Barn Lighting

[zuiko]

I have a 24x70 (x18' high) machine shed that I am turning into a barn. I already put a 100A service in it and am thinking about lighting. My plan right now is to put in a couple high pressure sodium vapor lamps (100w) that stay on all the time (they take about 60secs to warm up). I will also be putting in some windows for sunlight.

It would probably be good to have something to supliment that. I first thought flourecent but the barn will not be heated so they probably would work very poorly if at all in the winter. Incandecent would be an option, but I would probably need several 300w bulbs to light it. It's such a big place. Any recommendations?

[GaryM]

Lowes has 4' shoplights with a electronic ballast that's supposed to work down below zero degrees. $19.95 without tubes.

[AndyF]

How often will you need the lights in the barn? If its only a few hours a week, take a look at 300W incandescent flood lights. They are relatively cheap and easy to install. The sodium lights are much more expensive and unless you need them on a lot you'll never be able to justify them. Another option would be high output 8' fluorescent fixtures. You can put low temperature ballasts in them and they'll start in the cold without any problems.

In my barn, I installed the incandescent flood lights in the high bay and used high output fluorescents in the shop portion. Its worked well for me and I haven't had any problems in the cold weather.

[zuiko]

Thanks. I found some high output flourecent strip lights at Home Depot, they supposedly work down to -20 degrees. I will try those.

[weedsportpete]

Could you use these same HOCW 8' fluorescent lights in an indoor arena? With the bottom of the roof trusses at 14' above ground? Does it matter to have 'full spectrum' lights for riding horses? In the evening, the lights will be on probably three to four times a week for two to four hours long..

[GERARD]

Pete,
I've never seen fluorescents used for a riding arena, usually metal halide or high pressure sodium. We went with metal halides. They take a few minutes to warm up but the lumen output is really high and the operating costs lower than conventional lighting. We only have 14 foot rafters also so I built brackets from 2 x 6 so the unit sits flush with the bottom of the rafter and doesn't hand down. We used two rows of 5 each for a 50 x 90 arena, think they're 150 watts each but it lights the place up like a baseball field and there are NO shadows or dark spots which is what you need for a riding arena. Not a cheap way to go but nothing about horses is cheap!!!!

[weedsportpete]

Thanks Gerard.. good info.. I'm putting lights up in September.. after I get someone to put in a new breaker box..

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Pete,

Putting in a new breaker box is one of the easiest things you'll EVER do. I'm far from being any kind of electrician and put in new 200 amp service to my barn myself. I set and wired the new panel then enlisted the help of a friend when it came time to run all the interior wiring.

My building had no electric drop to it at all. The job is not a big deal to do at all. I contacted my local building department and got the appropriate permit, went to the supply house and bought my materials and had the electrical inspector out to tell him my plans and get input from him since he was very experienced with such things and would be the one who'd have to pass it later, anyhow.

I figured everyone has their little hot buttons and idiosycracies so I'd better find out what his were and cater to them in the way I did the job. He was very helpful. I did the work in the way we'd discussed it and he approved it during his inspection and the utility came out and hooked me up.

The toughest part of the job for me was setting the two 8' copper ground rods. Everything around here is clay and I could only pound them down about 18" with a fence post setter then it was like pounding into concrete. I tried three or four spots then decided I'd spent enough time trying to pound these things into the ground.

I got out my little John Deere with the backhoe and dug a trench 6 1/2 feet deep and THEN pounded the things down 18" and backfilled. Viola' I had my two 8' rods in the ground and flush with the surface. The electrical inspector got a chuckle out of that when I told him the story.

I hope you at least take a look at doing this yourself. I think you'll save at least $1,000 if you do. It's really a simple job and, in the final analysis, if you do it wrong they're not going to hook you up until you correct it so you're really not endangering anything. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[weedsportpete]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Gary. I'm sure I could do it if I knew what I was doing..

There are a few small issues or maybe not, involved. The arena is butted up against the old barn, lengthwise to lengthwise, with the current 60 (I think) amp box at the other end of the old barn.. I want to move that down to the arena end of the old barn and feed the arena. Meanwhile I'd replace the old 60 amp box with a 100 or more new box.

I'd have to take out all the existing circuit connections from the old box and put them in the new box. I guess thats not too difficult, but of the 10 or so circuits, probably 6 are Romex. 5 of those go upstairs, to the upper barn, where there are no livestock.. Does that mean I can keep that as Romex? Or do I have to change that over to BX? And all but one of the downstairs lines are BX. The other line is Romex. The downstairs is where the horse stalls are. Does that mean that these circuits have to be BX, or worse, conduit? Also, the old barn used to have 4 lightning rods going to ground. The labor day storm from a few years back took down a cupalo and broke the ground wire to one of them, two of the other wires are good and go directly to ground, although one of them is indoors.. don't know if that is right. The fourth is now hidden behind a shed that got tacked onto the building. The new arena is 160 feet long and has no lightning rods.. is the inspector going to want lightning rods on this new building? Do I have to repair the fourth one on the old barn? Will I have to move the one that is inside? Will I have to dig out the one hidden by the shed?

And the big question is do I have to do this all at once, or can I do it in stages?

I've done a little wiring, and I've used BX in case it was required. From the discussions I've seen here and on TBN, redoing a breaker box takes some knowledge, and a lot of precaution. At least as far as fastening the incoming wires correctly, making sure the ground circuit is correct and tight and keeping the circuits balanced seems to be important. I'm sure I could do it, but I don't know how yet.. I usually learn by playing around with things, but I can't do that with electricity.

I'll do it though.. can't afford to pay $1000 (I got a couple quotes in the same range) for this, on top of the circuit wiring..

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Pete,

Go to the Business & Technology section of your local public library. They'll have lots of books there on wiring to which you can refer. Again, I can't emphasize enough how much help my local building department and electrical inspector were with this. I also got a lot of help from the folks at the electical supply house and last, but far, far, far from least, TBN/CBN regular, Inspector 507, whose advice and encouragement were invaluable.

I'd suggest you might want to post something with a title like 'Wiring new breaker box?' and you'll likely get a reply from him that you can take to the bank.