Help me install better garage / shop lighting

[Xist]

I have gone through four or five head-mounted lamps. They are great!

Would you do car repairs in that second spot if it were better lit?

How much do you enjoy working in a cold garage?

[free radical]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

My dad has one of these, and after going through 5 sets of AAA batteries he hid it from me .

Should get one of those rechargeable ones,
I have one of those in my RV and can either recharge it using my solar panel and 12 V plug or household 120 current,
Puts out quite a bit of light for few days and is handy to place anywhere,as there's magnet on the bottom..

[free radical]

Originally Posted by Daox

I've come to the conclusion that my garage is inadequately lighted. I really want more light when working out there. As it is, I can barely take pictures without the trouble light, and even then the pictures are dark. Yeah, its workable, but a little extra lighting would probably do me a world of good I think.

So, I'm looking for suggestions. Mainly, I'm looking to have better lighting for working on cars. I'm wondering what you guys have that works good, and probably just as importantly where to place the lights? I'm guessing 4' florescents are the easiest and least expensive to put up. But where? On the sides and between the cars?

Below is my general garage layout. Its a 2.5 car garage. The orange shows my current lighting. I have 4 E27 (standard screw base bulbs) that have 100W equivalent CFLs in them. I then have a 2 bulb 4' florescent over my workbench off to the left. I have no idea what the specs are on it. The blue shows what I think might work good. I really only work on cars in the left stall, so one 4' florescent fixture on either side of where the engine bay is would probably be good? I don't think having the light in front of the car would do much good as my shadow would block a lot of the light.

Ideas and suggestions would be great.

For most powerful light we used to have those portable halogen ones on construction sites,with expanding stand.
Mind you those get very hot so need to keep away from flammable materials

[Daox]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

If just adding 2 4' fluorescents I'd put them on the front wall as high as I could, with a 6' or so gap between the 2, centered around the main bay.

Is this what you are trying to say, just put them on the wall in front of hte car, but very high up on it?

[Daox]

Originally Posted by free radical

For most powerful light we used to have those portable halogen ones on construction sites,with expanding stand.
Mind you those get very hot so need to keep away from flammable materials

Yeah, I have one of those stands. They're not bad, but its much more of a spot light. I guess I'm looking for light so I don't have to use the trouble light quite as much. I'm constantly moving that thing around just to see anything.

[RedDevil]

Paint everything white!

We have a locker under the stairs with one lamp in it.
When we bought the house my wife found it inadequately lighted and wanted another light point, but it was hard to find the right spot.
It also had a grey wall and lots of unpainted wood.
I painted it all white and suddenly the one light was enough to light it all.

I have the same problem now in my garage; the whole roof is unpainted wood and as stuff keeps accumulating the 3 CF tubes are not enough anymore. But because it is stuffed I have not had a chance to paint it yet.

EDIT ah, only now did I see 2000mc already pointed this out. Well, +1 then.

[Daox]

Insulating / finishing / painting it is on the to do list, just not real likely in the real near future. I currently just have some plastic stapled to the trusses so when I do use the propane heater I have it isn't totally useless.

[MetroMPG]

If you could get white plastic film to staple up, that would make a big difference and not cost much. Walls and ceiling.

I suspect you're using clear.

Not sure if they sell white at the home building stores, but I got several huge pieces of it gratis from a marina -- winter cover shrink wrap that they were taking off some big boats in the spring (which they normally just throw away).

[roosterk0031]

Replace the single light fixtures with ceiling fans with 4 bulbs. Double win.

[Xist]

Come on, guys! Nail your coroplast harvest to the walls and paint it white!