DIYbanter - View Single Post - ? about low-voltage lighting wiring

David Nebenzahl

On 7/28/2010 12:22 PM spake thus:

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:35:46 -0700, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 7/28/2010 6:16 AM jamesgangnc spake thus:

On Jul 28, 9:08 am, Robert Neville wrote:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

Thanks. But those fixtures are still pretty expen$ive ($130).

Yes - but they are available for much less - you just have to search. When HD
online stocked them, they were $60 and they had a sale for about 1/2 that.

And I was saying that bayonet-mount bulbs are *better* than those
little wedge-base thingies; at least the bayonet socket holds the
bulb securely under spring tension.

My mistake - these are the wedge type bulb mounts. But in almost 2 years I've
not had a problem.

The wedge mount bulbs do eventually develop connection problems. The
contact area is small. A little emory board or fine sandpaper fixes
them. Unfortunately I think they get too hot at the base to use any
sort of grease on them. I don't know why none of them use bayonet
bulbs.

Well, I guess it's nice that "they" have pretty much standardized
the type of bulb used in those fixtures. It's just too bad they
decided to use an inferior mounting system as the standard.

Makes 'em easy to replace for the homeowner, though.

There is nothing to keep you from installing quality edison base lamp
holders, wired to chapter 3 wiring standards and hooking it up to 12v
with RV bulbs in the sockets.
From what I have seen most low voltage stuff is just crap. Cheap
plastic housings, poor ways of making connections and lamp holders
that fail prematurely.

Well, you're talking (OK, writing) about lamp holders. Thing is, my
clients want light *fixtures*--you know, with shades and all, something
more than a bare nekkid light bulb. Something small enough to go
alongside a set of steps, which rules out most Edison-size bulbs, except
maybe those little stubby spherical ones.

The lights my clients have, those little Malibu surface-mount ones, do
come in a metal version that's much better than the cheapo plastic ones.
But they have the same sockets, take the same wedge-base bulbs.

--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)