Lighting the Garage

Paint the surfaces and install new lights and the workshop will be much more inviting.

This is how I see the finished workshop

It's 180 SF, so to light it as we would a kitchen sink, we need 75 lumens per SF, or 13,500 lumens in the garage.

Lowes sells the Lithonia 1290L Shop Light for $35. Four of them (two on chains and two under the loft) would be 3100 lumens x 4 = 12,400. (They consume 28W x 4 = 112W.)

The current situation is (6) 40W T12 fluorescents (3 are burned out) for a total of 240W and 15,000+ lumens.

There are low profile downlights that would work under the loft. Sunco makes a model that uses an 11W BR30 bulb that produces 850 lumens. Under the loft is 95 SF, so we want 7,125 lumens. 10 of the Sunco units would be 110W, 8500 lumens. They're about $10/can by the dozen. The bulbs are $3.10. The recessed cans have TP24 connectors and the bulbs are standard screw in.

10 recessed cans under the loft, 3 hanging shop lights over the remaining 85 SF. That would be about 9000 lumens in the high ceiling and 8500 lumens under the loft. $140 for the downlights and bulbs, $105 for 3 shop lights - $245. (I allowed $150 for 3 new fixtures in the first budget.)

Revit view of proposed lighting, sort of.

The downlights would be simpler and just recessed cans, not sticking down. The 1x4 fluorescents would be tube shop lights. To make Revit allow the shop lights to hang in the air, I had to create a glass ceiling, which is why we see a reflection of the loft and why we don't see the rafters, which are there (they are in the dark). Also, I didn't bother with the upper cabinets.