| So, some of you may remember my post from awhile back detailing some of my garage upgrades. See here: Garage upgrade Well, since then I have continued making slow progress. My most recent project was a lighting upgrade. My 3 car garage came with 4 single porcelain incandescent fixtures hung on 12ft ceilings. Light levels were woefully inadequate for anything more than parking and walking inside. It was dim to say the least. I had planned on going all out and hanging multiple t8 fixtures, layed out to maximize overall brightness and usable light levels. This at a cost of several hundred dollars, probably close to $1000 all said and done. Also, it would have required an incredible amount of time to run wiring, hang lights and so forth. While considering spending this kind of cash and time on lights, not my car, I came across another option: 105W CFL's which screw into a normal medium lamp base. Purchased from 1000bulbs.com:
 First of all, these things are huge, 12" long (See the old incandescent bulb that came out next to the boxes). Second, for the same wattage (old bulbs were 100W), the put out 6900 lumens. An incandescent 100W bulb puts out about 1700 lumens. I paid about $105, shipped, for the four new CFL bulbs. It took all of 5 minutes to install them. Now, the results:
My garage before:
Two new bulbs installed on left side (old bulbs still on right). Notice that in the before pic, it was so dark that you could not even see my little girl and her dog sitting on the bench: 
All four new bulbs installed (the garage door blocks one bulb on the right): 
And lastly, the tired old incandescents that came out:
 So, for about $100 and 5 minutes install, I have 4 times the light in my garage. Not bright enough for a suntan or performing surgery, but much improved. And to keep it Z related, it's actually bright enough now to get some work done on my car.
go for it. or don't. it kind of depends. ya know? (n/m) -
ni[X]it 13:19:20
11/25/07 Last time I did that job, I had to cut off one nut with a
Dremel - zeeway
23:12:20 11/30/07 I have a Woody too!! (n/m) - Inzane 12:29:27 12/06/07 |
Let there be light...... - 
