Why This Matters to You
Most garage lighting exists so you can find things. This one exists so its owner can see defects in paint, which is a completely different requirement.
The customer is a car detailer in Fairview Park, working on dark-coloured cars. Swirl marks, holograms and an uneven polish are only visible when light hits the panel from the right angle, and a single batten in the middle of the ceiling gives you exactly one angle. Half the defects stay hidden until the car is outside in the sun and the customer finds them instead.
Why the Shape Matters
A hex array covers the ceiling with lit edges running in six directions rather than one. Because the light arrives from many angles at once, a curved panel gets lit right across its surface and the reflections that reveal swirls show up wherever you stand.
You can see it in the photo at the top of this page. The hex pattern is reflected across the bonnet and roof of the car, and that reflection is the working tool. A detailer is reading those lines for distortion.
It isn't only for cars. The same reasoning applies to a home workshop where you need to see what your hands are doing without standing in your own shadow, a home gym, or a garage that doubles as a work space. If you have ever leaned over a bench and blocked your own light, that's the problem this solves.
It Has To Be Set Out Before Anything Is Fixed
These arrays are linked modules rather than individual light fittings. That has a practical consequence: the layout is decided as a whole and set out to the actual ceiling dimensions before the first module goes up.
You can't sensibly add one into the middle of a finished array later, and an array that wasn't set out properly ends up off-centre against the walls or the roller door, which is obvious every time you walk in. Measuring the ceiling and working out the pattern is most of the job. Fixing them up is the quick part.
Supply, Drivers and Load
A ceiling-sized array is a real load rather than a light fitting, and it runs off drivers that have to live somewhere accessible. If a driver fails in three years, whoever replaces it needs to reach it without dismantling the array.
So the supply, the circuit and the driver positions get planned alongside the layout. In a garage there's often no ceiling cavity to hide anything in, which makes that positioning a visible decision rather than a hidden one.
On Customer-Supplied Fittings
This lighting was supplied by the customer, which we're happy to install. One thing worth saying plainly though, because it comes up often with LED bought online.
Electrical equipment sold for use in Australia has to meet Australian requirements, and an electrician can't install something that doesn't. It isn't a formality. The part that fails first in cheap LED is almost always the driver, and when a driver fails inside a linked array you're troubleshooting the whole run rather than swapping a globe. If you're buying your own, buy something with a driver you can still get in five years.
If you're unsure about a fitting you have already bought, send us the details before the install day rather than finding out on it. More on this kind of work is on our feature lighting and LED strip page, and on what we cover locally on our Fairview Park electrician page.
