Upgrading garage lighting, electrical help please!

Thanks, Dan.

The breaker box was already labeled so I will confirm tomorrow. It looks like the garage is on circuit 19 (one of the 20 amp circuits). It says living room too but there are already 2 circuits dedicated to the living room so it'll just by trial and error like you suggested.

Looks like the company is Underwriters Laboratories.

I have a friend from church who has done electrical work for over 20 years on RV's. He's going to come by this week to sort of coach me through things and make sure I don't do something dumb. Very thankful for that.

The light switch on the outside turns on that one light inside the garage as well as one other light outside the garage...I'd like to change this one to a motion detected light. All of the outlets in the wall are only 2 prong so I'd like to update those to 3 prong. The one outlet on the ceiling is 3 prong and the garage door opener is plugged into that. I'm waiting on a guy to come buy and fix my other garage door and that opener will most likely plug into that outlet as well. I have a double light switch inside the garage which does nothing right now...unless it controls some of the wall outlets but I didn't test any of those since I was using 3-prong power tools today: sanded the walls, pressure washed the floor...painting tomorrow!
 
I always love working with old cloth covered wiring.... Cant believe they actually did that back in the day. Be careful with that stuff, its very brittle, but stiff. It doesn't look like it, but is that a federal panel?
 
So, is there a simpler way to install fluorescent lights that will be easy to remove and take with me for later?

Obviously this won't work for you exactly since you have open rafters, but here's a way to wire up lights that will be easily portable later on down the road:


That is how I have my shop set up right now; I did it mainly for sake of convenience and ease of serviceability. Granted there are several items powered on the single circuit, but I rarely ever come close to running at its limits. Just have to be careful and know your loads, especially since the circuit is fed by old brittle cloth-insulated wire.
 
Well I finally got around to installing new lights!

6 fixtures and 12 T5 54W High Output bulbs. Very happy with it! The T5's are great. They turn on instantly. Here's just a few pics including a reflection shot of a jeep I did this weekend.

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Brunkel -

Congratulations !!!!!

Your lights and wiring looks great !!!!

Garage set up = outstanding !!!

Jeep reflection = Amazing !!!!

Im really proud of you !
Dan F
 
Well I finally got around to installing new lights!

6 fixtures and 12 T5 54W High Output bulbs. Very happy with it! The T5's are great. They turn on instantly. Here's just a few pics including a reflection shot of a jeep I did this weekend.

907953b56a4bbc8081a7087d206baee3.jpg
dd7ce1c2f0433230f179a1a8bd74d17b.jpg
0c46d476463ec788f0497ff00dc93ea1.jpg
152f1f42d63047afc104475dff978811.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Nice! T5's are awesome! I have some fixtures I want to change the ballast in to T5's.
 
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