Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Example of Garage ceiling light

A customer sent us his installation example:
(LED retrofit kit and film diffuser can be purchased at easyledlighting.com)

What I wanted is to light up our garage as my workspace. The garage has bare wood studs roof but doesn't have light bulb base installed. What I want is something easy to install, bright enough low maintenance and not cost a lot.  

1) mount LED driver and LED modules between roof studs.

   Use screws to mount LED driver to wood stud, and using longer nail to mount LED module loosely and away from roof panel, so that the back of module won't be covered and air is still good to ventilate all around the module bracket, which double as heat sink.
At first, I use the diffuser film that designed for the module. The LED module and diffuser together is very light in weight (about 2 Oz), so I can  hang the module on the end of two long nails and it stays there.

2) Tidy up the wires, connect the power and the modules will just light up.
From the power plug, AC wire to LED driver is running on home AC, make sure you follow building electrical code for that 1 pair of wires.  After LED driver, the wires to connect each LED module are all running on low voltage DC. (The kit I purchased is 24V DC), therefore we can go easy on the wiring. After the wiring done and plug into wall socket, all LED modules light up instantly. But once the round shape diffuser is used, the light goes out at all direction and I realized I shouldn't install LED module between wood studs.

3) I purchased acrylic diffuser panel from HomeDepot (at lighting section, near florescent lamps), I cut into suitable size to cover space between wood studs, use drill to pre-drill screw holes. (can't nail or screw on acrylic panel directly)

4) Remove the diffuser film, mount the diffuser panel on wood studs to cover LED module. I have the diffuser panel cut to 16" long so there are at least 3" more diffuser coverage over both sides of  LED module. Screw them to wood studs.
5) Light up, the light is very bright and it looks neat from below.  Winter is coming and this LED set can withhold -20F, which I don't think it would get this cold indoor.