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Works great anywhere |
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2 light fluorescent luminaries suitable… |
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17 watt 24″ T8 Medium Bi-Pin (G13) Base… |
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The Westinghouse Twin Turbo garage lighting… |
While a simple incandescent light bulb or two is fine if you just plan on using your garage to park your car and maybe some old boxes, if you plan on using your garage for something else, like as a shop or area to work on your car, you need to install the right garage lighting. Luckily, finding great, affordable garage lights has never been easier. The T8 garage outdoor fluorescent lighting fixtures listed on the left are great options for nearly every garage, read on to find out why.
Why You Should Use T8 Garage Lighting
A T8 garage light fixture may cost you a little bit more money now than a T12 light will, but over the long run you will actually save money by installing these fixtures because they are around 32 percent more efficient than comparable T12 lights.
Not only do they use less energy, but they put out greater quality light as well! T8 light fixtures has a color rendering quotient (CRI) of around 85, which is the minimum amount you need to see colors as they truly are. If you’re planning on doing any kind of woodworking or auto body work you know that getting the right color is extremely important, and installing these lights will help you do just that. T12 lights have a CRI of around 60, which means you’ll be left guessing as to what the true color of something is until you take it out into the sun.
But, the real reason that T8 lights are better for garage lighting than T12 lights is that they work in much lower temperatures. T8 fluorescent lights can work in temperatures as low as zero degrees Fahrenheit before they start to flicker, hum, and otherwise have trouble turning on. With T12 lights, this temperature is closer to fifty degrees.
Even if you aren’t planning on installing a shop and care nothing about colors, this makes T8 lights a much better option for nearly all garages outside the Deep South because at some point in the winter it is going to get below fifty degrees in your garage. When this happens, you don’t want to be left in the dark!
Planning Your Garage Lights
The basic rule of thumb is that you should install two four foot T8 lights per car berth that you have in your garage. Four foot fixtures like this one from Lithonia Lighting
However, how many lights that you exactly need will depend on your garage and also on what you are planning to do. Try to lay out on a sketch paper what you’re going to put where in your garage and think about where you’re going to need the most light. You won’t want to have your table saw or other power tools in a space where you’ll be operating them in the shadows, so take this into account and plan to install your most intense lighting in the areas where you’ll need it the most.
Garages are notoriously under lit, so if you plan on using your garage to do something other than just park your car, you will most likely need to upgrade the lights that are currently in yours. The T8 fluorescent lights and other lights listed below at affordable, discount prices are some of the best quality lights that you’ll find anywhere, online or offline.
