track lighting for the garage question

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 02:58 AM

I plan on installing track lighting in my 24 x 26 detached garage. The 24 foot is the width and the 26 the depth. Ceiling peak is a little over 14 ' . My plan is to mount two tracks aprox. 4 ' down from the peak to run the depth of the garage. Those two runs will be 24 ' each and I'm thinking of using 8 to 9 heads per run does that sound like it will give good light coverage ? Basically every other head will point opposite of the previous one. I plan to purchase heads that will allow LED floodlight bulbs to be used. I want LED for the long life, low heat output, low wattage useage and brightness. Yes I know LED are pricey but they are much cheaper now than just a year ago and I'm tired of my current flourescent lights I just don't like them. So any input on my plan ? The good thing is I can always ad heads if needed. After going to Home Depot yesterday I think I need to find an online vendor to purchase, H.D. was very pricey !! Any advice on a good online seller ?

onewhippedpuppy · 12-12-2015, 03:20 AM

Make sure you do some research on the bulb of your choice to determine how much it will illuminate on the ground. That will be a function of the bulb output and the height off of the floor. Do a layout of your floor space with the illumination drawn out to insure you have nice even coverage. Also make sure that the track fixture of your choice will handle enough watts to allow as many bulbs as you need.

Personally I think you'd still be better off with 8' florescent fixtures, I suspect it will require a bunch of LED floods to provide the same output and coverage as a florescent. Considering how I'm getting ready to do lights in my new 3rd car garage, I'll be interested to see the other replies.

javadog · 12-12-2015, 03:29 AM

Not enough info. Look at the photometric data for whatever bulbs you intend to use. That will give you some idea.

We have no idea what your surfaces will be, what wattage and beam angle the bulbs will have, or how you will point them.

My only thought is that make sure your tracks and circuits can handle a lot more power than what you plan to use, so if you don't have enough light you can add more heads.

JR

95avblm3 · 12-12-2015, 03:47 AM

I worked for an LED light bulb start up back when the industry (and market) was in its infancy and bulbs cost $50 ea. Now, they are very reasonable and very good.

OWP's reply on illumination being a function of height and output (measured in lumens) is spot on. It is relatively easy to find LEDs that exceed the output of T8 flourescent tubes or CFLs but shop wisely.

My recommendation is to read the lumen output on the "lighting facts label" (similar to nutrition labels found on food) because not all "60W equivalent" LED bulbs are created equal. Also, I would personally avoid the HD and Lowe's generic brands like Feit electric or Ecosmart. Hopefully this has changed but a few years ago there were instances of bulbs melting down due to an overheating condition and lack of internal fuse. I believe this was on bulbs designed by a company that were rebranded for HD. Stick with Philips, Sylvania, GE or Cree and I believe you will have a better designed bulb. You get what you pay for and YMMV. I have a Cree 3-way in my living room and have been very happy with it. Most of the rest of my house is also LED but are LEDnovation bulbs (the start-up that I worked for). I have 4' LED T8 flourescent replacements in my garage and they are fantastic but are not as common.

THe nice thing about track lighting is that you can add/subtract, move or try different schemes to get it right. Height is going to be your challenge but with today's technology, I don't see that being a problem.

The one thing we haven't talked about is color temperature. This is independent of lumen output but I know people that swear 5k- 6k "daylight" bulbs look brighter than warmer whites like 2700-3k. This is really a myth since the kelvin temp is a function of color and not output but if 5k gives the illusion of more light then maybe it is the way to go.

Finally, there are many other sources besides HD and Lowe's for bulbs (although they aren't bad since they have a pretty good selection). I've purchased from 1000bulbs.com before with luck.

Put pics up when you do it.

Cheers!

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 05:09 AM

Good replies and I had hoped to not turn this into a science project

. I am thinking of single circuit track using three 8 ' sections per run. And simple light heads that take a PAR 30 standard bulb base. Seems like there are plenty of LED flood light bulbs in that configuration and I'm thinking 3K brightness ? The ceiling will be white metal like you see on carports and metal garages. The walls are white semi-gloss sheets of aspen/flake board and the floor is white/black vinyl tile in classic checkerboard style. Natural lighting is four large windows aprox. 2 ' x 3 ' and a two bay garage door with light panels on the top panel.
I currently have 4 ' flourescent two bulb fixtures that work fine I just don't like them. Pain the in the butt to change bulbs being 12 ' in the air and constantly have to climb the ladder to " wiggle " the bulbs so they work

. I also don't like them hanging from chain which also adds to the bulb changing pain. Yes I can hard mount them I guess I'm just ready for something different. It seems to me I could run 10 65 watt equivalent LED bulbs on the energy of one 75 conventional bulb. So even if I had 20 heads ( 10 per side ) still very little energy consumption. Other than initial price I'm not seeing any negatives ?

Ducman · 05:24 AM

My garage with track lighting and CFL floods - I like it a lot. toward the end of the video you get better shot of how many heads I have

Nickshu · Nickshu's Garage

I looked at various options and went with LEDs which are in a florescent type fixture. I have been very happy w/ them. I think the problem you will have w/ track lighting is it's really designed for spot lighting...good for over your workbench but not good for lighting up around your vehicle when working on it.

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

I have T5 high bay fluorescent fixtures in my garage. I love them, leds would be better if you can find some in budget though. The T5 bulbs aren't cheap.

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 05:38 AM

Ducman great video thanks. I also have the Gladiator cabinets on three walls ! You are running far fewer light heads than I was planning and it looks like you have great light output. What kind of flourescent bulbs are you using ? Looks like you have the light heads every 3 - 4 feet ? Are the bulbs the curly style or conventional light bulb style ? Looks like they project very well out of the light heads. To be honest I had not thought of using compact flourescent bulbs in that style of light head so that is another lower cost option. What wattage equivalent bulbs are you using ?

Ducman · 12-12-2015, 06:10 AM

I'm pretty sure these are 65 watt equivalent floods - they are the standard BR30 type flood bulb package but I can see that they have one of the curly elements inside the reflector. They last a long time....back when I did this garage LEDs were still too expensive for me.

About every 3 ft....actually in the video the garage doors are up and blocking a significant amount of the light. It is plenty of light to perform most general tasks - if I really need to get into something or under something I supplement with worklights anyway. Too much light all the time and it's just not a pleasant place to hang out.

BTW in person individual floods really make the cars look fantastic - just something about the way the light hits from different directions.

scottmandue · 12-12-2015, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nickshu

I looked at various options and went with LEDs which are in a florescent type fixture. I have been very happy w/ them. I think the problem you will have w/ track lighting is it's really designed for spot lighting...good for over your workbench but not good for lighting up around your vehicle when working on it.

I have hanging florescent fixtures in my garage and will convert to these in the future (available at Home Depot).

If you are concerned about work bench lighting you could add LED strips under the cabinets or go with one or more of those draftsman type light on an extendable arm, the ones with the built in magnifying lens build in are very handy.

RF5BPilot · 12-12-2015, 07:14 AM

I was in a garage recently with track lighting. It really looked good. Actually, dramatic for a garage. But for practical work, I found it had too many shadows. The fellow compensated by moving and adjusting the lights when he had a particular task he wanted to do.

I have suspended, standard 4' fluorescent fixtures (T8) with LED bulbs. (Some are older fixtures that I converted; some are new that came with LED's.) Where I need them, the fixtures use higher output LED's that cost a little more; others use more standard replacements. (Higher outputs are about $20/bulb through Amazon; more standard replacements can be had through Costco at $35 for the bulbs & fixtures.)

My LED fluorescent replacements are absolutely not as attractive as the garage with track lighting, but it gives me better all round work lighting without moving/adjusting the lights for different chores.

Shouldn't be hard to get LED spots of the color range you want and reasonable output. Good luck with your project.

porsche4life · porsche4life's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by RF5BPilot

My LED fluorescent replacements are absolutely not as attractive as the garage with track lighting, but it gives me better all round work lighting without moving/adjusting the lights for different chores.

Shouldn't be hard to get LED spots of the color range you want and reasonable output. Good luck with your project.

This is the big thing for me... I like it BRIGHT in the garage. I don't care what it looks like, I need to be able to see WTF I am doing.

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 11:55 AM

I went out Christmas shopping today and ended up at a Lowes. Their prices on track lighting was decent but not as cheap as online. But their lighting guy was quite knowledgeable so I picked his brain. In his opinion I should start with 6-7 heads per side and use Par 30 LED floodlight bulbs with an output of 800 - 850 lumens and 4100- 5000 K . As he stated if it's not enough light add a few more heads it would at least give me a good baseline. Also I plan to use at least two of my current florescent light fixtures directly over my work bench I really don't think light output is going to be a problem

. I am also going to have a florescent work light on a cord reel suspended from the ceiling so specific work lighting will be at my finger tips. The balance of my florescent light fixtures will end up in the loft and rafters so I can see if/when I go up there my way of recycling

. Thanks to all that chimed in it was a lot of help.

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 01:31 PM

I just pulled the trigger on direct-lighting dot com......four 8 ' tracks, two 6 ' tracks, two floating power connectors, four splice connectors, sixteen heads and sixteen Par 30 1120 lumen 5k LED floodlight bulbs........all in black should look sweet on the white ceiling. It was painful to the wallet ( 560.00 ) but it's what I want and should look good, perform good and be energy conserving.

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 02:28 PM

To top it off I just ordered online a 60 " three blade ceiling fan with hand remote and LED light. This will complete my detached garage other than adding fiberglass blown in insulation in the ceiling. That is next. My man cave is almost done

.
The ceiling fan downrod ( 4 ' ) will pass through a BBS race wheel I purchased at Road Atlanta that came off of a Panoz LMP race car. The race wheel will be mounted to the ceiling with a couple of screws into a 2 x 10 that I installed just for this purpose. I think it will look really cool.

john70t · 12-12-2015, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

... other than adding fiberglass blown in insulation in the ceiling.

Never heard of it but that sounds like the next asbestos.
What happens when the drywall needs replacing for whatever reason?
(Yikes, what a mess.)

A few inches of closed-cell spray foam to the underside of the roof will add structure and do the same thing.

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john70t

Never heard of it but that sounds like the next asbestos.
What happens when the drywall needs replacing for whatever reason?
(Yikes, what a mess.)

A few inches of closed-cell spray foam to the underside of the roof will add structure and do the same thing.

You might want to get up to speed on insulation

. Fiberglass blown in insulation is an excellent insulation for a decent price. Owens Corning is the main player. Nothing close to asbestos. I have foil barrier stapled to the underside of the roof trusses, then R13 stapled to the rafters. I'll add about 12 " of blown in fiberglass insulation and I'll be WAY OVER what's needed for Georgia. Should end up with about R35 - R40 .

john70t · 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

You might want to get up to speed on insulation

..

Sorry I didn't mean to critique, only point out another option.

There is thermal envelope and conditioned space. Making the whole garage this might let you take out some of the ceiling in the future and expand the workable space. I previously spent many thousands in both open and closed cell foam on my properties. My fiberglass batt had shrunk and/or been consumed by squirrels. Long story. Pics would take some time getting to but I'd dig them up.

I don't know the engineering. You may be right. Georgia is different from up here in snow country where condensation plays a bigger factor where fresh air exchange is necessary to prevent mold.

I think you are dealing primarily with keeping heat out, where the right material/color roofing tile probably is a huge factor.

rfuerst911sc · 12-12-2015, 05:42 PM

john70t I didn't mean to come across as combative........there are many correct ways to insulate depending on climate and conditions. Spray foam has many advantages unfortunately competitive pricing vs. conventional insulation is not one of them. I priced out spray foam vs. the foil/insulation that I chose and the spray foam was just too expensive. We generally only have 2 months of cool/cold weather here so I am primarily interested in keeping heat out. I feel that the foil/insulation path I have chosen is the most cost effective. With my 19 Seer mini split on average it only costs me 23.00 a month to heat/cool and that is before I add the additional blown in insulation !