I’ve got a 2.5 car garage, with 2 normal screw in sockets on a tall ceiling. I keep looking around for a 150W (equivalent) or so daylight LED A19 or A21 but not having a lot of luck. I’ve seen a few corncob bulbs that are the right size, but they are Chinese craptastic scary. I’m using 2 150W equivalent CFL bulbs now, but when they power up they are super dim at first, and make me sad. Has anyone found decent 150W A19 or A21 daylight that are reliable and cheap? I just put 18 CREE and Triangle 60W and 75W bulbs in my house with no regrets. But finding good quality high lumen bulbs is a pain. I’d like to hit 1200 lumens or so per bulb.
If you want the most lumens for the least $ and effort, you can’t beat buying 7 100W equivalent bulbs (e26/e27 base) and screwing them into one of these:
You’ll get about 12,000 lumens for $65 (will vary slightly depending on what bulb you choose). I have this setup in my third bay which is mostly storage.
The problem with that setup is it is a lot of light from a point source and will make hard shadows around the garage. If your garage is only storage, that might be OK. If your garage is your workshop and refuge, you will want much better quality lighting.
T5HO (high output fluorescent) will be the next best $/lumen. A 8-foot long strip fixture of four 48” T5HO bulbs will make 20,000 lumens and run about $100. I have 3 of these in my main garage area (Bay 1 and 2). I have fluorescent because LED wasn’t so advanced 6 or seven years ago - the outputs were less, high CRI was near impossible to find, and the prices were more, so led strip lighting was non-competitive.
Now-a-days, led strip lighting is a decent option. Do not get LED tube “replacement bulbs” meant to install in fluorescent fixtures, they are expensive, and low output and low CRI. You can get quad-row high CRI LED strips for about $200 for 5meters these days. This will be about 20,000 lumens also, but much higher quality light than the fluorescent. You will have to add a DC power source and possibly some DIY installation.
Like above, but I used two of the four-bulb splitters with a combined total of eight of the cheap $2 LED 60W equiv. bulbs from Lowe’s. Got good results in garage, and was plenty cheap.
Wow, what is the name or link to that star fish armed adapter? I’d probably use like 75W bulbs in it for 8000+ lumens. Wait, I will be putting up 2 of them. Maybe I need to open a tanning salon?
The look on my wife’s face when she turns on the sun in our garage will be worth the price
I have 4 8’ banks of the T5HO (high output fluorescent) on my garage ceiling. got them before leds were an option. I love them, amazing amounts of light. In the winter (I live in new england) they take a while to come to full brightness. If I had it to do over now, i would put up these or similar (2400 lumen per bulb)
I replaced all the fluorescents in my basement and they look great. 4000k is just right for me for work area. these are direct wire so will require minimal wiring
I would like to point out that angling the bulbs is going to do little to nothing to improve the quality of light when you have the fixture mounted to the ceiling. The bulb distributes light very evenly to the front and sides, but very little to the rear – it doesn’t “throw” light in one direction like a flashlight. Angling the bulb will not throw light across the room, it will just waste a significant amount of light.
OP, please note that the LED bulbs mentioned above in post 12 are the ones that I do not like (this is my opinion, but I’ve seen all of these options in person and spent a LOT of time thinking about the best lighting for my garage). IMO they are a bad compromise that results from insisting on putting LED lights in an existing fluorescent fixture instead of just sticking with fluorescent or converting to LED proper.
The T5HO bulb is $10 and makes 5000 lumens. A $60 8’ fixture using 4 T5HO bulbs is a total of $100 and makes 20,000 lumens. A setup with the LED replacement bulbs (note: which are not high-CRI) will only be $20 more but less than half the lumens(!) If you check the specs on them you will see they are only 2400lumens per bulb. So you will need $240 worth of fixtures and bulbs and will have slightly less light than the $100 T5HO setup. I don’t see how that is a good option, when you can get quad-row, HIGH-CRI LED strips that put out the same 20,000 lumens, and cost less (about $200) than trying to do it with the replacement bulbs.
I’d like to point out this is not CSA, UL or CE approved, and its shocking how badly someone can screw up a piece of plastic and some wires, i was looking for a GU24 to E26 converter, and people were complaining about melted plastic, bending metal and breaking wires.
That said you can get doublers that are approved and safe to use.
I just put 18 CREE and Triangle 60W and 75W bulbs in my house with no regrets. But finding good quality high lumen bulbs is a pain. I’d like to hit 1200 lumens or so per bulb.
… :+1: