LegacyGT
New member
- Aug 13, 2010
- 2,090
- 0
I have had a horrible dark spot in the garage near the door due to a beam that blocks a lot of light from the less than adequate 2 sockets that I put 200 watt equivalent CFLs into.
In documenting this process, I shot the following pictures under full manual mode so that a side by side comparison could be made after the new lights were installed. No post-processing lighting or exposure adjustments have been done. This means that there are over and under exposed images ... it was done on purpose.
Here is the dark area of the garage that needs to be fixed - it causes a lot of issues when trying to apply product or ONR washing.
My first attempt was with two 2x4' florescent lamps, however they did not produce nearly enough light, so it was back to the hardware store to get the biggest brightest florescent they had: a dual 110 watt high output 8' unit. To say this thing is huge is an understatement, the bulbs barley clear the ceiling in the garage as seen here:
The unit is supposed to fire down to -20F, so it should be good to go during the winter months as well. Assembly was under way, and a plan was put together on how to mount the light.
Upon reading the directions there were some strong recommendations that the unit be chain mounted if it would be operating in conditions > 89 degrees (check) and if it was mounted to a highly insulated surface (check). I had not counted on that (had been planning on surface mounting), and had very little clearance to work with due to the garage opener track. Onward!
The chains mounted into drywall anchors with washers to hold on the chains
Light mounted:
Assembly done, you can see the tight clearance with the garage door opener:
So bright!
Tidying up the wires:
This is exactly what I wanted!
Now for some comparison shots
I managed to pull off this entire project alone, however, I will share that working with 8' long fixtures and bulbs in a confined space is rather challenging. My wife was rather impressed with how much brighter the garage is now.
This will be perfect for enhancing my ability to see defects to correct
I realized as I was posting this I do not have exactly the same perspective before/after but my car is in the garage all prepped and waiting for wax tomorrow, so I will post a proper perspective picture tomorrow.
In documenting this process, I shot the following pictures under full manual mode so that a side by side comparison could be made after the new lights were installed. No post-processing lighting or exposure adjustments have been done. This means that there are over and under exposed images ... it was done on purpose.
Here is the dark area of the garage that needs to be fixed - it causes a lot of issues when trying to apply product or ONR washing.
My first attempt was with two 2x4' florescent lamps, however they did not produce nearly enough light, so it was back to the hardware store to get the biggest brightest florescent they had: a dual 110 watt high output 8' unit. To say this thing is huge is an understatement, the bulbs barley clear the ceiling in the garage as seen here:
The unit is supposed to fire down to -20F, so it should be good to go during the winter months as well. Assembly was under way, and a plan was put together on how to mount the light.
Upon reading the directions there were some strong recommendations that the unit be chain mounted if it would be operating in conditions > 89 degrees (check) and if it was mounted to a highly insulated surface (check). I had not counted on that (had been planning on surface mounting), and had very little clearance to work with due to the garage opener track. Onward!
The chains mounted into drywall anchors with washers to hold on the chains
Light mounted:
Assembly done, you can see the tight clearance with the garage door opener:
So bright!
Tidying up the wires:
This is exactly what I wanted!
Now for some comparison shots
I managed to pull off this entire project alone, however, I will share that working with 8' long fixtures and bulbs in a confined space is rather challenging. My wife was rather impressed with how much brighter the garage is now.
This will be perfect for enhancing my ability to see defects to correct
I realized as I was posting this I do not have exactly the same perspective before/after but my car is in the garage all prepped and waiting for wax tomorrow, so I will post a proper perspective picture tomorrow.
rops:
