Lighting in Garage

[ZWilson07]

Hey guys I just finished up building my new garage, just waiting on it to warm up alittle more in the next few months to finish up the concrete, wiring the whole garage, finish up all the little things, etc.

My question is, is there anyone how here that knows enough about wiring to give me some tips to get a basic setup done so that I can just wire up like 4 light bulbs and their bases and just run it off of an extension cord to get me by until I can get a professional in to do the actual wiring for the whole garage?

I have a few hand lights and such that I have been using but they still aren't putting out enough light to really give me much and at 30 bucks a pop, im not going to got buy 5 more of them.

Thanks.

 

[Njc0las]

Why not just get a few of those work lights with the long cord and plug them all into a power strip? You can hang the lights wherever.

 

[ZWilson07]

Why not just get a few of those work lights with the long cord and plug them all into a power strip? You can hang the lights wherever.

the work lights seem to give off a ton of heat off and like I said it just seems like they are more of a hassle alot of times then anything.

I got the idea of just the light bulbs and their bases from my grandpa years back. He already had the bases from when we worked at LG&E and he just mounted 5 of em on a acouple 2x4's stuck end to end and put them up long ways in the rafters so that they went down the middle of the whole garage. Wired em all together ending on a regular plug end and then just ran an extension cord up to them with an on and off button. Worked really well and was super cheap and could be taken down and the garage totally back to normal with ease, but that was years ago and he's starting to get quite old now and isn't able to help me much at the moment.

 

[zak88lx]

When I built the gun bench in my unfinished basement, I had no wiring or available plugs so I got two 4 foot sections of plug-in industrial fluorescent lighting from home depot.
I mounted the lighting above the bench and I then ran a 50 foot industrial extension cord to the nearest plug on the breaker panel wall.
The plug is the on-off switch but it works great for now.

4' Diamond plate Work light
50 Feet indoor/outdoor extension cord

 

[svtaddict]

what i did was i just wired up some outlets like four of them on my ceiling (2x4s) and hung some flourescent lights by each one i also wired them to where the only light bulb in my garage was that way my switches still work. they got some cool flex conduit with three wires in it already at home depot. this said conduit has some little red plastic fittings and you need the strippers to cut the conduit into its sections but with these fittings the conduit just pops into youre receptacle boxes. its real easy and clean go take a look and pick up and electrical wiring guide book at home depot also these lights dont pull alot of amps so dont worry about over doing it off one bulb oulet i think four or five should be fine especially in the garage the normally have a dedicated circuit to the meter fuse box. anyone correct me if im wrong im not an electrician

 

[Kevins89notch]

When I built the gun bench in my unfinished basement, I had no wiring or available plugs so I got two 4 foot sections of plug-in industrial fluorescent lighting from home depot.
I mounted the lighting above the bench and I then ran a 50 foot industrial extension cord to the nearest plug on the breaker panel wall.
The plug is the on-off switch but it works great for now.

4' Diamond plate Work light
50 Feet indoor/outdoor extension cord

At a prior rental house I was at, I bought 6 of those, and hung them from the roof of the garage, and powered them all via a surge protector strip. It went from dark to looking like a grow house. Pardon the mess, but here's a picture from the driveway:

As the next shot shows, it literally made the garage glow. A simply glance down my entire street late at night would make anyone wonder, "WTF is going on in that garage?"