Lighting for Layout?

[doctorwayne]

My room will be about 20 x 40 and right now I am planning on using sixteen 2x4 recessed florescent fixtures, with four T8 32 watt lamps in each fixture. That is a total of 2048 watts, or 2.56 watts per square foot. Ceiling will be painted white. Since these fixtures will be recessed, I have to make allowances in the ceiling joists before the sheetrock is done. So I am just wondering if I will have enough light based on my proposed plans.

Gary, unless you've got different terminology in Texas, isn't a 2x4 fixture a pair of four foot tubes?

My layout room is about 560sq.ft., although it's a very odd shape. Layout lighting is above a suspended ceiling and consists of sixteen fixtures with two 4' (40watts each) tubes in each. That's about 2.3 watts per square foot, but if I were re-doing it, I'd modify the spacing of the fixtures somewhat to include another two fixtures.
There is a partial second level planned for the layout, and I'll be adding an additional ten four foot double fixtures, all of them affixed to the underside of the upper level of the layout.

For your situation, though, I think that placing the lighting over the layout will give you more bang for your lighting buck. Of course, this will depend on the style of layout - mine generally follows the walls of the room, although there's a peninsula sticking out in one area. An around-the-room type of layout will not likely be too deep (almost all of your layout should be within arm's reach), so twin-tube fixtures, spaced appropriately and following the layout in a more-or-less linear fashion will put the light where you need it. If possible, position the lights slightly closer to the viewing side, rather than directly over the centrepoint of the layout. Don't place them above the aisles, as you'll end up with head shadows on the layout.
Because of the need to keep the lights over the layout, you might want to re-think placing them between the joists, and instead place them beneath the finished ceiling. If you want recessed lighting, avoid a finished (drywalled) ceiling altogether and install a suspended ceiling. You can cut and/or re-position the ceiling framework as necessary to install lights where you need them, them trim the ceiling tiles to fit. Even if you want to install the lights between the joists, a four tube fixture is going to be too wide for most joist spacings.
The other change that I'd suggest is to use 40 watt tubes instead of the 32s - despite what they try to tell you, 32 watts does not (can not) produce 40 watts worth of light.

There are many types of fluorescent tubes available, but, until recently, cool whites were the ones that gave you the most lumens (amount of light) per watt. While the light quality is not at all natural in appearance, most cameras (except perhaps those with internal floppies ) have a setting to compensate for the light source and your pictures will appear to be quite naturally lit. Your eyes will also compensate for the light quality, and stuff will look quite "normal" after only a few minutes in the room. Recently, though, I purchased a couple of tubes for my shop lights and, because of all the unfamiliar new names for some, I began comparing light output, as listed on the package. I ended up buying a pair of 3' (30watts each) "Soft White" tubes, with a combined light output of 4800 lumens, which was substantially more than the same-sized cool whites. The light has a "warmer" appearance, almost incandescent. I like them enough that I considered replacing all of the cool whites in the layout room, but then I discovered that the light even fools my camera, yielding unnatural-looking hues.
Colour-balanced, sometimes called temperature-balanced, tubes provided very natural looking light that photographs just as if it were sunlight. The two drawbacks to this type are higher cost and severely reduced lumen output.

Whatever you decide, I agree with your statement: you can't have too much light.

Wayne