I was not on board with this whole LED thing until I did some research. LEDs are brighter and way cheaper than incandescents and fluorescents. I found a highly-rated LED garage lamp that lasts longer and costs less than any old-fashioned type of lighting.
HyKolity offers a 4200-lumen garage light at a reasonable price on Amazon. They use only 42 watts, but they give off the brightness of a 280-watt incandescent bulb. The HyKolity shines at 5,000 K, in the sweet spot color between yellow and blue. See below to calculate how many lights you need for your garage's dimensions.
Look at the HyKolity garage lamps on Amazon.
How to Level the Lumens/Watts Playing Field
If you're not used to lumens and prefer to think in watts, you can use a calculator to convert the lumens into watts.
This is how I arrived at the statement that a 4200-lumen lamp is an equivalent brightness to a 280-watt incandescent bulb
Uset his calculator: Lumens to Watts
Use these values to calculate the incandescent equivalent of your garage lamps:
- Enter luminous flux in lumens: 4200 (the lumens of the HyKolity lamp lumens)
- Enter light source: Tungsten incandescent bulb
- Click Calculate
- The result is 280 W
Why You'll Like the HyKolity Garage Lamps
The HyKolity lamps are well-built but cheaper than some alternatives.
You do not need to wire them to the wall as they use a regular wall outlet for power.
Because they daisy chain together, you need to plug only one of the lamps into the wall. The rest of the lamps plug into each other.
To install the HyKolity garage lamps, screw the included hooks into the rafters, then put the lamp chains through the hooks.
HyKolity's light color is in the sweet spot for blue and yellow meet. They're bright and appear white to the eye.
The units are Energy Star and only 42 watts, so they don't suck the life out of your electric bill if you forget to turn them off. They have an amazing reputation, a 5-year warranty, and the company is based in Norcross, GA.
Get the 5,000 K Garage Lamps for the Best Color
Pay attention to the color (Kelvin, or K) when you buy your garage lamps.
Some packages offer 4,000 K or 6,000 K varieties, along with the 5,000 K version.
5,000 K is the most popular garage color.
How Many Lamps Do You Need for Your Garage?
To figure out how many lamps to buy for the garage, you just need the garage width and depth, the brightness you want, and the lumens rating of the lamp you want to buy. The lumens are listed in the main text of every garage lamp description.
Enter them in the calculator below to get the number of lamps for your garage.
A moderately lit garage is 50 lumens per square foot. You can use that as your target. Enter a lower lumens per square foot for a dimmer outcome, and a higher value for a brighter outcome.
Go to the lamp calculator page.
The Formula for How to Calculate the Number of Lamps You Need
You can go to the lamp calculator page, or learn below how to calculate the number of lamps you need.
We'll make the following assumptions for the example.
Just change these assumptions to your values to get your result.
- We assume we are lighting a typical 2-car garage that is 20×20 ft.
- We assume an adequate brightness of 50 lumens per square foot. That's a little bit dim for me, but it's a typical number for many garages. Want a brighter garage? Use 60 or 70 lumens.
- We assume that you are buying the HyKolity garage lamps. They output 4,200 lumens each. For another lamp, use the lumen output stated on that lamp's package.
When you do your calculation, if you want a brighter outcome, use a higher lumens-per-square-foot value.
- First, calculate the garage area. Multiply the garage width by its length. 20 x 20 = 400.
- Second, determine the total lumens per area. Multiply the area (400) from Step 1 by our 50 lumens per sf. goal. 400 x 50 = 20,000.
- Third, determine the number of lamps you need. Find the lumens output on the lamp you're buying for this step. The HyKolity lamp outputs 4,200 lumens. Divide Step 2 (20,000) by the lumens from the package to get the number of lamps you need. 20,000 / 4,200 = 4.76 (round up to 5 lamps).
Let's look at some examples.
Calculate How Many Lamps to Light a 12 ft. x 22 ft. Garage
- Area = 12 ft. x 22 ft. = 264 ft.
- Lumens per Area = 264 x 50 = 13,200 lumens
- HyKolity Required = 13,200 / 4,200 = 3.14 (3) lamps
Calculate How Many Lamps to Light a 26 ft. x 26 ft. Garage
- Area = 26 ft. x 26 ft. = 676 ft.
- Lumens per Area = 676 x 50 = 33,800 lumens
- HyKolity Lamps Required = 33,800 / 4,200 = 8.04 (8) lamps
Summary
Get a solid lighting setup for your garage with the HyKolity garage lamps available on Amazon.
