# Lighting under the garage door.



## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

I have the lighting in my one-car garage shop in good shape except for one place. My table saw sits just inside the garage door. For most of the year I work with the door open, for a variety of reasons, and so I can't have lighting directly overhead since it will not be effective.

I did put a track light on one side, but I need to beef up the bulbs or install a new unit for it to be very effective. I can't think of other ideas. Anyone solve this one well?


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## DirtyMike (Dec 6, 2015)

Charles, I mounted a 4 foot led shop light to my door last spring. They are pretty light weight and put of a ton of light. I never found a good way to keep it powered all the time , so i wired in an outlet close to where the light was when the door was up. good luck. here are the style of lights i use.

https://www.amazon.com/America-Shoplight-Aluminum-housing-included/dp/B00UTX4HJS/ref=sr_1_5?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1481660800&sr=1-5&keywords=led+shop+light


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

duh, never occurred to me to attach them to the door itself . . .


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

nm


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## eflanders (May 2, 2013)

I installed led bulbs in track lights on the side walls on both sides of the garage door.


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

The door idea works well. Have done for two friends.


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## JBrow (Nov 18, 2015)

CharlesA,

I would think that a pair of trolleys with locking knobs that ride on top of the garage door rails could support a mounting bar attached to the trolleys and that spans the space between garage door rails and sets below the opened garage door could work. This could allow lighting attached to the mounting bar to stay put whether the garage door is full open, partially opened, or closed.

A pulley wide enough to seat and ride atop the garage door rail would could be attached to a length of ¾" 1" x 4" wood oriented vertically. I suppose inexpensive, small diameter castors could be a substitute for the pulley. But then since I doubt that in your application frequent adjustability is a requirement, a block of wood could be attached to the vertical support member where the block of wood rests atop the garage door rail. A threaded insert aligned with the garage door rail and installed in the vertical wood could accept a locking knob. The vertical member would be sized so that the garage door opener hardware clears the mounting bar.

A length of aluminum tubing, like that used when for chain link fence rails, could be the mounting bar. The aluminum tubing could be inset in holes drilled in the vertical wood members of the trolley and held in place with a screw through the edge of the vertical wood member and into the aluminum tubing. A lower bar for mounting lights and an upper bar to stabilize the trolleys and keep them vertically oriented and running on the garage door tracks would probably also be required. A steel cable mounted to the vertical wood members of the trolley above the garage door could perhaps work as a substitute for the above the garage door aluminum stabilizing bar. The steel cable would reduce weight.

The light fixture(s) could be mounted to the round aluminum bar with a U bolts. Zip ties would keep the electric cord close to the mounting bar and away for the garage door.

This contraption, while movable along the length of the garage door rails, may not move very smooth. But once in position, I would think it would be fine. In your application, I doubt that once the lighting is positioned, it would rarely, if ever, be moved. The major concern with this solution is that the vertical members could be head bangers, since these vertical members would hang down. Rounding over the edges of the vertical members would soften those head bangs.


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## richardchaos (May 12, 2017)

LED SHOP LIGHTS the only way to got! !


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## richardchaos (May 12, 2017)

> I have 6 led lights on my terrace beside my garage and it seems work well on my end. I sometimes wash my bicycle at night using this led lights and the lights was good. Hope this helps https://www.sompor.com/led-low-bay/ . Led lights don t consume much more energy so we can save. But I guess you can ask your technician on what to do on your problems because they are more knowledgeable with regards to lights.
> 
> - akame


I replaced 10 ceiling CAN lights in my ole house with 10 LEDs. each one uses 8 watts for a 100 watt equvenant…SO if i had them all one i was using less power than ONE 100 watt bulb… THATS AMAZING! Borderline magical!

PLUS they admit no/very little heat meaning in my case you could cover them up with installation unlike the old FIRE HAZARD CANS!

My new shop lights are amazing. Never seen a better brighter, over all uniform lighting.

If the entire country switched over to LEDS power consumption would take a nose dive…

OPPS CAT'S out of the bag. Here comes BIG OIL!


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I have an 8' dual bulb fluorescent fixture just above my garage door and if I weren't planning on moving soon, my plan was to install low voltage LED lighting directly to the door. They would be powered from a power supply switched from the current fixture by a proximity switch when the door was completely open. The power would reach the door only when completely open through two spring loaded bumper contacts.


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