gorms

As long as you don't leave any shorts you should be golden. (couldn't help that one!)

Another thing to think about is a few lights on the wall down low, say 2-4' off the ground. We do that in most garages now, with a set of 8' enclosed weather proof (just a regular strip light in a plastic case to protect it a bit) fixtures, with a switch for each light. REALLY helps light up the undercarriage, especially with a taller vehicle or any vehicle on stands/jack/lift etc.

Also for layouts of lights, in a 2 bay garage I usually put one strip about 2-3' off either wall, another strip inbetween the two bays (lengthwise), and one over any other work area. Lights over the vehicles doesn't do much good when they're in the garage. Good luck.

gadget.35-06

You could hang lamps temporarily in a few spots with drop cords to each so you can figure out where you like them before installing them permanently. I have a three-car garage with about three dozen 48T12KB tubes on three circuits and it works well for me...when the garage is clean. I currently have, however, enough stuff piled on the floor to prevent even one car from being parked inside...but that is another story entirely. The "KB" designation refers to "Kitchen, Bath" which is a 3500*K lamp and is a bit redder than the CW(Cool White) 6500*K or more bluish light that chases my wife out of the kitchen. Best of luck.

Shorts

gorms...a wise guy eh?


Good call on the light arrangement. Is there a certain amount of light per foot that is standard or recommended?

BearKiller

Others can do as they wish, as it is nothing to me; but, for my part, I will never waste any of my money on any kind of lights that do not have plain old screw-in bulb-sockets.

At the beginning, in the numerous shop buildings, basements, and garages, we had at least ten miles of flourescent tube lighting, countless 8-footers and many 4-footers.

I will never waste money on ANY KIND of flourescents again.


Over the years, I have been one-by-one tossing the flourescent junk in the dumpster and replacing them with plain old porcelain incandescant fixtures.


Believe me, we have exhausted all solutions before realizing how costly and usually useless flourescents are.

I know many will jump to their defense and shoot down my opinion, but no one will convince me otherwise as I have already been all over there and done every bit of that.


We are currently at about half flourescents not yet replaced and half good old simple incandescants.

Of the remaining flourescents, at least half of them only work maybe 20% of the time; never the same ones and nothing about their performance being consistent, except for them being consistently untrustworthy.

I had much rather give the power company an extra ten bucks and have dependable light, than to give the hardware store fifty bucks, constantly be climbing ladders and monkeying with lights, and still be always about half in the dark.


All of the employees love the incandescants and all the nice bright usable light.

None of them have anything good at all to say about the flourescents; they hate them.


If a flourescent is not working, it requires two people, a ladder (some of our's require a bucket-truck to reach them), often a circuit-breaker needs to be OFF, at least one trip to the hardware store, and the best part of a mornings work, let alone spending probably thirty-bucks or more; and, usually before quit-time the same light is out again.


The incandescants never give any problem, come on instantly and at full brightness, can be replaced for a quarter apiece, with the only tool involved being an extendable bulb-screwing gizmo that I got at Harbor Freight for ten-bucks.


Carry on.

Shorts

BearKiller, good info. You hit the main concern with florescent, will they come on? I see the point there.

How do you arrange the lights? With my setup I've planned to tap and surface mount from the light bulb connection. Is it simply daisy-chaining bulb sockets like florescent are?

BILTIT

Daisy chain yes. I have never had any problems with my flourescents in -40 other than slow warmup. I have replaced one bulb in 3 years.

Tom_S

I wired mine with all porcelain sockets with pull chains which makes the lighting very flexible if I want to turn off certain bulbs. I use the 150 watt equivalent compact florescent bulbs. I used the sockets that have a outlet on them so if I want to add tube fluorescents at any time I can.

Colorado Diesel Truck Club1996 F250 Powerstroke 4X4 AUTO
DP-Tuner F-6 chip live tuned, BTS Transmission, Garrett 38R Turbo, Swamps Babies Injectors 150cc,
Custom electric fuel, Banks Intercooler, Tymar intake, Reflexxions Cowl Hood, 17 degree HPOP,
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Next Mod Precision Metal Fab RSK and SD Springs

Colo_River_Ram

Incandescent light bulbs are on the endangered species list.. That was part of Piglosi's (Lack of) energy policy..

Scotty

Up here some of the provinces have already banned incandecents. I am going with a combination of Flourescents...in the 4ft and 8 ft versions as well as the CFL's.

I considered incandecents for the winter and even get some heat from them.

I like the LED replacements for the incandecents too.

Laser light on the disco ball too.

Tom_S

That sucks because there are times when they are the right bulb for the job at hand.

1996 F250 Powerstroke 4X4 AUTO
DP-Tuner F-6 chip live tuned, BTS Transmission, Garrett 38R Turbo, Swamps Babies Injectors 150cc,
Custom electric fuel, Banks Intercooler, Tymar intake, Reflexxions Cowl Hood, 17 degree HPOP,
B code rear springs, 4" Stainless Magnaflow & Aeroturbine exhaust, , Aeroforce OBD Scan Gauge,
Next Mod Precision Metal Fab RSK and SD Springs

DaveB.inVa

I put up T8's in the garage, 3 two tube fixtures over each bay. I also put them in my basement. I purposely put in magnetic ballasted fixtures because I and others I know have had bad results with cheaper electronic ballasts. A magnetic ballast is dead simple, a little cheaper, a bit heavier and makes a little more noise. Noise isn't a problem though in the basement and garage.

Rampage1967

My understanding of the ban is. Clear, special purpose & halogen are exempt. Only common old frosted bulbs are banned . . .the cheap, low profit ones everyone uses.

BTW . . .clear put out a lot more light than frosted anyway.

Shorts

I need to follow up the light bulbs in Texas. Perry and the congress were trying to get a legal exemption from the ban stating bulbs made in TX and sold in & used in TX could remain. Not certain how that turned out though.


The single bulb I have in the socket now is a florescent. I don't like it as much. Has a blue tint (compared to the incandescent in the garage door opener unit) and it isn't bright. But it is only one bulb. If there were ore of them I think they'd seem brighter and nicer. It does take a minute for the bulb to come on to full brightness.

wyododge

Bear killer has a good point. Incandescent is cheap AND easy. If you are worried about the ban just by a couple hundred 75W bulbs. by the time you run out... well we'll address that when it happens.

If you are gonna daisy chain them, just calculate the amps for every fixture on the chain and don't exceed 75% of the circuit. It would be best if there were no outlets on the circuit, but if there are outlets, figure you have 5 to 7 amps on the circuit for lighting. W=V*A Watts, Volts, Amps. Volts is constant at 120.

Calculate your amps with a 100W bulb, as someone in the future may put a 100W bulb in.

Shorts

Thanks for the math Jeff. I'll get my numbers sorted and go from there. I have two outlets in the garage to choose from. A ceiling mount at 20A (that's easily accessible for surface conduit) and a wall outlet at 100A (that's along my built in shelf wall and tougher to run). But there is other stuff on the 100 breaker I need to account for.