Early on I decided there needed to be power in the shed.
Initially I ran a 4mm2 cable straight from a new dedicated circuit breaker in the house meterbox up to a double GPO on the inside wall. When I needed a light, I plugged one in. Later I installed a motion sensor to a fixed incandescent light on the middle centre beam. This was useful because when I walked into the shed at night the lights turned on. Handy.
Double GPO with light switch at the door.
This was all well and good, but a 40W incandescent is only slightly better than a candle. I then put up 2x18W flouros on a switch. Better. Over top of the vice I put up a 150W spotlight, to really hightlight the work. Good. Eventually, I stopped mucking around. I ripped out all the nonsense I had been playing with for the past 10 years and put in a "proper" lighting solution.
Here's the deal. Power comes into the shed from the side into a double GPO just above the bench. Power then runs up to 2 sets of 2x36W flouros and then back down to a double GPO with switch right at the door. So, open the door, flick on the switch and 144W of flouroescence turns night into day. With that much light you will need to put on sunglasses - but trust me, do not muck around you will appreciate it. Sure the flouros will cost you AUD(2006)$60 each but so worth it. My recommendation is therefore 10W of flouro lights per square metre. Trust me!
Lights mounted to roof spaced sensibly for maximum dispersal
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