Garage lighting and heat

[Dads72]

28 x 36.
One double door and one single.
Any ideas on lighting (what and where) and heat?
I can get natural gas out there - in addition to what me and my friends already provide after a few brews.
It will be insulated and sheetrocked. (someday)
Thanks

[yellowgmc]

well, you were saying that you needed to resurface your slab, why not put in a heated floor? that should be simple enuf. and laying on a heated floor in the dead of winter would sure be nice!
as for lights, i say cheapie flourescent lights, and lots of em.

[cdowns]

lot's of flouresent lights i usually install them hanging from the ceiling, don't know too much about heating but i have good A/C in my garage

[sbc350gearhead]

I don't like heated floors. Snow melt cable is extremely expensive and radiant heat isn't much cheaper and creates a real PITA if you ever need to drill a hole in the floor. Flourescent lights do not like cold temps, so if you use them, you will have to heat the garage. Natural gas is probably the cheapest route.

cdowns, What size AC unit do you run in your garage? How big is your garage? Is your garage insulated?

I want to put ac in my garage and want to be able to cool it without spending an arm and a leg in the process.

[Draw4u]

I have a 3 car garage as well and I have 8 porcelains in the ceiling and each one of them have a 300 watt bulb in them. It puts off lots of light. As far as the heat and A/C, you will probably have to use a 2 to 2-1/2 ton unit at least. For a garage, I would figure 1 cfm per sq. foot and there are 400 cfm in a ton, therefore probably needing 2-1/2 tons. It will also depend on the ceiling heights.

[cdowns]

i have an oversized 2and a half car garage and use the main trunk line of my central ac unit 12ton rating some insulation but it could be better

[Tony]

Yeah lots of lights. You can buy flourscent fixtures with 0 degree ballasts, mine light right up in cold weather. In slab radiant heating works well but is very costly to install as compared to a $500 ceiling hung gas fired heater. Remember to install any electrial devices or open flame appliances higher than 20 inches off the floor to lessen the possiblity of gasoline fumes igniting.

[rage'nrat638]

i got a 24x26 garage...heat 75,000btu ceiling heater....works great
had a old floor house heater...almost died with that...don't doit
gas vapors stay on the floor

a/c...working on that

lights...yes lots of them.....

[lux hauler]

My garage is 24X24. I put one 4' fluorescent shop light on the front and back wall. I put two 4' fluorescent shop lights on each side for a total of six. That left me with a little bit of a dark spot near the center of that garage so I put in two 8' high output fluorescent fixtures. It lights up everything pretty well. I will put one more four footer on the back wall to light up the engine compartment a little better.
All the shop lights that were hung around the perimeter of the garage, were hung at an angle so most of the light is directed towards the center of the garage and not towards the walls.
Here are a few pics to give you an idea.

[lux hauler]

pic 2

[lux hauler]

This isn't the greatest drawing but it'll give you and idea as to how I mounted the lights.

[Dads72]

That looks great. Thanks for the advice.
Do those 4 footers just have one bulb in them, or two. They sure look bright.

[hecticblasts]

I'm in the process of installing the lighting in my garage right now.It's a 30x40 and it will be insulated later on.For heat I purchased a Hot Dawg propane,ceiling suspended heater,it's made by Modine specifically for garages.They also come for natural gas.As for lighting I'm installing twelve 8 footers with the cold weather ballast on the ceiling,they will be hangers,and about six 4 footers on two of the walls.That sounds like overkill but in addition to working on my vehicles I have a Bridgeport and a lathe that I work with and my eyesight is not getting any better with the years,lighting helps a lot doing machining .HF

[Dads72]

That's what I want. I can't see squat without plenty of light.
Where did you get your light fixtures? Checked with Graingers and just some of their ballasts are over $40 each. (I can still see the figure on the check I'd have to write.)
Will you put your heater in the corner, or in the middle of a wall - and what BTU rating did you get?
When I get good to go, think I'll trench a line out to the garage and use natural gas. Have a friend who went with propane and the cost hit him hard.
I'd like to have just enough to keep the garage above freezing, but you know how that goes. I'll probably wind up having poker games out there when it's 20 below zero outside and it's 80 in the garage.
Thanks

[lux hauler]

Originally posted by Dads72
That looks great. Thanks for the advice.
Do those 4 footers just have one bulb in them, or two. They sure look bright.

Those are all two bulb fixtures.
The four footers are pre-wired with a plug. When I did the electric, I installed outlets in the ceiling and put those outlets on a switch. The eight footers are hard wired and are on a seperate circuit.

[CSTrick]

Radiant heater is the way to go. They don't have a fan in them so they don't blow around any dust and they throw a lot of heat. Just a single long tube that you can mount on your ceiling. We use them in hockey rinks up hear to keep the fans warm. They are a bit pricey but are very efficient.

[hecticblasts]

I purchased the 8 ' light fixtures from Home Depot,they were about $35.00 each.I'm not buying all of them at one time,like 1972c10_ohio I wired a plug for each fixture and installed sockets on the ceiling,half the lights work with one switch and the others on on a second switch.I figured that the extra expense of the plugs was justified for that will allow me to lower or raise the fixture if needed,if I had to work on any one fixture I can take it down and work on the bench.I have 12 foot ceiling,if I need to do any work up there I can also plug any corded tool up there.I can't remember right now the BTU's on my unit but I bought the biggest one they made.Like you I'm only looking at keeping above freezing temps. and making it comfortable in the winter to work in there,no AC for me,altough it would be nice I think that will be more of a luxury than a necessity in my shop.I would like to place it in the corner but I will let a friend that works on HVAC systems tell me if that will be the best place for it.HF

[Sub-versive]

You will want to install H.O. (High Output) fluorescent fixtures, or electronic ballast fixtures that have a cold temp rating. The 8' H.O. fixtures are about $100 at Home Depot, the $35 fixtures will only work if the temp will never drop below 50 degrees F. The 4' H.O. fixtures run $50 at Home Depot. Failure to install the proper temp rating will result in irritating strobe-type effects or the fixture not firing up at all. Trust me, the H.O. fixtures are well worth the money, and their light output is much better than the cheapo fixtures.