Any ideas out there for inexpensive lighting options for a garage? Leds are really starting to be a great option as they have gotten cheaper but they can be pricey anyone found the magic bullet?

Samsclub has LED panels for ~$35 ea.

I have 3 of them.
Then I installed tracklighting over my workbench and installed LED spot lights (flood lights)

https://www.superbrightleds.com/project/gar...hoto/7597-image

Cheap idea! Home Depot $47.97 (sku# 891101)
I mounted this shop light on a cart with wheels. It has worked great for 2 years so far!

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Currently I have some of those along with 10 4 ft t8 fluorescent lights.. I need more light as I am getting old I guess..

A few years ago I got some big 8ft t12 high output lamps (home depot) for my garage, only bought 2, and it was light the light of day in a little two car garage.

T8 32 watt fixtures from home depot. Works great on the Porsche side of the garage even when it's below freezing. Other florescent fixtures will flicker and give off little to no light.

If you need help wiring them up let me know.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...7&hl=lights

That looks fairly bright.. I need to move some lighting around and add some so I can build the best headers and oil tanks possible.. I guess my eyes are getting old

I bought a TON of the 4 foot, two bulb plug in fluorescent fixtures from Home Depot, the ones that use the smaller diameter modern bulbs. I always wait for a sale, I think they are $11 bucks or so....cheapest one in the store.

It came down to cost for me, I needed a lot of lighting and I can keep buying them till I am happy.....I also bought two cases of bulbs.

Works perfect, it's nice and bright and it actually works OK in 20 degree weather.

This one
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighti...LIGHT/203081577


Rich

Go LED and never look back.

If you can, lean toward LED or T5s. T12s are a thing of the past. Almost impossible to get the bulbs anymore and they will get rarer. Maybe not a huge factor when you are only talking a few but they also do not meet the energy code. T8s are still very popular but they will eventually get rarer as commercial applications move toward LED and lower demand

Not to piggyback.. but what the heck. I do a lot of work in the summers down here in Florida with the garage door open since it gets so hot in the garage. However, any lights I have hanging over the garage door are then blocked. So I've often wondered if there was some way to mount lights to the inside of the garage door, which would then become overhead lights when the door is open. Any ideas?

Screw florecents to the inside of the door, route the cord to never get in the way with springs on the cord.

LED's Home depot we use these and they work great.
3 of these mounted strategically work well for us. We bought on sale $29

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighti...1290L/204378710

I would agree with this statement if you can get quality LED fixtures/bulbs. Quality will mean more money and they should also be made in the USA or Europe. I have tried the cheaper LED fixtures/bulbs in my house and they were not any better that compact fluorescents.
In my garage I went with the cheaper T12 fixtures from HomeDepot and change out to a better ballast when they go bad. I will start moving to T8 when T12's become hard to find. I have (2) lighting circuits which is helpful if I want to only turn on a section of my garage.

That's a good buy ...

If it were me I'd go with the LED's, as they will be cheaper in the not-so-long run. I have the Home Depot T8 4' fluorescents, 6 of them. They produce a ton of light but the bulbs start to fade after a year or so, and start to fail after 2. By the time you buy an empty chassis and then your first replacement sets of bulbs, the LED's are probably going to be close enough in price that they'll be worth the swap. I just redid 10 bulbs which cost something like $30, and the next time I lose more than a few I'm going to start swapping them out for LED fixtures.

Like others said, just get some Y8 or T5 lights from Home Depot/Lowes/whatever. I used 8 2-bulb 4' in my space and some high bay lights in the peak of my ceiling. Throws a good bit of light.

After I got my lift I mounted some on the lower side walls under the lift to brighten up inf I work under a car. Also some magnetized 2' shop lights to mount on the lift if I REALLY need more.

I've got a big 8' florescent bulb pair in the middle of my garage mid engine location and then 2 regular bulbs front trunk location then a 4' bar across my front "shop" area

Seems to do a good job. The 8' bar puts out a ton of light and takes a GOOD 5 minutes to warm up.

I work in lighting.

For good value and decent output I would go with T5 tubes. Very efficient and inexpensive.

LED's are a bit of a mine field and its often hard to know what you are buying - ie will the light output be sufficient, will the colour temperature be ok, how long will they last.

To get the equivalent light output of a T5 tube from an LED light source you will have to spend a LOT of $$$ and by only using them in your garage (I assume on an fairly intermittent basis) you are unlikely to ever get a pay back on your LED investment.

Wow, that might be the magic bullet: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/4ft-led-shopl...archToView&

At 4200 lumens that's a good deal. My T8 fixtures put out 5700 lumens on day one but I'm sure it's depreciated since then. Not to mention, I needed to by the cold weather fixtures at around $30 and that doesn't include bulbs. When I run out of bulbs I'm going that route if the $35 fixtures are still around.

I use two of these in my garage. I love them so much that I bought a third for my walk in closet.

LED panel that is 42 Watt with 3200 Lumens.

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?productId=4480261#img

I will have to see if I have a Sam's club membership not sure if I still have one.

The LED lights from Sams are a little harsh, but it is easy to find the cheap diffusers at HD that snap (pretty much) right onto the LED fixture.