How Many Lights Do You Need And How To Install LED Shop Lights?

A home garage, or any other workshop, you need the same category of light everywhere. 

The chances are that most of the lights in your garage or workshop are fluorescent lights. These days LED fixtures t light many garages, and they do it better than fluorescent lights. LEDs are famous for quite a few reasons-

• LEDs render better colors, almost like daylight, and come in different color temperatures.

• LED lights are energy-efficient and cost-effective, so save a lot of money in the long run. 

• No warmup time and instant switch-on

• Attains full brightness immediately

How Many Lumens Do You Need?

According to the IESNA Lighting Handbook, a garage needs around 80 lumens-100 lumens/sq feet. 

If we consider One car garage area typically has a size of 12 feet wide and 22 feet deep, which is 264 square feet.     

So the possible number of lumens required for an area this wide according to the recommended range above= 264*100=26400 lumens.

Four T8 8ft V Shape LED Tube (2 rows of 2 8ft V Shape LED Tube arranged in parallel can be a great option) are enough to light up a one-car garage.

Note= The maximum distance between two lighting fixtures is 1.5 times the height of the work/task surface. 

Which Type Of Light Do You Need?

Hardwired, plug and play, suspended mount, or wall mount, which one do you require?

A hard-wired light needs to connect to the power source directly, so you can not move them anywhere. This is costly, as it also requires some expertise, as it needs rewiring and reconnections. 

You just need to connect the plug and play fixture to the power source, and it will switch on instantly. This option seems attractive for its cost-effectiveness and has a simple installation. This might look good on the surface, but in the long run, it is not a viable option. 

Do You Have Enough Outlets?

If you have an existing number of outlets, check whether it will be enough for the new fixtures. Just make sure that you have the power outlet close to the light, otherwise, you will need a power cord. 

Task Lighting, Ambient Lighting, Or Accent Lighting?

Ambient lighting is just for the sake of navigating things with ease. 

Ambient lighting fixtures are generally the lights that fit on ceilings. LED panels, LED tubes and bulbs are good enough ambient lighting. For walls, doors, and ceilings, you need these lights. 

Task lighting fixtures include LED downlights in case one has finished ceilings. LED high bay lights are a good option for storage spaces. This is good for workspaces and repair shops. 

For accent lighting, suspended lights are the best. Wall mount lights can also be some good options, with LED bulbs.

Color Temperature

The best color temperature preferred in the garages and workshops is in the range of 4000 kelvins-5000 kelvins. 

Surface Mount Or Suspension Mount?

As discussed above, the surface mount is good for ambient lighting only.

Once you have mapped out the specific types of lights you need, you are good to go with installation. There are lights that you can mount on the ceilings or have hunged with hooks. 

If woodwork or car repairing is the most you do in the workshop, you would like to avoid shadows, dark spots, or light spills. For this case, hanging or suspended ceiling lights are the best. Most of these lights come with hooks through which the lights can hang via chains. 

Note- Just make sure that the suspended lights are fastened safely and tightly for safety precautions. 

For Ceiling Mounted fixtures

Better hire an electrician you had not planned on the layout yet. It gets quite complicated with wall mount, as it involves connecting junction boxes, PVCs, and a lot of other stuff. 

Layout for Suspended Mount

Hammer the nails into the wooden joists of the ceilings, up to 1 inch deep. Two nails should be placed at lengths equal to the distance between the suspension slots of the LED fixture. 

Keep in mind that connectors also have to connect between two successive fixtures, so leave a gap equal to the length of the connector plus a margin of 2 inches.

ASSEMBLE LED SHOP LIGHTS (Hanging or suspended mount)

Most of the lights come pre-assembled these days. They are power inlets at each end of the light. Connect the power cord to the power terminal for power input. 

If you are planning out a daisy chain, just insert the linking cable into the other end of the light. 

Each light comes with two slots at the end, for hook insertions. The hook is attached to one end of the suspension chain. All you need to do is to insert the hook into the slots. 

Final Step

Now hang the lights and make sure that your first light should be close to the power source. One by one, connect the other light with the previous one with the connector. 

Keep doing this until a daisy chain is formed. 

Now Enjoy Your New Lighting

Switch on the power and enjoy the brightness of your all-new lighting arrangement. 

How many light fixtures do I need for my warehouse?

We get tons of questions like this and are happy to help. Some of them thinking about light color and height, some of them about fixture spacing. We are happy to help. We thought sharing an example would help you think about all the things we do. 

Quick Guide to How Many Warehouse Lighting Fixtures You Need

Here are some quick rules of thumb for choosing the right brightness and spacing for your LED high bay lights:

Brightness: The brightness of the LED high bay lights depends on the height of the ceiling and the beam angle of the light. The higher the ceiling, the higher the lumen output you need. The narrower the beam angle, the more concentrated the light. Here are some examples of brightness levels for different ceiling heights and beam angles:

•  14,000 lumens at 120 degrees from 10 to 15 feet

•  21,000 lumens at 120 degrees from 14 to 20 feet

•  35,000 lumens at 120 degrees from 20 to 30 feet

•  42,000+ lumens at 30+ feet but with a 60, 90, or 120 degrees lens

Spacing: The spacing of the LED high bay lights depends on the height of the ceiling and the coverage area of the light. A general rule is to space them out at the same distance as the height of the ceiling. For example, if your ceiling is 10 feet high, space them out every 10 feet. If your ceiling is 15 feet high, space them out every 15 feet. However, this rule may vary depending on the shape and size of your space and the beam angle of your light. For example, if your ceiling is above 25 feet high, you may need to space them out closer, go brighter or use a different lens to get enough light. You can also call us for a free lighting layout l to calculate the optimal spacing for your space.

Here are some recent examples

Here is the email;

I have a 40x70 warehouse that I will be working on and detailing cars. I want to convert from old lighting to led primarily for brighter lighting and lower energy costs. The lights are currently at 17 feet above floor. I was looking at your 150 wattand you 100 watt high Bay UFO lights. Would this be appropriate? How many would I need and how far apart etc. thank you. Bob

Here is our first answer;

Thanks for reaching out. Those are awesome lights so you are on the right track.  At 17 feet high you can go 100 watts or 150 with a 120 wide angle. That is the angle the light comes out at. I usually do not recommend 150 watts until we get closer to 18 feet high and up.  You are right at the cut off.

1. 

Do the 150watts high bay lights and use 120 wide which is standard. 14-20 feet we recommend the 150watts.  At 17 feet you can go wider angle and still get good light to the ground. So the 6x3 pattern would give you good coverage. 7x3 for 21 lights for higher brightness.  

If you can run additional wiring, we can also do all of this withversions so you can go a bit brighter and adjust down to save energy. You can create a few sections. Maybe dim down half of the warehouse where it's just parked cars and leave the rest full brightness. See our knowledge base and video on 0-10v dimming for more info on these.

2. Use 100 wattsand space them out every 8-14 feet (8 for high brightness, 14 for adequate). A 6x3 pattern for example is 18 lights for basic lighting, or go 7x3 (or 6x4/8x3 depending on wiring) for 21-24 lights to get a medium brightness level. 8x4 for 32 would be very high brightness. So that’s just an estimate. Somewhere in there.

21 of the 100 watts in dimmable high bay lights would probably be my recommendation for bright lighting. (without knowing more)

There is bulk pricing on all of this too.  Choice of angle and light color. All inclusive. 5 year Warranty, full liability insurance, USA toll free phone support and no tax outside of CA.

Feel free to give me a call and I can answer any other questions. 

Thanks

Bill

Here is a 2nd email;

I have a 30x40 shop and need to know how to light it. The sides are 14ft and the peak is 17ft. What do I use?  Jim R

Here is our 2nd answer;

Jim R

Thanks for reaching out. Our standard shop lighting is always 2 rows of 2 for 4 lights.  Anything from 20-40ft x 20-40ft fits right in there and gets great results. I would recommend 4 of our 150 watt UFO high bay lights. We never want to use less than 4 because we want light coming from at least 2 directions to reduce shadowing. So even on The 20x20 we go to 4, its a bit overkill with lumens but the uniformity is more important. See the image above to see what happens when one light is out, lots of heavy shadowing.

Dan

When in Doubt - Talk to an Expert

So you can see there are so many variables in lighting design that you have to think through lots of options. Number of fixtures, brightness, height, light angle, where you can actually run wiring, etc, etc. There is a whole science called photometrics that does awesome analysis on this. For larger buildings they can do a full design. On something like this it’s just not worth it.

This customer went with 21 of the 100 watt LED High Bay lights and emailed us later on to say that they were very pleased.