I’ve never really liked doing electrical work, and that was reinforced lately when I attempted to install some motion-sensor switches only to fail utterly (partly because the switches sucked). But my to-do list isn’t getting shorter, so today I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. I installed some dimmer switches, which are really nice in certain areas and generally simple to install.
Then I then headed to the garage. In there we have ten eight-foot fluorescent bulbs in gigantic baffles, all sucking down a huge amount of power whenever we turn on the garage lights. Of course I have to change them all to LEDs. Unlike the other bulbs throughout the house, it’s not as simple as just replacing the bulbs… I had to remove the fluorescent power supplies and bypass them. After a bit of reading online and a YouTube video or two, I was ready. I went to work and a little over an hour later, our garage was lit with LEDs.
(Shout out to Pepper, who spent some time today organizing the garage, which until today had been kind of a mess with all our moving stuff. Also shout out to Thom, who suggested I buy wire cutters and a live-wire tester, both of which are turning out to be tremendously useful.)
These lights are amazing. Not only are they crazy bright, but you can rotate the bulbs to throw light in specific directions (unlike fluorescents, which waste a lot of light shining upward). So I turned them for better coverage, and the result looks great.
Despite my general incompetence at electrical projects, I feel like I’m gradually getting the hang of them. Pretty soon I’ll be an expert!