How much lighting needed on a 24x24 garage?

armoredsaintt · 12-22-04, 02:04

I was at Lowes looking at 6500k fluorescent lighting, some are 4 feet and 8 feet long with 2 side by side. I was thinking about getting the 4 feet x 6 of them, so a total of 12 bulbs, too much or too little? What do you think? If you have pics of your ceiling, please post

Thanks!

ScubaStevo · 12-22-04, 02:10

It will be enough, our garage only has 2 incandesent bulbs lighting up a 26x30 garage.

I could take a picture, but it would be worthless.

rnbradford · 12-22-04, 02:51

I have the same size garage and have four 4' fixtures with four tubes each (total of 16 tubes). Part of the problem might be the placement (none over where the garage door is in the up position) but I could use more.
Richard

LouisanaJeeper · 12-22-04, 03:21

i have 4 4' fixtures (2 tubes/fixture). i think 2 more would be perfect so your plan sounds good

Flexin · 12-22-04, 03:46

In my shop I have 4 double 8' tubes. One set is out right now.

But I don't think its enough light. I'm thinking of adding 4 more sets and painting the walls white.

James

BTW the shop is about 25X32.

holland_patrick · 12-22-04, 03:52

I have half the garage painted and two 120w incadessant in the back with one portable shop florent in the front between the two bays that i pull in when needed.

Maybe if i could get a car in the garage I would have more light..

Patrick

Accumulator · 12-22-04, 03:56

Can't really go by my garage as the cathedral ceiling costs me some light. In my previous shop's wash bay (a bit larger than your 24'x24') I had (IIRC) 12 8' dbl fixtures on the ceiling and two more dbl 8' fixtures on the side wall.

I'd say you should always get more than you think you need. I prefer the 8 foot tubes myself. I've never felt I had too much light, nor have I seen a shop that did.

Mount some fluorescents on the walls, too. Big help when it comes to the sides of the car.

And get some regular incandescent lights (preferably high-wattage; I have 300w ones). They work incredibly well for swirl spotting- turn out the other lights and the "regular" ones make the marring just jump out at you, even better than halogens IMO.

And yeah, white walls/ceiling help a lot.

artm3 · 12-22-04, 04:01

Rule of thumb, ~1.5 Watts/square foot
24 x 24 ~ 580 sq ft
4' flourescent bulb ~ 40W
580/40 ~ 14 bulbs
use 6 each 4' fixtures, 2 bulbs each = 12 bulbs
arranged as follows:

4'

4 ' I 8' I 8' I 4'

8'

4 ' I 8' I 8' I 4'

4'

mount at 8' AFF

you might consider 2 switches;
the 4 outside fixtures on one, the 2 middle on the other

armoredsaintt · 12-22-04, 04:11

wow, thanks for the input, i will be meeting with the electrical contractor soon too. Also great point about the garage being up and blocking part of the lights and I'm planning to put the lights on seperate light switches too.

Accumulator · 12-22-04, 04:53

Yeah, good point, I forgot about the switches

The extra cost of having it wired the way you'd *really* like it will soon be forgotten, but if they're *not* wired the way you want it'll bug you all the time.

Redcar GUY · 12-22-04, 05:18

My garage is 26X26.. I have 12, 4 foot fluorescents.. I could use a few more..

steved · 12-24-04, 06:36

You might want to frame a coffered ceiling around where each car is to be parked and mount a combination of T8's and MR16's on all sides...full spectrum lamps. Here's a garage with the right idea but needs a few updates.

SD....PS, the old 1.5w rule per sq ft was for T12's.....the energy conscious folks are trying to get down to 1w/ft with T8's. For you detailers, the more light the better.