I'm working a project where I have the ability to do pretty much anything in the garage that I want to with the electrical system and I'm trying to figure out a lighting scheme and other circuits and outlets that would need to go in. The garage is a rectangle about 28'x33' minus a 75 sq ft corner. Ceiling height ranges from around 9.5' on the sides to a flat 13' running above the middle bay. There are four windows - two on on the left side, one on the right side, and a high one above the middle garage door. Garage doors also have windows.

For lighting I have 11 6" recessed lights in 3 rows and spaced about 6'9" apart.
3ea 240V/??A circuits for lifts/welder/electric car chargers
1 circuit for a mini-split HVAC
9 110V outlets + 3 for garage door openers

Am I forgetting about anything electrical here?

If you really want to nerd out on your garage lighting, read through the lighting layout thread on garage journal and play around with the lithonia visualizer tool. I realized that was way overboard for my use in my 2 car garage makeover, so I am just doing a 10 pack of 4' 4800lm shop lights off amazon. 2 will be task lighting over a 10' work bench, the other 8 spaced fairly evenly outside the garage door travel path.

I'm curious what the goal is for can lighting? Aesthetics? Headroom? Just a thought - a typical 65w bulb puts out about 650 lumens. If I understand your description right, you're considering 33 cans, so roughly 22,000 lumens. If it were me personally, I'd go with a T8 style LED. I've got 13 fixtures up in my garage (~800 sq ft), and have over 57,000 lumens. I absolutely love having the light and wouldn't go back. Can post a picture if you're looking for an idea.

I would consider extra outlets near/around a workbench if you plan on one. I would also consider breaking up the outlets to two different breakers so that you can run two heavy tools simultaneously (example - table saw and dust collector at the same time). I've got an outlet on the ceiling for an retracting electric cord, which is handy for both the garage and driveway. Maybe a dedicated circuit for a freezer if you want one?

Nice thought on the mini-split system. I'm jealous. I added a couple ceiling fans just to help move the air around. I'd personally still want the fans if I had a mini-split, but you may not find that necessary. A vent fan is another nice feature if you do any staining/painting type work regularly.

I've got around 40,000 lumens in my 2 car garage and there are times when I wish I had more.

I was thinking 11 Cree 6" LEDs which throw out 1,100 lumens each. However, after talking with the architect some structural members I assumed would be flush with the ceiling may not be so there could be some shadowing issues with recessed lighting. The light they put out is also 2700K which is too warm so it's back to the drawing board for overhead lights. I'll have to look into T8 style LEDs after work.

I had a couple of 4plex outlets around where I'd planned on there being some kind of work bench or table. The majority of the work in the garage is going to be focused around cars rather than woodworking; I plan on restoring my F-100 about as soon as all the dust has cleared. That includes repainting it at some point which I hope will be a one off task!

I like detailing so brighter light in the garage would definitely help with that. The floor will probably be VCT in a checkerboard pattern. Getting the concrete good enough to take any kind of applied finish would be a huge challenge because of its age and what all has leaked on it over the years.

As someone who just did this and then helped plan another, it looks good. Have a couple of extras I would consider:

-add an RV plug to the 240 circuit (cuz you never know)

-make it so you can tune your lighting levels. Either divide them into banks or put them on a dimmer. I didn't do this and wish I had.

-run any whips/boxes for possible future upgrades like lifts or door openers


Good luck!

IntensivePurposes said:

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-make it so you can tune your lighting levels. Either divide them into banks or put them on a dimmer. I didn't do this and wish I had.

-run any whips/boxes for possible future upgrades like lifts or door openers

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That. I have a switch for the single take the trash out light, one at the bench, one for the general bay, and one for the row that only gets used when the door is down. Don't always need it operating room bright.

If you recess the panel, run a few extra cables to a point you can get to.

IntensivePurposes said:

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-add an RV plug to the 240 circuit (cuz you never know)

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RV outlets are 120V, typically 30A but sometimes 50.

I've had these 4' LED strips for a few years now and they are great. Just get as many as you need for your space and string them together. I also have a smart switch that turns them on when the garage is opened. Literally a night and day difference compared to the original 2 60 watt bulbs.

I would definitely install a circuit that can support an electric car charger. You never know when an eTron makes it's way into your garage

I would agree with avoiding the shadow issues.

One other suggestion - an outlet/media box for a tv mounted up high. It's so nice to throw a YouTube video up on a tv when trying to figure out how to rebuild a part.

I installed directional lighting on a separate circuit pointing to areas where I wanted more light such as engine bays and work bench. I'm glad I did it.

Make sure you wire one of those 220v outlets heavy enough for 40 or 60 amps in case you want to run something big like a plasma cutter or something.

Never thought of doing that... I've always clamped a light on to the hood of whatever I'm detailing but that would be convenient.

Never thought about the TV thing either, that would be great so I could get away from using and scratching up my phone while watching videos about disassembly/reassembly!

I planned on there being a 60A 240V car charging circuit on the left and right bays, and those doubling as somewhere I could plug in something like a welder. It will be a long time before I have a car that would use one of those, and any welding I'll need to do on the body of my truck will be in the 1-3 year from now term.

I'd like to go with lighting that can be on a dimmer. Trash cans are outdoors, I planned on pouring a small concrete slab for the trash cans to go on and connecting it to the driveway with a sidewalk to the back yard.

I haven't even started thinking about what the sidewalk will look like or water runoff yet...

I got some craptastic hanging led lights like this.

They aint pretty, but I really like being able to unhook one side from the chain and have them shine out instead of down. Really convenient when working under a car hood, or in the driveway at night without having to mount a more industrial outside fixture.

If you are building this ground up, get something that looks nicer than the shop lights mentioned here and what I am using. A lot of the cheap stuff off amazon will work well, but I am cutting the plugs off the power cords and running them into junction boxes to hardwire them. Something like the Lithonia CLX series would be great. 4' strips, 5000 lm, 5000k, 80 CRI. Play around with the lithonia visualizer to hit your target illumination. I was going to run 8 for area lighting in my 20x21 with 8' ceiling. It's only money.

https://www.visual-3d.com/tools/interior/
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6721429&postcount=931

I'm doing eight quad outlets on three separate 20 amp circuits, plus a 50 amp 240 for a welder. One of the 20 amp circuits will only have one outlet for a fridge and freezer, plus the LED lighting and garage door opener.

Finding decent looking lighting has been the botleneck here. I'm going to have another go at it today based on some of the searches here.

The garage is basically a rebuild. It was made as a carport in the late '60s and converted to a garage 10 years later. Somebody badly overloaded a loft that between a couple of stick built trusses spanning the width of the garage so those are failing. The tie-in with the rest of the house is bad, and the two rooms it touches are getting reworked so the garage is getting overhauled as well. I guess all of this is the while you're in there work that would b convenient to do now but terrible later.

The only part I don't like is that there will be two small columns, but it should have had those to begin with. The alternative would have been trucking in steel beams 35' long. Another issue is that the existing slab is not flat so that will need to be dealt with at least at the front where the slope is bad enough that my toolbox drawers don't stay closed. I had one tip over because of that.

Check out obsessedgarage.com or search for his YouTube channel. He does all kinds of stuff with garges and he's getting into lighting now too.

Put the lift 240v in the ceiling...make sure it's on the side you want the controls on...also external outlets, future A/C?

OMR

I would without a doubt look at adding a mini split setup. They are inexpensive and so worth it here in texas

The Fife said:

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Finding decent looking lighting has been the botleneck here. I'm going to have another go at it today based on some of the searches here.

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https://www.primelights.com/collections/shop-metal-building/products/led-6-lamp-t8-stingray-6xl-highbay-fixture-132-watts-clear-pl-6srhbld132xlfm


Replaced all the fixtures in my 40x65 shop with these. Great lights. Great customer service. One light bulb went out. I sent then an email and they sent a new tube the next day.