Fighting SAD for better DYI

Actually, I don't really have SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) - but, I sometimes find it hard to put out very much effort on dark winter evenings. With this in mind, I realized the garage lighting was terrible and needed to be improved.

Right after we moved in, I installed three 48" economy fluorescent fixtures, which did increase the amount of light. Unfortunately, the light is harsh, and over four years time all three fixtures failed.


I have decided I don't like 4' fluorescent tubes either. They are hard to store and dispose of, the light is harsh, and they buzz. On the other hand, I really like CFL's - which now give off soft light, have become inexpensive, and are much easier to recycle. 90% of our house is now on CFL's.

To make the garage a place I would want to go work in, I extended the circuit from three lights to ten. With 14W (60W equivalent) bulbs, the garage is now lit up bright as day. I like the 14W ones, since the have dropped to just over a dollar each at Home Depot, and with 10 of them, there are now no shadows.


A quick rundown of the cost per fixture:

- Oldwork electrical box: $2

- Plastic fixture: $1.30

- Bulb: $1.20

- Wiring, etc: $1

- Total: $5.50


My next activity is to get the garage clean-up and organized.

Lighting the Stairs

After having a visiting family member slip on our dark stairs in the middle of the night, we immediately decided to install some sort of lighting. No one was seriously hurt, but it was a wake-up call. I decided to put louvered step lights at the bottom and mid-way up the stairs.


These units cost about $25 each, and are fairly easy to install. Running the wiring under the stairs is also a lot easier than breaking out sheetrock.

Here is a picture of it installed in the wall and turned on.


The picture below shows it without the cover on.

There are a number of options for these type of lights, including smaller ones. I decided to go with the larger 5" x 8" version that uses a standard 120V bulb. With a 7 watt CFL, they don't take much power - and they put out quite a bit of light (40W incandescent equivalent).


Instead of putting the lights on a manual switch, I found a sun-down to sun-up electronic timer to control them. This one is made by Intermatic and cost about $30 at Home Depot. There is a slightly cheaper one, but is specifically not for use with CFL bulbs.



After I put these in, we liked them so much, I extended the circuit. It now includes lighting from the kid's bedrooms downstairs, up the stairs, and into the kitchen. This creates a "light path" throughout the house, that everyone has appreciated.

Home Theater #4 - Lighting Plan

I put together a lighting plan for the theater room, shown below. I am not 100% sure that this is what we will do yet, but it's a starting point.

There are 4 lighting zones:
1. Lights across the entry to the room. We will like put a game table in this area.
2. Perimeter lights in the back of the room. These will be the ones that are typically on.
3. Perimeter lights in the front of the room. These will likely be on, but a very low setting.
4. Two conventional lights for fully lighting the room, to keep the space multipurpose. These are already in place.


After looking at a few options and the costs, I decided to go with simple recessed lighting and dimmer controls for each zone. These will be build into soffits that I will add, which will give a tray ceiling effect to the room.

I found a good site for home theater information: DIY Home Theater Design. It has quite a bit of technical content and is fairly comprehensive.