There’s some concern in the other comments about the aesthetics of this solution, and some call for a pre-built solution from an installation-labor perspective.
For those people, I suggest getting a “High Bay LED light”. These are really bright hanging light fixtures… most rooms would be well served by 1-2 them, which come in two shapes: round “UFO” and “linear”. I think they look pretty good, as the need to have good heat-sinking capabilities makes them one of the few products where even the budget producers have to use “quality construction”.
These are cost-competitive with the lumenator build suggested by the OP: The lumenator ($80 of bulb sockets, $40 of command hooks, $200 lightblubs) totals $320, consumes 380W, and produces about 40000 lumens. Modern high bay lighting solutions generally cost about .9$/watt and produce about 130-140 lumens/watt, so two 150W high bay light will cost about $300 and produce 39000 lumens. (As an added bonus, the higher bulb efficiency saves $4/year @ 150 days x 3hrs/day per year)
Disadvantages:
The CRI is generally a bit lower, around 85. The linked bulbs have a CRI of 92.
The availability of 2700K fixtures is very poor. Most high bay bulbs are 5000K, with good availability of 4000K lights.
Dimmer switch wiring is by a 0-10v logic voltage. This can be left unconnected to run at full brightness, or for one light, a 100k-ohm potentiometer works… for a single control operating two or more lights, the hydroponics industry seems to have produced a large number of inexpensive controllers.
These are largely marketed at an industrial market, so be careful to buy one that already has a cord installed, or be prepared to do some minor wiring.
There’s some concern in the other comments about the aesthetics of this solution, and some call for a pre-built solution from an installation-labor perspective.
For those people, I suggest getting a “High Bay LED light”. These are really bright hanging light fixtures… most rooms would be well served by 1-2 them, which come in two shapes: round “UFO” and “linear”. I think they look pretty good, as the need to have good heat-sinking capabilities makes them one of the few products where even the budget producers have to use “quality construction”.
These are cost-competitive with the lumenator build suggested by the OP:
The lumenator ($80 of bulb sockets, $40 of command hooks, $200 lightblubs) totals $320, consumes 380W, and produces about 40000 lumens.
Modern high bay lighting solutions generally cost about .9$/watt and produce about 130-140 lumens/watt, so two 150W high bay light will cost about $300 and produce 39000 lumens. (As an added bonus, the higher bulb efficiency saves $4/year @ 150 days x 3hrs/day per year)
Disadvantages:
The CRI is generally a bit lower, around 85. The linked bulbs have a CRI of 92.
The availability of 2700K fixtures is very poor. Most high bay bulbs are 5000K, with good availability of 4000K lights.
Dimmer switch wiring is by a 0-10v logic voltage. This can be left unconnected to run at full brightness, or for one light, a 100k-ohm potentiometer works… for a single control operating two or more lights, the hydroponics industry seems to have produced a large number of inexpensive controllers.
These are largely marketed at an industrial market, so be careful to buy one that already has a cord installed, or be prepared to do some minor wiring.