I just dryed in half my 24x56 shed . Parking for my 51 and my 67 fords. Lights are something i havn't got around to. 2 roll up doors will cost like 1,700 buck. HOLY HOCKEY STICKS

 

Ross
I am out in the middle of no where so no building codes here.
Everything I do is built to national codes so yes I do have gfci's. I used breakers instead of the plug in's and they are not all that expensive. I have several plug in's on each breaker. The lights are not on gfic's because they are high enough they can't be touched from the wet floor. I guess I could spray water on them and make a path for current back to me.
Most of the body stuff I use is air driven and a lot of the other tools are battery operated.
I haven't had any issues with electric drills etc. not wanting to get along with the gfic's
Larry

 

I bought my doors through the Steel Door Depot. I picked them up at the Janus factory and saved on shipping. They were very reasonable that way, but I don't remember what I paid for them.

 

I bought some 4-ft fluorescents with electronic ballasts and T8 lamps. I wanted to put them in my attached garage, which it turns out is all GFCI because of the water heater being in there, and because they fed all the outdoor (porch) outlets off the same circuit. As soon as I plugged in the lights, it blew the GFCI. I looked on the net, found that many CHEAP electronic ballasts drain some current to ground continuously, which the GFCI sees as a fault. Had to return all of them.

 

It's not so much the thought of "stealing light" or making it brighter, it is spreading out what is already there. Not to mention the obvious fact that the more light fixtures there are...the better. You are right, you are not increasing your lumens by raising the light fixture, you are spreading the same light over a larger area.

What works for me don't always work for other people...thats cool man. Just tryin to help.

 

Thanks for all the great info guys.Have PM a few members for a little more info.So far I think I am going with 3 lengths of double tube T8 lights down the length and maybe 2 acrooss the front over the benches.Great info.

 

Reg1952 your plan sounds good. As far as GFI's are concerned, I believe by the National Electric Code any recepticle in a garage are going to need to be GFI's. Also, not all GFI's are created equal the new ones (P&S, Leviton) are pretty good compared to the older ones.

Paul

 

I too have the 8' lights with 4' bulbs. Love them. Wish I had installed more of them. Probably going to soon. Need to find some way of installing them around the garage door.

One idea I am tossing around is one 4' vertical on each side of the door. Another idea is having them hang from chain on each side of the door to get them to shine below it.

 

Just was doing some calulations.If I was to use 12 four ft fixtures that would be 24 T8 32 watt bulbs.24x 32watts = 768 watts or 6.4 amps of power.If I was to use 8 100w incodesent bulbs they would use the same amount of power and I would save about $500 on the floresent fixures.If I use the new CFL bulbs that would save even more.Or is the light far better from the floresents to be bothered with the incodesents.Thanks

 

You should look at Lumens, not just watts. Watts is how much power they use, lumens is how much light they put out. So the incandescents would use as much power, but I think you'll find they put out a lot less light.

Bare bulbs (incandescents) give poor quality light IMO, and you would want some reflectors at least, so the costs aren't as far apart as you think. The article I linked to above had a guy who went the CFL route with high-power (150 W) CFLs, it's certainly an option.

 

I don't know what your budget is. Mine was bare bones so I bout accordingly. I used the 4' double tube shop lights from Home Depot. I put six in my 20' x 30' garge. Wiring and lights were $100 in 2002. If you go this route, your space might take eight. Let us see the ultimate layout and results.

Good luck, Jag

 

i found a business that was changing their warehouse to more efficient lights, they had a load of i believe t8 8 ft long ,anyway, bought 14 of them for 60bux including extra bulbs that will last me a lifetime, got them installed in a 22x22 garage, i`ll tell you this, while working you can sun tan!! no need for a troublelight unless your under the vehicle.

 

I think you are saying you have several duplex outlets on each gfic breaker protected line, but in case any one else misreads, NEVER use two gfic devices (i.e. gfic breaker and gfic outlet) on the same line, it won't work.

In my garage (28x28 with 12' ceilings) pictured here:

I used 14 4' two tube T-8s with reflectors mounted in 3 rows of 4 and 1 row of two. Staircase going upstairs in the reat corner shortened last row. They are mounted to 2x4s across the joists to put bulbs even with bottoms. I sprayed the ceiling and OSB covered walls with gloss white paint (latex on ceiling and industial epoxy on walls) and painted the floor with semigloss urethane industrial coating designed for airplane hanger floors in a light tan. Having light reflective surfaces increases the brightness dramatically.
I also have swivel and swing task lights made from surplus stage lighting fixtures with spot bulbs installed over each bench. I have a double set of 20A duplex outlets (4 outlets total) every 4' around the perimeter on two circuits (one duplex on each circuit at each location). I color coded the outlets using tan and white outlets to designate which circuit they are on.

IMHO you can never have too much light in a work space. I am still considering mount some more flour. fixtures on the side walls 7' from the floor pointed horizontally.

 

Nice shop Ax! i also have lights mounted 5ft from the ground and agled to the floor, makes a big difference!

 

I bought two 20 foot rollup doors for my shop back in December. Trust me, I feel your pain. Who would have ever thought this thread would get so big and technical? Man, I just walked into my shop, looked at the ceiling, and said "yep, i think I'll put about 3 lights over there and 3 over here". And it worked.