Lighting in an unheated garage

Fluorescent bulbs do not like the cold.  I pulled the fluorescent lights out of my garage and replaced them with several incandescent bulbs.  Those are still readily available around here at home improvment stores.  I don't know why you would have problems finding them. BTW, Menards has 10 year life incandescent bulbs - made in the USA.  I think you can get them from their on-line store if you don't live by a Menard's.

The PC answer would be LEDS.

Harbor Freight sells led lights from free (with coupon) to $$$.

Incandescent bulbs have the additional benefit of generating useful heat, which makes them good for being used for intermittent lighting in unheated spaces.

I stocked up on bulk packs of 60 and 100 Watt bulbs on Amazon.

-Mark

As John wrote Flourscent bulbs don't do well in the cold.

I am not an electrician or lighting designer, but I have learned a little about flourscent lighting.

When it is too cold, the bulbs will either flicker or won't light at all.

Most fixtures come with ballasts that are designed to operate down to something like 60 degrees. They are inexpensive and relatively energy efficient. Ballasts are available for colder environments, but they are more expensive and consume more energy.

I replaced the ballasts in my garage fixures with these cold weather ballasts.

I have shatter guards on all the exposed tubes in my basement and garage. The shatter guards seem to help with cold weather operation.

CFL's will work in the cold, 100 watt equivalent is only 27 watt. Just replace your incandescent with the CFL's.  Just get the right color temperature.

+1, as I use CFL's pretty much all over the house, including the garage.

Do you have an insulated garage door? I installed an insulated garage door last year (after 17 years with the original door).  I found out it make a HUGH difference, in that the garage stays cooler in the summer and I can easily heat it in the winter with a space heater.

Jim

Some information on currently available ballast for T8 lamps.  I pulled a new style electronic fluorescent ballast from the truck.
(1.) It will power several different lamps: (4) F17T8 lamps (short) to F32T8lamps (close to (4ft.)).
(2.) It can also be used to power (3) tubes.
(3.) Likewise a (3) tube ballast, (more common today, IMO) will also power two lamps.
(4.) Noted that if one tube does not light, most likely the others will.
(5.) Listed minimum start temp -22 degrees F.  Listed as a Class P Outdoor type 1.  Usually pretty good results down to freezing, 32 degrees F.  The HO (High Output) T5 tubes are used as energy efficient replacements for Metal Halide (warehouse lighting). Another good option, if you are concerned about temperature.
(6.)  It's all about less energy and efficiency.
(7.) The electronic ballasts are dual voltage rated, 120/277 volt.  Which ever voltage is connected first takes priority.  Once used at one voltage the other is no longer available.

(8.) These are Not the F40T12  4 ft. tubes and ballasts  we used 10 or even 5 years ago.

LED's are just coming on board. I noted that the Walkway over the Hudson Poughkeepsie, New York is illuminated with LED's.  Much more expensive fixtures at the moment.

Look closely for the light fixture, bottom horizontal tube.

A bridge lit with LED's

I wasn't sure how these LED fixtures were wired or how they would be serviced.  Both sides of the Walkway would account for close to (4) miles of lighting. Fascinating.

From the website listed above.

"..................... A series of LED-filled tubes provide lighting for occasional night-time use. There are more than 81,000 light-emitting diodes which all together use less than $1.80 per hour of electricity"

I use incandescent bulbs without an issues. The same bulbs have been used for seven years.

I would go with either regular incandescent bulbs or halogen bulbs that screw in to replace incandescents. I like the halogen bulbs, myself. They give a very bright, clear light and are somewhat more energy efficient than regular incandescent bulbs. For workshop use, halogen bulbs give a very neutral light, without the yellow tinge of incandescents or the greenish cast of fluorescents.

Incidentally, the color temperature information on the package for CFL bulbs is very unreliable. I did some tests one time in a darkened room with a pair of large white frosted globes and a bunch of CFL's and the color was all over the map - anywhere from bright pink to an eerie science-fiction blue. Not one of them gave a clean white. 

CFL's will start out dim and brighten up after they get warmed up.  Halogens produce A lot of UV.  They need to be filtered and/or protected as they are easily damaged and are so hot they can start fires.  There are new LED bulbs that are very bright, very energy efficient and kind of expensive.  A bulb might cost $10-$12.  When looking at the cost, look at the life expectancy.  Some of these bulbs have life expectancies of 25,000 to 30,000 hours compared to less than 1,000 hours for an incandescent.

News to me about flourescent bulbs in the cold weather. I have 3 fixtures above my garaged layout that does not insulated doors and the outer wall was insulated and sheetrocked by myself and my dad. It does not get very cold there during the winter months unless it gets down to 20 degrees or so, it can be somewhat nippy in my garage then. The bulbs have worked fine for years but I don't run my trains much there during those months and head down to the club aka www.ocsmr.com

CFL's are more prone to the issues.  Older tube units with standard ballasts heat up faster and are less efficient but start up at near full illumination.  

We put a CFL bulb in the porch light last year.  In the middle of winter with temps south of 15 degrees at night the light behaves more like a bathroom night light for the first 20 minutes its turned on.  I'm pulling it and installing an led for this winter.

I love Halogen light, but chuck is right on about them being able to start a fire. I have them under a wood shelf over my work bench and they generate anough heat to warm the top side of the shelf and they are low voltage halogens.

I had them in the stairway going down to the basement and they looked great, but I had a couple of people get burnt by touching the lamps case. I replaced them with T8 tubes, not as nice looking but much safer.

I had halogens in the driveway and they worked great there, the only issue was that they seemed to attract every moth with in a hundred yards.

I have two "dusk to dawn" post lights.  Have used CFL's for years, year round with no problems.  Winter temps can get pretty cold here around Pittsburgh and the CFL's have never failed to perform.

We tried CFL's on the ship that I'm on and if it is an application where they stay on all the time they are OK, but where we need light to come on quickly in cold weather they take way too long to warm up, so have switched back to incandescents for those applications.

You guys that think they are OK in the cold must live in warmer climes.  And yeah, Pittsburgh and Jersey are warmer climes.

There are LED strip lights in narrow metal housings available at Menards stores. It is a very white light.

There are Compact Florescent light bulbs that can produce more natural looking light.

Andrew

Ditto on the fluorescent bulbs.  When I had my layout in a 8x24 walled-off section of my garage I was replacing a few every winter, until I realized the cold was making them misbehave.

I've gradually replaced the incandescent lighting on my layout and trainroom (a finished attic with marginal heating - it can get quite cool in the winter) with all-LED lights.  It is surprising how much power LEDs save: I replaced 13 75 watt blubs with equivalent LEDs and cut power consumption by about 650-700 W.  It's not the savings in power cost I care about, but the reduction in circuit amperage that must be devoted to lighting that is useful.  With the all-LED lighting I have enough capacity left in the two circuits going to my trainroom that I can now run trains and my power tools and a small portable electric heater, too: not big enough to heat the entire room but enough to heat the area around me wherever I work.

I like incandescent lighting or warm white fluorescent bulbs. I tried a few LED R30 bulbs in some of the cans in my family room, but found the light to be too white and harsh. Plus they wouldn't dim very well. (package said they would dim) They would dim to a certain point (still quite bright) and then turn off.

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all for contributing to this topic.

I should have started by describing the area I wish to light.

22'x22' garage.  10' high ceiling!   Only the wall that is shared with interior of the house is insulated.  Not sure if the garage door is insulated.  There are only 2 light fixtures with single CFL bulbs (60 watt) in there now.

The lighting now is totally inadequate.  I will have to mount and wire all of the new fixtures.  No problem because I have access to the area above.

So, starting from scratch, I have several options, which with the help of your response, will make things much easier for me.

I'm not going to use fluorescents.  I had them in my old garage and I always experienced a "shimmering" effect when they were on.  Not pleasant on my eyes. Plus there was always a hum when on.  And they didn't like cold weather.

Incandescent lighting is a maybe.   Simple, proven way of lighting.  However, I had thought that they were being phased out and in the very near future not going to be available as replacements.

LED lighting has many pluses.  But man, the price of the bulbs! (I know that one saves on their electric bill.  But in my application, intermittent lighting in a garage, I think I'll be long gone before I realize the savings)

So I'm leaning towards one of those 2.  But more importantly, I need to choose what style of lightning fixtures to purchase.  The old 4 bulb fluorescent fixtures were very easy for me to mount and wire.  So I need to find suitable multiple bulb fixtures that are easy to mount.  I do not wish to install numerous can fixtures.  Nor do I like the fixtures that have the heads exposed.  I know that one can then aim them individually, but I hate those with a passion, appearance wise!

So many thanks to all that have responded and please, if you have any ideas regarding fixtures, let me know.

Steve

The least expensive way, would be to use simple, round ceramic fixtures, probably available for less than five bucks each.  Easy to wire, easy to change bulbs.  If you are interested in LED bulbs, check the 'Bay, or go to 1000bulbs.com.  There are tons of options out there, and the price will not hurt your budget if you choose the ceramic fixtures.  What you save on the fixtures, can go for better bulbs.