Basement shop lighting

[Jim Brown]

Hi folks.

I'm trying to decide on lighting for my big new basement shop. If I did it right, a diagram should be available below. The floor joists come down to 7'3" or so.

The challenges are the obstructions: the main beam running top to bottom in the diagram, and the ducts to the right of the beam.

My current thinking is to run 4' fluorescents parallel to the floor joists (i.e. horizontally in the picture), maybe 4 feet in from each side wall. Maybe 6' apart? Then, because the ceiling obstructions will make shadows, one row of the same lights along either side of the beam (i.e. between the beam and the ducts on the right side, and the same distance away from the beam on the left side.

This is a basement shop, so while there are some windows, they aren't really a factor with regard to light.

The furnace & water heater aren't walled in yet, but they soon will be.

Any feedback appreciated!

Edit: BTW I did the basic diagram at the Grizzly site and grabbed it with printscreen.

[TDHofstetter]

Pretty large basement! Cool!

So - either side of that center support you have about 14', so if you hang a 4' fixture up between the joists (which I'd do, to get it out of the headspace) that'd leave 10' of empty space. Yep, 4' in from the walls sounds about right. Maybe on the furnace/WH side 4', plus fixtures across the joists between the duct & center beam, like you think... while on the opposite side just two 4' fixtures between the joists, say 2' from the wall & 2' from the beam, leaving 4' between 'em. That's TONS plenty.

Zone those lights so they don't all turn on together - give yourself at least four light zones, maybe six. Not a bad idea to have one switch turn on four lights, one in each corner of the basement, for overall lighting, then one switch for each of about four light zones.

[dicklaxt]

Without looking at the shop layout let me just say that when you have two or more rows of lights, the distance from the exterior wall should be 1/2 the distance that is between the rows.The distance between the rows should never exceed the mounting height,if the distance from the task being performed is close to the wall then the light adjacent to the wall should be reduced to 1/4 or 1/3 the distance between the rows.

dick

[TDHofstetter]

Aha! Dick, you're familiar with "the grumbling line".

[dicklaxt]

Well I don't know ,,,,,,,,,,,but surely not by that name,

dick

[TDHofstetter]

Classically, "the grumbling line" is a plot of the available skylight available inside a building, as delivered by the windows in the outside walls. In a more modern sense, it's a plot of the light available from each of a group of light fixtures, projecting at least a minimum light onto the possible work areas so's to circumvent discomfort (grumbling) by people working in those areas.

[dicklaxt]

Lights on you.

LOL

[Joe Lyddon]

Hey Jim,

May I suggest that you place your anticipated light fixtures into your Grizzly Layout (to scale) then, show us the anticipated layout, as see it, for more comments, etc.

You could even put circuit codes & switches to get it even more detailed... ;D

That looks like a nice spacious shop area!

[Jim Brown]

Good idea, Joe, though I'm not going to get too fancy with wire and switch locations on the diagram ... I'll be cannibalizing the existing lighting for that, and possibly adding in zones as Tim suggested. A little improvisation in other words.

Keep in mind that this is all very approximate ... joist placement, and location of existing pipes & wires, will affect some of my decisions. But this is the idea I have in mind.

On paper this seems like overkill, and a lot more expensive than I was planning ...

[Leo Voisine]

I tend to UNDER light the shop - and I get by just fine.

When I had my shop in the basement I had (4) 4-foot 2-tube florescent shop lights. Most of the time I had only 3 of them turned on. Shop size was 24 x 14

NOW - in my new shop 26x26 I have only (3) 4-foot 2 tube florescent fixtures. I find it to be adequate. I do however use some small concentrated lighting - ocassionally.

I think for the most part - your plan is 2-3 times too much lighting.

However - my assessment is purely speculative and non-scientific. It's based purely on my experience and tolerance.

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On another note -- enclosing (walling in) your furnace. BE CAREFUL. The furnace NEEDS a SIGNIFICANT amount of air circulation. Voilating the needs of the furnace WILL cause significant problems.

There are building codes specifically for that purpose.

You definately should talk to your heating technician about the proper venting of your furnace before you complete your plan to enclose it with walls.

It's not hard to do - but you may need to plan on building in some sort of air circulation ducting - and possibly exhausting to the outside.

[Jim Brown]

Thanks for the response, Leo. It seems like a lot of light to me, too ... but I like a lot of light, and I don't want to have to add it in later if I can avoid it. The "vertical" rows are there to address what I expect will be dark spots due to the obstructions.

I think I'd save a lot of lights by putting all the rows vertical, but then I'd lose headroom if I can't fit them between the floor joists.

[dicklaxt]

Probably as Leo says most shops are underlit and people just live with it.The use of task lighting would solve the problen by just adding a temporary light where needed.

Now that you have come up with a proposed layout of fixture locations why not run a quick calculation and just see what you may end up with in terms of footcandles.

The industry standard decided by the folks who know is 60-80 footcandles for a woodworking shop area.The formula for calculating this is:

Average Maintained Illumination (Footcandles) = (Lamps/Fixture x Lumens/Lamp x No. of Fixtures x Coefficient of Utilization x Light Loss Factor) ÷ Area in Square Feet

Use 2800 for lumens of each 40 watt fluorescent tube and use a combined number of .5 to .8 for CU x LLF( this number will depend on how well you keep the fixtures cleaned,wall and ceiling reflectance,lamp quality/depreciation, etc).Why not do two calcs, one at .5 and one at .8 this would give you the low to high footcandles.

It will be interesting to see what you got.

dick

[dcarter636]

I learned that arranging the fluorescent tubes in square patterns in my garage did a lot to minimize shadows. I would change the horizontal fixtures to 6 spaced about 8 feet apart and lay an additional row of 5 fixtures drawn vertical along the long walls.

Considering the pricing of individual task lights compared to good florescent fixtures, they are about equal dollars per unit. I'd choose to spend on more fixtures and less on task lights.

[Jim Brown]

I just laid out more than $600 at Lowes today for wiring and conduit for outlets around the walls, and 16 fluorescent lights (all they had of the style I chose). They're shop lights, not surface mount, so I'll try them out and see how it goes ... I can experiment a little.

I'm thinking about throwing up some foil-backed insulation as a sort of ceiling to bounce some light back down ... cheap and easy.

[Mark T]

I tend to do lighting a bit differently than some. My lights are not evenly spaced, nor are they even in-line. I place a fixture above every stationary tool. Then I place lights the length of each workbench. All my lights are on a tiny length of chain (8' ceiling), and all lights are easily movable, should I change tool locations.

I find that I have no shadowing problems while working at any tool station, I have plenty of wash on the workbenches, and peripheral lighting between stations (general floor) is quite sufficient.

I also use several task fixtures on articulated arms. One over the TS table, one over the lathe, one over the RAS, and one over the spindle sander/ stationary belt sander (swinging back and forth). The bandsaw has it's own light, and I found I didn't really need one at the miter saw.

So essentially, my lighting looks like a hodgepodge, but it is very effective for me.