Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

"Richard" wrote in message
om...
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

Probably be cheaper to use two 2 tube models and space them a bit. The 4
tube fixtures are used mostly in commercial/industrial settings and not
found in the big box store along with the $10 ones.

Check with some used equipment places or demolition places. They may have
them very cheap.
Ed

Look in the yellow pages under Electrical Supply. Probaby won't find them in
a borg.
I outfitted my shop with 4 bulb fixtures (15 of them to be exact on 2
circuits), painted my walls white and have excellent lighting in every
corner of my shop. Well worth it in my opinion.
And come to think of it, the shop is now about 12 years old and I've never
had to change a bulb in any of the fixtures.

Gary


"Richard" wrote in message
om...
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

In article , Richard wrote:
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

The BORG - Home Depot. Eight foot long, four bulb with electronic balast
for about $40 each. Quick start in cold weather. I have four of them
in my shop. Paint the walls and ceiling white, floor too if you have a
cement floor.

Well, you will now you said that. Luck of the draw. G

--
"Cartoons don't have any deep meaning.
They're just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh."
Homer Simpson
Jerry© The Phoneman®
"Gary" wrote in message
...
Look in the yellow pages under Electrical Supply. Probaby won't find them
in
a borg.
I outfitted my shop with 4 bulb fixtures (15 of them to be exact on 2
circuits), painted my walls white and have excellent lighting in every
corner of my shop. Well worth it in my opinion.
And come to think of it, the shop is now about 12 years old and I've never
had to change a bulb in any of the fixtures.

Gary


"Richard" wrote in message
om...
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

thanks Ed..good point about the paint..
I have two 4 ft 4 blub fixtures and needed more light.. I Painted the whole
shop White Now I need to wear sunglasses (g)


--
Gregory Jensen
1990 Heritage
http://www.gjensen1.dns2go.com

"Richard" wrote in message
om...
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

"Ed Clarke"

The BORG - Home Depot.

Yes, though Lowe's tends to be a little cheaper for light fixtures for the
same models..

Eight foot long, four bulb with electronic balast
for about $40 each.

Seems like a T-12 bulb price. The T-8's are about 2X. Maybe worth it,
maybe not. I went with T-8's probably because I didn't have many fixtures
to buy.

I have four of them in my shop.

I have 3 2-bulb fixtures and 1 4-bulb fixture. If I was to do it over
again, I would go with another 2 2-bulb fixtures instead of the 4-bulb.
Unless you have really large shop with high ceilings, the 2-bulb fixtures
will look better and spread the light out a little better, IMO.

- Nate

On 3 Mar 2004 07:03:29 -0800, (Richard) wrote:

|Hi --
|
|I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
|renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
|searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
|Anyone know a source for a plain model?

You don't specify four or eight foot bulbs. If four, then HD has a
four tube model (32W) for about $45.

Be advised however, that the electronic ballasts are high frequency
and *not* rfi (radio frequency interference) suppressed. In my
location I was unable to watch off-the-air TV with the lights running.

After considerable research and haggling I got HD to special order
"residential" ballasts that do have rfi suppression and the problem is
solved. I had the hassle of three more trips to HD and the R&R.

This company may have a location near you:

http://www.grainger.com

Search under "fluorescent fixtures"

(Richard) wrote in message . com...
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

Hi Richard,

Some things you might not have considered, Diffusers on fixtures help
broaden the area of illumination and different types of florescent lamp
phosphors will appear brighter. I recently installed 'Wrap Around' 2 light
fixtures in my son's garashop. 'Cool White' lamps seemed the brightest by
test. Ceiling and walls are plain white. 9 foot Sheet Rock ceiling. Fixtures
on 4 foot width and end spacing. 2 and 4 light surface mounted clear Wrap
Around fixtures are available at Lowes and HD. Not expensive stock items.
For the open shade type fixtures, Do a search for 'Industrial Lighting
Fixtures Florescent'. Graingers usually only discounts from TOP retail
pricing to established business customers. Wholesale electrical supply
companies sell at Jobber prices.
--
Chipper Wood

useours, yours won't work



"Richard" wrote in message
om...
Hi --

I would like to install 4 tube fluorescent light fixtures in my
renovated shop but can't seem to find any easily -- done a bunch of
searching, but the only results are expensive enclosed office styles.
Anyone know a source for a plain model?

thanks,

Richard

Thanks for all the prompt comments -- I was thinking of 4 of the 4
tube X 4 ' fixtures for general lighting of a 16' x 20' area --
perhaps I'll just double up the 2 tube units: I was being lazy :-)

I'm a big fan of extra task lighting, so plan to supplement that with
extra at the main work stations.
My shop has high celings -- the underside of the roof, about 11' at
the top of the wall and going up to about 16' at the peak. I'm just
finishing up the ceiling, which is panels of industrial dropped
ceiling -- basically 1" of compressed fiberglass with a semigloss
white plastic facing -- I didn't want to paint or sheetrock that high
of a space, plus I get some insulating value out of it over the
between the rafters batts.
I wondered about how much lighting I'll need but have noticed that
just one 150W halogen worklight directed onto the ceiling does a
halfway decent job of general lighting. Am I way off to figure 16 X 32
4' fluorescents = 512W will more than double that?

Cheers --

everyone has a different idea of adequate light. I have 11 4 footers in
my shop which was a 2 car garage of standard proportions. over my roll
cabinet which is set under a large overhead cabinet, I put in 3 halogen
"puck" lights, thinking I'd have enough light for close up detail work;
it isn't enough. On the other hand my wife will read or do dishes in a
semi-dark room.

Bottom line, don't listen to anybody else's opinion on lighting
recommendations: do what pleases YOUR eyes.

dave

Richard wrote:

Thanks for all the prompt comments -- I was thinking of 4 of the 4
tube X 4 ' fixtures for general lighting of a 16' x 20' area --
perhaps I'll just double up the 2 tube units: I was being lazy :-)

I'm a big fan of extra task lighting, so plan to supplement that with
extra at the main work stations.
My shop has high celings -- the underside of the roof, about 11' at
the top of the wall and going up to about 16' at the peak. I'm just
finishing up the ceiling, which is panels of industrial dropped
ceiling -- basically 1" of compressed fiberglass with a semigloss
white plastic facing -- I didn't want to paint or sheetrock that high
of a space, plus I get some insulating value out of it over the
between the rafters batts.
I wondered about how much lighting I'll need but have noticed that
just one 150W halogen worklight directed onto the ceiling does a
halfway decent job of general lighting. Am I way off to figure 16 X 32
4' fluorescents = 512W will more than double that?

Cheers --

"Bay Area Dave" wrote in message
. com...

Bottom line, don't listen to anybody else's opinion on lighting
recommendations: do what pleases YOUR eyes.


Well said!

Age has something to do with it too... My wife can read by a 4 watt
nightlight - 30 feet away. Me -- I've noticed my night vision has
deteriorated significantly.

My biggest disappointment was finally putting my eyes back to a decent
telescope after 30 years. (Had an Edmund Sci 4.25" reflector as a boy).
Man - was that depressing to not be able to see things that had been such a
thrill as a child...

On 4 Mar 2004 10:51:40 -0800, (Richard) wrote:

|Thanks for all the prompt comments -- I was thinking of 4 of the 4
|tube X 4 ' fixtures for general lighting of a 16' x 20' area --
|perhaps I'll just double up the 2 tube units: I was being lazy :-)

The 4-tube 4-foot Lithonia fixtures from HD that I spoke of earlier
would be inadequate IMHO for an area this large with only four
fixtures.

FYI, I bought just one and mounted it and took a few measurements
before committing to more fixtures. My "shop" is one end of the
garage, which measures 28' deep by 30' wide. The fixed shop portion
is the 8' x 30' space not occupied by a Camaro and a pickup truck.
With the exception of the white painted firewall between the garage
and the living space the rest of the surfaces are unpainted I-joists,
2 x 6's, plywood and OSB.

For my "light survey" I used a 50 year old GE selenium light meter
mounted on a tripod at a fixed distance about four feet above the
floor. While the meter indicates foot-candles the cell is old and
temperature sensitive so I used it for relative measurements only.

I found that I could illuminate this space uniformly with three
fixtures, mounted side-to-side on 8' centers, with the fixture ends 2'
from the long wall and 9' high.

Wes

maybe those celestial bodies you used to view have gone out!

dave

mttt wrote:
"Bay Area Dave" wrote in message
. com...

Bottom line, don't listen to anybody else's opinion on lighting
recommendations: do what pleases YOUR eyes.



Well said!

Age has something to do with it too... My wife can read by a 4 watt
nightlight - 30 feet away. Me -- I've noticed my night vision has
deteriorated significantly.

My biggest disappointment was finally putting my eyes back to a decent
telescope after 30 years. (Had an Edmund Sci 4.25" reflector as a boy).
Man - was that depressing to not be able to see things that had been such a
thrill as a child...

I just bought twelve 2-tube, 4 foot T8 units from home depot -- in the
vicinity of $10 each. Put 8 of them up so far for general light, and will
be adding one more ceiling light to cover the door, and the other three for
task lights. This is in a 12x22 space (1 car garage). I don't have a light
meter, but I'm pretty certain that I've got it above noon sunlight in
brightness. Hurts the eyes when you first turn it on, and makes the inside
of the house look awfully dim afterwards, but it is sure nice when out
there. FWIW.

--randy

"Richard" wrote in message
m...
Thanks for all the prompt comments -- I was thinking of 4 of the 4
tube X 4 ' fixtures for general lighting of a 16' x 20' area --
perhaps I'll just double up the 2 tube units: I was being lazy :-)

I'm a big fan of extra task lighting, so plan to supplement that with
extra at the main work stations.
My shop has high celings -- the underside of the roof, about 11' at
the top of the wall and going up to about 16' at the peak. I'm just
finishing up the ceiling, which is panels of industrial dropped
ceiling -- basically 1" of compressed fiberglass with a semigloss
white plastic facing -- I didn't want to paint or sheetrock that high
of a space, plus I get some insulating value out of it over the
between the rafters batts.
I wondered about how much lighting I'll need but have noticed that
just one 150W halogen worklight directed onto the ceiling does a
halfway decent job of general lighting. Am I way off to figure 16 X 32
4' fluorescents = 512W will more than double that?

Cheers --

"Bay Area Dave" wrote in message
m...


maybe those celestial bodies you used to view have gone out!


The hard part about peepin' with a real telescope is getting used to seeing
everything upsidedown...

I bet it wouldn't bother a dentist. g I never thought about the image
not being "right". Are you talking about a reflector scope as opposed
to a refracting scope?

dave

mttt wrote:

"Bay Area Dave" wrote in message
m...


maybe those celestial bodies you used to view have gone out!



The hard part about peepin' with a real telescope is getting used to seeing
everything upsidedown...

Wes Stewart wrote in message . ..

The 4-tube 4-foot Lithonia fixtures from HD that I spoke of earlier
would be inadequate IMHO for an area this large with only four
fixtures.

FYI, I bought just one and mounted it and took a few measurements
before committing to more fixtures. My "shop" is one end of the
garage, which measures 28' deep by 30' wide.

I found that I could illuminate this space uniformly with three
fixtures, mounted side-to-side on 8' centers, with the fixture ends 2'
from the long wall and 9' high.



Yesterday I mounted 2 of the 2 x 4' T8 units from HD ( less than $8 ea
--
made the decision easy) on the slanted portion of my ceiling, about
12' up, and
was pleased by the amount of light - only 128W total and they throw
out a decent
amount. I am _very_ glad the ceiling is pure white. The T8 is a real
improvement
over the older units -- it's pretty chilly until I turn the heat on,
but they light right up.

I think the 16 tubes in all that I'm planning will be fine for overall
with supplemental
task lights -- "adequate lighting" is clearly in the eye of the
beholder.

the following was posted to this group some time ago I saved it and have
found it very useful for practically any situation . As far as the lithonia
lighting cheapest,"shop" lights [$7 a piece if I recall] I had trouble with
those from the get go . I took them back to HD and got the more expensive
ones about $15 and have had no further troubles ....mjh

Don't know who has asked the question or exactly what the requirements are,
but let me offer the following based on having designed a few million sq ft
of industrial lighting and having sold a few hundred thousand dollars of
lighting equipment in my time.

Assume a ceiling height of 10-12 ft max.

You have automatically eliminated all HID sources and are looking at a 2
lamp, HO, fixture for the application.

By definition, 1 lumen /sq ft = 1 foot candle.

Typical lumen efficiency over life of lamp = 90%
Typical lumen depreciation from dirt = 20%-30%
Typical lumen/watt output of a flourscent tube = 60-80 lumens/watt.

A great lighting level for a wood working shop would be 100 foot candles,
maintained.

Calculate the required number of fixtures as follows:

100 FC/0.9 Lumen efficiency/0.75 Dirt depreciation = 148 FC.

148 FC/70 Lumens/watt = Approximately 2 Watts/square ft of floor space.

If you have a 40 x 40 shop, that's 3200 watts of lighting required which
would mean 80, 40 watt tubes or 40, 2 lamp fixtures which would translate
into 4 rows of 10 fixtures each, 10 ft apart.

It's not rocket science.

It's the LGB theory of lighting design.

"Put one here, here, and here, and let's get a beer".


HTH


Lew








"Richard" wrote in message
om...
Wes Stewart wrote in message
. ..

The 4-tube 4-foot Lithonia fixtures from HD that I spoke of earlier
would be inadequate IMHO for an area this large with only four
fixtures.

FYI, I bought just one and mounted it and took a few measurements
before committing to more fixtures. My "shop" is one end of the
garage, which measures 28' deep by 30' wide.

I found that I could illuminate this space uniformly with three
fixtures, mounted side-to-side on 8' centers, with the fixture ends 2'
from the long wall and 9' high.



Yesterday I mounted 2 of the 2 x 4' T8 units from HD ( less than $8 ea
--
made the decision easy) on the slanted portion of my ceiling, about
12' up, and
was pleased by the amount of light - only 128W total and they throw
out a decent
amount. I am _very_ glad the ceiling is pure white. The T8 is a real
improvement
over the older units -- it's pretty chilly until I turn the heat on,
but they light right up.

I think the 16 tubes in all that I'm planning will be fine for overall
with supplemental
task lights -- "adequate lighting" is clearly in the eye of the
beholder.