After moving into our new home 6 months ago I recently completed our three car garage and one bay workshop. I struggled for weeks comparing learning and contemplating different types of lighting systems. 6 month ago I knew little to nothing about LED lighting and I now feel like I know quite a bit! The things I've learned are:
* What Lumens are and how many per square foot are needed in different types of spaces.
* How LED wattage relates to florescent and incandescent lights
* How many amps are used vs wattage and how many LED's can be linked together.
* Kelvin temperatures (different shades) from warm to cool, from 3,000, - 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 6,500 Kelvin temps make a huge difference in how you can actually see in your workspace.
* Which types of LED's to use. Easy is not usually the best. Originally I was going to use the linkable surface mounted type - then I realized most of those are cheap and inefficient as well as being ugly and unsightly.
* Last but not least I learned that at least for me I dislike the lights that you can see the individual LED chips. I much prefer the frosted T-8 style that resemble fluorescent bulbs.
I finally wound up ordering commercial type 8 foot fixtures with four, 4 foot T-8 bulbs in them. I installed a total of 32, 4 foot bulbs (in 8 fixtures) in my 600 square feet of garage space. NOTE: I do lots of detailed work in my home workshop and love detailing my vehicles myself - so proper lighting is essential. The results are excellent, the installation was done through the attic so no wires are seen or exposed, and I have plenty of low cost lighting. The 32 individual LED bulbs draw a total of about 6 amps - low enough for just about anyones breaker panel to handle and equivalent to only 8 individual 100 watt incandescent light bulbs bulbs. The best part is that LED's produce very little heat! Nothing to scoff at in warm climates that you are air conditioning - and yes, the garage is air conditioned by a separate 2 ton split unit. I am a happy camper!
Oh - and BTW the actual installation of all the lighting took me about 2 full days. That includes running the wire through the attic, hanging and wiring all the fixtures up. I will admit I do things slowly, but properly, so I did not take any short cuts and everything is to code. I also opted to use commercial grade fixtures as I was not happy with the imported Home Depot or Lowes stock fixtures. I actually special ordered them from Home Depot - because they are not sold in the store. They are still imported but at least somewhat descent - not the quality of yesteryear but we now live in a new age!
