[Tim Walsh]

I just put in new lights in my new to me garage. 1100sqft of space and I put in 6 of the 4ft twin tube t8 lights. I would have prefered 8-10 total, but I wasn't sure if the electrical circuits would handle it, so I didn't exceed the previous 4x100w incandescents. They were cheap from lowes and are 0 degree start/instant on ballasts. I didn't really need either, but they just happen to have them.

For your space(sounds like an oversized 2 car) I would put in 3 rows of 2 lights each, one on the outer side of the cars, and one in the middle followed by 2-3 lights over the workbench/shop area in the back. That way the lights shine into your work area(wheel wells, engine bay, etc), and not on top of the cars where it doesn't really do much. It's tough to have too much light.

+1 on the white walls, the first thing I did when I moved in was paint the cinder block walls white, which made a huge difference.