My garage has 4 or 5 of those really cheap plug in flouressent 4ft "shop lights". They don't work very well, they have cords running to outlets, and they hand at all different heights. (the guy I bought this place from did nothing the "right way")

The ceiling is drywalled and painted white. I went to HD today and looked at new lighting. I'm not sure what I want. I think 2 8ft 2 bulb fixtures would work. What ever I get, i want to hardwire it.


any suggustions?

 

Just use BX and the appropriate switch boxe (es) and connectors. Run everything over the surface. Still looks clean, but in an industrial way.

 

Jake, the 2 bulb 8' strip lights work very very well, just make sure they are the high output cold start fixtures. HD has a very good price on them. personally i would use conduit instead of BX makes for a much better look. If you want a hand with them let me know. I can run up and give you a hand with the conduit and lights.

 

The 8 foot two-tube "High Output" strip lights cost around $50, put out a LOT of lumens, and are quite efficient on a lumens-per-watt basis. They will light just fine down to 20 degrees; I haven't tried them colder than that, but they are supposed to be good to -20 degrees (f).

The biggest down side is the magnetic ballast in these things puts out a noticeable 60 hz hum. The hum is not as bad as cheap shop lights, but it is definitely there, especially for the first 15 minutes after you turn them on.

If the hum bothers you, you could try stepping up to 4 foot (twin, triple, or quad tube) high efficiency T8 bulb fixtures. These come with an electronic ballast. Don't buy the ones from Home Depot -- they still hum, although not as bad as a magnetic ballast. Instead, get sparky30_06 or someone else in the trade to get the fixtures from an electrical wholesaler. Get the ones with an "Mvolt" ballast (operates on 120 to 277 volts). These ballasts also feature a low total harmonic distortion, and are completely silent. I think that these have decent cold temperature performance, but am not sure. I used them in my basement to get rid of the hum.

Using these will cost you about double to get the same total lumens as the 8 foot HO fixtures from Home Depot. The price difference will be worse if you don't get a competitive trade discount from the supply house. But it is worth it if you want the space to be "nice" instead of industrial.

As for wiring, access to the attic space above the garage will make all the difference. If you can get up there and move around, you can use plain old NM cable to wire the fixtures. You don't need to install boxes in the ceiling; just install a bushing/cable clamp in the knockout in the fixture and fish the wire through a small hole in the ceiling. (Mount the fixtures flush to the ceiling so that they conceal the holes). Splice the wires inside the fixture. Fasten the NM in the attic space properly; follow all the usual rules for stapling NM cable.

If you have living space above the garage, or the garage is heated and you live in a fairly cold climate, then forget the above idea -- it isn't good to compromise your ceiling air barrier that much.

 

I can get above the garage, (attic) I think I'm gonna go with the 8ft'ers from depo.

Sparky, thanks for the offer, but Im fairly confident I can wire it up on my own. but your offer is the reason this website ROCKS.

anyway, I'm building my workbench before straighting out my lighting.

 

The cheap flourescents are ok in warm weather, won't even bother trying to come on when it's cold, but they make a hell of a racket ! if you have the bucks your way better off with the heavy duty models, some people report getting headaches working under flourscent lighting, you can counteract this by using regular incandescent lights as well.

 

i used some cheap ones in cold weather most do not light and make buzzing sounds. i put in some quality ones rated for freezer use and temps up to 125 degrees they were i think 6.95 each more than the 2.00 ones but worth it.

 

The thing about lighting in a garage is, No matter what you have or how many, IT AIN'T ENOUGH!

 

Just to drop a new idea into the pot....I've decided to to mount up 4 70W sodium fixtures with an 8ft (length of workbench) hanging halogen fixture I built. The halogen fixture is basically an 8 ft pc of galvinized evestroughing flipped upside down on chains from the ceiling and 4 300W halogen bulbs mounted inside. TONS OF LIGHT!!! (and heat which is great for the winter)

 

For what it's worth, I have a 2 bay garage with 4 flourescent 2 bulb fixtures centered left to right, over each bay, and spaced 4 ft. off front and back walls. It's lit very well. Helps that walls and ceiling are painted bright white. I also have another 4 ft. fixture with an 18" cord and plug that I can hang with chain from hooks and run an extension cord overhead. Very rarely do i need a flashlight or trouble light to see what I'm messin up! I also went with 1/2" thinwall conduit, looks much better than BX cable.