I need some feed back about lighting up a basement workshop what kind of fixtures and where to buy them. I would like to say thank you to all my fellow woodworkers for all the great information I have received though this site.
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Replies
T-8 fixtures from HD. Don't get the cheapest ones. Get the highest Kelvin rating on the bulbs for the closest to natural light. T-5 is the newest on the market but don't think HD is up to it yet. You have to match the bulbs with the fixture and ballast. Bulbs are not interchangable.
get the ones with pull chains so you can turn them on and off individually.
Run lighting on at least two circuits, so if you blow a fuse/breaker, you are not in the dark.
One thing I learned last year is that the fixtures that take both the new-fangled bulbs and the old-fashined bulbs aren't any better than the old-fashioned bulbs. Has something to do with the ballasts and interfence.....someone can explain. So now I looked for the ones that are exclusively "new-fangled" (probably the T-8 mentioned above).
Alan,
If you are going to go flourescent go with the T-5s over the T-8s. If you go with the T-8s, you will just be buying older tech. The T-5s come in the same lengths as the 8s. (2,4 or 8' lengths)
T-5s are the most efficient but the cost is much higher as are the fixtures. Most hydroponic growers that aren't on HD lights are going to them but they are aware of the higher cost. They will give you a lot of light and if you go "daylight" (5500 to 6000K) you will not be grumpy. (you can also raise tomatoes next to your saw)
Alan,
You can help yourself a good bit with lighting if you have white or off-white walls and some sort of ceiling rather than bare wood joists. (Drop ceilings or Celotex or whatever the current best thing may be isn't difficult to install).
I have an unfortunate medical condition that my physician tells me is irreversible: TMB. My understanding is that TMB is nearly becoming a pandemic. The lay name is Too Many Birthdays.
One of the more frustrating symptoms of TMB is an increasing need for light in order to see what's what. Assuming that you prefer to cut on the safe side of your scribe, and also assuming that you expect to continue to collect birthdays, may I humbly suggest that you get as much light as your budget will possibly allow. Even with the T5 or T8 fixtures, make sure that you have planned for "drop lights" to be placed near your work for added illumination if and when that becomes necessary.
Another illness or condition, as it may be, that probably all people experience to some degree, is short day, or winter, depression. I know of one lady whose doctor has ordered her to sit in bright lights several hours a day in the winter to control the depression. I find that working in the shop after supper in the winter helps me. I have eight four foot T5 lights for my 1,000 square foot shop. The electrician suggested two fixtures, but I put in eight. It is nice and bright and I don't feel much need for drop lights. The run about fifteen cents per hour to operate. Age seventy five.
Great point! "Seasonal Affective Disorder" impacts a great many folks in Alaska as they are often overcome with depression by the short days of their long Winters. If the suggestion is followed to have the lighting divided by at least two circuits, you can easily switch on the lights necessary to see clearly and overcome the seasonal depression.
Thanks for putting a name to it. I couldn't think of it.
The lay name is Too Many Birthdays.
THAT WAS FUNNY! And then some.. You made my day.. Good belly laugh here!
By the way I have a great fixture over my saw.. Uses T8 bulbs.. Nobody by me carries them in the size I need!
My best light comes from low voltage spots (expensive bulbs and the install). Two wires feed the current/voltage from a transformer. You can move/tilt the lamps where you need them. My shop sort of reminds me of the OLD Chicago street cars/busses that ran on wires!
Edited 6/26/2008 11:30 am by WillGeorge
Glad to put a smile on your face! It sounds like you have quite the lighting set up!
It sounds like you have quite the lighting set up!
Not really.. ALOT of wires runnin' every which way but only two fixtures! Still it works for me.
At the moment I have two fixtures and a drop light, but my present shop is pretty small.
One of the more frustrating symptoms of TMB is an increasing need for light in order to see what's what.
This is a medical condition??? I thought that because of the high cost of oil these days, they just weren't making as much light as they used to. - lol
I'm not sure of the candlepower of whale oil lamps, but we may need to look into that before long. Could we burn the animal fat which tastes so good but is supposed to be so bad for us to eat?
Could we burn the animal fat which tastes so good but is supposed to be so bad for us to eat?
Now there's a cheap shot!!! I'm sending an email as I head for the shop after finishing a bacon and egg breakfast. Damn dude, I can still TASTE that bacon and you just gotta remind me that I've pizzed off my doctor.....................again. - lol
Yup, bacon and eggs for me this morning,too! You know, we have an incredible number of folks who are in their second century of life, and just about every one of them has eaten healthy portions of unhealthy food every day for over 100 years! But now we have to watch cholesterol and trans fatty acids and on and on. The day is soon coming when the American Medical Association will simply say, "If it tastes good, spit it out!"
My Motto is : To much of that good for you stuff isn't good for you!!
"Moderation in all things."
"Including Moderation"
It's gotta be beer-thirty...............somewhere.
It's Friday, ~90*, and I can barely see the hills just east of me. There's an inversion layer over the Bay Area and the smoke from all of our fires has created a smog-like haze like L.A. in the bad old days. All day, the radio folks have been saying to stay inside if at all possible. I think it's time to take their advice. - lol
Pssssst. That was the sound of a cold bottle of Dos Eques amber opening. It's beer thirty here!!!
Having a nurse for a wife, we have fillet mignon "pronounced just like it is spelled" almost every morning. It looks and tastes an awful lot like oatmeal. She says, "Don't ask questions."
I still remember the powdered eggs that the U.S. Army thought were tasty. You could probably patch walls with that stuff.
A family whose religion forbade them from eating meat served soy patties and declared that they "tasted just like hamburger." (Easy to say if you've never taken a bite of real hamburger). I get the same taste sensation when I am kicking up sawdust in my shop.
"get the same taste sensation when I am kicking up sawdust in my shop"
Frankly I don't mind the smell of sawdust in the shop. The spaghetti was okay but those c-ration cookies packed with it from WWII days were S-T-A-L-E . Spelled uneatable.
Edited 6/28/2008 7:23 pm ET by Tinkerer3
I agree--the spaghetti was about as good as it got. Did you ever wonder what was in that "chocolate" that kept it from melting in those tin cans?
"chocolate" Well, I think I figured it was paraffin but that was fifty years ago since I left the institution so time makes one forget. I'm not a smoker but I've been told the cigarettes they handed out were awfully stale also.
Another of the many things I'm not particularly proud of--I hated for those four cigarettes in each C ration box to go to waste (maybe a product of my Scottish heritage), but they were so stale that they burned very, very quickly. One or two good puffs on one of the old Chesterfield Kings or Lucky Strikes and it was gone!
I've got a dozen of the cheapo 4' double T-8s from Lowes in my basement shop. I think they were like $8/each. The first comment everybody sarcastically makes when they walk into the shop and I cut on the light is, "wow! got enough lighting in here?" I put them all on one dedicated circuit and haven't had any problems.
A word of caution...
When I bought these I was sure to keep the receipts. I returned about 1 out of every 5 lights. Usually the problem was an annoying hum or one side wouldn't work. I could usually finagle the bulb a little and get it fired up, but who wants to do that every time? I've had them in my shop for about 8 months now with zero complaints. So, if you don't mind having to deal with a few culls and money is tight the cheapos aren't all that bad. If you've got more $$$ to spend, get the better ones.
"I put them all on one dedicated circuit and haven't had any problems."
The important thing is to have the lighting circuit separate from other, non-lighting circuits (like wall receptacles). If the circuit contains only lights, the likelihood of tripping the breaker is nearly zero. Having multiple lighting circuits is more of a belt-and-suspenders thing.
-Steve
Edited 6/26/2008 10:43 am ET by saschafer
I had electricians wire my shop. They put in a fifteen amp breaker with #14 wire. I have eight four foot T5 fixtures and told them one circuit was not enough. It tripped the breaker every time so I had to put in another circuit for half the lights myself. Now I have lots of light when it isn't completely dark (tripped circuit).
Edited 6/26/2008 10:50 pm ET by Tinkerer3
Well, duh. I didn't mean to imply that an undersized circuit wouldn't result in a tripped breaker. What I meant was that overload conditions that would cause a properly-sized lighting circuit to trip its breaker are all but unheard of.
-Steve
"all but unheard of" And I was just saying that my shop falls under the cracks of all but unheard of. I like a nice lit shop.
Hi Alan, Something you may want to think about is the plastic protective covers that are sold to place over the tube.
I store some of my longer clamps from ceiling joists and have, on more then one occasion, knocked into the fixture with the clamp. The plastic cover saved the bulb. They certainly wont save it from a good blow but it will contain broken glass.
A word of warning though...About a month ago I smelled something in the shop and looked up to see molten plastic dripping from one fixture. Scary. The protective sleeves are a good idea in the long run but you need to check them and make sure they don't come in contact with the bulb itself. I guess I knocked one around a bit too much.
Brian
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