Yet again I find myself with a headache today after working late into the evening in indequate light - time I sorted the problem.
What's the best solution to general overhead lighting (up to 6m ceilings) for detailed work? And for closer illumination?
Assume I'm willing to spend a bit and go to specialist suppliers rather then just what's available in the diy sheds.
Linear fluorescent. 2nd chioce, lots of CFLs. try to ensure access for changing bulbs tho.
NT
Another clear post lacking information ie what are you working on/with?
You know,a watchmaker would use an illuminated magnifier A dentist would use a close up fresnalled halogen.
Smart arsed answer would be DIY!
General joinery.
Or maybe I'd just know what sort of lighting i would need in my workshop without having to ask.
As suggest linear lighting preferably with diffuser and a retractable or track lighting to light in the most common area of your working area.
If you have machinery having moving parts, i.e. Lathe, pillar drill,etc beware of the stroboscopic effect that some fluorescant lights can produce, in certain circumstances they can make a rotating chuck appear stationary. Donwill
Strip lights.
Rick
In message , Donwill writes
I made a low bid at an auction and acquired the entire lighting system installed at a local authority joinery workshop.
Buoyed up by the *saving* I set off with truck, ladders and assistant and fetched most of it home. Lovely looking twin 5', prismatic diffusers, plastic bodies and....high frequency chokes!
Out of ten or so only 4 function. I contacted the manufacturer of the electronic controls and purchased some more gear. In the background I overheard someone say *they were the ones with the earth problem*. What they didn't say was that the new version involved a total rewire.
Now, any electronic whiz persons out there needing high performance lighting for rotating machinery areas and having time on their hands? Free to good home:-)
regards
You don't need detailed information to get the basics right:
- make sure you have sufficient illumination. If your ceilings are 6m up, do you really need the lights up there? Would it be better to have them suspended and at a more accessible height such as 2.4m (assuming you don't need that much clearance)
- reduce flicker. A lot of people get headaches induced by seemingly imperceptible flicker in their lights (or computer screens)
- as you are doing detailed work, try an illuminated magnifier if you haven't already - as suggested by another poster. A loupe may be another alternative.
- use *lots* of light. Daylight is bright (duh!) and mostly we use far less illumination in our houses/workshops than we would have outdoors
- finally: headaches may be due to poor posture over your work- piece, impending old-age :-) changes your eyes ability to focus, or maybe your workshop accumulates fumes from solvents, paints, next-door's car exhaust etc.
- really finally: sometimes we get so absorbd in our passtimes that we fail to notice time passing. Make sure you take adequate breaks.
Pete
Big long fluorescents, with modern ballasts. Get decent ones, but don't be over-sold cat 2 anti-glare luminaires, unless you really do need them.
If you're going to be dusty, get a fitting that's reasonably dust proof or easily cleaned.
Then add some task lighting by the bench, as needed. Simple incandescent bulb on a couple of bendy arms is good, or a magnifier and a ring fluorescent (about 50 quid if you shop around).
Ikea have some tiny compact fluorescents that replace the R40 style fitting - zig-zag tube in a flat plane. These are great in small machine lights.
Neglecting 'best' solutions. Veryt cheap solutions can be gotten from morrisons. They are currently - at least here - offering 2 philips CF bulbs for 99p.
I took 20, and wired them up alond one length of twin-core. (soldered on, with string to tie them securely to the ceiling, and the twin-core clipped neatly)
For high ceilings, I would consider a large uplighter. Paint the ceiling brilliant white. Get a 150W or so SON - or something else bright and efficient - fixture, and point it at the ceiling. Painting the walls white will help too.
Lots of CFLs are maybe half as efficient for watts-light as linear ones. (~60lm/W, compared with 105lm/W) But, they are much cheaper.
If a '36w' fixture + bulb costs 15 quid, and something producing the same amount of light costs 2 quid, but uses twice the electricity, it's going to take only a year to payback if you use it 8 hours/day.
My choice is an equal mix of high pressure sodium and fluorescent strip lights, which gives a good approximation to daylight. The fluorescents also give general light while you are waiting for the sodium lamps to come on. Above 5m, use high bay fittings.
As I light the workshop to 500 lux, there is little need for local lighting. However, for some places where fine tool setting takes place, I use IP65 halogen spots mounted on bendy tubes.
Colin Bignell
For general lighting a pair of 36W 5' tubes every four or five feet (on a eight foot high ceiling - spacing can go up a bit on a taller one) will give good even illumination.
Painting walls and ceiling etc a light colour will make a *big* difference to the quality of the light. It helps keep it mutidirectional and well diffused.
Unless you are placing the lights very high up then make sure you use diffusers, if notheing else they will save a tube each time you wallop a light with a sheet of ply as you turn it round (DAMHIK).
You don't need anything that specialist, but go for high frequency ballasts to keep flicker down and prevent stroboscopic effects.
You can get paired linear flourescents for that reason, they are lead and lag phased to give continuous light to reduce the strobiscopic effect. Most CFLs are HF ballasted and dont give a strobiscopic effect. Similarly electronic /balast/ (as opposed to starter) will give the same effect on linear flours.
Where do you get your 105 lm/w figures from? I always thought triphosphor electronic ballasted 40-65 l/w cfls were an improvement on the old linear fluorescent, efficacy wise.
If theres one type of light I would be in no hurry to use, its sodium. Yes its exceptionally efficient, but having briefly worked under HPS at
2 locations, never again. Very low CRI makes vision a strain even at uncomfortably high illumination levels. The magnetic ballasts and no persistence of the tubes makes for heavy flicker. The end result is poor visibility, strain and headache. Also warm up is very slow, starting from 0% output and staying there for a while.You could use very low power sodium as an addition to cool fl, but I would far rather have sensible CRI myself, and not have to wait 9 minutes for the light.
If youre using rotating machinery, linear fls should use either electronic ballasts or be pair fittings with lead-lag ballasts. These ballasts are simple to make yourself from a standard magnetic ballast.
Diffusers are no real use visually, but do give some amount of impact protection. Shelf or trough fitting is best if youve got a white ceiling. The usual bare tube down at 8' system is poor practice, and diffusers dont improve it much.
NT
Maybe - I don't have those to hand.
Personally, I find HPS, with CFL spot lighting not too bad.
Browse
Fluorescent strip lights for general illumination and tungsten lights for each machine. Tungsten doesn't create strobe effects so moving machinery is safer.
If you have three phase then wire the strips into alternate phases to reduce flicker. If its a big shop you might want some industrial metal halide lamps rather than strips.
Neither do fluorsecent strip lights as long as they have electronic ballasts.
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