Standard garage lighting nowadays seems to be one or two but bare bulb ceramic fixture lights these lights are totally inadequate for the home hobbyist. If you like to work in your garage the first up you'll need to take is to upgrade your lighting. For general use fluorescent lights are just the ticket they are inexpensive to purchase and to operate. The there are several choices that are now available in fluorescent lights. Some consideration will be needed when deciding and a proper fluorescent you can choose between 48in. and 96in. lights other factors that need to be taken into consideration are the temperature range that the lights will need to operate in, do you want high efficiency lights, are you going to do painting were you'll need to see the true color?



The first up is to determine how many lights you will need the area that you'll be working in may require more lighting than other areas. In order to conserve energy it may be a good idea to have two or more lighting circuits this way for normal grads use you can turn on one or two lights and you can have another circuit with more license you can turn on separately for when you're working in the garage. The next step is to determine whether you would like the 48in. or 96in. fluorescent light fixtures. As a rule the 48in. fixtures are cheaper and easier to handle than the 96in. lights. The 96in. lights are aimed more for commercial use.

The next decision on that needs to be made is in the ambient operating temperature. If fluorescent lights are available with basically two different types of ballasts, the standard magnetic ballast in the T12 fluorescent fixture is not recommended for operating temperatures below 50'F. The if your fluorescent lights will be operated at temperatures below 50'F you'll want fixtures with electronic ballasts these fixtures will start in temperatures down to 0'F. One other choice of fixtures is bulb Size T8 bulbs have a 1in. diameter If and are more economical to operate than the standard T12 bulb of the same length.

Depending on what you plan for using your garage for you may want to consider CIR or color rendering index bulbs. These color rendering index lights are much closer to natural light. We have all seen cars that appear to be a totally different color under the lights of a parking lot and they are in natural sunlight. If you're trying to do color matching for painting in your garage you may want to consider color rendering lights.