Garages are notorious for being poorly lit. A handful of incandescent bulbs or flickering fluorescents aren't enough to get the job done. That's why the best garage lighting is done by LEDs, and the best LED garage lights have become the gold standard for superior illumination.
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Whether your garage houses hundreds of vehicles or one car and workshop, you need your garage lights to provide consistent, superior brightness, longevity, and energy savings. Because LEDs tick all of these boxes, they're the smart upgrade for any garage setup.
Come with us as we light the way to the best lights for garage usage. We'll break down everything you need to know to choose the right lighting for each area and help you create a well-lit, efficient space.
A great lighting solution should deliver brightness, efficiency, and durability in equal measure. Whatever your lighting needs may be, it's essential to understand lighting basics before you proceed. Following are the elements of LED lighting to bear in mind as you plan to light your space.
Lumens are the true measure of light output, and understanding them is crucial when choosing garage lighting. For a well-lit garage, aim for higher lumen counts — especially if you use your garage as a workspace or for detailed tasks. Unlike watts, which measure energy usage, lumens tell you exactly how much light the fixture will emit. Need bright, uniform coverage? Look for garage lights offering 4,000 to 10,000 lumens, depending on your garage size.
It's easy to assume that the brightest lights will make the best LED lights for your garage, but energy efficiency is just as important. LED lights are known for consuming significantly less power while delivering superior brightness compared to traditional options. The best LED garage lights illuminate your space with optimal efficiency to save you money on your energy bill. High-efficiency lighting means you won't have to choose between superior light output and cost savings.
Garages are versatile spaces, but they can also experience extreme temperatures, depending on what part of the country you're from. Whether you're dealing with summer heat or winter cold, you need lighting that holds up under all conditions. LEDs designated for garages offer excellent durability and perform well in both cold and warm environments, ensuring consistent performance year-round.
The right color temperature can impact how functional and comfortable your space feels. Measured in Kelvins, LED garage lights typically range from cool to warm tones. For garages, a neutral to cool light (4,000K to 6,500K) works best, offering clear, crisp illumination that's ideal for workspaces while maintaining a comfortable environment.
Choosing the right lighting for your garage means considering every part of your space, whether you're servicing vehicles, illuminating parking spaces and walkways, or installing a fixture over your workbench. Here are some of the most effective LED lighting solutions for garages:
For parking garages with ceilings under 15 feet, low bay LED lights are the go-to solution. These fixtures are designed to distribute light evenly across the space, ensuring clear visibility and safety. Mounted on the ceiling, low bay LED lights are perfect for commercial parking garages where consistent, uniform illumination is essential. With their efficient design, they provide optimal lighting without overpowering the space.
LED Low Bay Lights Shop NowLED canopy light fixtures can be mounted on walls or any flat surface, offering uniform light coverage. Built with weatherproof, sealed diecast housings, they're perfect for outdoor use, especially in areas exposed to the elements. Optional features like motion sensors, photocells, and emergency backup batteries further enhance their functionality, making them a versatile choice for residential and commercial applications.
LED Canopy Lights Shop NowIf your garage space is tight but you still want powerful, modern lighting, LED strip lights are your best bet. These slim, efficient fixtures bring a sleek aesthetic to both home and commercial garages. The best LED strip lights for your garage are made to be mounted easily on walls or ceilings. They're perfect for task lighting — whether you're fine-tuning a project on your workbench or illuminating a small garage. The low-profile design makes them virtually disappear into your space, delivering the brightness you need without any visual clutter.
LED Strip Lights Shop NowIn parking garages where dirt, dust, and moisture are part of the daily environment, LED vapor-tight fixtures are the perfect defense. These sealed and gasketed fixtures are built to withstand harsh conditions and provide reliable, high-quality lighting. Ideal for ceiling mounting, they ensure that your garage stays brightly lit while keeping out debris and moisture. For added convenience, optional lighting controls can be integrated, offering even greater efficiency and control over your lighting setup.
LED Vapor-Tight Fixtures Shop NowWall packs are the workhorses of commercial garage lighting. They're engineered to illuminate large, high-traffic areas, making them indispensable for commercial garages. They cast bright, wide-reaching light that guides drivers indoors and out. With their weatherproof construction, wall packs provide reliable performance in all conditions.
Wall Packs Shop NowSometimes, the light needs to go where you go. That's where portable LED work lights shine. Whether you're under the hood of a car or tackling repairs in your home garage, these mobile lights offer unmatched flexibility. Lightweight, durable, and intensely bright, they provide the freedom to illuminate any task, wherever it may be. Ideal for commercial and residential use, portable LED lights ensure you're never left working in the dark.
Portable LED Work Lights Shop NowMaking the switch to LED garage lights is a smarter, longer-lasting, and more cost-effective solution:
Once you've decided on the best LED garage lights for your property, you'll need to determine how many you need to properly illuminate the space. Here's how to make sure you're not left in the dark.
Start by assessing the area's square footage to calculate the required lighting. Typically, you'll need roughly 50 to 100 lumens per square foot, depending on how the space is used. For larger garages or those with intricate workspaces, more lumens will ensure every corner is properly lit.
High-lumen output ensures that your garage gets the bright, uniform light it needs, whether you're working on vehicles or heavy machinery – or simply moving around the space. Forget wattage — it's an outdated measure when it comes to LEDs. Focus instead on total light output and select fixtures that can flood your space with the right amount of brightness to support daily operations.
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Commercial garages often serve multiple functions, from vehicle maintenance to storage, and each requires a different lighting approach. General overhead lights are important, but task-specific lighting is critical in areas where detailed work is being done. Consider adding LED strip lights over workstations or portable LED work lights for mobile tasks.
Dark corners and shadows can be a major hazard in a commercial garage. To keep your operations running smoothly, ensure your lighting plan eliminates potential blind spots. Even light distribution is essential, particularly in large, busy environments where safety is a priority. A combination of high-output ceiling lights and strategically placed wall packs can create a well-lit space with minimal shadows.
Check out this review on our LED canopy lights. They're rugged, efficient, and reliable.
Now that you know what it takes to select the best LED garage lights for your commercial space, it's time to upgrade at Revolve LED. Whether you need canopy lights, vapor tights, low bays or the best LED strip lights for your garage, we have the expertise and product lineup to meet your needs. We can even help you with a plan that ensures you get the best garage lighting for your setup. Order yours today!
Request your commercial lighting layoutI would love to hear from others as well! I’m in the United States and I’m looking, but can’t find any major lighting manufacturer that is currently making flicker-free LED bulbs. Philips and Sunco claim that their bulbs are "flicker-free" in their marketing, but when you take a closer look at the notes (Philips) or talk to a sales rep (Sunco), they acknowledge that they’re only talking about visible flicker. Their bulbs are not free of invisible 120Hz flicker. I’ve been learning more about bulb wiring lately, and it turns out that the manufacturer needs to choose to put an extra circuit into the bulb (a DC-DC converter) to eliminate the 120 Hz flicker created by the AC mains. The cost of adding this is low (about 10 euro cents, according to a report by the Swedish Energy Agency). However, including the circuitry to make a bulb have zero flicker reduces its energy efficiency somewhat - these bulbs have somewhat low power factors. A power factor less than 1 means that some of the energy drawn into the bulb circuitry is lost as heat instead of being used directly to produce light. To qualify for the US Energy Star certification and to be sold in California, bulbs need to have a power factor >= 0.7. My favorite Philips A19 dimmable LED bulbs from that are completely flicker-free only have a power factor of 0.65 according to LEDbenchmark. The only flicker-free bulbs I’ve been able to find on sale in the US today are A19 bulbs from Waveform Lighting, but their power factor is 0.6 so they can’t be sold in California. [EDIT: as of June , the Waveform bulbs have been updated so their power factor is >0.7 and they can now be shipped to California (Title 20 compliant); I just bought more to put in a family member’s home]. I’m pretty sure that all of their non-filament (normal bulb-style) A19s are flicker-free even if the website labeling is missing. They actually publish the flicker percent and flicker index too! As of a week ago, I own their K Centric Home A19 and 2 of their art-specific bulbs (D50 and D65 A19s). All of these bulbs are actually flicker-free. They have no flicker on a slow-motion video and they’re not causing pain or migraine. Their reviews are from a lot of grateful migraine patients. During a flicker migraine, I find flicker-free LEDs to be even better for me than some incandescents. Waveform also sells drivers for strip lighting/industrial lighting that they advertise as "flicker-free" and that have PWM at 30KHz. I haven’t tried them yet, but am looking at them to maybe use in the classroom.
The lighting industry seems to be abandoning the IEEE report recommendations for flicker which were a guess about appropriate limits for invisible flicker based on old studies of the biological effects of fluorescent lights - these standards aren’t strong enough to prevent my migraines from LED flicker. Now the lighting industry is adopting less stringent "SVM" standards and a "Pst" standard that only applies to visible flicker.
Bulbs I’ve tested recently that are NOT flicker-free according to both slow-motion video (all have 120 Hz flicker) and according to my flicker-sensitive migraine brain:
Philips "eye-comfort" "flicker-free" PAR20 (model ).
Philips "eye-comfort" "warm glow" 60W-equivalent 8.8W A19 (model B).
Sunco PAR20 bulbs with "flicker-free technology" (model L9-PAR20DWP-7W).
GE 60W-equivalent dimmable 10W A19 (model ).
Target Up&Up (store brand) 60W-equivalent non-dimmable 10W A19 (model A).
I’m beginning to think that the major US manufacturers may have abandoned making flicker-free bulbs due to the lower power factor and due to the absence of evidence in the medical literature for the biological effects of LED flicker.
I’m curious about a few things:
If you live in a country with 50 Hz AC power (so 100Hz flicker from AC), do the LED bulbs sold in your country today flicker at 100 Hz if you take a slow-motion video of them with your camera? I’m curious because 100 Hz is around the limit of being visible flicker for some people, so I’m wondering if it’s just the US that’s getting by with making all flickering bulbs since our 120 Hz flicker shouldn’t be visible.
Has anyone in the US found any other flicker-free bulbs on the market today that you’ve actually tested in some way? So far, I only know of Waveform, but their product line isn’t comprehensive.
Does anyone know of any flicker-free drivers for industrial-style LEDs being sold in the US?
I seem to have more migraine trouble from flickering industrial-style LED strip lighting than from the average flickering household bulb even though the strip lighting flickers much faster. Does anyone else have a similar (or different) experience?
Other than calling companies or leaving bad reviews, has anyone found any effective action to take against bulb flicker? I’ve tried a few different mostly ineffective things - so far filing a report about bulbs causing the "injury" of migraine with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has resulted in the best company response - it has resulted in an internal investigation that has included their engineers. I’m not sure whether they’re really doing anything other than verifying the bulb is within their specs for visible flicker, but if companies start to hear about problems through this avenue, it could also create a paper trail for further advocacy. I’m also trying to push the medical community to study this so there will be evidence for policy-makers, but that’s another story.
By the way, if you’re curious, this is how I use my iPhone camera to estimate flicker rate: In the settings, it tells me that the Slo-Mo video rate is 240 frames per second. If your has options, set it to the highest frames per second. In the absence of other ambient light, focus on the bulb so the shutter speed is fast - that makes it easier to detect subtle flicker, but it actually doesn’t matter if the flicker is bad. Record the slo-mo video for a few seconds. Upon play-back, you will see obvious flashing from 120Hz flicker. Faster flicker will result in bands of bright/dark moving from one side of the screen to the other. This happens because when taking a single frame of the video, the records the image starting on one long edge of the frame and moving toward the other long edge. This means that 120Hz flicker on a 240fps video, when viewed frame-by-frame, looks darker on one side of the frame and brighter on the other side of the frame. The dark and bright regions are on the opposite sides in the next frame. Each frame represents one half of the full cycle so (0.5 cycles/frame) x (240 frames/second) = 120 cycles/second = 120 Hz. With faster flicker, there can be multiple bright/dark phases per frame. On the iPhone, the bands will always be parallel to the long edge of the because of the side-to-side way that the takes individual image frames in the video. When there are many bands, just count how many dark bands you see per frame since that will tell you the number of cycles per frame. Then multiply as before. For example, if there are 12 dark bands in one frame, (12 cycles/frame) x (240 frames/second) = cycles/second = Hz. Obviously, this is just a rough estimate, but it’s not too bad. It’s easiest to see this kind of banding in the part of the image where the lamp is. So if you suspect rapid flicker, getting your closer to the lamp so that the lamp fills most of the frame (at least spanning the short direction across the ) can be helpful to give you a larger area in which to detect banding. Banding can be subtle or obvious, depending on how much the light dims in the dark phase. Flicker-free LED bulbs will not have any flashing or banding in the slow motion video. The light should look so steady that you'll double-check to see if you’re actually playing the video.
I get migraines from industrial LED strip lights with very subtle banding in the video in a pattern suggesting about Hz flicker. I also get migraines from every household LED bulb with 120 Hz flicker that I’ve ever encountered. I’ve never had a problem with household LEDs that have a 0.00 flicker index. I’ve never had a problem with LEDs that use constant DC power.
KM I agree with you that almost all companies that advertise “flicker-free" are joking since their bulbs have very obvious 120 Hz flicker detectable by slow-motion cell video. However if they choose to engineer the bulbs differently, companies can make LED bulbs that are essentially flicker-free and much better than incandescents. I believe we should be asking companies to make this kind of bulb. Check out the flicker graph for these old LED bulbs - it’s pretty much flat and the flicker frequency is over Hz. I own these bulbs and love them. Never a twinge of irritation. They’re easier on my head than even some of my incandescents. This is the kind of bulb I think we should be hoping returns to the marketplace so people have the choice of installing something that’s essentially flicker-free.
I don’t have the proper equipment to test the flicker metrics of my new Waveform bulbs myself, but by cell slow-motion video I can’t detect even a hint of flicker and neither can my head. I think the flicker statistics they provide on their website (less than 1% flicker, 0.00 flicker index) are genuine - these bulbs really do seem to have been engineered to be essentially flicker-free.
Unfortunately, where I live, it’s hard to walk down the street anymore without being assaulted by invisible LED flicker. If we don’t want sensitive individuals like me to be in a constant state of migraine, I think we really need to encourage flicker-free LED manufacture. Only having homes with low-flicker incandescents may not be sufficient protection if there's too much invisible LED flicker in the environment. I know I can’t manage to avoid the flickering LEDs owned by others anymore. Unfortunately there are so few actually flicker-free LEDs being sold right now that people don’t have much of a choice. And the “flicker-free" marketing lies today from most companies make it seem like engineering that eliminates the 120Hz ripple and is actually flicker-free is a myth, when instead it is definitely something that used to be done in many LED bulbs several years ago.
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