Lighting the garage.

[nissan_crawler]

I finally broke down and bought lighting. I've had 1 4' bulb in the garage (19x23) the last 6 years, makes fabricating a royal pain.

I went out and bought 9 double bulb 4' t8 lensed fixtures, 50' of pvc conduit, and a crapload of fittings. This should be fun.

 

[rinker1]

Better use your sunscreen and sunglasses, after only 1 light your going to have a white out!

 

[nissan_crawler]

Well, I bought a big unibit to bore holes in the fixture to run the pvc (see other thread). It's going well, just to slow for my liking.

I'm also switching them over from the house panel to the garage panel, so that's going to take some time, and I also have to remove the existing lights.

My plan is to put up all new lights I can, just leave a long length of romex on the last one I can do, and put a plug on it for now so I can plug it into an outlet. (Yeah yeah, I know, but it's only temporary so I can see while I remove the old lights/wiring/switch box and install the new stuff.)

Then I'll get it wired from the breaker to the switches, install the rest of the lights, and just be down to killing power for a few minutes to pigtail the rest together.

I'm running two switches, two lights on one for basic stuff when you're just grabbing tools etc., for the house, and seven lights on the other. All 9 lights will be on one breaker to save room, they only draw .8 amp each, so even with 14 gauge and 15 amp breaker, I'm well in spec.

After that I need to run a new outlet for the garage door opener, and I'll be 100% free of the house panel.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Yikes, I started removing the old light...extension cord wiring.

 

[LoneGunman]

Yikes, I started removing the old light...extension cord wiring.

I've seen SPEAKER wire used numerous times, I get a kick out of how many fires are blamed on electrical issues, it's like the standard cause if a cause cannot be found. I see stuff weekly that is beyond scary, you'd think there would be a lot more houses burning down.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Well, after opening the attic I found a HVAC duct that separated, so I got to fix that. I also found two junction boxes with no plates on them, and full of insulation. I'll have to get them in the morning.

The lights are working, I still have to clamp the wires in the lights, and secure the pvc to the ceiling, but man what a difference. I never realized how bad it was before until I got proper lighting. At one point, I had 8 of them up, except for the one that was going where the old light was. I had all 8 hooked up to an electrical cord, and the old light on. I unplugged the cord, and literally had a hard time seeing. I was really worried about these being not enough or too little, but they're perfect for me.

There's nothing like going from a single T12 to 18 T8's.

I'll do the finishing tomorrow, and also wire in for the garage door opener, so I can cut all power to the garage from the house.

 

[nissan_crawler]

I know something will be said about no switch plate, everybody is out of the gray pvc ones at the moment.

 

[bmwpower]

Sweet. I see where all your new found clamps are livin.

 

[tfi racing]

Looks good!You will need more straps on the longer runs of PVC,they will sag over time,you may want to consider painting it as well as it also tends to change colour when exposed to various garage chemicals.

 

[MisterCMK]

Why not use EMT instead of the PVC?

 

[nissan_crawler]

Looks good!You will need more straps on the longer runs of PVC,they will sag over time,you may want to consider painting it as well as it also tends to change colour when exposed to various garage chemicals.

The lights are working, I still have to clamp the wires in the lights, and secure the pvc to the ceiling, but man what a difference.

I haven't had a problem with the rest of it in the garage changing color.

Why not use EMT instead of the PVC?

Looks, don't have a hickey, would have to paint it, etc.

 

[walrus]

Looks like plenty of light, nice

 

[mad57]

go get your self some cheap sun glasses zz top.

 

[3 at 8]

Good Job

I've stuggled without proper lighting my whole life; I finally got a couple of 8' HO's in the garage. Now that there up youre thinking how did I ever go without em. I'm looking for a bunch of 4' T8's for my basements dirty room which is my machining space (lathe, drillpess, woodworking stuff too, etc.) Where did you get those? I was looking at HD's 4' 32w T8 version with the pebble textured cover just a couple of hours ago. Do you think the plastic covers take away from the overall or quality or quanity of light? Which bulbs did you go with, soft white or bright white? Thanks a bunch Crawler.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Good Job

I've stuggled without proper lighting my whole life; I finally got a couple of 8' HO's in the garage. Now that there up youre thinking how did I ever go without em. I'm looking for a bunch of 4' T8's for my basements dirty room which is my machining space (lathe, drillpess, woodworking stuff too, etc.) Where did you get those? I was looking at HD's 4' 32w T8 version with the pebble textured cover just a couple of hours ago. Do you think the plastic covers take away from the overall or quality or quanity of light? Which bulbs did you go with, soft white or bright white? Thanks a bunch Crawler.

I think I have the same lights you were looking at. This is what I have: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100654395&N=10000003+90401+1183.

I think it's fine with the covers. I was worried about hitting bare bulbs, as I have a low ceiling, and deal with 20' sticks of steel and such, so it's not unusual for me to whack the ceiling. This will still break the bulbs, but I won't have the remains of a 4' shattered tube hitting my head.

I have the phillips 4100k long life bulbs in, they look great, true colors.

The lights were $17.98/each at my HD. I have a hair under $300 in this project, should have done it years ago.

 

[3 at 8]

I think I have the same lights you were looking at. This is what I have: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100654395&N=10000003+90401+1183.

I think it's fine with the covers. I was worried about hitting bare bulbs, as I have a low ceiling, and deal with 20' sticks of steel and such, so it's not unusual for me to whack the ceiling. This will still break the bulbs, but I won't have the remains of a 4' shattered tube hitting my head.

I have the phillips 4100k long life bulbs in, they look great, true colors.

The lights were $17.98/each at my HD. I have a hair under $300 in this project, should have done it years ago.

I thought those were the same as the ones I was looking at today. What threw me was I noticed were your conduit was running into the ends and knew they didnt have knockouts there. Then, after I posted I read your previous thread about just that; the lack of knockout issue. Funny; I was standing in HD for ten minutes staring at them wondering if I would have enough clearence to drill holes in the end caps just as you did. Thanks for doing the R&D for me.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Yep, you just need a big unibit that steps up fairly quickly, as the ballast isn't too far from one end, so you need to keep from hitting it. The lights are wired in series, so you have to be sure to move the wire that goes between the mounts out of the way while you drill it, but that's no big deal.

 

[nova65ss]

Dang man that is nice. Now you can see how messy that sucker is!




I need to do the same thing. I am running two 8' FL with an unfinished 12' ceiling for about 2 years. ***** doesn't even describe it.

 

[nissan_crawler]

I finally got enough time to wrap this up and install an emergency light.

I used zipties and the adhesive tabs to hold the wiring inside of the lights (remember, these were never made to have the wire in them). There is so little heat with the lights and ballast that I don't think the adhesive or romex in there will be an issue at all.

I secured all the conduit to keep it from drooping and straining the light fixtures. I also installed a single emergency light. More would be better, but I have no good spot for others, and this is enough to get a drill/saw/grinder/etc. shut down safely and get to the breaker box or house door.

Here's how it looks with the light on, no flash.

 

[ghlkal]

I finally got enough time to wrap this up and install an emergency light.

Looks great. Thanks for taking the time to post this ... I'm considering doing something similar.

 

[LoneGunman]

Looks great, the E light is very impressive, In 15 years of doing electrical work I have yet to see an E light in a residential garage. I installed one years ago, the thought of running the lathe or bandsaw and loosing the lighting circuit is very scary.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Yeah, $35 seems cheap to not lose an appendage.

I decided to do this after walking in the garage door from outside, and being in the middle of the garage when the opener light went out, and I hadn't turned any lights on.

At that point I realized that:

A. I was an idiot for not turning the lights on.
and,
B. If the lights ever went out while I was in there, I could be in big trouble.

 

[shocksystems]

Nissan_ Crawler - Excellent work. Looks great. Cheers! Jim

 

[Ryan M]

Looks good. I am almost done with my light install. I have a 28'x40' and put 4 rows of 4 8' T8s. Huge difference. I had 8 "temporary" 60w bulbs for 5 years and finally had enough.