Any suggestions.
Thinking of a big led set that i can mains charge.
Poss using a car battery
Anyone done this, or seen something sensible.
No mains in garage but it is only 2 mins walk away so can carry a car battery from home..
Cheers
J.

I have no suggestions, only sympathy. My garage has light, but nothing else and it’s pissing annoying. I’m moving house next week and a powered garage is genuinely the thing I’m looking forward to the most.

I will be able to charge my lights / garmin / phone
I’ll have proper lighting rather than one solitary 60W bulb (in the middle so it casts a shadow on EVERYTHING)
I will be able to listen to music
I’ll be able to use a compressor
I’ll be able to use power tools

Is this helping?

How big is the garage? Would have thought LED tube lighting would be your best bet – maybe 3x T8’s would do a single garage? 3 5ft tubes 66w, which would give you 16hours light on a 90ah leisure battery I think…?

If you keep it all 12v and don’t need proper power then solar chargers on the roof? Or what about rigging an alternator to a turbo… 😆

LED easy peasy.

I used 2m of Labcraft stuff in my van and it was ambulance style bright. Also used for working light in a massive building recently and it was acceptable. The tape was stuck in aluminum C shaped extrusion to increase robustness or you can get the labcraft style stuff from caravan suppliers.

You can buy rechargeable work lamps cheap enough these days…I wouldn’t be fighting on with car batteries.

Just buy a shed lighting kit from ledhut.

External solar panel

Internal lights and battery – 5 m cable.

I had an early incarnation of it in my garage pre led technology.

Much easier than pissing about with car batteries

Thanks guys.
Lots of things for me to investigate.
It is not my garage/ on my property so the solar thing may not be ideal, but will try and make it work as that seems the best solution.

I reckon something like this would do
http://www.screwfix.com/p/ae0183-rechargeable-led-work-light-10w-12-240v/1815d

Thanks stoner,
Very interesting..

Coleman Nightstar lantern 8)

Glow sticks.

Solar panel?

Buy a small generator.

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These are great, really good spread with no hotspots.

Years ago I had a car battery hooked up to a car foglight, with a switch. Lasted for quite a while and just needed charged every so often.

Those Screwfix worklights were on offer the other week (20 something quid) keep an eye out I’m sure they’ll be on again.

The light of Earendil? Great for scaring off the big spidees hiding in the dark corners too 😉

I’ve ordered a shed lighting kit from LED hut (£13) (thanks trail_rat) for my shed as it goes as that’s pitch black inside and I don’t want the hassle of running power to it if I don’t need to – I’ll let you know how it goes.

Those screwfix battery worklights are really bright but not very diffuse so they are not good for detail work in the confined spaces of a garage. Plus, the battery doesn’t last more than 3hrs.

I found it doable to use one of those plus a bike light and a head torch when I worked on my mx bike in a garage.

I’m about to build a solar panel from cheap broken cells and rig it up to a leisure battery.
More of a fun project with my son than one that has to succeed, but I’ll let you know how it goes.
It’ll be a fair few hours work though.

These are the cells I bought:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400gr-6×6-polycrystalline-broken-solar-cells-about-160w-solar-power-/371030406106?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item566322b3da

There are loads of howto videos on youtube.

Superficial – Member
I have no suggestions, only sympathy. My garage has light, but nothing else and it’s pissing annoying. I’m moving house next week and a powered garage is genuinely the thing I’m looking forward to the most

Hopefully moving into new place next month, proper garage, with light, power, shelving, the lot. I even have a couch to put in it, and a stereo. ight even locate a wee fridge.

Going to get the tools up on the wall too, what are folks using for that? Pegboard?

Just eat more carrots.

Pegboard?

I found that the retail world has abandoned pegboard, so it’s not as easy to get fittings as it once was. I kept finding links lead me to the US 🙁
They use slatboard instead which doesn’t allow for as dense a layout.

Still trying to work out what to use instead.

Thanks for input.
I went with a big pot of radium paint in the end.
Added benefit is that I continue to glow after leaving the garage..

Going to get the tools up on the wall too

Ikea magnetic knife racks for me

Got a link for that shed kit nemesis (or trail rat)

Im using a tilley and its a bit of a faff

Here you go – it’s not going to be mega bright by my reckoning but it’s enough for what I need (just finding things in the shed basically)

http://www.ledhut.co.uk/solar-flood-light-pir-80-lumens.html

AlexSimon – Member

I found that the retail world has abandoned pegboard, so it’s not as easy to get fittings as it once was. I kept finding links lead me to the US

Right – drawing similar blanks here just now.

Want to draw the outlines of them, etc. A sheet of ply with nails should do just fine though.

Ta mate, that’ll be ideal. If ive got much to do I use the ginormous extension lead for light and power but for just general rummaging will be fine.

General rummaging is usually lit buy a computer screen, no?

bottle light?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23536914

Funnily enough I did consider that – problem is that they obviously only work during the day (and really only when it’s reasonably sunny)

fair do’s, I just love the idea.

Also, cutting a hole in your roof is only a good idea in a dryish country.

They do use sealant afterwards…

Just as a followup, I got the solar charge light I linked above and it seems to do the job well – it’s easy to mount and plenty bright enough for my shed. I wouldn’t want to be doing fiddly bike work with it but then that’s not what I got it for.