Lights for my garage.

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Dirty

Forager
Jun 21, 2012
117
0
Cornwall
After trying to light my garage useing battery lanterns for ages, I've found that the little lidls cree torches are ideal for ideal for a spot light. In the ideals of this forum though
I have a few questions, or suggestions needed.

My garage is rented, so I can't make alterations, and my motorbike is in there as well as a large range of fuel and flammable bits, so I'd rather not use my Tilley light which is a bit tempermental. I also can't paint it.

It's really not a good idea to run a cable from my house, it's too far away, and the neighbours are not too friendly..

Currently I have
2 cree torches for spot lights
3 rechargable lanterns
2 4 D cell lanterns -similar to above
2 rechargable flourescent strip lights (2ft)
4 rechargable led inspection lights 23led
All picked up on the cheap.
You'd think that this would make a serious dent in the dark, but only really lights half of the garage. For privacy I tend to have the door shut.
I find it easier to itemise these questions, though they are all similar.

I find that the lanterns work better at chest height for throwing light, on the ceiling they the working space is not light, and the LEDs are better for spots. Is there any good way of aranging them?

I like the cree lights, but they're not on sale at the moment. I'm looking for similar, or bigger, that are safe to charge.
No idea what type they were, does anyone know? What similar (or larger?)
And how long will they last? (3AAAs)

Shall I bit the bullet and get a battery flood light
http://www.screwfix.com/p/rechargeable-portable-4-4ah-li-ion-led-site-light-10w/61325
Or is there a better alternative?

Solar light is out at the moment as anything external will get nicked, and similar for a car battery, as I don't know enough about larger batteries yet. If anyone's got any good links on an idiots guide to what for running lights off a car battery I'd be grateful.

Any good ideas gratefully received.
 
Last edited:

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
You don't want to be thinking car battery, but leisure battery, you can pick up a reasonable one for under £50.............

Car and vehicle batteries are made to give out short bursts of high current and they don't perform well with low drain applications like lighting; they also don't at all like to be run down low, it cattle trucks them. Leisure batteries, on the other hand, are made to charge in the same way but in operation to give a relatively low current at a steady rate for a much longer period; they also recover very well from zero charge and are much more difficult to damage by draining them completely.

Any form of low current lighting should work very well with a leisure battery, Screwfix, Ebay, RS Components and suchlike should turn up cheap lights for you..............I hope this helps.
 

Tomcoles

Settler
Jul 21, 2013
537
0
Buckinghamshire
May I also suggest a cheep idea stick space blanket type material to the walls it will reflect the limited light and maximise it's affect. Use carpet spray glue to stick to the walls or gaffs tape if u don't want the glue on the walls.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ex-member BareThrills

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Dec 5, 2011
4,461
3
United Kingdom
I used to run 12v MR16 halogen bulbs from a leisure battery. You can get the fittings on ebay. Wire up in parallel and you are good to go. They are 50w so 4 should see you right for a garage.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Must say I'm with PresterJohn on the Tilly / Coleman lantern front if it's safe for the garage. Loads of light, some welcome heat and cheap to run.
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,976
13
In the woods if possible.
Another vote for the liquid-fuel pressure lantern but as you say it's perhaps a risk in your situation. Loads of light and run for hours on a fill. Quite a pleasant ambience too. If you're having trouble with yours it probably just needs a good fettle. Generally they're reliable.

Forget halogens if you're running from batteries, they're horribly inefficient compared to LEDs.

In case anyone tries to sell you on the idea of a chain of LEDs in a long hose like Christmas lights, forget them too. Mine went back to the shop within days, I bought three and they all failed within hours.

Is a generator an option? You can get small quiet ones but they are a bit pricey and the fuel is pricey too for the amount of electricity you get out of them.

Using pen cells is going to test your patience, especially the AAA size. The AA size can be had for roughly the same price per cell but you get around three times the charge per cell.

When working in dark places (boat bilges, the wood shed, camp, under the truck, whatever) I tend to use something to give enough background light to navigate the surroundings without injury and a high-power head torch to see what I'm looking at. That's about the most efficient setup.
 

wingstoo

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
May 12, 2005
2,274
40
South Marches

Bishop

Full Member
Jan 25, 2014
1,716
691
Pencader
Allthough car batteries are not ideal for what you have in mind they are a helluva lot cheaper than 'deep cycle' batteries that you can safely run flat then recharge. One solution is to connect up a secondary automotive lead-acid battery in the boot of your main vehicle where everyday use will keep it topped up & healthy. You occasionaly find Honda Goldwing owners and other hardcore tourers doing this albiet with a smaller battery so they can safely run gear when parked up for night. Run a length of cheap electrical cable under the garage door and let there be light.

Maplin electronics defintely well worth a look and some of the LED strips may be useful for ambient lighting. For something a little more portable there's the Unicom 59516 Wind Up Power Beam 13Led, puts out a reasonable amount of light on it's own but also has a USB power socket on the back so you could charge or run other lights from the small internal battery pack. Bit like a wind-up Power-Monkey but not quite as expensive.
 

Dirty

Forager
Jun 21, 2012
117
0
Cornwall
Thank you everyone for your responses.
As usual it creates more thinking not less.
The Tilley lamp may be refettled, (I have created a word!!) and then I will have to move all flamables into a metal crate (unbought). The other problem is a 18ft sea kayak in a 16ft garage, meaning my moving around space is limited. Another day of moving things around so I can move and have a work space.
The battery idea is gaining potential, but I'm going to take more research both on understanding, money and safety. I just want one set up that will not need tweeking, and is not dangerous. - still not an expert in this, and need to decide on finances.
I have a spare charger socket in the back of my car, so charging and then changing batteries may work.
I cast my eyes on the cree 2D torch in tesco a few days ago, but trying not to spent/waste any money on this till I decide which way to go.
Reflective blanket or similar may be a good idea.
Thank you all for your help so far, any more ideas please let me know..
 

ged

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 16, 2009
4,976
13
In the woods if possible.
... any more ideas please let me know..

The other day I was in Aldi and, er, spotted a 12V 5W 'reflector' LED lamp on offer at about a fiver so thinking of this thread I thought I'd give it a try.

On the packaging it says it's made in China for Aldi, but the brand name is "Muller Licht" and it's a bit like one of the products on this page:

http://www.mueller-licht.de/en/lamps/led/reflector-mr16-mr11

but it isn't exactly any of them. I've tried searching but the Muller Website doesn't seem to work well with Firefox, or at least with my Firefox settings and added protection.

The lamp packaging says 320 lumens, 38 degrees. It claims 5W LED gives 33W light which is obviously bull but we can think we know what it means. It claims 25,000 hours life. It has three LEDs in the lamp head, so if one did fail you'd still have a good light. The package says 3000K colour temperature, what they call a 'warm white', and I'd tend to agree although I'd call it less pink than some of the warm white fluorescents that I've seen and IMO that's in the LED's favour, as the pink is too much for me.

Anyway I hooked it up to a 12V mains adaptor from some defunct electrical gadget that I had kicking around (I just used a chocolate block as the connector) and I've been very impressed with it so far. I've been using it as a reading light and it's easily the best reading light I've ever used. Good colour, diffuse but reasonably directional light. It gets quite warm lying on a cushion but not dangerously so.

I haven't tried to do any tinkering work with it so I suppose that will be the acid test I suppose.

Interestingly it's 12V DC or AC, so you can use any 12V adaptor that can supply half an amp or you can use any 12V lead-acid battery. A typical car battery will give you several hours of light without worrying about discharging it too deeply, and a 50Ah leisure battery would probably give you more than a day without problems - or you could run three or four of them all night.

For a fiver it has to be worth a try.
 

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