Lighting a Woodworking Shop
T
O LIGHT A TYPICAL GARAGEwoodworking shop (a room 20 ft. by
18 ft. with small windows on three sides, for example), you will
need 16 dual 40-watt fluorescent fixtures suspended at approximately
8 ft. high to produce the necessary 15-ft.-candle intensity at benchtop
height. The fixtures should be equipped with opaque reflectors so that
the lighting will be direct. Diffusers are not needed.
The fixtures should be arranged in four rows of four fixtures each
with even spacing. Rows 1 and 3 should be on one switch-activated
circuit, and rows 2 and 4 should be on a second circuit, for economi-
cal daytime operation when the sunlight is intense. However, many
shops are most frequently used at night, so windows are not consid-
ered in intensity calculations. Local lighting of machines such as drill
presses, jigsaws, and lathes is always desirable.
—DR.ROBERTBROW N,
from a question by Stewart Wurtz, New Gloucester, Maine
SHOP SETUP