Lighting suggestions

[Lee188]

How much lighting is too much what's probably not enough? Not a fan of a real dark shop as it's harder to see tools, forging in the sunlight also not fun as colors look weird. So what does everyone else do? Do you use any lighting? What level of brightness do you like?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

We have gone to the LED shop lights with pull chains. That way we can control the amount of light to fit the circumstances.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[George N. M.]

I, like Irondragon, am using overhead LED lights with pull chains.  If I need it darker to see heat colors more accurately I can turn off one or more fixtures.  LEDs are a real advantage over florescents here in Wyoming because they are not dimmer when cold and IMO give a light that is easier on the eyes.  It is getting hard to find large wattage (>100 watts) incandescent bulbs.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Goods]

When I built my shop I put in dimmable high bay LED lights. I like working in a bright shop, but for forging bronze or heat treating I can dim the lights to get a better judgement of heat color. I cost a little more, but the convenience is wonderful!

Keep it fun,

David

[Shainarue]

In my previous shop, I had a pull chain LED light. Provided great working light and I could turn it off to check heat color more accurately when needed. But I ran my forge outside in daylight. To check color in the forge fire, I used the coal shovel to shade the exact spot I needed to look at.

New shop doesn't currently have a way to run electricity, so I'm setting up solar powered led lights. Which don't have a pull chain and they'll likely be mounted high enough that it won't be easy to turn them off. So I'll probably have to come up with another method for checking color inside - or just relearn what the colors look like in that lighting.

[JHCC]

I have a few overhead lights with LED bulbs, plus a couple of task lamps with magnetic bases that I can position when and where needed. 

(Plus the flashlight on my cell phone for when I’m trying to find the thing that I just dropped. I swear, I was just looking right at it.)

[Daswulf]

I have also been slowly changing from having the big 8' fluorescent fixtures  to separate 4' led with the pull strings. I can choose the amount of light I need and no more warm up flickering time in the cold with the fluorescent fixtures. Plus it is way brighter "or darker" if I need.   LED is definately the way to go and there are nice options depending on what you want to spend. 

Just replaced my kitchen light with a dimmable LED fixture. Man can it be Bright, or dim. Requires a special $25. Switch tho. 

Weigh your options vs. What you need. It ranges a bit but it all depends on what you need. The cheaper $25. 4' single units are working fine in my shop. To me they have been cheaper than buying another case or ballasts for the old units. I have two more 8' florescent units to replace with 4 more 4' led units.  

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I had the same experience in the garage. The city built a new state of the art fire department facility and converted the old fire facility into the police department facility. They gave me 4 of the old 8 foot fluorescent light fixtures and I put them in the new garage we built.

For some years they worked very well but the problem of finding and transporting the 8 foot tubes was a chore. Then as you said in cold weather the lamps took a while to come on and the ballast's started burning out. By then I couldn't get to the lamps without moving a ton of stuff so I replaced the 8 footers with 2 4 foot fluorescent as they stopped working. Fast forward and the 4 footers started having the same problems, so now as they go bad instead of replacing the ballasts I'm replacing them with 4 foot LED's which I buy at HF 4 at a time when they go on sale. So far not one LED has failed so I'm happy with them. They are all controlled with a light switch but individual lights can be turned on/off if not needed.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[George N. M.]

For anyone looking to install LEDs the smaller 3500 lumen fixtures, in my experience, do not have switches and you have to turn them on and off by plugging them in or un plugging them or using an in line switch.  The 5000 lumen units and anything larger have pull chain switches.  Of course you can wire them directly into the 110v circut and use regular wall switches which means you aren't takinjg up an outlet with the lighting.

I have 5k and 3.5 k units in my 12x24 shop with the 5k over the forge and anvil area and it works just fine.  I do want to put another 5k over the bench area.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

When I replaced the 8 footers with the 4 footer florescent lamps, I wired up outlets in the rafters from the switch, to plug the lamps into. 1 outlet between 2 lamps. The 5000 lumen LED lamps that are replacing the florescent lamps plug right in the existing outlets.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

[JHCC]

Whoever built our house back in 1968 did something interesting with the kitchen lights (where we also have switched out the fluorescent bulbs for LEDs): there’s one switch that turns on everything, and then another that leaves everything on when it’s in the UP position and turns half of the lights off when moved to DOWN. 

[BillyBones]

My shop is an old garage that is 12' x 16'. I have 6, 4' LED lights to light it up. I hung them high up on the top of the rafters so they are hung at an angle. My shop is well lit and in no ways to bright. I wired everything in  my shop to a breaker box next to the door. One flip of a switch and my shop is powered up. 

One caution that i learned about fluorescents, do not hang them to low. I put mine at ceiling height when i first put in lights. That worked until one day i was working at the vice, flipped over my project which hit the light and i got showered in broken glass. The LEDs i replaced them with could take a few knocks with out worry but i got tired of them being in my way so i moved them up along the roof. 

There are a number of online calculators to find out how much light you need. Choose type of room(that includes workshops in most, but the average kitchen is lit about the same as a workshop) that you are lighting, input square feet of room, input lumens per bulb that you are planning on using and it will tell you how many lights to hang. Lumens out put can be found on the side of the packaging for lights along with color, wattage, etc. Keep in mind that color will also play a role in how you perceive things as well. 

[Steve Sells]

5500K is near daylight for reference lower numbers ie 4600K are red/oranger tint

[1forgeur]

Good to know. Thanks

[BillyBones]

IIRC that number the higher it is the more of the blue spectrum of light and the lower is red. Also IIRC the lower (red) the spectrum the less lumens the lights put out where as the higher (bluer) the more lumens are put out. It is not enough to really change the number of lamps you will need though. 

You can go to most Lowes stores and they have a display set up that will illuminate things with different colored lights so you can see what things look like under those lights. 

[gewoon ik]

i have recently discovered that led (even the daylight) can change the perception of colors and make them look untrue (but if you don't know better, all is good)

They also have a value for that. 

 

In my workshop I use a mixture of floodlights (small ones 10Watt/piece) and some overhead TL fixtures (half of them has a led in it, when they break, they get replaced). Over my workbench LED's for plenty light. Mixture of different lightcolors ranging from 5500K to 2300K. But most are 4000K; somehow i like that color (and most led TL replacements we use in that space are that color)

The floodlights I used because I cannot install overhead lighting everywhere (rented place and ceiling is covered with isolation, no visible rafters and no structure to securly attach something in). So on the walls I installed plenty small floodlights so i have plenty of light from different sources and angles to eliminate as much as possible shadows. 

Works accectable.