Best type of lighting for a large garage

[dfoss]

I have just built an 8m x 6m garage/workshop with a nice high roofspace - 3.5M to the purlins and collar ties - clear below.
My question is - without going overboard on cost - what would people recommend to use these days as there are many newer devices than the old fluorescent tubes

 

[ban-all-sheds]

There are many newer types of lights.

But none better - just make sure you get ones with electronic ballasts to avoid the handy strobe effect of 50Hz lighting making that whirlyfingermanglingthingy look like it isn't actually whirling.

 

[dfoss]

What about LEDs in a strip light? - I have not been over impressed with the light small LED worklights give - it looks bright but somehow you can not really see the illuminated object as well as with other light sources. Would they perform better than a fluorescent tube? or are they just cheaper to run and not functionally any better or as good

 

[flameport]

What about LEDs in a strip light?

Marginally less power than fluorescent. Instant start at full brightness.
If you want LED, get fittings designed only for LEDs, do not buy LED replacement tubes.

 

[winston1]

What about LEDs in a strip light? - I have not been over impressed with the light small LED worklights give - it looks bright but somehow you can not really see the illuminated object as well as with other light sources. Would they perform better than a fluorescent tube? or are they just cheaper to run and not functionally any better or as good

LED tubes use less watts and have less output than the same size florescent. So you need more of them. Overall for the same light output they are not cheaper to run.

Though they claim to last a lot longer they also cost a lot more to replace when they do fail, so no saving there either.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I'm with BAS. HF Florries the best choice.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Instant start at full brightness.

Same with high frequency fluorescents.

 

[JohnW2]

LED tubes use less watts and have less output than the same size florescent. So you need more of them. Overall for the same light output they are not cheaper to run.

Although that is all true, I think that I, for one, must have previously been over-generous in providing fluorescent lighting since, whenever I have changed fluorescents to LED tubes, I have found that the resulting lighting was more than adequate (with the same number of tubes, of same lengths), despite the lower power and light output.

That suggests to me that if one could get lower power (for the same length) fluorescent tubes, they would in many cases probably be adequate (in terms of light output) to achieve the same power/cost saving as a change to LEDs, but with much lower up-front costs.

Kind Regards, John

 

[aptsys]

Same with high frequency fluorescents.

There is still a warm up time as the pressure in the tube builds. It's not 100% luminous output instantly - usually 30s to 60s

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Must be as near to 100% as makes no difference, then, as I've never noticed mine taking any time to get going.

 

[ericmark]

For ceiling lights I agree with BAS fluorescent have around 95 lumen per watt, and with HF units last around same time, cheaper to install and much cheaper to renew.

However for a garage we often want light lower down, the fluorescent is easy to break, using tubes made in plastic does have some advantages as already said we often need the spread of light but not the amount of light so we get away with lower output tubes, but for the garage we have to consider the strobe effect, using HF fluorescent or LED with a switch mode LED is OK but simple capactors used to control current there is a strobe effect problem, so one has to be careful selecting, replacements for the fluorscent tube are in the main switch mode they need to be to get 100 lumen per watt to be better than the fluorescent they replace.

However with stand alone LED lamps, it is not unusual to find cheap and nasty capactor current regulaton, when I looked for an example to show how many lamps do not give 100 lumen per watt so likely have cheap capactor regulation and so a problem with strobe effect I found many simply don't tell you how many lumen and watts even when the law requires it.

 

[dfoss]

Thanks for the input guys - I think I will stick to Fluorescent tubes - Now - this sounds like a simple question but I doubt if it is looking at the morass of opinions on 17th edition, earth loop impedence etc - but here goes:-
I have a 6 amp breaker in the Garage consumer unit ( which has in it an RCD on the 40A incomer) - this is currently feeding a twin 58W T8 strip light.
Can I add further lighting units on this spur - all to work off the same switch.
The house is TT - the garage is fed with an armoured cable which also has an earth wire - and the garage has a 16 sq mm earth cable to it's own earth rod in a chamber (yet to be tested)

 

[EFLImpudence]

this is currently feeding a twin 58W T8 strip light.
Can I add further lighting units on this spur - all to work off the same switch.

Yes. 6A @ 230V = 1,380 Watts

Stick to half that for fluorescent lights and it will be alright.

 

[dfoss]

Thanks mate - another 4 or 5 of the same would be overkill so when I (or my wallet) have recovered from building the bloomin' garage I'll daisychain two or three more till I have a decent coverage by trial and error.

 

[deadshort]

Marginally less power than fluorescent. Instant start at full brightness.
If you want LED, get fittings designed only for LEDs, do not buy LED replacement tubes.

I have used Thorn led ,they are the dogs bits !

DS