Like most of you who rent or lease your hanger, I also had terrible lighting in my hanger. I am at least lucky enough to have one 120v outlet and one light bulb socket on the ceiling. So for years I've had to get out the light stands and move them around the airplane to where I'm working. I finally had enough, but being a tenant it's frowned upon to start running conduits and taping into the hanger electrical system for permanent fixtures.
Then one day I was out at a construction site and saw something that gave me an idea. What I saw were construction light strings and figured I could adapt that to add lots of lights inside my hanger. I went on a search on the internet and found the best cost for a ten socket, 100 foot long light string was at Home Depot for $85. I had to order this on-line as they didn't stock these at the store, but at least the freight was free.
With one of those on order I then went on a search for some really bright bulbs to put in those sockets. But I also didn't want the power draw to be so much that I'd pop the breaker every time I turned on the switch. What I found was some really big CFL bulbs. So I decided to go with the 65 watt (300 watt equivalent) bulbs. So with ten of them I get a total 3000 watts equivalent and only 650 watt total power draw.
In the photo there is a standard 100 watt bulb on the left, a 23 watt (100 watt equivalent) CFL bulb in the middle and 65 watt CFL on the right.
With some further research I found out that there was a big difference in the type of light from different CFL bulbs. There is a range in color temperature of 2500 Kelvin up to 6500K. The lower numbers are like warm soft white and the high numbers like bright daylight. I elected to go with 6500K temperature bulbs which were the brightest daylight bulbs I could find. You don't buy these large bright bulbs at Home Depot. I ended up ordering mine from a photo supply called Limo Studio in California for the cost of $9.50 each with free freight. The bulbs came packed well and made it to Oregon in UPS just fine. I've found these CFL bulbs up to 105 watt rating (400w eq.) but the cost was quite a bit more.
So here's the result after stringing the lights from the rafters and hanging the sockets from hooks on the bottom of the rafters. I located more sockets around the core of the airplane for better lighting where I needed it.
You'll see one bulb hanging low to the side of the hanger that appears much dimmer. That bulb is actually the same wattage but 2700K so you can see why you want the brightest rating. You probably also noticed that I didn't use the protection baskets that came with the light string. The bulbs are too big to fit in them and I don't plan on swinging sticks around the ceiling.
These bulbs start pretty bright and are at full brightness in a minute or so. They indicate a rating down to 14 degrees so they may not work too well in an unheated hanger in a Minnesota winter. When I took these photos my hanger was in the mid 30's.
I am quite happy with the results I got for only a $180 investment (1.8 RV Units!). This is probably a fraction of the cost for a bunch of florescent tube fixtures and much easier to install. I'm looking forward to having decent lighting in my hanger for a change. Maybe someday I'll fabricate some aluminum reflectors to direct even more light down.
And yes, that's an approved aircraft tug behind my RV so I'm sure it complies with the terms of the lease for only aircraft related storage in the hanger!
Then one day I was out at a construction site and saw something that gave me an idea. What I saw were construction light strings and figured I could adapt that to add lots of lights inside my hanger. I went on a search on the internet and found the best cost for a ten socket, 100 foot long light string was at Home Depot for $85. I had to order this on-line as they didn't stock these at the store, but at least the freight was free.
With one of those on order I then went on a search for some really bright bulbs to put in those sockets. But I also didn't want the power draw to be so much that I'd pop the breaker every time I turned on the switch. What I found was some really big CFL bulbs. So I decided to go with the 65 watt (300 watt equivalent) bulbs. So with ten of them I get a total 3000 watts equivalent and only 650 watt total power draw.
In the photo there is a standard 100 watt bulb on the left, a 23 watt (100 watt equivalent) CFL bulb in the middle and 65 watt CFL on the right.
With some further research I found out that there was a big difference in the type of light from different CFL bulbs. There is a range in color temperature of 2500 Kelvin up to 6500K. The lower numbers are like warm soft white and the high numbers like bright daylight. I elected to go with 6500K temperature bulbs which were the brightest daylight bulbs I could find. You don't buy these large bright bulbs at Home Depot. I ended up ordering mine from a photo supply called Limo Studio in California for the cost of $9.50 each with free freight. The bulbs came packed well and made it to Oregon in UPS just fine. I've found these CFL bulbs up to 105 watt rating (400w eq.) but the cost was quite a bit more.
So here's the result after stringing the lights from the rafters and hanging the sockets from hooks on the bottom of the rafters. I located more sockets around the core of the airplane for better lighting where I needed it.
You'll see one bulb hanging low to the side of the hanger that appears much dimmer. That bulb is actually the same wattage but 2700K so you can see why you want the brightest rating. You probably also noticed that I didn't use the protection baskets that came with the light string. The bulbs are too big to fit in them and I don't plan on swinging sticks around the ceiling.
These bulbs start pretty bright and are at full brightness in a minute or so. They indicate a rating down to 14 degrees so they may not work too well in an unheated hanger in a Minnesota winter. When I took these photos my hanger was in the mid 30's.
I am quite happy with the results I got for only a $180 investment (1.8 RV Units!). This is probably a fraction of the cost for a bunch of florescent tube fixtures and much easier to install. I'm looking forward to having decent lighting in my hanger for a change. Maybe someday I'll fabricate some aluminum reflectors to direct even more light down.
And yes, that's an approved aircraft tug behind my RV so I'm sure it complies with the terms of the lease for only aircraft related storage in the hanger!