Garage Lighting

S

Scooby24

New member
Hi guys, I have been detailing out of my garage and it is most certainly not setup for such an activity. My wired in lighting consists of only two bulb housings and I currently have CFL bulbs in. While they do provide enough light to work in, they do not illuminate defects well and I have to rely on my halogens entirely. On horizontal surfaces, especially on roofs, this is impossible on some vehicles and my CFL's are all I have to go off of other than a handheld, which is pretty tough to utilize during the correction process.



Short of replacing these electrical fixtures with something else, are there different bulbs I could utilize that would be more effective? Halogen floods, perhaps?
 
For general task lighting you need to have more than just two fixtures, honestly. In my single bay I have 20 4' fluorescent tubes set up to give me adequate light to do my work.
 
My shop is one bay, 15x35, and I have 4 - 8' flourescent fixtures on each wall. They are T8s and are mounted at 7' from the floor. I will be adding another 4 fixtures overhead shortly. The 8 fixtures use less power than one 100watt incandescent light bulb.



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I have T8's as well and like them. Great for all temperature conditions and quiet. I just have overheads, but a lot of them so they are not just directly above the car but also to the side/front/behind of it enough top illuminate all sides. (I didn't want side-wall mounted lights because of glare, aesthetics and space.) Here is a pic showing 6 in each bay. I like detailing on the left side of the garage where I generally pull in on an angle to maximize light. Works for me, anyway.



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Brad B. said:
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Love the 2002 Brad! There isn't alot of glare when the lights are hung 7' from the floor. My last shop we had a row at 3' and 5' and yes, that caused alot of glare.



Scooby24 said:
so basically, I need to hang up lots of fluorescents. :-)
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See if you have a used building supply place in your town. Then they are really cheap. As well, the T8s use electronic ballasts so they are way more reliable, fire up faster and weigh 1/10th of the old T12s.
 
Scooby24 said:
so basically, I need to hang up lots of fluorescents. :-)
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I use fluorescents for general illumination (I have dozens of 8' ones and a fair number of 4' ones too), but I can't see light marring under them. Besides halogens, I use ceiling-mounted and hand-held (you can clamp the latter onto various things, you don't have to actually hold it) incandescents for meticulous inspections.
 
That exact assortment works extremely well for me. When I pass all of the lighting tests I want to :clap:
 
It sounds like you have a two car garage with the standard "builders lighting" of two switched porcelian fixtures for one bulb in each centered over each bay. I had the same set up and replaced each with inexpensive surface mount flouresent fixtures from Lowes with two 4' bulbs each running front to back in the garage. These could be 8' fixtures with two or four bulbs if you needed more light. Centered in the rear of the garage I hung a 4' shop light with two bulbs mounted cross wise and just plugged it into an outlet. Centered in the front of the garage I flush mounted another 4' shop light cross wise and plugged it into the outlet used for the garage door opener. The two shop lights each have a pull chain for off/on so they don't go on when just using the garage for other purposes. So when I pull the car in to do detailing I center it in the garage and it is centered inside the square formed by the four light fixtures. If I remember the whole set up cost me less than $100--of course it would be a little more if you went with longer fixtures. I don't do any machine polishing-just do it yourself detailing- so I find the 4' fixtures fine.
 
I actually *like* the "builder's lighting" :D Those ceiling-mounted incandescents can really tell ya how marring-free the horizontal surfaces are (or are *not* :nervous: ).
 
pwaug said:
It sounds like you have a two car garage with the standard "builders lighting" of two switched porcelian fixtures for one bulb in each centered over each bay. I had the same set up and replaced each with inexpensive surface mount flouresent fixtures from Lowes with two 4' bulbs each running front to back in the garage. These could be 8' fixtures with two or four bulbs if you needed more light. Centered in the rear of the garage I hung a 4' shop light with two bulbs mounted cross wise and just plugged it into an outlet. Centered in the front of the garage I flush mounted another 4' shop light cross wise and plugged it into the outlet used for the garage door opener. The two shop lights each have a pull chain for off/on so they don't go on when just using the garage for other purposes. So when I pull the car in to do detailing I center it in the garage and it is centered inside the square formed by the four light fixtures. If I remember the whole set up cost me less than $100--of course it would be a little more if you went with longer fixtures. I don't do any machine polishing-just do it yourself detailing- so I find the 4' fixtures fine.
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This is exactly what I have. I have had CFL's in there since I moved in, I didn't consider replacing back with Incandescent bulbs, but they just don't produce a whole lot of light. I think I may consider your approach. I don't have a lot of electrical experience, but the attic above the garage is empty so I should be able to get up there to drop in some wiring.
 
My 6500k flouresecents really only provide general purpose garage lighting. For paint inspection I need my halogens,incandescents,and assorted other lights that I don't yet have. It takes a long time to inspect just a single panel under all those different light sources.
 
Bill D said:
My 6500k flouresecents really only provide general purpose garage lighting. For paint inspection I need my halogens,incandescents,and assorted other lights that I don't yet have. It takes a long time to inspect just a single panel under all those different light sources.
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Exactly. One light source will never show everything. My flourescents are mainly for general lighting. I have a 3M Sun Gun, halogens, Fenix and metal halides on the ceiling as well.
 
tom p. said:
Scooby, you can never have "too much" light in the garage :)
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QFT. I couldn't even consider cleaning an interior in the garage now, as is. I have to shift around a work light on the interior if weather conditions dictate I can't pull it out for interior work.
 
Scooby24 said:
This is exactly what I have. I have had CFL's in there since I moved in, I didn't consider replacing back with Incandescent bulbs, but they just don't produce a whole lot of light. I think I may consider your approach. I don't have a lot of electrical experience, but the attic above the garage is empty so I should be able to get up there to drop in some wiring.
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You can use the existing wiring for the florescent fixtures running front to back--just remove the porcelian fixtures. Even with four 8' bulbs the florescents won't draw as much as the incandescents. If you use "shop lights" for any others you add you can just plug them in to existing outlets.
 
Directional light sources such as halides and halogens are much more effective for paint correction. They allow you to see swirls and fine scratches much more clearly. In my shop i use two 400w metal halides while polishing. Halides are very pricey but i just picked up two 500w portable halogen work lights from Home Depot for under 6.00 a piece. I would use a combination of florescent (for general lighting) and some type of spot while polishing.
 
In a narrow shop like your picture shows, a sugestion.

Mount a couple of 4 ft on each side where you buff, about 30 inches from the floor, use "commercial explosion proof" if you can get them.

By placing them down so they throw to the sides of the car, it is possible to see even more on the top sides.

You can see better when doing sides, wheels, etc.

Should one not wish to "mount them to the wall", it is possible to build some inexpensive movable racks on casters, using 2 x4's or 2x2's and use an extension cord for power.

If you use the movable system, you could mount one of the 4's down at 12 " and another at 30" from the floor.

Move the rack to the other side of the vehicle as needed.

Grumpy
 
I have a combination of Lighting. We use flourescents, metal halide and Halogen.



The Flourescents are used for general shop lighting, its only about 3000 watts total around the walls and 3 on the ceiling. All 8 footers. Then we have the metal halides. THose are staggered around the shop depending on the area of things getting done. Each on on its own is 1000 watts running on 240. There are four of these above compounding area alone. Its like the Fourth of July there all the time. Tempature is a little wamer in that area of the shop as well. There are 10 total metal halides around the shop all are 1000 watts each. Then I have 15 500 watt halogens permantly mounted. I only use them when I am doing correction. Plus we have a few other hand held lights and what not. In total its about roughly 20,000 watts in about 4000 squaure feet. Nothing crazy. :cooleek:





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