rewire garage lights

[royalton10]

I am looking to rewire my garage 24' x 24' ceiling lights. Currently there are 2 rows of lights, 3 lights deep in each bay. Lights are just screw in bulb into a fixture on the ceiling that attaches to junction box in the ceiling.

I am looking to replace the screw bulb lights with some kind of tube or fluorscent light. How do I transition from the junction box in ceiling to the tube lights? Can I just bring the wires from ceiling junction box through a hole somewhere in the length of the tube lights?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

 

[2ManyProjects]

I am looking to rewire my garage 24' x 24' ceiling lights. Currently there are 2 rows of lights, 3 lights deep in each bay. Lights are just screw in bulb into a fixture on the ceiling that attaches to junction box in the ceiling.

So I'm guessing here that the existing lights are not only inadequate, they're also in the wrong place(s).

I am looking to replace the screw bulb lights with some kind of tube or fluorscent light. How do I transition from the junction box in ceiling to the tube lights? Can I just bring the wires from ceiling junction box through a hole somewhere in the length of the tube lights?

Usually, yes -- IF the fluorescent fixture happens to be installed directly over the box. But given your description above, I suspect this would NOT be the ideal location(s).

Any suggestions?

I would first develop a fresh lighting & switching plan, to determine exactly how many fixtures you're going to need and, even more importantly, the best places to put them. (With no other information to go on, I'll nonetheless guess that this will wind up approximating the "Big 'W'" layout previously discussed here on several occasions.) Then install the lights where they'll REALLY do you the most good, regardless of the existing fixture locations. The old boxes can be covered up with blank plates, if need be.

 

[Stee6043]

You'd be amazed at how cleanly you can transition from your existing junction boxes to external conduit with a few readily available pieces from the big box stores. I have (4) rows of lighting in my garage and only 2 lined up perfectly with the existing boxes. Where they did line up I just mounted the florescent right over the box and ran the wire into the new fixture. Where they did not line up I used a new external round box mounted over the existing box in the ceiling. From there I ran conduit (the plastic kind) to the new florescent fixture. Looks almost professionally done in my humble opinion.