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Hi all, I’m looking at installing UFO LED High Bay lighting in my garage instead of your traditional Fluorescent lighting. I have read some reviews online but would love to hear from anyone who has any experience in dealing with this type of lighting. Would love info regarding Watt size, Brand, min height and how many I would need for my garage which is 6.5m x 8m and 4.2m at its highest peak.
cheers 👍👍👍
Hi @Conair400
I suggest you look at using some online lighting calculators and use the specs of the lights you're looking at to see what lumens are going to be needed at your working height and will also give you an estimated coverage.
Try This one https://ledstuff.co.nz/calculators
Step 1: Work out what light you want at your working level and will also be age dependant, i.e. the older you are the more bright the lighting requirements. here's is a chart to help https://www.archtoolbox.com/materials-systems/electrical/recommended-lighting-levels-in-buildings.ht...
In my case I want something over 700lux at my working height, i.e. resonably bright
Step 2: From the technical specs of your lights look at the lumens it outputs and plug these into your calculator for the given height they'll be installed at. If your not achieving the desired lux in the caluclator at your work height then a) lower your lights, which will effect your coverage area or b) get a higher powered ones
Heres an example of the tech specs of similar light you're looking at. Ive just outline the 200w in my case, so it will output approx 24000 lumens
Step 3 - Calculate the lux at the given working height
So in my example my working height is subtracted from the height my lights are installed at, in this case the total distance form light to my work height is 2700mm
Plug these values into the lux-lumen calculator in the link above and as you can see I've got a nice bright work area in the range for technical assembly I could go down to 150w watt to maintain my 700Lux requirements at the given heights..
Step 4 - Next thing is to see what area will be covered by the lights
Using the same page in the online calculators use the Light Spread calculator and use 120deg or whatever is stipulated in the technical specs for beam angle for the given light. The result will be the coverage in m. In my case the light spread is 11.8m from the install light height (3.4m) to the floor, or could be to your working height, if you want to make sure your bench is covered on the edge of your garage then use working height. My garage is 6.4 m wide so covers the width no problems and also covers the length from garage door to my workshop door, therefore I only need a single light to cover my garage space.
For my garage height (3m walls) I went with a single 200W 6500K (white light) UFO high bay I imported in from China and that covered the area I needed. The only downside is the imported one has very poor RF protection and injects all sorts of RF noise onto the mains. This caused me issues with my internet as I'm using a power-line modem to get internet out to the garage and workshop. I ended up having to put a power filter from Jaycar inline with the power to clean it up. Other than that issue I'm very happy with the light.
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Prosser27. It's fantastic to have you join us, and many thanks for your question.
Hopefully, @Conair400 can provide some feedback on their installation. Were there particular UFO LED high bay lights you were looking at? Spotting is generally determined by the beam angle and the height at which you mount the lights. By inputting the light specs into the calculator @Seaton has provided above, you should get an idea of lumen spread. The wider the beam, the less spotting will occur, yet this might not be optimal over a bench if you need strong light.
We look forward to following along with your project and hearing of the results. We'd encourage you to let us know whenever you need assistance or have something to share.
Mitchell
