Mounted Lights to Garage Door

[shooting4life]

So I, like many others, like to work in my garage at night and suffer with a dark spot when my garage door is up and blocks 1/3 of my lights in my small 2 car garage. So I added 4 2 bulb t8 fixtures to the garage door. I mounted them with self tapping screws to the metal door braces. I originally ran the wires between the lights through the same braces for a real clean install but since their was so much movement I could not keep the wires from rubbing the various holes. So I pulled the wire and instead drilled some holes in the side of the fixture and used romex clamps to hold some 12g power cord to each light since the lights will be on a 20 amp circuit. I also used bulb covers to add a little protection while the door is down.

To connect the lights I ran a piece of conduit (did my first ever conduit bend) over to the edge of the garage door and bought a magnetic disconnect from stanely so that if the door is closed while the lights are plugged in it would not cause a problem. The only thing I wished was different is that I could hard wire the disconnect, but it has to be used with plugs.

So far the lights work great and completely gets rid of my dark spot.

 

[sneasle]

That's a nice idea, I really like it.

Might be worth checking the balance on your door with the extra weight added from this. Might need to add some tension to your springs.

 

[shooting4life]

That's a nice idea, I really like it.

Might be worth checking the balance on your door with the extra weight added from this. Might need to add some tension to your springs.

I thought about that, but the garage door goes up and down like normal, it is maybe 10 additional pounds at the most. I do not know how to tighten the spring, so that is probably the biggest reason why I think it is fine the way it is.

 

[sneasle]

Close the door with the opener, then pull the release lever and manually raise the door roughly half way up. If you can then let go of the door and it stays in place, it's balanced.

If it wants to keep going up, you've got too much tension on the springs. If instead you have to hold the door in that position to keep it from dropping, there isn't enough tension on the springs.

It won't create any short term problems, but it can definitely reduce the life of your opener as it is now having to work harder. Worth checking, openers aren't cheap.


Where did you get the magnetic plug? I've never seen that before.

 

[shooting4life]

Close the door with the opener, then pull the release lever and manually raise the door roughly half way up. If you can then let go of the door and it stays in place, it's balanced.

If it wants to keep going up, you've got too much tension on the springs. If instead you have to hold the door in that position to keep it from dropping, there isn't enough tension on the springs.

It won't create any short term problems, but it can definitely reduce the life of your opener as it is now having to work harder. Worth checking, openers aren't cheap.


Where did you get the magnetic plug? I've never seen that before.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008IBCGH8/?tag=atomicindus08-20

It works really well, so well that I had to adjust the length of whip that plugs into the device otherwise the bend in cord would push enough for it to disengage.

The only other issue I am dealing with is the devise will block laser sensor when lower the door if left lose. So I am going to get one of those little Velcro cord straps to attach it to the conduit when not in use to keep it out of the way.

I'll try to check the garage door tension this weekend.

 

[wssix99]

That magnetic releasing plug is really cool. (I've never seen that before.)

Is your black cord connected to the electrical box with a NM clamp? If so, you might want to get a strain relief for a round cord if you think there could be some tugging on it.