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- 27 Jan 2008
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I tried to light my father-in-laws garage to work on the car, it really does need some low down light to see under the car, we installed fluorescent lights in the pit, but other than digging a pit there is a problem with fluorescent light in that the tubes are so easy to break and one does not want to be lying in glass and mercury.
Today we can get LED replacements for the fluorescent tube which are made of plastic so remove the problem with broken glass and mercury although LED's do have some nasty stuff in, unlikely it would be released if broken. And also they don't mind being installed vertical rather than horizontal so some old fluorescent fittings with guts ripped out and some LED tubes likely best way to light garage for working on the car. However the existing lamp likely ample for normal access so I would leave that alone and use a switched FCU to work the extra lamps off the socket supply.
As to the mains, hard to say, my integral garage feeds the house, not other way around. So it depends how easy to get the supply, having a dedicated MCB/RCBO for garage is best, but Part P means new circuits cost money unless you break the law. In some one else's house I would use FCU from house ring to avoid the Part P problem, in my house would not worry about Part P it would be dedicated supply.
Today we can get LED replacements for the fluorescent tube which are made of plastic so remove the problem with broken glass and mercury although LED's do have some nasty stuff in, unlikely it would be released if broken. And also they don't mind being installed vertical rather than horizontal so some old fluorescent fittings with guts ripped out and some LED tubes likely best way to light garage for working on the car. However the existing lamp likely ample for normal access so I would leave that alone and use a switched FCU to work the extra lamps off the socket supply.
As to the mains, hard to say, my integral garage feeds the house, not other way around. So it depends how easy to get the supply, having a dedicated MCB/RCBO for garage is best, but Part P means new circuits cost money unless you break the law. In some one else's house I would use FCU from house ring to avoid the Part P problem, in my house would not worry about Part P it would be dedicated supply.