How well-lit is your garage? Who applies for a 37¢ mail-in rebate?!
 

Mom kept complaining about how dark her 2-car garage was, which was somehow my fault, even though there is only one bulb.

I kept thinking that I needed to wire LED shop lights into the circuit.
I also need to wire outlets on the inside of the breaker box and the outlet on the front porch--and install a breaker box in the shed and wire outlets after running power to it, after finishing the drywall.

I also need to fix those four cars, clean out Mom's garage (again!) and...

Anyway, I have never been to a M'nards. I haven't ever seen one and I don't know where any are, but I am pretty sure there aren't any in my state. Yet they saw fit to e-mail me about this deal: Universal 3-Panel 3,500-Lumen Daylight LED Light Bulb $2.99 after 37¢ rebate

I remembered that Harbor Freight sells lights that look like ceiling fans, so I checked.

Both they and Lowe's sell 8,000-lumen lights for $30, but Lowe's currently has theirs on sale for $20.

The Menard's one is a significantly better deal, but I cannot find anything cheaper than $20 in my area.

Mom's garage is a disaster, but this guy compares his 8,000-lumen light with the normal one he replaced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zH2orL1fUM&t=124s

I would apply for a 37 cent rebate. But I don't have a garage.

Those fan light LEDs are fantastic. I had 3x 1600 lumen LED bulbs in my garage and the lighting was ok. Saw some of those fan lights as a Slickdeal so I gave them a whirl thinking they were cheap enough to try. Paid something like $20 for a 3-pack.

World of difference. It's good enough that I'm not going to bother with rewiring the garage for tube style lighting.

I've got the garage on a motion sensing switch so I never forget to turn the lights out, plus it could be a deterrent to a thief if I forget to close the garage door at night (which Google is supposed to close at midnight if it's not already closed).

I have a couple of 50 watt corncob LEDs in my garage, makes you squint when you turn them on even in the day time. Any voltage between 50 and 400, but pricey.

Do you have a forever stamp that cost you less than 37¢?

I don't have a garage but I do have a carport with a shed on the back. It is 10x12ft. I cut a hole in [the slumlord's] roof and put in a 2x4ft skylight ($20 at BRING).

I have about 500w of florescent and LED.

No. But if the total rebate is more than the stamp, then no. But if you have two rebates and one stamp, then you get 14 cents back. If it's a postcard you can get 26 cents back on two rebates. That's more than a quarter!

My garage had 2 single 100 watt bulbs when I bought the house. I replaced those single bulb fixtures with outlets and plugged in 6 LED shop lights from Costco in two rows. 37 Watts / 3800 lumens each. They are the old style that look like florescent tube lights with pull chains so while they all turn on with one switch I can have from 1 to 6 turned on depending on what I'm doing.

I also have two spot lights above the workbench. They are plugged into the row of outlets I added when I moved in. I turn them on and off with voice activated smart plugs. It works but looks a bit messy. If I was to do it again I would put two outlets for the lights up at the top of the wall instead of just having a row at chest height.

I retrofitted three of the 4' led harbor freight shop lights into my garage. I just bought a plug in adapter that screws to the light bulb socket and plugged the shop lights into those.

https://www.harborfreight.com/lighti...ght-64410.html

With just three in a two car garage it is like daylight in my shop now, and these bulbs don't hurt your eyes to look at like the smaller brighter bulbs. These have pull chains so I can shut off the other side of the garage if I am not over there.

My other game changer addition is this, 10,000 watt electric heater:

https://www.wayfair.com/DuraHeat--10...CABEgKcTfD_BwE

Now I can work in the garage in wet fall and winter in comfort. Best part, is this unit has a remote control with temp adjustment so I don't have to crawl around my junk to adjust it or turn it off. I have been saving and pricing out a natural gas unit, but the amount of work involved to install, new gas piping, gas & electrical permit, inspections, and cost of unit was over $1200 for everything. I would never save that much by using gas over using electricity to pay the difference. The electric heater will get my garage up to 65F in less than 10 minutes, then is on about 15 minutes of every hour. With a box fan I can circulate and even out the heat.

If I had to heat the garage continuously and I lived in colder climate, gas would be cheaper.

Heating options sure open up when you go 240 Volt! :)

I posted about this and my uncle told me to install shop lights.

Why? I have one light to rule them all!

The first time I saw Harbor Freight's shop light on sale I bought it for the shed, which I was using as an office. It worked well, but I wanted more, although I ordered this 6-pack off of Amazon for $44. It is $42 now.

I don't know what I will end up using in the shed. I want something recessed because the ceiling is already low.

I like the idea of recessed lights, but someone pointed out that one will eventually burn out and you won't be able to find the same one to replace it.

Surface-mount 'sun' light:
Turning Smashed TVs into Realistic Artificial Daylight
The Fresnel lens is important to tweak the inverse-square falloff.

He makes great projects! :)

I have always kind of wanted a giant Fresnel lens for a solar scorcher:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpNmTrTWwWYI always wonder what you could do with a solar scorcher. Turn random hydrocarbons into charcoal?

Melt metal?! :)

I'm sure you could melt metal, if it is thin enough, one point at a time.

That would be an interesting proof-of-concept, but I can't imagine trying to melt scrap sheet metal.

You know, if you could melt metal, making charcoal might be difficult, since you could burn through the container!

I bought a big-screen TV oncet, thinking I could use it as a monitor, but the pixels were like 1/8th inch square. It was a no return item so I just donated it back to them.

Would I had known.

One bright light is better than one dim light but multiple points of light are better. The more points of light and the farther they are spread out the fewer shadows you get. Mine are arranged so I can park a motorcycle in the middle and have light on both sides and front and back.

Good point. At some point I should run shop lights so I can properly see the periphery of the garage.

[sigh]

Add it to my list.