was a tip I picked up from a TA I attended 2 years ago.

BPR-

[wgander]

yep, got it along with several of the mounting blocks for different accessories.