Garage lighting recommendations

[larsek]

I will be renovating my garage this spring.

For the floor I am either buying Ribtrax floor tiles similar to this style (click!) or paint it with anthracite floor paint.

The walls will be painted anthracite or dark grey, similar to the walls you see in this video (click!).

Now I am unsure about the lighting... Do you have any recommendations/ ideas?

The layout of the garage is as follows:

[2000cs]

https://www.garagejournal.com/

Look through those forums and then ask them.

Anthracite will soak up the light. Are you wanting to set a mood, do mechanical work or detail. Each of those would give a different lighting requirement.

[unluky]

Not in a garage, but in a display room next to me they installed those roof hex lights and they throw a PERFECT light. I have newish lights in my garage and I am thinking of changing anyway - they look fantastic.

Not these, but just for reference.

https://www.amazon.com/LZHOME-Hexago...7-857e17e03685

[diirk]

Hex lights are all the rage and they look cool.

I picked up a bunch of LED tube lights at Costco. They can be linked inline up to 4 units, which is also nice and were relatively cheap.

You can see a few of them in the pic...

[brettcp]

I did these in 2019, they look great. Very clean, perfect color temperature. Never had any issues in the 3-1/2 years they've been installed. Will try to get a photo later.

[unluky]

Originally Posted by diirk

Hex lights are all the rage and they look cool.

I picked up a bunch of LED tube lights at Costco. They can be linked inline up to 4 units, which is also nice and were relatively cheap.

You can see a few of them in the pic...

This is basically when I have in my garage/shed. It has lower trusses so I put a string of them on the middle in between the other LED tubes I have on the outsides to get rid of the shadows in the middle. Added benefit - they ones I used have motion sensors in them so they kick on when I pull in. They work great and were cheap.

[///MPhatic]

I just daisy-chained a bunch of inexpensive Amazon LED's in my basement. I didn't break the bank, and it works great.

New Shop Lights. by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr

[tcphoto]

I'm renting at this point but shared a link below from a YouTube Channel that I follow.

[CarsAndGuitars]

Still thinking over the plan, but I am considering ~6-9 of these https://www.ledlightingwholesaleinc....3.htm?CartID=1 for my 20x20 / 8.5' ceiling garage. Initially, I am not going to add lighting to the area above the garage door when opened, since I usually have the door open anyway.. tbd

[rbryantaz]

Originally Posted by CarsAndGuitars

Still thinking over the plan, but I am considering ~6-9 of these https://www.ledlightingwholesaleinc....3.htm?CartID=1 for my 20x20 / 8.5' ceiling garage. Initially, I am not going to add lighting to the area above the garage door when opened, since I usually have the door open anyway.. tbd

That light seems to be for a specific case of wanting a UL listing or something that probably isn't needed in a home garage: "The fixtures allow installers to avoid bypassing the ballast and adopt the energy-saving benefits of LED technology while keeping the product UL listing intact."

I have had better luck with native LED light strips than the CFL tube replacements. Costco has the LED tubes cheap and they work as a retrofit but I have been happier with a LED strip lights that I got from amazon.

I got these to replace my old fluorescents that had buzzing ballasts I probably could have bypassed the ballast, etc but it was time for something new lightweight, etc:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[CarsAndGuitars]

Originally Posted by rbryantaz

That light seems to be for a specific case of wanting a UL listing or something that probably isn't needed in a home garage: "The fixtures allow installers to avoid bypassing the ballast and adopt the energy-saving benefits of LED technology while keeping the product UL listing intact."

I have had better luck with native LED light strips than the CFL tube replacements. Costco has the LED tubes cheap and they work as a retrofit but I have been happier with a LED strip lights that I got from amazon.

I got these to replace my old fluorescents that had buzzing ballasts I probably could have bypassed the ballast, etc but it was time for something new lightweight, etc:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just about every review I've read of any led shoplight on Amazon has a noticeable number of people reporting high failure rates in 1-2 years or less.

That said, I did not realize the tubes I selected were CFL. Hard pass.

[rbryantaz]

Originally Posted by CarsAndGuitars

Just about every review I've read of any led shoplight on Amazon has a noticeable number of people reporting high failure rates in 1-2 years or less.

That said, I did not realize the tubes I selected were CFL. Hard pass.

I think the ones you showed were an LED in a FL style tube. That works fine but the tube is really just wasted plastic.

The only issue I had was that one of them had a bad solder on the power line when I got it. I contacted the seller and they gave a fair discount and re-soldered it.

I have only been using 2 of the 4 I bought. I mounted the second pair last night and plan to connect them tonight. I just need to decide if I want to add a front and rear switch or just turn them all on together.

-Rich

[CC M3C X]

So I’d have to do some digging to see exactly which lights these are but… In my shop and in the main garage our builder’s electrician highly recommend these LED light panels. I considered the hex led lighting that has gained popularity lately but my ceiling is at about 17 feet and I don’t know how functional the hex lighting is from that height. They also seem to create a crazy amount of reflection which I am not a huge fan of. Anyhow, super happy with the ones we have.

[CarsAndGuitars]

Originally Posted by rbryantaz

I think the ones you showed were an LED in a FL style tube. That works fine but the tube is really just wasted plastic.

The only issue I had was that one of them had a bad solder on the power line when I got it. I contacted the seller and they gave a fair discount and re-soldered it.

I have only been using 2 of the 4 I bought. I mounted the second pair last night and plan to connect them tonight. I just need to decide if I want to add a front and rear switch or just turn them all on together.

-Rich

Thanks, any opinions on these?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Eveready-Ev...?user=shopping