Garage lighting suggestions

Agreed about the angled vs. straight down... I really see no reason to angle them as long as they're positioned to shine straight down the side of the car for the most part. Of course, nothing is going to replace using a swirl finder light of some sort head-on if you need to see a defect you're trying to correct so the best you're going to get out of any fluorescent is going to be general task lighting. My Brinkmanns are never far away while I'm working because of this.

One other thing you will want to pay special attention to though is the color temperature and CRI of the fluorescent lamps you pick up to go into your lights. In my case, all the lamps are Phillips Alto-II F32T8 48" with 6500K color temp and a CRI of 86. I find the 6500K to be closest to natural sunlight, and the 86 CRI is plenty sufficient for accurate color rendering in this situation. Some will disagree and prefer 5000K since the lamps (at least what I've seen available) are 89 CRI, but I don't feel that they put out as much usable light and it just looks more artificial to my eyes. Definitely don't just go with standard 4100/4300K though -- the light output is much less effective and the CRI on most is terrible by comparison.
 
Ya, I never liked the "warm white" color. I didn't know about the "CRI". I'll have to watch that.
 
Has anybody considered metal halide lamps? They are more expensive but the light they put off is only second to the sun.
 
ahimel said:
Has anybody considered metal halide lamps? They are more expensive but the light they put off is only second to the sun.
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I have been toying around with the idea, but to be honest, I cannot find a housing that looks right in a garage that has 10' or lower ceilings. The light output is incredible, and they show off paint imperfections really well, but on the downside are expensive.

I think I will stick with T8's with a good CRI
 
I got the light fixtures at Walmart last night. They're cheaper than I remembered. They're $10 a piece and the brand is Lights of America. I think they should work out just fine. Walmart didn't have any decent bulbs, so I'll have to check elsewhere for those. For the 6500K bulbs, the CRI was only 75. I'll check Home Depot and see what they have to offer.
 
I'll see if my friend Lenny House can chime in...

He had the best lit shop I've ever seen and in the process of building and lighting his shop he did a lot of research into lighting for detailing cars and it would really be great if he could share what he learned.


:)
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I'll see if my friend Lenny House can chime in...

He had the best lit shop I've ever seen and in the process of building and lighting his shop he did a lot of research into lighting for detailing cars and it would really be great if he could share what he learned.


:)
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That would be really helpful Mike!

I haven't checked Home Depot yet, but I've found these online:

Philips 382614 F32T8/TL865 PLUS/ALTO Straight T8 Fluorescent Tube Light Bulb at eLightBulbs.com

Sylvania 21720 FO32/865/XP/ECO Straight T8 Fluorescent Tube Light Bulb at eLightBulbs.com

GE 16089 F32T8/XL/SPX65/ECO Straight T8 Fluorescent Tube Light Bulb at eLightBulbs.com

Are all of these good options? Are they worth the extra money based on the cost of a bulb that has a CRI of 75?

Shiny, is this the Philips bulb you said you are using?
 
reality33 said:
I have been toying around with the idea, but to be honest, I cannot find a housing that looks right in a garage that has 10' or lower ceilings. The light output is incredible, and they show off paint imperfections really well, but on the downside are expensive.

I think I will stick with T8's with a good CRI
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I work with MH lighting fixtures and they give off alot of heat
 
indianaryan said:
Shiny, is this the Philips bulb you said you are using?
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Correct. Also I was mistaken, the bulbs I have are not 86 CRI, they're 85 CRI.

What I have (all from Home Depot) are these:

IMG_0044.JPG


IMG_0045.JPG


They sell them in 2-packs or in cases of 10.
 
I went to Home Depot and found the lights you're talking about. They're cheaper than I was finding online, so that's a relief. I noticed that the 10 pack of bulbs are slightly different though, which is strange. Both are the Daylight Deluxe Alto II T8 bulbs, but the 10 pack is only 82 CRI and 2750 lumens. Maybe I'll just stick with 6 of the 2-packs.

Shiny, since you know what you're doing electrically, I have a quick question. Would you recommend wiring all the lighting on the same circuit as the garage door opener? I'd rather not mess with the circuit box because I have no electrical expertise, and that would also mean I would have to run conduit from the box up the wall through the ceiling (I have attic space above the garage that I was planning on running wire in). I figured if it's ok, I would wire everything from the outlet that the garage door is plugged into right in the middle of the ceiling.
 
Here's an update. I got all 6 shop lights installed in the garage. Here are some cell phone pics....they get better as the lighting increases.

Before:



After:



I did all of the wiring from the attic above the garage. I had to tap into the existing light, which was below the spare bedroom. That was the hardest part as I had to fish the wire through the opening where the light was.



Then I started installing the 4 new outlets in the ceiling. Here's my friend doing the work for me.




I'll have to go back and fix this one. I got a little carried away.



Wiring done.





First light:



Second Light:



All lights:



My unusable workbench (need more shelves):



Here's my car ready to be detailed:



Huge difference!

I need to go back and add a retrofit box for the light that was there to begin with, but other than that my job is done!
 
You did a nice job with the lights! It sure helps...

A couple of ideas:

Maybe get the lights closer to the wall on the side to help get better lighting on the sides of the car?

Maybe running the wires in pipe, or at least staple them?

Also, they make a different kind of box, that I think it would have work better, they are called "old construction boxes" they have 2 small "legs" on the sides that come out and bite on the drywall, so they are a lot simple to mount since you don't need to mount them next to a 2x4.


Enjoy your set up!
 
Thanks ROMEO. I appreciate your feedback.

I agree it will help if I move the lights closer to the wall. I was trying to get them on the inside of the garage door railing, but I don't think it will be a problem to fit them between the railing and the wall.

I might just staple the wires to the ceiling. That's gonna be the easiest.

I thought about doing the old construction boxes, but since I had the attic space above I wanted to nail them into the studs. I don't think it was that much more work to do it that way. I will have to do an old construction box for the light that was there originally though, since there is no attic space there.
 
indianaryan said:
I went to Home Depot and found the lights you're talking about. They're cheaper than I was finding online, so that's a relief. I noticed that the 10 pack of bulbs are slightly different though, which is strange. Both are the Daylight Deluxe Alto II T8 bulbs, but the 10 pack is only 82 CRI and 2750 lumens. Maybe I'll just stick with 6 of the 2-packs.
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Interesting... I didn't notice that with the 10-pack I picked up, and unfortunately I already took that box to be recycled. I'll have to go look at the lamps and see if there are any different part numbers between the 2-pack ones and the 10-pack. Looking at them all running, I can't tell any difference visually.

Shiny, since you know what you're doing electrically, I have a quick question. Would you recommend wiring all the lighting on the same circuit as the garage door opener? I'd rather not mess with the circuit box because I have no electrical expertise, and that would also mean I would have to run conduit from the box up the wall through the ceiling (I have attic space above the garage that I was planning on running wire in). I figured if it's ok, I would wire everything from the outlet that the garage door is plugged into right in the middle of the ceiling.
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I know you've already done the work, but yeah the lights being on the circuit with the garage door opener would be fine. That's how mine are set up as well and I've had zero problems, even when I also run a large fan and my radio from the same circuit. 6 shop lights and an intermittently-run garage door opener aren't even close to making a 15A circuit break a sweat.



From your pics, I see that your ceiling is a couple feet higher than mine. That is going to affect the effectiveness of the lights you put in there since being farther away from the vehicle you're working on will allow the light to disperse more, making less of it actually usable as task lighting.

I'd say you'll either need more fixtures in there to get it even brighter, or you could hang the six you've got now from longer chains to get them closer to where you're working. Sure, that will leave the upper portion of the walls and ceiling darker than they already are, but since you're not working on a tall vehicle that extends into that space it shouldn't matter much. Just depends what you want to spend..... and chain is cheap. ;)

Looks great so far though! :props:
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Interesting... I didn't notice that with the 10-pack I picked up, and unfortunately I already took that box to be recycled. I'll have to go look at the lamps and see if there are any different part numbers between the 2-pack ones and the 10-pack. Looking at them all running, I can't tell any difference visually.



I know you've already done the work, but yeah the lights being on the circuit with the garage door opener would be fine. That's how mine are set up as well and I've had zero problems, even when I also run a large fan and my radio from the same circuit. 6 shop lights and an intermittently-run garage door opener aren't even close to making a 15A circuit break a sweat.



From your pics, I see that your ceiling is a couple feet higher than mine. That is going to affect the effectiveness of the lights you put in there since being farther away from the vehicle you're working on will allow the light to disperse more, making less of it actually usable as task lighting.

I'd say you'll either need more fixtures in there to get it even brighter, or you could hang the six you've got now from longer chains to get them closer to where you're working. Sure, that will leave the upper portion of the walls and ceiling darker than they already are, but since you're not working on a tall vehicle that extends into that space it shouldn't matter much. Just depends what you want to spend..... and chain is cheap. ;)

Looks great so far though! :props:
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Thanks for the feedback! I did a little research and found that running the lights on the same circuit would be fine, so I went ahead and did it. Turns out it worked!

Since the fixtures are only $10 a piece, I think I'll end up adding more lights. The sides of the car could use some extra lighting for sure. I think I might add 4 more lights, 2 on each side, and place them between the garage door railing and the wall.

BTW, I found 1 box of 10 bulbs behind several other 10-packs that looked like it was probably an older model of the daylight deluxe bulbs. It actually had the same specs as the 2-pack, except it was rated for 36,000 hours instead of 24,000. Not sure why, but I went with it and they look exactly the same.
 
thanks for all the info, went out to my local home depot and changed over to the t8 6500/85s and holly molly, what a difference, i still have the old lights over the tool bench and it is incredible the difference between the two, thanks again and good luck to everyone with their projects. For very little money, what a difference.
 
gotta chuckle, the pics of indianaryan in the sweatshirt and snowcap, it is just hard to imagine here in south Florida, he looks like he is trying to rob a bank. I really do not mean any disrespect and not trying to be mean, it just struck me as funny, sorry but sure glad your project is going well!!
 
The lighting looks great, and I just added new lights to my garage as well. Do you ever work with the garage door open? I thought about mounting lights the same way you did, but with the garage door open, the door would cover some of the lights.
 
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