How much light for a garage?

[Rich]

Hi folks,

I will shortly be introducing my (detached) garage to the wonders of modern electricity. Short of trial and error, does anyone know of a good rule of thumb for deciding how much light and heat is required per m^2? The garage is only slightly larger than a car, and will be used for tinkering and storage (but not of cars), and perhaps the odd bit of tumble-drying.

Part of me wants to say "3 strip lights and a 3kW heater", but I can't help thinking there must be a more scientific way.

I guess it would be nice to know this in general, since my whole house appears to be underlit and underheated.

TIA, Rich

[Christian McArdle]

You will need additional light in a garage compared to living spaces, as they are invariably used as working areas. For a simple 4.8m x 2.4m garage, a twin tube 58W fitting would provide oodles. 3 singles spaced throughout would be even better, but might be over the top, depending on what you wanted to use the room for.

As for heating, it is more important to get the insulation sorted than increase the heater power. If you can spare 50mm of every wall, it is well worth sticking some slabs of celotex on. Draft proof and insulate the door too. (Don't forget the ceiling!) Then, 3kW will be well overpowered for the garage (although it will get it to temperature quickly). A wall mounted convector with timer and THERMOSTAT (essential!) would be inobtrusive, quiet and effective.

Christian.

[usenet]

Also, usually, garages have dark walls and ceilings, darker than those typically found in a house anyway. Fluorescent fittings are so cheap that you might as well go abit OTT.

[chris French]

Indeed.

I have fluorescent fittings ( 4 'bulbs' - 2 are old single 4 ft fittings, one is a modern twin 58W fitting) in my garage and while for general use it's ok, it's not quite enough IMO. particularly at each end. Though possibly I could have arranged them slightly better

Doing it from scratch I'd probably have 4 twin fittings - that ought to do It :-)

Painting the walls white would probably help as well, we painted our shed white inside and it really made it seem brighter inside.

[PoP]

Could I add my support for that idea too! Thanks to someone who was very helpful with that suggestion a couple of months ago I splashed some white paint on the garage walls and it did indeed make a big difference.

PoP

[N. Thornton]

Hi

I'd make it one 5' fluorescent light plus a white ceiling to soften the light. More enthusiastic folk might run to 2 strips, but 3.... no, just plain unpleasant.

Regards, NT

[Mary Fisher]

It does help, considerably.

Until you put up floor to ceiling shelves, racks and cupboards ...

Mary

[John Rumm]

In my workshop (approx single garage sort of size) I went for 4 x 5' 58W single tubes - one on each end wall, two equally spaced in the middle. With the ceiling and walls painted off-white I find these give a nice even light for working in.

It's not just the level of light that counts - but also having it arriving from several directions so that you are not always working in your shadow.

(when I installed the lights I put them on a double switch so that I could switch two pairs of two independently - I have so far never found the desire to only use one set on its own when working in there - although being able to switch only half on is OK when you are just popping out to get a tool or something).

[The Natural Philosopher]

General 'one strip light' lighting will be enough to see what yopu are doing but not for detail work.

I think about 20W/meter squared lighting with incandescent, and about one tenth for fluorescent, so assumeing 6 sq meters, somethimng like a pair of 100W bulbs, or a 20W fluorescent strip probly.

If insulated very well, 30W/meter squared will get you a warm room able to rise 25 degrees above ambient - say u values of around 0.5. A draughty garage will need at least ten times that :-) Say 300w/m^2, so your 3Kw heater sounds not so far out after all....

[ARWadsworth]

Also "nice" bulk head light on the wall over a workbench works wonders for a few quid. It also reduces the flicker when tinkering, especially with a circular saw.

-- Adam

[e-mail]

[chris French]

In message , Mary Fisher writes

Paint all the boxes etc. on the shelves white as well?

[James Hart]

Dangle white sheets over the fronts of the racks, keeps the light levels up and the dust off.

[Huge]

Can't find anything, mind ...

[Andy Hall]

... or stick white roses on them ??

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Big Al - The Peoples Pal]

If you are planning to have a lathe, pillar drill or things that turn, an ordinary light bulb of some sort would be a must IMO, last thing you need is to be lulled into thinking something has stopped when it is still turning.

This was last demonstrated to me by an old metalwork teacher, oh so many moons ago. I think it is based around the same principal shown in old movies when the wheels on a car give the idea of being stopped or going in the opposite direction, when they are really going forward.

-- Big Al - The Peoples Pal

[N. Thornton]

Ouch. :)

Yes. Mounting a light in the middle of the ceiling, bulb pointing down, is not good. Mounting it the other way up with a white painted ceiling helps a lot. If you go for multiple lights, the best option is to mount them on the wall high up, with tube shielded from view, and the light bouncing off the ceiling and upper wall. Trough or shelf.

Fl lights last so long that the tubes need to be cleaned occasionally, or the light output falls a lot. Stay well away from 'cool white' tubes.

I'd definitely recommend that.

Regards, NT

[PoP]

Something to do with harmonic frequency no doubt. That is, if the light is flickering at 50Hz and the power tool is rotating at some direct multiple of that (say 200Hz) then it will appear to be still as your eye is getting the rotating tool or chuck snapshot in the same position each time.

PoP

[Christian McArdle]

This can be overcome by using fittings incorporating an electronic ballast. This runs the tube at a much higher frequency (i.e. many kHz) and eliminates the stroboscopic effect. They can also be much easier on the eye to those sensitive to flicker.

Christian.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I just mounted up 4 35W single fluro tubes in my loft - about 28 meters long (L bend in teh middle) and 4.5meters wide.

Its adequate to see what you are doing. Not enough for close detailed work tho.

If that helps. Works out at 1W per square meter.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The flicker rate is double mains freq - 100hz. Long persistence phosphors help a lot. The ones I put in today are not bad at all. However, I would still not use em arond totating machinery.