Garage Lights ON the Garage Doors

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infinity

infinity

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Here's the situation, large 2-car residential garage with 12' ceiling. I want lights mounted on the back of the two garage doors so that when the doors are open they're not blocking half of the light from the fixtures that are mounted above on the ceiling. Anyone ever see lights (some type of LED strip) mounted to the top inside of the door and feed with a flexible cord? I was thinking some type of coil cord. Is this feasible?
 
I don't see why not. They use coiled cords for door sensors all the time. Put the coiled cord on the low voltage side of the driver and all should be good.

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May I suggest an alternative?

Hang a length of strut or other suitable material from the door rails, from one side to the other, so the light is stationary, and the door rolls above it. That also keeps the light in place regardless of the door's position or motion.
 
LarryFine said:
May I suggest an alternative?

Hang a length of strut or other suitable material from the door rails, from one side to the other, so the light is stationary, and the door rolls above it. That also keeps the light in place regardless of the door's position or motion.
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That might work too I would just have to check the height. :cool:
 
I would drop the strut with threaded rod and a sammy screw and not attach to eliminate vibration.


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Or just put the lights on the wall

I did garage doors for 5 years and that’s the first I heard for this.

Most the time when the door is open you would have the light from outside right?


“ shoot low boys their riding shetland ponies”
 
They also make cord reels without the ratchet for applications like this. I like the cable chain but that usually has to sit on something or have some sort of support. Could mount some of those swing arm loading dock lights to the walls :D

When I needed light under the garage door I just cantilevered some strut to just under where the door travels and put FL strips on that.
 
I'm not a fan of the flexible cord method. It's just one more thing that could fail over time. I would look into mounting lights permanently as others have suggested. I would also install some type of heavy duty switch on the garage door so that when the door is open the lights will come on as opposed to connecting to the light output on the door opener. That light shuts off after x # of minutes. Just my opinion.
 
readydave8 said:
or doors with windows?
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McLintock said:
Or just put the lights on the wall

I did garage doors for 5 years and that’s the first I heard for this.

Most the time when the door is open you would have the light from outside right?


“ shoot low boys their riding shetland ponies”
Click to expand...
Like readydave8 said doors with windows. If dark outside then you place lights in ceiling directly above where windows are when door is open:unsure:
 
kwired said:
Like readydave8 said doors with windows. If dark outside then you place lights in ceiling directly above where windows are when door is open:unsure:
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The problem with that is that windows are typically in the top section, the section that lands furtherist into the garage when the doo is open. This can leave anywhere from 6' to however tall the door is w/o lighting. Not to mention the filtering effect of lights having to light through restricted openings.

I bring this up because a of a very clever intallation from the famous Jack Olsen's Garage (it's been all over the net in in countless magazines since 2008). I'd love to grab a pic off the net but I don't know how in this forum format. Just google it. A note: jack made the fixtures out of cake pans so don't expect a UL listing. ;)

Maybe I figured it out.
 
I love all of the ideas but these garage doors have no windows. The problem is that when the doors are open the light really needs to be coming from directly from where the door is.
 
Perhaps spotlights aimed up could provide reflected light off of the back of the door. The door could be painted white or have a reflective material attached to it. Your wouldn't want a specular reflector like a mirror, but one which provides some scattering to make the lighting more uniform.
I don't think you'd want this for your only source of lighting but it could help fill in problem areas.
 
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