Hanging fluorescent lights

[Lippyp]

I have a Dilemma, I'm about to start wiring up the garage, I have six five foot double fluorescent fittings to hang all of which I think also happen to be emergency lights with built in 3 hr battery backup. (ebay specials) They're going two to a bay, my quandary is the best way to fit them. Its an unfinished pitched roof (by unfinished I mean no ceiling just the bare rafters) I'm guessing that the light distribution wil be better if I hang them level rather than just screwing them to the rafters at the angle of the roof. Am I better off sourcing some proper hanging kits/chains and hanging them like that or would just dropping a length of wood from two rafters with a cross piece between them to screw the light to be better? These units are fairly heavy so if I do that I'll need to make sure they're up to the weight.

What would you do? They're going to be wired up in pairs so each bay is seperately switcheable. I was going to wire them into different circuit breakers so I had light if a breaker flips but as they are emergency lights its not really an issue as they'll come on on the battery if a breaker pops.

Looking here http://www.tlc-direc...hain/index.html its not going to be too expensive to buy all the bits to hang them by chains, by the time I've bought timber and angle brackets etc I can't see the cost being that different

This is the area in question

 

[eljefino]

Do your flourescents have directional reflectors? Those old rafters are wicked cool; I'd suggest painting white for better reflection but that would really cut the patina and is probably an idea off the table.

IMO do an "L" or "I" where you have two lights mounted near the peak verticalliy/diagonally firing criss-cross and the other two, lower, parallel with the ridgeline.

 

[Blk88GT]

I'd hang them on chain.

 

[Lippyp]

Eventually there will be insulation and some kind of ceiling put up but not before it gets re-roofed as I need to change the angle of the front half to get better height at the eaves as the doors are too low to get my truck in plus the back half of the roof is knackered. It'll get stripped, felt(tar paper) underlay and then new battens and re-slated. I hope to insulate and fix a ceiling between the rafters to keep the character. The walls will all be cleaned and re whitewashed.

 

[IONH]

I agree, pretty awesome roof to look at. It'd be a nightmare to paint though the way it is exposed right now.

I'd put them on chains and make sure they have reflectors. When you do someday finish the ceiling, plain old drywall will be okay and painting it white would reflect even more light (even though you will already have reflectors).