Shop lighting - the switch to LED

"It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control.  Nothing is by its own nature calamitous - even death is terrible only if we fear it." - Epictetus

 I mentioned that I'd placed an order for LED tubes to replace the overhead lights in the shop, about 2/3 of the way down this long post.  At the bottom of this post, they had arrived, but I still hadn't found time to install them.

One of the fluorescent fixtures had dead bulbs that were failing to ignite, and I finally had a half-day when I found time to make the wiring changes and replace the bulbs on that fixture.  Below, the far right bulbs are glowing, but only very dimly.

Electrician-ing

 I am considering starting each blog post with a quote from a famous Stoic, thanks to the handy app I recently discovered.  Starting right now.

"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts:  Therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature." - Marcus Aurelius.

 In the previous looooong post, I mentioned at some point that I intended to install a digital timer on the fart fan in the shop bathroom.  The digital timer arrived in the mail today, and I woke up quite a bit earlier than needed for night shift - so I got busy at my other job. 

 

Busy!

It's July, and definitely time for a new post!  At work we had a two week outage in the first half of June.  That pretty much wiped me out, although on the days I got up early for night shift, we managed to complete the painting in the basement (except for the bathroom and doors).

On my days off after the outage, we had the main floor and upstairs painted professionally.  The ceiling was way too high for me to seriously consider messing with this job.  With a roller it would have taken weeks.  With a spray gun, it would have taken weeks to tape off.  So we had it done.  A neighbor of mine is a painter and he did it for a fraction of the going rate.  I owe him a case of beer.

Anyhow, they painted the main floor first, and so we moved as much of our stuff into the master bedroom as we could.  Then after they were gone, we moved it back.  The following day we moved all our home theater stuff and couches from the upstairs to downstairs while they painted there.  Then we moved it back.

So to a certain extent, it felt like I moved four times on my days off.  I was sore going back to work, that's for certain.

While the painters were doing their thing, I had an electrician at the house installing fluorescent lighting.  Yes, I could have done it myself.  It would have taken me way longer than it took him, and I already spent the first part of June at work.  I'd rather have family time than spend it in the attic running wires.

I had him re-do the garge lighting.  Here is the after photo.  Before it was just 3 socket fixtures, aboput where the right side of each fluorescent fixture ends.  So now I have (12) four-foot fluorescents where I used to have 3 screw-in bulbs.  It's a wonderful difference being able to see inside the garage.  The difference in lighting on the truck is due to the use of a flash on the before picture.

I also had the electrician rewire some lights in the shop that I wasn't happy with.  Again, I could have done it, but it would have meant having NO time for the things that I need to do, and other things that I enjoy.

So:  Here's the shop lighting before: (Note the orange extension-cord, exposed individual wires, and wire nuts)  Also the lights are up in the frame, so the light doesn't cast very far from each fixture.

Below is the shop lighting after.  These fixtures use a new type of bulb that has much higher light output.  The old fixtures are in the trash to the right. 



Forgive the mess. I have had no opportunity to unpack or organize the shop yet. We've had visitors for 6 of the weeks we have been here, outage for 2 weeks, and contractors the rest of the time. It's just been busy... We still need to accomplish a few other things outdoors before the snow flies. During winter I plan to install a rail on the stairway and on the loft. Oh yeah. And a shop heater!