game room lighting

TheShanMan

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I picked up 4 blacklight bulbs from Lowes last night and experimented with them. I have 2 deep garage bays in my shop with 4 dual 48" bulb fixtures per bay. So first I pulled all the white bulbs and installed the 4 blacks in the 2 center fixtures of the bay that has my games. Very cool lighting effect of course (and that's without blacklight carpet at this point). I think between the light from the games and a complete set of black bulbs (4 more) the lighting will be more than adequate.

However, given that I won't always have the games on and at those times will probably want brighter (regular) light for working on games or whatever, I tried alternating white and black. Didn't like it a bit. The black bulbs just didn't seem to add anything at that point.

So the dilemma is, how to provide good lighting for both scenarios? Should I install extra florescent fixtures on a different circuit (or at least have pull chains)? Should I install standard light fixtures of some sort?

I'd love to get the input of those who have gone before me. :)
 
I picked up 4 blacklight bulbs from Lowes last night and experimented with them. I have 2 deep garage bays in my shop with 4 dual 48" bulb fixtures per bay. So first I pulled all the white bulbs and installed the 4 blacks in the 2 center fixtures of the bay that has my games. Very cool lighting effect of course (and that's without blacklight carpet at this point). I think between the light from the games and a complete set of black bulbs (4 more) the lighting will be more than adequate.

However, given that I won't always have the games on and at those times will probably want brighter (regular) light for working on games or whatever, I tried alternating white and black. Didn't like it a bit. The black bulbs just didn't seem to add anything at that point.

So the dilemma is, how to provide good lighting for both scenarios? Should I install extra florescent fixtures on a different circuit (or at least have pull chains)? Should I install standard light fixtures of some sort?

I'd love to get the input of those who have gone before me. :)

My buddy is an electrician and I asked him the same question. He said he would've been able to put different banks of lights to separate circuits, then just install a new switch plate onto the wall next to or above the original switch. So when I would ahve wanted black lights, turn one switch on, and vice versa for standard fixture.
 
My buddy is an electrician and I asked him the same question. He said he would've been able to put different banks of lights to separate circuits, then just install a new switch plate onto the wall next to or above the original switch. So when I would ahve wanted black lights, turn one switch on, and vice versa for standard fixture.

Im in the process of constructing my game room and I have 4 "can" lights over the game area. I wired 2 on a swtich and another 2 on a switch. So I have 1 black light, 1 regular, 1 black, one regular. And the 2 regular lights are on a dimmer so I can have the black light effect and still have a tad of regular light or be able to turn either or off. Ill prolly add more of the longer ballasts after Im done.
 
I have my set of normal lights. Then I bought 4 48'' fixtures that plug into the wall. I wired them together and plugged it into an outlet. I put blacklights in those fixtures. Then i just use a remote to turn on the blacklights. That way nothing permanant is installed in case i ever want to take them down. Two seperate sets of lights in some capacity is the way to go. You can't really just have one or the other. And you can't have both on at the same time.
 
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I do have outlets on the ceiling, and one of them has a ceiling fan plugged into it. There is a switch whose function I haven't figured out yet, so keeping my fingers crossed that all the outlets are on that switch. I like the idea of plug in florescent fixtures for the white lights (I'd have 3 per bay, each one filling a gap between the black light fixtures).

Thanks for the input guys!
 
I've been pondering this same idea off and on. I finally decided it wasn't worth the effort to run dedicated lighting for black lights I would only use a few times a year. Whenever I get around to doing the renovation of my game room area, I will just keep a box of BL bulbs below a pin or something. Then just spend 10-15 minutes switching them out before a party.

I would do this whether I go with can lights or fluorescent.
 
I'm approaching this with the idea that they'd be used on a very frequent basis (weekly if not more often), not just for parties.
 
I'm approaching this with the idea that they'd be used on a very frequent basis (weekly if not more often), not just for parties.

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Will you...really? :D
 
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