As the title states, lighting upgrade. Only this is to the lighting in my shop, not to our cars. Sorry guys!
At the request of a member on my build thread, I figured I had enough info to create a new thread, so here it is.
After many years of beg, borrowing and calling in favours to use anything even resembling a garage for my automotive obsessions, I knew exactly how I wanted to lay mine out come the day I could actually have a garage of my own.
First off, I knew I wanted a bright, clean, well lit and well organized shop. Lighting would be key. My shop is a 24'x24' detached garage behind my house. When I originally laid out the lighting, I installed and wired up the lights in two banks on two switches.
The front bank has 9 overhead fluorescent fixtures, the rear bank has 6 (just simply due to obstacles like overhead door brackets, garage door opener etc).
Originally, all the fixtures were 4' T12 dual bulb units. They were budget friendly at the time, and offered good clean lighting for what they were.
At 10+ years on, the ballasts were weaker, the lights got dimmer, and with more car posters etc on the wall, there was less white paint to reflect back all contributing to making it darker.
After finally getting annoyed by a couple burnt out ballasts and having to use a flashlight just to see in the damn bolt bin, I figured it was time to do the lighting upgrade I'd been considering for some time now.
This time, I figured I could easily double my light output without adding any more wiring or junction boxes, and no crawling around in the attic just by replacing the two bulb units with four bulb ones.
In case anyone's not aware, T12 style lights are slowly being phased out, T8 and LED's are the new standard. At $15 a bulb, LED's are currently out of my budget, but the new fixtures will accept them, so that may possibly be another upgrade at some point in the future.
Rather than replace all the fixtures with the exact same ones throughout the shop, the rear bank got 8' T8 4 bulb fixtures in an "end to end" configuration...
...and the front bank is getting 4' T8 four bulb units. The bulbs on the front bank lights are the "side by side" style, rather than "end to end" like the rear bank, simply because I already have 3 more lights on the front bank.
Here's one of the new lights in the foreground with one of the old two bulb units in the background:
The new fixtures have electronic "instant on" ballasts, rather than the old magnetic style. Quicker on, and no more annoying buzzing.
So far, I've replaced 10 of the 15 lights I have in the shop, and I can tell you, the difference already is remarkable! No more dark corners, no more shadows, and much needed light over my work benches and band saw.
I still have the last five 4' two bulb units to replace, but at $100 per light plus bulbs, that'll be on an "as I can afford it" basis.
The only downside that I've come across so far is that now I can actually see the dust bunnies accumulating in the corners, and I'm temporarily light blind when I step outside into the dark at night!
Oh well, I'll cope...
Here's a couple more pics, enjoy.
At the request of a member on my build thread, I figured I had enough info to create a new thread, so here it is.
After many years of beg, borrowing and calling in favours to use anything even resembling a garage for my automotive obsessions, I knew exactly how I wanted to lay mine out come the day I could actually have a garage of my own.
First off, I knew I wanted a bright, clean, well lit and well organized shop. Lighting would be key. My shop is a 24'x24' detached garage behind my house. When I originally laid out the lighting, I installed and wired up the lights in two banks on two switches.
The front bank has 9 overhead fluorescent fixtures, the rear bank has 6 (just simply due to obstacles like overhead door brackets, garage door opener etc).
Originally, all the fixtures were 4' T12 dual bulb units. They were budget friendly at the time, and offered good clean lighting for what they were.
At 10+ years on, the ballasts were weaker, the lights got dimmer, and with more car posters etc on the wall, there was less white paint to reflect back all contributing to making it darker.
After finally getting annoyed by a couple burnt out ballasts and having to use a flashlight just to see in the damn bolt bin, I figured it was time to do the lighting upgrade I'd been considering for some time now.
This time, I figured I could easily double my light output without adding any more wiring or junction boxes, and no crawling around in the attic just by replacing the two bulb units with four bulb ones.
In case anyone's not aware, T12 style lights are slowly being phased out, T8 and LED's are the new standard. At $15 a bulb, LED's are currently out of my budget, but the new fixtures will accept them, so that may possibly be another upgrade at some point in the future.
Rather than replace all the fixtures with the exact same ones throughout the shop, the rear bank got 8' T8 4 bulb fixtures in an "end to end" configuration...
...and the front bank is getting 4' T8 four bulb units. The bulbs on the front bank lights are the "side by side" style, rather than "end to end" like the rear bank, simply because I already have 3 more lights on the front bank.
Here's one of the new lights in the foreground with one of the old two bulb units in the background:
The new fixtures have electronic "instant on" ballasts, rather than the old magnetic style. Quicker on, and no more annoying buzzing.
So far, I've replaced 10 of the 15 lights I have in the shop, and I can tell you, the difference already is remarkable! No more dark corners, no more shadows, and much needed light over my work benches and band saw.
I still have the last five 4' two bulb units to replace, but at $100 per light plus bulbs, that'll be on an "as I can afford it" basis.
The only downside that I've come across so far is that now I can actually see the dust bunnies accumulating in the corners, and I'm temporarily light blind when I step outside into the dark at night!
Oh well, I'll cope...
Here's a couple more pics, enjoy.