This past weekend was exceptionally rainy in Phoenix. The remnants of Hurricane Priscilla have been passing through the region, resulting in record-setting daily rainfall amounts. At our home in Chandler, our rain gauge shows we received over 3.5” of rain this past weekend!

Needless to say, I wasn’t bicycling this past weekend. If it wasn’t actively raining, there was standing water or debris along the sides of most roads.

Instead, I went to Costco for groceries on Sunday morning. I rarely buy anything but food there, but, occasionally, I’ll check out the automotive/garage aisle. An endcap at the end of that aisle advertised a flat panel light fixture.

Costco Find: Artika Sunray LED Panel

Produced by Artika, the light fixture, which is called the “Sunray”, costs $32 and has an extremely thin profile. The packaging advertises the light panel as having 4,200 lumens. It also includes a switch to choose between warm or cool lighting.

I hardly ever make impulse purchases. However, lighting in the garage has been lacking ever since we bought the house years ago. The home was built in the early 80’s and, although I replaced the incandescent bulbs with LEDs years ago, the existing fixture has never provided enough light for the garage. A new garage light has been on my list, but I never ponied up the money for a new fixture. After all, most garage lights that I’ve seen were $100-$200. So, into the cart it went.

Installing the New Light Fixture

As soon as I arrived home and put away the groceries, my wife and I went to install the new fixture. The power was first turned off to the circuit at the panel. Then, I started removing the old fixture from the ceiling.

Most projects on our 40-year-old home turn into adventures with side quests. The home’s previous owner clearly thought they were good at home repair. However, their work says otherwise. I could tell this light fixture was no exception.

One side of the light was secured with a simple Phillips screw. Meanwhile, the other side used a nut and bolt. Weird.

Things only got weirder once I removed the light fixture altogether. The junction box clearly had a ground wire, but there was no ground wire traveling to the fixture itself. The house is old, but I think ground wires were already required when it was built.

Multiple FaceTime calls with my father ensued. He retired from the power company, so he helped walk me through my options. We developed our plan before I embarked on my side quest to Harbor Freight. I had to remove a small amount of the cable’s plastic housing to accommodate the routing, and a wire stripper was needed.

The rest of the installation was easy. I connected everything back up, installed the six drywall anchors which support the light, hung the fixture, and then turned the light back on.

Was The Artika Sunray Worth $32?

The improvement from my old light fixture is drastic! Rather than a dim old light fixture providing just enough light to function, the entire garage is now washed in bright white illumination. I always use warm white inside my home, but cool white is a better choice for task lighting.

The minimal investment was clearly worth it. I now have better lighting for working, cleaning, and documenting.

Note: If you aren’t confident with electrical work, consult an electrician for installation.