On 24 Sep, 13:21, Peter Parry wrote:
On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:57:02 +0100, "Toby"
wrote:

I am after the most energy efficient lamp that is practical to illuminate a
patio area, a 500w halogen does the job well, but is 500w, obviously.

Personally have just over 2Kw illuminating immediate area out side
workshop doors, for the application , loading and maintenance at all
hours, more is definately more.

For a barbie on the patio ,lighting task is slightly different, unless
you are Max Mosley looking for that barbie at Checkpoint Charlie
feel....

Have a look at http://www.lo-energilighting.com/ecoflood.html

I had some of these *fitted to a warehouse to provide illumination
around it a few years back and they are remarkably good with very even
light coverage.

http://www.lo-energilighting.com/ecoflood.pdf

Those look rather good, but CFL flood is going to look rather stark as
a patio light but mebbe just thing as cook up illumination.



The colour temperature and colour rendering index of Metal Halide is
generally considered to be better than that of CFL which is usually a
bit "cold" and is broadly similar to incandescent lighting.

MH comes in all sorts of colour temps and CRIs, just like CFLs, cheap
MH lamp, as supplied with low cost fitting, will probably be north of
4000K and appear quite blue.White SON is a nice option but lamps and
fittings are several multiples cost of econo yard light. MH has a
smaller source size than CFL or incandescent so will cast more
pronounced shadows, might look nice , might look spooky.

Whilst when actually cooking on the barbeque you want as much light as
possible, with decent CRI rather know how red the meat is, its not
neccesarily the corner of a car park feel you`ll want whilst eating.
Multiple lower power sources around the area , anything from
fairylites to post lamps, will give a much more relaxed ambience.

HTH
Adam