What are you using your garage for? Today’s families use their garage as a work station, band-practice room, play room, man cave, hobby/entertainment area, gym, for additional storage space, or for its original purpose – protecting their vehicles. Proper garage lighting is essential for making the space functional as well as safe.

Read on to find out how you can easily and affordably upgrade your garage lighting.

There are a multitude of options for lighting fixtures and bulbs, like fluorescent, recessed, LED and task, that you can select from in order to upgrade your garage lighting. We discuss each of these options in a little more detail below.

Fluorescent Lights are common in most garages. This is in large part due to their affordability. Fluorescent lights are 60% less expensive than their incandescent counterparts. They do, however, burn hotter than LEDs. Bright and long lasting, these lights could be the answer to a dark, and foreboding garage.

Recessed Lights are another popular choice for garage lighting. Appearing as spotlights from above, recessed lighting gives the area a sleek, stylish look. A series of recessed lights can be safely grouped together to light the whole garage. They won’t distract from the overall function of the garage and can be installed with a dimmer switch.

LED Lights or Light Emitting Diodes consume very little energy – as a result they can provide up to 50,000 hours of uninterrupted functionality. LED bulbs can be used in most any fixture because they don’t generate much, if any, heat. LED bulbs are also 100% recyclable!

Task Lighting. The beauty of task lighting is that it brings focused light to your work area. Task lighting can be installed under cabinets or on the ceiling as well as clamped on for portability. Before installing task lighting, you should consider any shadows, and which way they are cast to avoid the light shining in your eyes.