How to mount 2×4 drop-ceiling light fixtures in my shop.
I am building my own workshop. I have collected several 2×4 fluorescent light fixtures intended for installation into a grid drop ceiling. What should I consider when mounting them in my shop. Here are some of my intensions and thoughts:
- Prefer to install recessed – flush with drywall
- Ceiling trusses are 24″ on center
- Ceiling will get blown in insullation
My thoughts were to install some 2x blocking between trusses at each end of the light fixture. I could then run screws through the end panels of the fixture into the blocking to mount. How would you finish off things at the drywall / fixture interface since the fixture was intended to sit inside the ceiling grid? There is a bit of a lip. Perhap I could set this lip proud of the drywall and to act as a trim ring. Or could you use some ceiling grid remnants to trim things out? Do I need to build a box around the fixture in the attic so keep the insulation away?
Thanks for you help.
Best regards, Daen.
Replies
Daen
The outside dimensions of those lights (width) don't equal 22-1/2", which is what you'd need to get in between those joists/trusses. The light width is somewhere at 23-3/4"
Fixture size.
Even the body of most lay-in fixtures is closer to 23". So they won't begin to slide up into a 22 1/2" joist space.
Yup.
That's the way it is with salvage.
My shop has 8 layins that are screwed to the bottom of the I-joists.
One of these days I'll either buy or change them out to electronic ballasts. Pretty dim when it's cold......................
Lights
He could do the same thing you did.
Did you run straps to hang them from? A lot of 2x2 lay-ins have pretty thin metal on the body. I can see the sagging with just fe screws and washers holding them up.
I might score enough used electronic ballst to fix you up. We are going to replace every fixture in the facility where I work. The other maint. guy and I have already ask if we can pull the electrinic ballast out of a bunch of the old fixtures before they go in the dumpster. I know we have put in a maybe 200 e-ballast in thos old fixtures over the last few years.
If we get them, I'll let you have whatever you need for shipping cost only, and they don't weigh much.
Dave
I used fender washers in four spots (2 per joist) and these things were pretty substantial. No sag.
I'd be interested when you salvage. email me or msg me through here. Thanks!
Lights
We installed about 30 2x2 fixtures in one of our customer service training room about 8 years ago. Because of the training room location the area above the drop ceiling was absolutely full of large HVAC ducts. Every one of the new fixtures had to hung from the ceiling grid using special clips with a bolt in it that locked on the grid. The first few we hung with standard 1/4' washers and they drooped like a "unhappy face." Switched to the largest fender washer we could get and still stay under the ballast cover. That worked fairly well, but by the time we did a legitimate remodel on the room most of those Chinese made pos were sagging.
The advent of electronic ballast has really slimmed down any lay in fixtures. With the old magnetic ballast we would try to leave 5-6" of clearance above the grid to get the fixtures in or out. Now 3 to 31/2" is enough and the fixtures weigh about half of what the old ones did.
This "go green" job is going to be a real blitz by the contractor that won the bid. He is going to bring 15 elctrician and 20 helpers from the hall and try to knock out one floor each weekend fo a month. I don't think they can do it that quick, but my opnion doesn't count. The bright spot is that it will keep 50 guys working for at least a month and off the unempolyment role.
The lay ins in my shop are 2x4 four bulb.......
If that makes a difference.
Anything that puts people to work is a good thing.
My major beef with stimulus money used in our area, paving contractors. Not many "people" involved. Well, there are a ton of private haulers working the alleviation of fill and hauling stone.
Capitalism at its' best.
The company I work was sold agin and this is all part of the equity capitalization process that was part of the deal. Best part of the deal, aside from the employment issue, is it was an Ameican company that bought us this time. Whatever money we make will at least stay on this side of the pond for a change. Now if the goveremnt would get its' foot off our neck a little we might be able keep a few more citizens working longer.
There is paving going on all over the place here, road realignments and lane expansion, new sidewalks going in, bridge replacements and widening, I75 realignment through Dayton with many ramp closings, high tension cable crash barriers being installed on I675, etc.
I can hardly get out of town anymore, but the stimulus is helping the union road workers out.
Meanwhile they're tearing down vacant derelict houses so fast in Dayton that they can't get the debris hauled away and the sites leveled with clean fill, sometimes for months. There is frequent news reports on the problems with that, and injuries to kids playing on the piles.
Day-Tone!
Not for the timid, driving through there.
Went through to Nashville a couple weeks ago....................almost missed one of those sweeping lane changes..............
If they should, is there a finish date on that project?
Construction on I75 through Dayton should continue until fall 2018 plus or minus a year.
It's nuts.
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/d07/Pages/default.aspx
Good Lord
MIght have been easier to go around.........................not so sure though, can't look to the right and left much driving that roadway.
Lamps?
I need to know what the lamp types are. F20T12 or whatever is on them.
Most of the time when we switch from magnetic ballast to electronic it envolves a bulb change out to a T8 bulb. You get the same or in some cases more light and lower the electric usage by 20%.
I just figured I had to switch to the T-8's.
The T-8s are narrower-1". Those old fixtures I've got have the bigger bulb-1-1/2 maybe? Assumed I needed to change out the tombstones too.
You can tell my knowledge of electricity is short-I still can't remember par 30 from shinola.
Bout as far as I got was candelabra, medium base and those big ones.
Enlighten me.
I will however switch out to T-8's-
Four 4ft bulbs per fixture. Assumiing 32 watts..............................
t8 fit t12 tombstones
t12 wont fit t8 tombstones.
Well, then I guess I'm ok with the stones.
and the wattage I'm going to guess at being 32.
Make sure you get 32, NOT 28 wattsaver lamps. Those suck in the cold. And I like the sunlight type lamps, not the cool white. Those are kinda weird in the color spectrum. I'd try a 2 pack or so to see what you prefer.
I think..........
that I like the 6500 K daylight's we've got in the laundry/mud room. A more white light I'd guess you'd say..........not the "yellow" of what I think we used to have-cool white I think.
Those are the ones I like too. Daylight/sunlight same thing.
CRI is the number you're looking for,100 is natural light, usually daylight./sunlight lamps are around 90% at least.
There are two numbers -- CRI and color temp.
Color temp is somewhat subjective -- larger numbers are more blue, smaller numbers more yellow. What looks "right" depends on the individual and the setting.
CRI is "color rendering index". This number doesn't get any better than 100, which means that the lamp produces what passes for a full spectrum (though a prism would show otherwise), vs having all it's lumens in one or two or three colors. I've read that you want above 85 for good home-quality lighting, and folks like quilters want the full monte so they can accurately see what colors they're dealing with.
But you can have 100 CRI and still have the lamp be too blue or too yellow.
I may be wrong, but 100% is full spectrum, and it can't be full too blue or too yellow, unless you have a preference for blue or yellow light.
You may be wrong ;)
Sunlight is "full spectrum", but so is the light from an incandescent lamp. But their color temps vary greatly.
Show me where incandescents are full spectrum. The only ones I have heard about are Neodymium filtered, and relativly inneficient.
After reading Dan's response...............
It's no wonder I find it hard having a clue with the various lighting terminology etc.........................
Looked-75 is the CRI. I have now. For my purposes in the shop, it appears much "brighter"................I'm not putting on make up.
Progress Update
Well, the bodies of the fixtures are 21-3/4" wide just above the flange that lays into the grid. I added a strip of 3/4 material to the side of the ceiling truss bottom cord and the fixture fits in nicely. The flange sets below the plane of the truss cord by 1-1/4". That should be just right to add 5/8 drywall and a 3/4" wood trim of some sort.
To mount, I just drilled three holes per side and screwed directly into the side of the truss with some #10 x 1" screws.
Now to re-ask for thoughts on insulation clearance requirments. I was planing to build a foam board box around each fixture and seal it up with spray foam. Then blown in loose fill in the ceiling. Is there any heat issue / spacing requirements for the foam board or can it be right up tight to the fixture body?
Thanks, Daen