My brother & I are going to run power to my rear workshop. This is where my 914 hibernates during winter. I've decided to go with 4' LED lights.

https://www.samsclub.com/sams/linkable-shop...plp:product:1:1

My question is, how many should I buy for a 14 X 20 shop? My original thought was to run 2 banks of 2 lights (8ft each bank) longways in the non-loft area and surface mount two additional 4' fixtures under the loft.

After reading about the brightness of these things, I think my original plan may be overkill and I'm wondering if just 2 lights in the main area and one under the loft would be better.

Anyone running similar LED's that can offer guidance?

Here's the setup:

Main area:
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Loft:
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Under loft:
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Your plan for 6 total lights should be fine. If not, you can always add more

I have a 24 x 24 garage that I switched to LED this year. I have 6 2 tube units mounted over the middle of each to the car bays. Light up the garage like a champ. I was going to do the workshop which contains 54 tubes. The retrofit builds that I used to convert the T8 fixtures, will not work due to the tombstones used by the lighting manufacture. Ended up selling 50 of the tubes at half cost due to return shipping was going to kill me.

I will switch them at a later date, as I like them so much. But then I am getting older and well the more light the better for me.

Bob...
If you have a Home Dept near you...check their LED utility lights...I was looking at them other day and they have quite a few varieties and some that put out pretty good lumens...
Amazing out put for such a small foot print..they also had the linkable type..

Do you have one in place for a work table. In addition to the built in lights, run lots of outlets so you can plug in led work lights and tools. Much of your work is in and under the car so you will need portable lighting. If you insulate it probable wouldn't take much of a heater to keep you comfortable.

This thread may be of interest, lots of LED and lighting info....

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=278420

My garage is 27 x 29 and I used 3 LED fixtures that put out 3400 Lumens each for a total of 10200 lumens which comes out to about 13 lumens/sq ft. That is about the same lighting level as in our kitchen. The 3 LEDs in the garage provide plenty of light for whatever I'm doing.

Your garage is 14 x 20 which is 280 sq ft. The fixtures you are looking at provide 4500 lumens each. 2 fixtures would provide 9000 lumens which would be about 32 lumens per square foot.

2 of these fixtures sound like a lot of overkill. If you want to put up 4 fixtures for better light distribution you can use much smaller fixtures.

26x28 detached garage and I have 6 of them in the main area and 1 over the bench. They came from Costco and help the old man eyes see.
In the new house, same size and will have the same number.

While not LED, I hung 2 4 ft fluro fixtures per side on the garage door track. Door up or down, same amount of light.

everything is LED now. All the new construction projects we do are all LED. Even theatrical lights. The good thing is that you can jump the same fixtures usually so buy 1 n go from there. The bad thing is we are seeing the drivers (power supplies) failing all the time.

Bob

Have the same shed as you 14x20

I went with 4 leds in the main area and staggered them, then 3 more under the loft area.

I used switched quad receptacles for the lights in the main area so I could add extra clamp on lights and just turn them on with the same switch. Also each light has its own pull chain so you can turn them off if you don't want to run them all. like when the garage door is open it blocks some of the lights so I can switch them off.

I set mine up so I could paint without shadows, the clamp on lights helped here.

But I like it really bright. It does heat the place up though even with LEDs


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I don't know about lighting but there are some damned fine garages out there! Not mine.

In Laguna Beach CaliFU, my next door neighbor ratted out my 12 year old carport (he moved in three years ago - blueblood never worked a day in his life) and the great and fine city made me pay double fines and double demo permit fees to take it down and remove it. My son and I painted my car in that shed. Larmo and I put the 911 front end in my car under the protection of that shed.. the engine that Drem914 has in his car today was installed in my car in that carport.........

If interested in a really nice beach bungalow, please buy it......... We gone.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/25140...fr/?view=public

26' x 20', 3 car garage.
Installed eight 4' 2 LED tube fixtures from Costco.
The key is to install the fixtures in between the cars to prevent shadows and light up the area of interest.
I'm very pleased with the result.

I have a 24 X 24, used the costco double tubers 4 foot long fixtures, with the cord and plug in place. I think they were about 25 bucks each. Pulled out the old fixtures, wired in dual plugs, plugged in the lights - like working in the sunshine, plus I can drop power from any of t plug fixtures if I want too.

best upgrade i ever did in the garage

You can't have too many lights. I have 6 4' LED's in my 2 car garage. So much nicer than the old fluorescents.

I have those exact lights in my 3 bay garage, I bought them from Sam's because of the 4500 lumen output rather than the 3700-3800 everywhere else. We love them. The garage is 26x36 with a 12 ft ceiling. I put one over each bay, so (3) 4' lights.

I bought a set from Amazon $65 shipped.



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I'm gonna get more!

I was going to say, "Um, your garage is dark buddy!" :-)

Any one try the 8' bulbs?
I have 16 lights in my shop so 32 bulbs. I've seen prices all over the place on amazon.

Conventional wisdom is that you can never have too much light in your shop...

--DD

It's a fair size shop, I'd say my lighting is OK, but at my age I wish I had more.
All hung fixtures with reflectors, rather refit than replace. I have a couple of ballasts gone, have to replace several bulbs every year or two.

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Single 100 watt bulb, I had to use a flash for this photo.

I've got (4) LED lights in my garage, they are about 3' long each and each give out 3000 lumins (whatever that means). Just a little one car garage probably about the same size as your space and it's plenty bright, although I have not done any work in the garage yet so maybe that will change.

Although you would have had to do a lot of them, the tombstones
can usually be modified to work.. I’ve done a couple of dozen..
Not a big deal really... just saying...

I have a similar problem in my garage. I have 5 8ft 2 bulb T12HO fixtures. I have 2 110 watt 8800 lumen bulbs in each one. It gives me pretty good lighting, but am thinking about going to LED when the time comes for ballast replacement. But finding the correct ones is not easy.

Greg W.

I did the easy fix for LED lighting, installed a BIG ASS FANS(now called SOLUTIONS) Haiku Shop Light fixture, 13500 lumens, all in a very compact covered housing. Like the inside sunlight so well I bought another for my woodturning shop area. Now I'm getting a tan on my thinning bald head! Damn, now I can also see all the dirt everywhere!

Thanks for all the responses. We just finished up. We went with 4 4' LED's in the main area, 2 4' LED's under the loft (all from Sam's Club), 1 standard fixture in the loft and 5 outlets. Looks like plenty of light!

After fixing a head stud out there by flashlight, I'm looking forward to working with decent light.

I'll be heating with a kerosene heater.

I should have gotten a bigger shop!

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Nice one Bob. Looks good.