How Do I Add More Lights to My Garage?
The garage is typically one of the largest rooms in the home, yet it is often the most poorly lit. Most of the time, garages come with a single dim light in the center of the room, which weakly illuminates the space. Adding additional lights to your garage might sound like an intimidating project, but there are easy solutions that don’t require any rewiring.
Use an easy to install lighting system that screws into a socket and avoids rewiring. There are 2 types of adaptable lighting systems: The all-in-one style unit which has 3 adjustable blades and the hub and pod style which utilize a main light source with additional lights branching off of it.
Below, you will find some characteristics to look for when purchasing additional lights for your garage and our recommendations.
What Lighting Characteristics Are Important?
When you are looking for supplemental lights to add to your garage, you should consider their lumen output, functionality, and whether they have LED bulbs.
Lumen Output Is Key
Lumens are a measure of the amount of visible light coming from a light source. Therefore, the higher the lumens, the brighter the light source will be.
In the past, when you were buying a light, you would likely look at the number of watts it had to determine how much light it would produce. Nowadays, lumens have replaced watts as the most important determinant to consider when purchasing a light.
So when you go shopping for your garage lighting system, think about the number of lumens the light has, not the number of watts it uses.
According to the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) lighting handbook, you should have at least 50 lumens per square foot of space in your garage.
So, to find out the exact number of lumens you’ll need, you should measure your garage and determine the square footage. Then, simply multiply that number by 50 to determine the number of lumens you’ll need to effectively illuminate your garage.
Don't Forget About the Lights' Functionality
When adding additional lights to your garage, you should consider their functionality.
Listed below are some Questions to ask yourself before picking out lights for your garage.
- Are the lights easy to install, or do they require an electrician?
- Are the lights motion-activated, or must you flip a switch every time you enter the garage?
- Do the lights only provide you with one point of illumination or do they spread the light out to encompass the entire room?
These are all important questions to ask yourself to determine which lights will be the most functional for your garage.
LEDs Bulbs Are the Best
LEDs are the brightest and most cost-effective bulbs on the market. They use 75% less energy and last 25% longer than traditional incandescent light bulbs.
Another great thing about LEDs is that they produce very little heat compared to incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which release 90% and 80% of their energy in heat, respectively.
So, when shopping for additional lights for your garage, make sure to pick out LEDs.
Where Can I Find Lights to Add to My Garage?
One highly rated company that sells garage lighting systems is STKR Concepts. This innovative company produces lights that will satisfy your every need.
Their garage lighting systems contain 7500 and 4000 lumens, respectively. Below, these two systems, called the MPI Garage Lighting System and the TriLight Motion Activated Ceiling Light are discussed in detail.
STKR Multi-Point-Illumination (MPI) Garage Lighting System
The STKR MPI Garage Lighting System is the perfect system for your two-car garage. It comes with 7500 True lumens and LED bulbs, providing you with optimal lighting.
Unlike a typical light bulb that only produces one point of illumination, the MPI lighting system produces five. These five points spread to every corner of your garage, illuminating the entire room and reducing the number of shadows you experience.
To install, you don’t need to hire an electrician. You simply screw-in the main light to an existing bulb fixture. Then you put the four satellite lights around the room. They can be placed up to 9 and a half feet away from the main light.
The MPI system comes with unique cable-hiding technology that allows you to roll any slack in the cable line onto the base of each light, which prevents the line from hanging.
This provides your garage with a neat look and makes it so you won’t have to stare at those ugly cables all day long. If you’d like to see the cable system in action, check out this video by STKR:
The MPI system is equipped with a high tech motion-sensing system that can detect even the smallest movements. As soon as you walk into your garage, you will immediately be greeted by this pleasant bright light.
The motion-sensing system is adjustable, allowing you to turn up the motion sensitivity in large rooms.
In fact, it can detect movement from up to 20 ft (6.1 m) away! You can also turn the motion sensitivity down in smaller rooms, or even turn it off and control the light with a normal light switch instead.
Another cool feature of this system is that it is compatible with a security camera. It comes with a USB port that allows you to hook up the camera to the MPI system. Since the light is activated via motion detection, if anyone is moving around in your garage, the light will come on illuminating whatever's getting caught on camera.
The MPI lighting system is priced at $249.99.
STKR TriLight Motion Activated Ceiling Light
The STKR TriLight Motion Activated Ceiling light is an amazing system that will fill your garage with bright light. It offers 4000 lumens but only uses 24 watts of power, so you’ll get all of the lighting you need without the high energy bill.
This ceiling light is very easy to install. Just like the MPI, all you have to do is screw the light into an existing light bulb fixture.
The Trilight Ceiling Light is 5 times brighter and 2.5 times more efficient than your average light bulb. Also, traditional bulbs only produce 800 lumens of light but burn 60 watts. So when you buy the TriLight you’ll be saving money while also getting better lighting!
This lighting system, like the MPI, comes with high tech motion-sensing technology. You are able to fine-tune it’s sensitivity to make it more or less sensitive depending on your needs.
The light is programmed to turn off after 90 seconds with no activity. However, if you aren’t a fan of this, it’s designed so that you can hook the TriLight up to a light switch instead.
The design of the TriLight is very elegant, making this a stylish addition to your garage (or really any space in your house that needs lighting). Just because this light is nice to look at does not mean it's sacrifing in quality materials, infact, quite the opposite. This light has a strong aluminum head and braided steel wiring that makes it just as functional as it is beautiful.
If you’d like to see the TriLight for yourself, take a look at this video by STKR. They demonstrate all of the TriLight’s features so you can get a sense of how well it will work (and look) in your garage:
The TriLight Ceiling Light costs $129.99 on STKR’s website.
Conclusion
Together, both the MPI and TriLight systems offer high lumen output, are fully functional, and use very efficient LED bulbs. Either the MPI and TriLight systems really will be the perfect addition to your garage.
Each system provides ample lighting with advanced motion-sensing technology, meaning you’ll no longer have to bump around in a dimly lit garage to find the light switch. They are also incredibly easy to set up, with no electrician services required.