Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Sat 26 Jul 2008 05:23:16a, Nate Nagel told us...
Wayne Boatwright wrote:
On Fri 25 Jul 2008 05:39:55p, Nate Nagel told us...
The light bulb in the fixture on the ceiling of my front porch died
last week; I tried to disassemble the fixture and find that it will
take destructive measures to get it apart.
First of all, I'm having a hard time finding an outdoor light fixture
as low profile as the one that's there. There's only maybe 6" or so
between the ceiling of the porch and the top of the screen door.
Secondly, I was wondering if LED lights would be suitable for such an
application, and if so, any specific recommendations would be
appreciated. I feel kinda guilty leaving a 25W incandescent on for
hours just so I can see the doorknob if I come home late at night.
nate
Here's an example of what might work. Even if you can't fit the light
sensor in the housing, you can certainly reduce the wattage by using a
CFL.
http://tinyurl.com/5h3f7r
Are there any CFLs on the market that don't suck for outdoor
applications? The last ones I tried, about two years ago, took forever
to warm up, and I hear this as a common complaint.
nate
It still varies, but most of the ones I have reach their full brightness in
seconds, not minutes. Over ten years ago I was using an early version in a
post lamp at our house in Ohio. It, too, warmed up quickly even in the
winter. It was the type where the tube was separate from the base, so only
replaced the tube once in 12 years. Besides, you mentioned that you'd like
to have the light on when you arrive home. Since you won't be there, does
it matter that much how long it takes to warm up?
Not really, but I guess the engineer/anal retentive part of me thinks
that it does.
I guess the discussion is irrelevant at this point, as I spent the
morning repairing the old light fixture. It's actually kinda cool,
fabricated out of soldered copper L-shapes and has a nice patina (well,
it should, being almost 60 years old.) I didn't see anything online or
in my local hardware emporia that I liked as much, so I went ahead to
see if I could salvage it. I managed to replace the one stud that was
keeping me from disassembling it, ran the shade through the dishwasher,
and for good measure took an old extension cord and cut it up to provide
new leads for the bulbholder, as the originals were a bit brittle.
Actually found some 9W ("40W") CFLs at the Despot this AM when I went to
pick up some vice-grips so one is in there for now, but I think there's
still some 25W incandescents floating around if I'm not happy with it.
nate
(cheap, or environmentally conscious? You decide.)
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