Lighting?

[slmann]

In my garage now all I have is the two light fixtures they put in when they built the house. They are just the single bulb receptacles. I wanted to replace them with fluorescent lights. Is it as easy as just removing the old fixtures and then using the existing wiring to wire the new fluorescent ones or is there anything special I need to do?

Thanks in advance for any help. YelloThumbUp

[blacksnapon]

First, make sure the power is turned off (unless you like cheap surprises). Generally, all lights have 3 wires to them, the white wire is ground most generally. the other two, one common, one power

[slmann]

Yeah, turning the power off would probably be a good thing. :rofl:
I've changed a few light fixtures around the house but wasn't sure if the fluorescent ones were different. YelloThumbUp

[Blue Goose]

Carl is our resident "Tim the Tooltime Taylor" guy, maybe he can "shed some light" on the topic....:rolleyes:

[lenny1carl]

1st, white is neutral, the path back for current, the ground is bare copper and black of course hot . you can install receptacles in place of the light fixtures easily enough and get the fluorescent fixtures that plug in. keep in mind that if the garage is cold in the winter the fluorescents start slow.
on the outlet, blck to gold screw, white to silver screw, ground to green screw.

[blacksnapon]

1st, white is neutral, the path back for current, the ground is bare copper and black of course hot . you can install receptacles in place of the light fixtures easily enough and get the fluorescent fixtures that plug in. keep in mind that if the garage is cold in the winter the fluorescents start slow.
on the outlet, blck to gold screw, white to silver screw, ground to green screw.Oh yeah, forgot about the bare wire! Guess thats why they dont let me play with electric!

[mrfixit]

Your house is new enough to not run into too much of some of the wiring guffaws I have seen, so I won't talk about those here:)

If you want to install the 4' shoplights from homo dope, it is probably simpler to use the three-prong plug that comes with them and install outlets in place of the light fixtures.

To do this, you will need to take off one of your light fixtures and check to see if the electrician put in a square box or a 3" round light box.

Armed with that information, head to the depot, tell the guys you need x number of outlet trim rings for the box you have. these fascilitate installing an outlet in place of the light fixture. You'll need outlets, too, obviously, and then install the trim ring to the box and the outlet to the trim ring, using the wiring knowledge dispersed by carl. Any questions, get with brad... he has my number.
Oh, by the way, when you hang the fixtures, make sure the door will clear them!