Please help light my garage!

[chinoanoah]

I have offered to take the task of re-organizing and cleaning out my parents garage.
The garage has no light at all in it.
It is ~20' x 26'. And this picture is drawn to that scale.
The car is a jeep cherokee and it is also to scale.
Ceiling is 9' and white, along with all of the walls in the garage.
The blue on the right is a 55 gallon fish tank that I will move in.
1 problem: That grey strip throughout across the picture is a support of some sort. It hangs off the ceiling by about 1' and could block a lot of light.
Red rectangles on bottom are the garage doors, 3 car garage


I have no experience with all of this but my dad was a carpenter and he can help out a lot I'm sure. What I am thinking of doing is going with double strip flourescent lighting x4. One strip per "quadrant" of the garage. Without any diffusers over it. Maybe if they could be also wired to turn on when the garage door opens, too, that'd be awesome.
Any help you can offer would be appreciated! All on one switch as well.

Also, I'd like to do this as cheaply as possible.

 

[chinoanoah]

Anyone have any advice?

 

[Everyday]

I installed simple recessed lights in my garage. I run the flourescent flood lights in them to save on energy costs and it's VERY bright. A nice even light without the hum of tubes. It also looks nice because nothing is hanging down from the ceiling. Recessed lights are cheap and easy to install, give them a look.

 

[chinoanoah]

I'm looking more for things like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100043531&N=10000003+90401+503051

 

[Everyday]

I tried those exact lights and they're awful. Half of them stopped working a few weeks after installing them. If you go with tubes you need to get a higher quality fixture with a better ballast so they work all the time.

Keep in mind you can get 8 or 9 recessed cans for the price of one of those tube fixtures and get a ton more light out of them.

 

[structures282]

(6) 4' double bulb t-12 or t-8 light fixtures should work fine. 2 in each car bay. Don't wire them to the garage door lights. just use the existing light switch. And make sure you kick the breaker off before doing any work.

 

[chinoanoah]

I tried those exact lights and they're awful. Half of them stopped working a few weeks after installing them. If you go with tubes you need to get a higher quality fixture with a better ballast so they work all the time.

Keep in mind you can get 8 or 9 recessed cans for the price of one of those tube fixtures and get a ton more light out of them.

Thanks for the heads up. I definitely want something of that type, but some that work well. Any tips with a brand I should go for?

 

[nmk_61802]

What are your plans for the space?

I'm not an expert, but unless you just want to see well enough not to bump into things at night (4) four foot x 2 bulb fixtures will not be near enough. I would plan on a min. of at least 6 fixtures in that space if I just wanted enough light to see, double or triple that if I plan on doing any work out there (dependant on the type of work).

If going with more than 6 lights, I would also plan on two switches, alternating the wiring between fixtures, turning one switch off would not shut off a whole "quadrant" of light.

For the automation of the lights I have read of guys on here using the plug in lights plugged into a socket outlet converter screwed into the light sockets on there door opener. I would not go that route myself, I would go direct wire with a motion sensing switch wired in, similar to this one (keep in mind this particular switch is for incandescent only):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004YUJ5/?tag=atomicindus08-20

You could always go the super cheap route and install incandescent porcelain fixtures:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HJBCYM/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[chinoanoah]

Ok, so right now I'm looking at going with 6 double strips. Light will be for normal visibility, using the weight bench, not any real "work" going on. We don't do many projects out there other than cutting wood sometimes. No car maintenance or anything.

Can anyone suggest a brand?

 

[dstryr]

You should be able to find one of the several 'major' lighting brands at a local electrical supply house. Almost all strip or industrial(strip with reflector) fixtures are pretty much made from thin sheet metal which isn't real technical, so the brand itself is less important than the quality of the ballast the manufacturer uses and the lamps you buy. Daybrite, Williams, Columbia, Lithonia, and Cooper(Metalux) all manufacture good quality fixtures and the ballasts are not cheap junk because they know that contractors will not put up with making free service calls to replace junk ballasts. Try to stick with one of those manufacturers and use GE, Sylvania, or Philips lamps and you should be good to go.

 

[rocco]

Thanks for the heads up. I definitely want something of that type, but some that work well. Any tips with a brand I should go for?

Buy them at a wholesale electrical distributor, not the big box stores.
what you want is a simple strip fixture with a commercial grade electronic ballast. Go get some Lithonia TC232 MV (8ft Tandem) fixtures from any lithonia authorized distributor. good ballast, good price.

*the low ceiling and doors cause some problems with doing a proper even layout, this is the best i can do without knowing what we are really dealing with.

Layout

 

[chinoanoah]

Thanks for the tips Rocco!