Compy222
Member
My wife and I are buying our first house in the next few weeks (we're waiting on final bank approval, but it's all looking good).
The house has a very nice 680sqft. garage, traditional 3 car, basically a 2.5 with a double door, and a third bay single door that's 12x18. It's a totally clean slate, but is wired for 220, which is great. It also has 5 outlets and gfci pre-wired. And it has a finished, but uninsulated ceiling.
The biggest downside to the house is it's lack of real garage lighting. It has 6 overhead light bulb sockets. Each with a 100w bulb in it. There is one double window and a windowed back door for extra light. It also has a 1 wall socket over the back center wall where a workbench would be. But the ceiling lighting is weak sauce to say the least.
I've been pricing options on upgrading and fixing this problem. My first though was just replacing each of the six sockets with a double T8 fixtures. Of course, six fixtures would run 40 dollars each at least. Not to cheap out, but as first time homeowners, priced out, it was getting unreasonable (especially considering I need to buy insulation too).
After some research I found that large CFL bulbs are not only become more common, but the tech is good enough to mean they are survivable and not insanely pricey. So this past week, my wife purchased off amazon a set of 4 85w/350equivalent 5500k bulbs. I've never seen CFL's this big in my life.
Just as a little comparison on the overall level of brightness and size in our current 2.5 car. We have two overhead bulb sockets i'm running incan 150w's in.
https://scontent-b-ord.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1907570_774686425393_1174318870_n.jpg
It's unbelievable how much better these things are. I can't comment as to their longevity; they also have a bit of a more bluish tinge than i think 5500k should, but for 10 dollars each in a 4 pack...you can't beat this. I don't think it'll be quite as good as 6 x2 T8 fixtures, but for 80 dollars vs. 250 dollars I don't think you can go wrong. This also means I don't have to be working with a 10' ceiling and doing rewiring. Just unscrew the old and screw the new ones in. It probably will save me 4-6 hours of labor too.
Just a few notes on sizing and install...This thing is big, the bulb itself is nearly 10 inches long. It feels like you're unboxing a small pineapple. But keep this in mind if you're going to try to fit one into a limit space or area you have clearance issues with.
Anyway, I'll probably be getting a build-up thread going in the gallery section once we actually get possession of the house.
The house has a very nice 680sqft. garage, traditional 3 car, basically a 2.5 with a double door, and a third bay single door that's 12x18. It's a totally clean slate, but is wired for 220, which is great. It also has 5 outlets and gfci pre-wired. And it has a finished, but uninsulated ceiling.
The biggest downside to the house is it's lack of real garage lighting. It has 6 overhead light bulb sockets. Each with a 100w bulb in it. There is one double window and a windowed back door for extra light. It also has a 1 wall socket over the back center wall where a workbench would be. But the ceiling lighting is weak sauce to say the least.
I've been pricing options on upgrading and fixing this problem. My first though was just replacing each of the six sockets with a double T8 fixtures. Of course, six fixtures would run 40 dollars each at least. Not to cheap out, but as first time homeowners, priced out, it was getting unreasonable (especially considering I need to buy insulation too).
After some research I found that large CFL bulbs are not only become more common, but the tech is good enough to mean they are survivable and not insanely pricey. So this past week, my wife purchased off amazon a set of 4 85w/350equivalent 5500k bulbs. I've never seen CFL's this big in my life.
Just as a little comparison on the overall level of brightness and size in our current 2.5 car. We have two overhead bulb sockets i'm running incan 150w's in.
https://scontent-b-ord.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1907570_774686425393_1174318870_n.jpg
It's unbelievable how much better these things are. I can't comment as to their longevity; they also have a bit of a more bluish tinge than i think 5500k should, but for 10 dollars each in a 4 pack...you can't beat this. I don't think it'll be quite as good as 6 x2 T8 fixtures, but for 80 dollars vs. 250 dollars I don't think you can go wrong. This also means I don't have to be working with a 10' ceiling and doing rewiring. Just unscrew the old and screw the new ones in. It probably will save me 4-6 hours of labor too.
Just a few notes on sizing and install...This thing is big, the bulb itself is nearly 10 inches long. It feels like you're unboxing a small pineapple. But keep this in mind if you're going to try to fit one into a limit space or area you have clearance issues with.
Anyway, I'll probably be getting a build-up thread going in the gallery section once we actually get possession of the house.