A garage is the one room in the house where nobody minds how the ceiling light looks and everybody notices when it is in the wrong place. You work under a bonnet, at a bench, and beside a car door that has to open — and a single fitting hung in the geometric centre of the ceiling shadows all three.
A single garage of roughly 18 m² wants about 300 lux across the floor, which is 5,000-6,000 lm in total. Spreading that over two or three fittings matters more than the total figure: two 2,500 lm units either side of where the car sits beat one 6,000 lm unit in the middle, because the car itself blocks the light. Over a workbench, add a fitting directly above and slightly in front of where you stand, so you are not working in your own shadow.
A garage sits below 0 °C for weeks each winter. Check the stated operating range: most LED fittings quote -20 °C to +40 °C, and the ones that quote nothing are usually the ones that flicker at switch-on in January. Old fluorescent battens are worse still in the cold — a good reason to replace one rather than re-tube it.
Garages get condensation on cold mornings and brick dust whenever anything is cut. IP44 handles both. IP65 earns its place if the floor gets hosed down, or if the garage is detached and unheated, where the daily temperature swing drives moisture into every enclosure that is not sealed.
Choose CRI 80 or better, and 4,000 K rather than warm white. Under low-CRI light a dark blue wire looks black, a rust patch looks like a shadow, and matching touch-up paint becomes guesswork. Neutral white also keeps the space reading as a workshop rather than a spare room.
Around 5,000-6,000 lm in total for 18 m², split across two or three fittings rather than one.
IP44 as a minimum; IP65 for a detached or unheated garage, or one with a washable floor.
4,000 K. Warm white flatters a living room and hides detail on a workbench.
For a shallow fitting that sits tight to a low garage ceiling, see the flush ceiling lights.
