Garage lighting

[BitterGreg]

A few questions. I finally got one side of my garage cleaned out from moving into our new house. The total garage is around 20x22, with 2 single doors. Right now it has 1 light socket with exposed an exposed bulb right next to each of the two door opener units, and while this is enough to be able to find tools, or clean something up, it is not very good for detailing.

1. What is the best option for using the existing sockets? Right now I am using whatever bulbs we picked up at Sams that we use for the inside of the house. I think it is one of the 100 watt equivalent bulbs.

2. What are the best options for putting up either a handing stip light or wall mounted strip light? Is spending almost 3 times as much for an LED worth it? What color or brightness works best? I want to use a 3 prong plug in light rather than hard wire it as I have an open spot on the outlet the garage door is plugged into.

3. I thought about putting 2 under each door. One that runs parallel with the car that may be covered up when the door is open, and one that will run adjacent to the front of the car. would having two lights, and the 1 car garage door be to much for the outlet?

[Ccrew]

I don't know where 3x for an LED strip works, because you'd need to be buying regular Fluorescents for just over $10. LED strips are $35 these days at Costco. And, at the end of the day they're worth it since fluorescents are being phased out, and the energy and the heat alone makes the LED's more attractive in the long term.

Drop your light bulb sockets and replace them with duplex outlets and use strips into those plugs. That's 4x outlets overhead for less than $5

Now that said, no matter how many overheads you have (and I have 2.5 bays and 8 strips overhead) you'll really benefit by something at mid-floor to ceiling height for working illumination.

[TheAverageMan]

I just went through this. I replaced all the bulbs in my garage to better suit my new hobby. I got a track light setup that came with the house, but had old orange warm lights.

Go home depot and get some white lights with the highest lumen rating you can find, and a 5000+ rating for color temperature.

I got a 4 pack x2 from Home Depot that are Philips CFL bulbs at 1600 lumens and a 6500 color temp. Makes it way easier to see stuff on my white car.

LEDs arent worth it right now IMO. Maybe in a few years though.

[kevin_1981]

A few questions. I finally got one side of my garage cleaned out from moving into our new house. The total garage is around 20x22, with 2 single doors. Right now it has 1 light socket with exposed an exposed bulb right next to each of the two door opener units, and while this is enough to be able to find tools, or clean something up, it is not very good for detailing.

1. What is the best option for using the existing sockets? Right now I am using whatever bulbs we picked up at Sams that we use for the inside of the house. I think it is one of the 100 watt equivalent bulbs.

2. What are the best options for putting up either a handing stip light or wall mounted strip light? Is spending almost 3 times as much for an LED worth it? What color or brightness works best? I want to use a 3 prong plug in light rather than hard wire it as I have an open spot on the outlet the garage door is plugged into.

3. I thought about putting 2 under each door. One that runs parallel with the car that may be covered up when the door is open, and one that will run adjacent to the front of the car. would having two lights, and the 1 car garage door be to much for the outlet?

1) I personally use 23W CFL. You can get a screw in to plug socket for your lamp, but that would just be a 2 prong outlet, and you do not want to use a 2prong to 3-prong adaptor, as there is nothing to ground it to properly. This is why i say stick with CFL.

2)LED is a matter of preference. You will not make up the energy savings, unless you leave those things on non-stop. Also, fluorescent lamps are not being phased out anytime soon. There are far too many people using them... there is a reason that 40W T12 lamps still exist, even though those were gonna be phased out long ago. I personally recommend 4000K or 5000K for color temperature. As you go higher in color temperature, the color of objects seems skewed. If you get LED lamps, I believe that ones with visible individual diodes will probably make seeing swirls easier. I personally use one of these, only because I got a free sample from my old job https://www.google.com/shopping/prod...g_y5zIBOaWgbgJ

3)Look at the garage door opener itself, usually there is a rating on there for the socket. My guess would be 60W max. It's Probably ok for more, but you never know if they used some small wiring inside the opener, or if the socket itself cant handle more than 1/2 amp of current.

[Ccrew]

Also, fluorescent lamps are not being phased out anytime soon. There are far too many people using them...

Dead wrong.

When Are Your Fluorescent Lights Being Discontinued?

" In effect since July 2012, the legislation eliminates nearly all 4-foot T12 lamps, some 4-foot T8 lamps, most 8-foot T12 lamps, and almost all standard halogen PAR38, PAR30 and PAR20 lamps from the market."

[BitterGreg]

Dead wrong.

When Are Your Fluorescent Lights Being Discontinued?

" In effect since July 2012, the legislation eliminates nearly all 4-foot T12 lamps, some 4-foot T8 lamps, most 8-foot T12 lamps, and almost all standard halogen PAR38, PAR30 and PAR20 lamps from the market."

You might want to do a little more research. There are new regulations, but that doesnt mean Fluorescent is being phased out. The T8 700 series is what does not meet the new regulations. The 800 and 900 series are fine. Fluorescents are not being phased out. That would be like saying they are going to discontinue production of the Mustang because the 2000 model does not meet the 2015 fuel efficiency requirements.

[Coopers ST]

I went to a garage sale a couple weeks ago, the guy had just replaced all his lights with LED. I bought 4 (all he had left) 2 tube bulb lights with the reflectors. I also got 12 of the bulbs for them all but 2 of them were 60Ws the other were 40Ws. They are the kind that plug in not hard wired, for now being temporary I had some adapters that screw into a light bulb socket and have two outlets on them and have two in each single light fixture so they all turn on and off with the switch. The entire package cost $10.
I have a three car garage so I put one over the engine bay length wise of each car slot and one sideways towards the front centered on the two car side.

[kevin_1981]

You might want to do a little more research. There are new regulations, but that doesnt mean Fluorescent is being phased out. The T8 700 series is what does not meet the new regulations. The 800 and 900 series are fine. Fluorescents are not being phased out. That would be like saying they are going to discontinue production of the Mustang because the 2000 model does not meet the 2015 fuel efficiency requirements.

Agreed. It will be a LONG time before all T8s are phased out. There will be so much pushback from large companies, GE, Phillips, Sylvania that make money off of fluorescents, as well as consumers of Fluorescent lamps like big box retail, Walmart/CVS/Walgreens/Grocery stores, that would cost billions to retrofit.

You should have no concern about going with a T8 fixture.

[d33p]

4ft LED shoplights are the only way to go.