jbob

about to address the lighting in my house's garage as well as do some more electrical and layout tweaks.

any of you guys love the lighting set ups you have in your garages?

odonnell

I bought a pretty powerful hanging light from Lowes for about $30, it holds 4x 48" fluorescent bulbs. Works pretty well, and hangs from chains so you can use eye-hooks. It works great, but only lights up the area below it sufficiently for in depth work, so you might want to get a few if you go that route depending on how much area you need illuminated.

LexVan

Look into LED options. Low energy costs. Low heat generation. Bulbs last nearly forever.

dmjames

Can't speak to the stuff built-in to the garage, because what's in mine is crap and dying to be redone when I gut the existing workshop space sometime this summer. (so I'm interested in the suggestions too!)

As for the plug-in variety, I picked up a variation on this guy when Costco had them a few months back: If you haven't used an LED lamp over the old-school halogens, I'll just say that the difference is astonishing, and they pay for themselves after about the second or third time you bump the housing without burning the crap out of yourself.

ideola

Give these guys a try: http://www.bigasslight.com/

I am hoping to install 100% LED fixtures throughout my 2000 sq ft shop space, and these guys are at the top of the list. They also have some very cool fans (pardon the pun).

Arominus

Any fixtures i buy from here on out will be LED.

jbob

good stuff.

as a film guy i kind of dream of having at least some of the lighting in china ***** or some sort of diffuser just to even things out.

a 2000 square foot space sounds awesome to me right about now haha

odonnell

LEDs definitely are sweet. I just converted my entire apartment to LED bulbs last month and it's like stadium lights...even the really low watt ones really pack a punch.

tempest411

I installed eight 4' LED shop lights in my garage in the fall of 2014. They are kinda pricey compared with regular fluorescents, but I don't regret it one bit. The level of illumination is fantastic, and it's nice knowing they won't have much an impact on my PG&E bill.

LexVan

Wait till you get your first utility bill. You'll love 'em even more.

odonnell

I did, dropped by 1/3, got the bill this week! They'll pay for themselves in 2 more months. If I cooked less bacon and took fewer beers out of the fridge, I'd probably see even more savings

LexVan

Yep. Did my whole house over an 18 month period. Cost was over $2,500. Cut my monthly bill by 1/3 too.

odonnell

Whoa...mine was about $100 total, I only changed about 10 bulbs (1 bed/1 bath apartment).

OP sorry for dragging this

Tiger03447

If you need to do something under the car or in the engine bay for a "quickie fix" you can try the cheapie 500 Watt double halogen telescoping rig..they do put out a lot of heat but they are VERY bright. But for garage lighting I'd go with the LEDS if you can get them fairly cheaply..since they would be on for longer periods of time. Just my .02 cents worth.

Techno Duck

Costco has LED shop lights that can be daisy chained together; makes setting them up pretty easy if you have limited outlets.

I have a few of those over my work bench and two other LED shop lights from Home Depot over the two parking spaces.

Excellent lighting with good spread and i dont feel guilty about leaving them on for extended periods.