Lights in attached garage

I would recommend you installing four flourescent (4bulbs per unit), 6500 kelvin units. I put them in my garage and they provide "daylight" indoors and are absolutely fantastic. No light throws more light than a flourescent bulb can. Forget the old blue flickering units that are used in your office. These are instant on and are just bedass. You can get them at Loews for $60 per unit, and the bulbs another $12. You'll be thanking me. See Griots Garage as he sells a similar unit, but these are less expensive and easy pleasie to install.

 

check out www.hubbell.com

 

Go with fluorescent fixtures. 4 foot fixtures with F32T8 tubes will do the job great. If you go with exposed tubes (no lens) they are easy to change, brighter and won't have bugs inside. Recessed lights are good for some task lighting and have a more "upscale" look but won't throw as much light. Perhaps a combination of types with 2 switches. For me it can never be too bright in the garage.

 

I thought the same thing. I spent three months studying this before I went with Flourescents. The higher kelvin temperature provides incredible outdoor like lighting. I'll take pics tonight after the sun goes down using my Canon D5 (it doesn't have a flash) and post 'em up. Do your homework and you'll see you have few alternatives that will yield good results. I've been in my house over four years and have twelve foor ceilings and when I removed the old ones, I had two dead bugs in one light of three. When I was searching, I wanted results, good results. I hate spending money and coming up short.

Also, these flourescents are so white, they call them "Noon". I'll post once the sunsets completely with car in...

B~

 

Here ya' go my man: first know I have a four car garage and three slots are always occupied (important from a light throwing and receiving perspective).

PIC 1: Bay one with Ferrari and only the garage door opener light on, and bay two is on as well (a 100watt bulb in each opener)

PIC 2: The new high-output flourescent fixtures before they are turned on. Note: their rise is no more than three inches.

PIC 3: With fixtures on (there are three four-bulb fixtures in my garage total, spread amongst the bays and over a work area off film.

PIC 4: The fixture on (camera aperture adjusted for the high light so you can see all four bulbs on).

Result, very happy. Oh, no bugs either. I live in Texas, home of the largest bugs in the country--don't make me post 'em. It won't be pretty.

THESE ARE T8 6500Kelvin (temperature; aka- High Noon). No editing to photos other than reducing the pixel count, used my Powershot 10mp--NO FLASH-slr battery was dead.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Rodney,

I recently put cans in my new 950sf garage. I put them on average 8' apart from each other, thus I have 12 cans @ 65W each to cover the 950sf. I could use a little more light in there...but overall it's fine. 75W each would help a lot and 100W each would be more than enough....sun burn.

There are some sites that will provide formulas for can spacing. Can't think of any right now but if you google "recessed can light spacing" or combinations of those words something should come up.

Just looking at your pics, I had a few thoguhts....

Is the garage heater supplemental or the only source of heat? Reason I ask, is another reason not to like flourecents is that they can be slow to light or not even come on at low temps.

I also noticed the existing lights are fairly large square fixtures. At the very least you'll have some paint or patch work in and around those existing fixtures if you use the same locations...you probably already knew that though.

Good luck on your project.

 

These flourescents are "instant on" lights, a new technology for these T8's. I hated the idea of flourescents, but one I put them in and turned them on, I smiled...bingo.

If they're not for you, no worries. I wish you luck on your search.

B~

 

Get the best of both worlds - you can get recessed fluorescent lights. They are not as effective in terms of cost/light output compared to the old tube style but that just means you will need more of them than you would tubes (but the same or less than recessed bulbs) and it will cost more than just going with 4' tubes.

But they do look nice.