Lighting for my train building

banjoflyer posted:

A little clarity needed. Are you referring to the full size building you personally walk in?

If so I assume you mean 8' (foot) fluorescent light fixtures in a 32 foot X 40 foot building?

If this is the case then you need to determine how high off the floor the flood lights will be.

Many flood lights that are in/on eight foot high ceilings cast a circle of light of about 6-8 feet in diameter directly below them. Every light will have it's own qualities so read the characteristics of any chosen.

I have can/flood bulbs in my basement ceiling and space the individual bulbs about 6 feet apart from any other. That gives me an overlap of light over the whole layout. The higher the ceiling the smaller the diameter of light cast/bulb so you would need more bulbs in a higher ceiling to get the same effect. Spot light type bulbs will give a more targeted light to any areas you want to emphasize. 

A lighting contractor/store may give you some guidance. It would be time well spent to avoid a costly mistake by guessing what would work.

Mark

?1 yes ?2 yes. Most lighting contractors in this area have given me the brush off. Thanks for the reply.  What watt led flood light bulbs should i use? Ceiling is not quite 8" high, i will have to measure but it's close to 8"

A good starting point is one watt per square foot of incandescent equivalent lighting. One 65W incandescent flood every 64 square feet. If you substitute LED's for incandescent bulbs the LED bulb wattage with equivalent lumen output is about 8 watts. Banjoflyer appears to have about 1.8 watts per square foot, very nice! With 1300 square feet of building I would not use incandescent bulbs, at one watt per square foot you will need a dedicated 15 amp circuit and at 1.8 you would need two dedicated 15 amp circuits for lighting. Good lighting is not simple and there is no one best way to do it.

The modern T-8 florescents such as a Philips F32T8/TL735/ALTO are 3500 deg, full color resolution 4' tubes. They are nothing like our father's florescent lights. It would be helpful if you could see all the new choices. A few MR16 LED spots can be used to highlight scenes. I have LED floods in 8" cans in an 8' ceiling and on dimmers. 1 watt equivalent per square foot. They provide more than adequate light, I usually have them partially dimmed. I am adding strips of variable color LED's for morning, sunset and night effects.

rattler21 posted:

Original poster:  Please contact me off list.  Internet address is in my profile.  John

Email sent, thanks.