Illuminate a Garage That Does Not Have Electricity

Hello,

Here is a small DIY I realized in order to bring light in my garage that lacks electricity. It's the first time I write an instructable on the site so I hope it will be useful to some of you. I am French so if I don't explain something clearly, don't hesitate to warn me.

Step 1: Easy But Useful

I warn you, this DIY is very EASY to achieve, since it is essentially to assemble the right products !

Step 2: What You Need

To achieve this you will need :

A portable battery 5V: battery type made to charge smartphones and \ or tablet.

A 5V to 12V adapter:

An LED strip:

Electrical cable: the length depends on your installation

Twine to hang the led strip where you want to install it, or an other product to hang the strip.

Optional USB interuptor (watch out because : all the portable batteries do not work well with this kind of switch.)

A screwdriver

Step 3: Where Goes the Wires ?

Just assemble all components. Take your screwdriver and the 5V to 12V adapter and insert the two wire of the LED strip in the blue sockets. The red wire must go where you can read "Vout", the black wire must go where you can read "GND".

Step 4: Different Kind of Portable Batteries, Different Possibilities...

Then you just have to insert the adapter into the portable battery (that you have previously charged). Therefore, we distinguish type of portable batteries, that which will react as soon as you plug something, in this case, the light will turn on immediately, there is still probably a button On \ Off on this battery, allowing you to power-off the light. With this type of battery, you can also add a USB switch between the battery and adapter.

The other type of battery will light up the LEDs if you press the On \ Off button on it. With this type of battery, the USB switch will be unusable because you will also always have to press the On \ Off button on the portable battery to power the lights.

In all cases, this type of batteries coupled to a strip of LED ensures efficient lighting and will not discharge quickly, allowing much use.

Step 5: Hanging the LED Strip and See What It Can Do for You.

Finally, I set my LED strip with some twine, but any type of attachment may do the trick.

Now I show a video of my garage without lighting and with lighting (In the video I show you the Two kind of batteries and possible wirings). As you can see, it does work. And I don't often recharge. And I sometimes use sun's power to charge the batteries so it can also be a green project.

Hope it will help some of you, it's so useful ! and don't be afraid, really easy to do.