Paolo1

The 1950s tube lights in my garage just don't make the cut. It's time to come into the modern age, but what's the thinking on what's the best solution. Setting price aside for determining what is best, what are you all using for your hard wired overhead lighting? Thanks for your thoughts.

Bill Verburg

I bought 6k LED tubes to replace all my old 48" fluorescents, It was a very nice upgrade and easy to do, the ballasts are removed and simple wiring change is done to use the LEDs

pp000830

I purchased several of the LED long tube shop lights and then mounted them vertically to the walls rather than the ceiling. It provides much more useful illumination in the garage at the workbench and inside the cars as the roof, engine lid and trunk/frunk hoods don't cast shadows on what you are looking at. The key is to place them so your back doesn't cast a shadow over what you are working on. In my case that involved placing the lamps near the corners of the space. If your walls are white using the fixtures w/o the tin reflectors provide wider lamp coverage and since the tubes are plastic there is little risk of the tubes getting damaged.
Andy

Howdy993

Agree with Bill. Costco has LED shop lights on sale for around $10 now. I've replaced several around the house and they are great..
Hope this helps. Howdy

Paolo1

Last time I looked a bit, flat panel LED solutions were just trickling in to Home Depot, but they didn't seem thought through at the time, e.g., mounting process was sketchy at left up to customer to figure out, instructions were in Chinese. I have the old florescents that span two car widths. I think the solutions I am seeing now involve mounting a series of units that are about one car width (48" sounds right).

ed devinney

The Best Fixture thread here is worth reading, as well as almost any post by user Platonic Solid:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...splay.php?f=30

audi49

I recently built myself a detached garage/shop. Leveraged the info on the garagejournal.com link above and installed, in a 20 X 30 garage:
-9 light fixtures: https://www.maxlite.com/products/t8-...LSS2XT8USE4803
-18 LED bulbs: 18W LED T8, 2460 lumens, 4000k color
Depending on what you do in the garage, I'd recommend not to skimp on lighting. My builder gave me a hard time for spec'ing 9 light fixtures (18 bulbs), but it is NOT too bright, for doing any kind of car work/repair/waxing...I would not have anything less. Of course, you can choose color in the 3000k to 5000k range. For me, 5000k is too white, 3000k too yellow for a shop, 4000k is a nice compromise.
Photo of my mancave with a few of the lights visible below...

Domer911

I'm a fan of these simple deformable lights. They screw into a typical 150W socket. Easy to use.

Chuck W.

I have 10 of these in my garage. I bought them when Costco first started carrying them several years ago and paid somewhere in the area of $40 each for them. They are now on sale for $20. They are so cool.

L39E

I love my GarageLights from Big *** Fans. Not cheap at all but very bright and very well built. They have motion sensors that work perfectly to automatically turn the lights on and off. I started with one and added a second one. I agree with the above poster that you cannot have enough light.

https://store.bigassfans.com/en_us/for-the-home/lights

wallra

these are what I just installed in my shop and home garage

Cactus

Another Costco LED fan.

Paolo1

This is great. Thank you. I live the idea of getting a garage as bright as a high end detail shop or paint booth or surgical suite. Knock your socks off clean and bright.

Mark in Baltimore

I've been following this company off and on: https://www.garagedoorlighting.com/ The biggest downside is that, the last time I checked, you couldn't run the lights with the door down. Too many PITA mosquitoes here from May to November for me to keep the door open for extended periods while I work on the cars. Plus, I have AC in the garage, so the door should be down anyway.

Garage Door Lighting said you could run a bypass switch to operate the lights at will. IMO, they should offer this as an option.

Also, at 6,000 Kelvin, this light is way, way, way too cool for my preference. I currently have 2,700 Kelvin to 3,000 Kelvin LED bulbs in almost all of my fixtures and prefer the greater color rendering index (CRI) over the harshly clinical hospital lighting of daylight bulbs. I know the pure white of LED is all the rage, but I think it's too ugly.

I plan on insulating and sheetrocking the garage next year (moving and POD'ing all of the stuff in there is my biggest obstacle) and am likely going to go with 20 high hat recessed lights with 90 watt (equivalent or 850 lumens) or greater LEDs. Need to look at the total lumen output of 20 LED PAR bulbs versus the the LED tube lights. Some of the PAR bulbs are 250 watt equivalent or 2600 lumens (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sylvania...4793/307682930). That's super-bright, but maybe they're not that efficient versus the LED tubes.

paulkromz

Yo Nefarious MIB, I am looking forward to seeing what you do with your garage, doe