Garage how many?

Working on my dream garage/shop/toy storage and installing lights have a few questions garage is 28 x 42 with 9 ft ceilings all walls and ceiling are finished and painted. I know I need cold starting
How many florescent lights?
What kind of bulbs?
Which way would you run them?
Spacing, garage doors run on 42 ft side
Would you mount to the ceiling or suspend and what to do around the garage doors eyes are not what they use to be so I want it bright

 

Toad,

I can help, but give me a little insight into the actual use of your shop, type of work, equipment, etc so I can better determine the light level that is best suited for your tasks.

In addition, about how much space do you have between the ceiling and the garage doors when they are in the open position, would you generally use the shop with the doors open or closed?

Cheers!

 

I spent a couple of minutes out of my day and did a photometrical study on your garage lighting.

I am making the following asumptions:
-All surfaces are finished.
-Walls and ceilings are painted light colour
-Floor is concrete, no epoxy finish
-Fixtures can be installed on ceiling above where garage doors open with out any conflict

To achieve a light level of 50 foot-candles (which is what I would reccomend for a workshop) you will need the following:

18 4'-0" 2-lamp 32W T8 industrial open type fixtures with 10% uplight. These are generally available at your local electrical distributor for a decent price. Fixtures should have a rapid start ballast, most are rated for cold start but ensure that the ballast that is supplied is.

The fixtures shall be layed out in a grid pattern with the following criteria:

Fixtures run parallel to 28' length of room. Lets call the 42 foot wall the X-axis and the 28 foot wall the y-axis for reference.

Number of columns along y-axis:3
Number of rows along x axis:6
Column spacing (y-axis):9'-0"
Row spacing (x-axis):7'-0"
Column start from wall(y-axis):5'-0"
Row start from wall(x-axis):3'-6"

The average maintained light level will be 50.7 footcandles and max/min ratio will be 2.1:1 which displays that this layout is very evenly distributed.

If you want I can send you a drawing of the layout, just PM me with your e-mail address.

Hope this is what you were looking for!

Cheers!

 

Wow Hooty yes all assumptions are correct I am a machinist and shop will be used for everything from wood work to relaxing with a beer from the fridge, with a lot of work going to my 1930 Essex thanks for the advise and no print needed