Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

"John" wrote in message
2.236...
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it
to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and then
comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails *yet
again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to the light
off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp appears to be
hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after a delay of about
10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

The security light is one of several that was fitted to the (pre-owned)
house that we bought recently.

Fitting a security light which has no isolating switch is bizarre.

Equally bizarre is another security light which is wired into the same
circuit as a normal switch-controlled outside light (ie without a PIR
sensor), so if you want to arm the security light you have to have the other
light permanently on. Or else you turn off the normal light and the security
light doesn't work.


After Christmas I'll dig out our solar-powered security lights from our
previous house and set those up in place of the 500W photoflood lights which
are a liability (they annoy the neighbours and they gobble up electricity if
the PIR fails to turn the light off).

On Fri, 29 Nov 2019 17:32:22 GMT
John wrote:

Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want
it to switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway.
Ideally the light should flood into the windows of the houses across
the road.



Sounds like a good place for a mirror. Send back what they send to you.

--
Davey.

On Friday, 29 November 2019 17:32:25 UTC, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

The builder fitted two outside lights - both sort-of fake half lanterns with PIR.

Luckily, they take standard lamps. So I replaced the 60W or 100W ones fitted with something like 2.5 or 3W. Then added two more of the same design to improve coverage. So a total of something like 10 or 12 watts.

And it is plenty of light to check the bins, walk safely, see someone coming up the drive.

On 29/11/2019 17:32, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Yup, we've got one of those. To be fair it is only the range that is a
problem and it does get triggered by passing cars or pedestrians. The
light actually goes pretty well where it is wanted and is of a sensible
power.

I have to experiment with blocking off part of the sensor yet, to detect
along our driveway, but not outside - I'm waiting for a dry night, when
I've got a spare half-hour to do it.

SteveW

On 29/11/2019 17:49, NY wrote:
"John" wrote in message
2.236...
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want
it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp appears
to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after a delay
of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

On the other hand, that is a useful feature for many people. I can
switch our front light off and on so as to "lock" it on while I do some
work on the car or just look for something in the boot. Similarly, I can
do the same with the garage light when I am cutting something outside,
in the evening. I specifically looked out for lights with that feature
as it is so useful. on the other hand, we very rarely suffer momentary
power failures and I can see how it would be a real nuisance there.
Maybe they should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature
automatically.

The security light is one of several that was fitted to the (pre-owned)
house that we bought recently.

Fitting a security light which has no isolating switch is bizarre.

Our garage light didn't have one. I added one specifically so that I
could turn off and on to turn it on permanently!

Equally bizarre is another security light which is wired into the same
circuit as a normal switch-controlled outside light (ie without a PIR
sensor), so if you want to arm the security light you have to have the
other light permanently on. Or else you turn off the normal light and
the security light doesn't work.

That is weird!

After Christmas I'll dig out our solar-powered security lights from our
previous house and set those up in place of the 500W photoflood lights
which are a liability (they annoy the neighbours and they gobble up
electricity if the PIR fails to turn the light off).

Ours are LED and so don't take too much anyway. Plus we don't suffer
from intermittent supplies anyway.

On the other hand, the trickle charger for the kit-car is annoying,
because if we trip the RCD (common-ish due to high leakage of too many
computers and peripherals with integral filters), I have to remember
that the charger has to be manually reset to resume charging - not so
easy if my wife or son has reset the RCD while I am out and I don't even
know that it has been off.

SteveW

On Friday, 29 November 2019 21:57:04 UTC, Steve Walker wrote:
On 29/11/2019 17:32, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Yup, we've got one of those. To be fair it is only the range that is a
problem and it does get triggered by passing cars or pedestrians. The
light actually goes pretty well where it is wanted and is of a sensible
power.

I have to experiment with blocking off part of the sensor yet, to detect
along our driveway, but not outside - I'm waiting for a dry night, when
I've got a spare half-hour to do it.

SteveW

Our one at the front does come on rather too easily. I too have been thinking about putting some tape on it - or similar. The one at the back is just right - comes on when pussycat gets near but not when she is a bit further away. All four come on easily for humans. So, basically, really happy.

I take the outers down each year and give them a good clean.

"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
On 29/11/2019 17:49, NY wrote:
"John" wrote in message
2.236...
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it
to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway.
Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp appears
to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after a delay
of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

On the other hand, that is a useful feature for many people. I can switch
our front light off and on so as to "lock" it on while I do some work on
the car or just look for something in the boot. Similarly, I can do the
same with the garage light when I am cutting something outside, in the
evening. I specifically looked out for lights with that feature as it is
so useful. on the other hand, we very rarely suffer momentary power
failures and I can see how it would be a real nuisance there. Maybe they
should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature automatically.

The Hue external motion sensor and a Hue light will do all that
and handles grid glitches fine. Nothing like as cheap tho nut not
too much more if you have the Hue system already and are just
adding the motion sensor and bulb, particularly with amazon specials.

The security light is one of several that was fitted to the (pre-owned)
house that we bought recently.

Fitting a security light which has no isolating switch is bizarre.

Our garage light didn't have one. I added one specifically so that I could
turn off and on to turn it on permanently!

Equally bizarre is another security light which is wired into the same
circuit as a normal switch-controlled outside light (ie without a PIR
sensor), so if you want to arm the security light you have to have the
other light permanently on. Or else you turn off the normal light and the
security light doesn't work.

That is weird!

After Christmas I'll dig out our solar-powered security lights from our
previous house and set those up in place of the 500W photoflood lights
which are a liability (they annoy the neighbours and they gobble up
electricity if the PIR fails to turn the light off).

Ours are LED and so don't take too much anyway. Plus we don't suffer from
intermittent supplies anyway.

On the other hand, the trickle charger for the kit-car is annoying,
because if we trip the RCD (common-ish due to high leakage of too many
computers and peripherals with integral filters), I have to remember that
the charger has to be manually reset to resume charging - not so easy if
my wife or son has reset the RCD while I am out and I don't even know that
it has been off.

SteveW

On Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 6:32:25 AM UTC+13, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Have you read this? Very amusing. ;-)

http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html

Tim+

That is not a spec for a light its a spec for the dingbat who fits it!
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"John" wrote in message
2.236...
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it
to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

On Fri, 29 Nov 2019 22:06:52 +0000, Steve Walker wrote:

Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp appears
to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after a delay
of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

On the other hand, that is a useful feature for many people. I can
switch our front light off and on so as to "lock" it on while I do some
work on the car or just look for something in the boot. Similarly, I can
do the same with the garage light when I am cutting something outside,
in the evening. I specifically looked out for lights with that feature
as it is so useful.

When I fitted PIRs front and rear I used 2-gang plates, 1 switch via the PIR
and 1 that bypasses it. Just have to remeber to turn off the bypass!
As I wired it, I'm happy working on the fitting with just the 2 switches
off.
The lamps are about 9W R63 wide angle pointing downwards, so sorry, I won't
be dazzling you!
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On Sat, 30 Nov 2019 16:10:57 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

The Hue external motion sensor

Your Philips Hue again? Shove it up your senile self-important arse, senile
Rodent!

--
"Anonymous" to trolling senile Rot Speed:
"You can **** off as you know less than pig **** you sad
little ignorant ****."
MID:

on 29/11/2019, Steve Walker supposed :
Maybe they should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature
automatically.

They do - each dark to daylight transition cancels the light remaining
on, or at least thats the case with every such light I have come
across.

On 29/11/2019 22:06, Steve Walker wrote:
On 29/11/2019 17:49, NY wrote:
"John" wrote in message
2.236...
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want
it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway.
Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp
appears to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on
after a delay of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

On the other hand, that is a useful feature for many people. I can
switch our front light off and on so as to "lock" it on while I do some
work on the car or just look for something in the boot. Similarly, I can
do the same with the garage light when I am cutting something outside,
in the evening. I specifically looked out for lights with that feature
as it is so useful. on the other hand, we very rarely suffer momentary
power failures and I can see how it would be a real nuisance there.
Maybe they should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature
automatically.

Some versions overcome the problem of brief power failures by requiring
the light to be flipped off twice in quick succession to put them on
permanently.

On 29/11/2019 17:32, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.



I'll fit it if someone is paying for it:-)

--
Adam

On 30/11/2019 10:06, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
on 29/11/2019, Steve Walker supposed :
*Maybe they should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature
automatically.

They do - each dark to daylight transition cancels the light remaining
on, or at least thats the case with every such light I have come across.

I've nover left one on long enough to find that out and it's not in the
instructions for the ones we've got, but it it could well be an
undocumented feature.

SteveW

In article 6,
John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it
to switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by. It must be
aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally the
light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Sadly, if you want a super bright one for this job, it will likely be a
discharge type, so not come on at full brightness. And not like being
switched on and off. Sorry.

--
*I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore I am perfect*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Mike Clarke" wrote in message
...
Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp appears
to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after a delay
of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

On the other hand, that is a useful feature for many people. I can switch
our front light off and on so as to "lock" it on while I do some work on
the car or just look for something in the boot. Similarly, I can do the
same with the garage light when I am cutting something outside, in the
evening. I specifically looked out for lights with that feature as it is
so useful. on the other hand, we very rarely suffer momentary power
failures and I can see how it would be a real nuisance there. Maybe they
should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature automatically.

Some versions overcome the problem of brief power failures by requiring
the light to be flipped off twice in quick succession to put them on
permanently.

With the sort of power cuts we had one night, even that wouldn't have
prevented accidental latching of the light. At most I think I counted a run
of four off-on in the course of about 5 seconds. Those automatic
power-restoring circuit breakers at the substation are a little *too*
enthusiastic: it would be better if there was a minimum off time of about 5
seconds to avoid false-triggering. Of course it would be even better if the
power company did their job properly and made sure that vegetation was not
allowed to grow close to the wires, so it could always be trimmed safely
without needing a planned power cut, and certainly not so it get so close
that it causes an unplanned one. A large fine to the power company for each
and every power outage that a customer experiences would be a good
incentive. You tend to expect flaky power when you are in the middle of
nowhere, although when we lived in a tin hamlet of two farms and five
cottages, I don't think the power went off once in the year we lived there,
whereas when we are in a village with about 500 people, about 5 miles from
two different market towns, we've had about 10 times when the power has gone
off and on in the six months we've lived here (if it happens repeatedly on
one day, I count that as a single event). The power company had the cheek to
suggest that anyone who had electronic equipment should have it protected by
UPS (an admission that power breaks were only to be expected) and that
anyone whose equipment got confused by repeated power blips had faulty
equipment. My router eventually got confused after an evening of
up-down-up-down (the router still logged on but it gave "destination
unavailable" when almost any web address was pinged - apart from the ISP's
own web site; DNS was working because the address was being resolved to the
correct IP address). That was cured by restoring the router to its factory
state - I need to remember to re-create the port-forwarding rules so we can
see our webcams from outside the LAN.

On 29/11/2019 17:49, NY wrote:
"John" wrote in message
2.236...
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want
it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp appears
to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after a delay
of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

The security light is one of several that was fitted to the (pre-owned)
house that we bought recently.

Fitting a security light which has no isolating switch is bizarre.


I now fit DP switches as standard on all outside lights in new builds
and rewires so that the neutral is switched.

--
Adam

"NY" wrote in message
...
"Mike Clarke" wrote in message
...
Ours comes on and stays on 24/7 if the power goes off for a second and
then comes back on (eg when the high-voltage feed to the village fails
*yet again*). I have to be alert to the problem, and turn the power to
the light off (turn off the lighting circuit MCB, since the lamp
appears to be hard-wired with no switch) and then turn it back on after
a delay of about 10 seconds. It is a confounded nuisance.

On the other hand, that is a useful feature for many people. I can
switch our front light off and on so as to "lock" it on while I do some
work on the car or just look for something in the boot. Similarly, I can
do the same with the garage light when I am cutting something outside,
in the evening. I specifically looked out for lights with that feature
as it is so useful. on the other hand, we very rarely suffer momentary
power failures and I can see how it would be a real nuisance there.
Maybe they should build in a 12 hour timer to cancel that feature
automatically.

Some versions overcome the problem of brief power failures by requiring
the light to be flipped off twice in quick succession to put them on
permanently.

With the sort of power cuts we had one night, even that wouldn't have
prevented accidental latching of the light. At most I think I counted a
run of four off-on in the course of about 5 seconds. Those automatic
power-restoring circuit breakers at the substation are a little *too*
enthusiastic: it would be better if there was a minimum off time of about
5 seconds to avoid false-triggering.

The Philips Hue system handles those power glitches fine,
keeps tract of the current state and restores to that And you
can specify that it does something different on the power
coming back too. And handles those movement sensor
lights much better too, trivial to override and have it on
or off as required for unusual situations but still do the
movement sensed actions as well. No need to play silly
buggers with light switches for the unusual events.

Not cheap, but very convenient to use.

Of course it would be even better if the power company did their job
properly and made sure that vegetation was not allowed to grow close to
the wires, so it could always be trimmed safely without needing a planned
power cut,

Ours do the trimming live, now planned power cuts for
that. The only planned power cuts are for pole replacement
or the very rare replacement of a transformer. New feed
cables to the houses are done live.

and certainly not so it get so close that it causes an unplanned one.

We don’t see much of that. We do sometimes see it happen in
a big storm which ends up with a branch falling on the 11KV
lines at the top of the poles and getting across the 240/415
lines further down the pole but that only happens every few
decades or so. All the new estates have underground power
so that doesn’t happen at all there.

A large fine to the power company for each and every power outage that a
customer experiences would be a good incentive.

Some of ours do get to pay compensation to the customers
for the time without power, but with some exceptions like
major grid failure like happened in South Australia recently,.

You tend to expect flaky power when you are in the middle of nowhere,
although when we lived in a tin hamlet of two farms and five cottages, I
don't think the power went off once in the year we lived there,

We do get that a bit with some farm supplys.
Not with the very small villages much tho.

whereas when we are in a village with about 500 people, about 5 miles from
two different market towns, we've had about 10 times when the power has
gone off and on in the six months we've lived here (if it happens
repeatedly on one day, I count that as a single event). The power company
had the cheek to suggest that anyone who had electronic equipment should
have it protected by UPS (an admission that power breaks were only to be
expected) and that anyone whose equipment got confused by repeated power
blips had faulty equipment. My router eventually got confused after an
evening of up-down-up-down (the router still logged on but it gave
"destination unavailable" when almost any web address was pinged - apart
from the ISP's own web site; DNS was working because the address was being
resolved to the correct IP address). That was cured by restoring the
router to its factory state - I need to remember to re-create the
port-forwarding rules so we can see our webcams from outside the LAN.


Its unusual to get one one unplanned outage a hear here.
And often no planned outage in a year too.

On Sun, 1 Dec 2019 10:12:16 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


The Philips Hue system

The Philips Hue system? LOL Shove it up your senile arse, senile idiot!

--
FredXX to Rot Speed:
"You are still an idiot and an embarrassment to your country. No wonder
we shipped the likes of you out of the British Isles. Perhaps stupidity
and criminality is inherited after all?"
Message-ID:

Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
That is not a spec for a light its a spec for the dingbat who fits it!
Brian

AUSTRALIA

On Saturday, 30 November 2019 05:33:23 UTC, Tim+ wrote:
On Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 6:32:25 AM UTC+13, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.

Have you read this? Very amusing. ;-)

http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html

Tim+

One of the advantages of having moved house - only very modest external lights. :-)

polygonum_on_google wrote in
:

On Saturday, 30 November 2019 05:33:23 UTC, Tim+ wrote:
On Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 6:32:25 AM UTC+13, John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I
want it to switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway.
Ideally the light should flood into the windows of the houses
across the road.

Have you read this? Very amusing. ;-)

http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html

Tim+

One of the advantages of having moved house - only very modest
external lights. :-)


Do what many seem to do; swap the modest lights for 500watt Eye Burners.

On Sun, 01 Dec 2019 21:48:02 GMT, John wrote:

One of the advantages of having moved house - only very modest
external lights. :-)

Do what many seem to do; swap the modest lights for 500watt Eye Burners.

Or more likely these days 20 W LED eye burners that squirt light out
approaching 180 degrees and are next to impossible to control the
light from. It ought to be made illegal to sell floodlights with more
than a 90 degree beam width.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Dave Liquorice" wrote in
idual.net:

On Sun, 01 Dec 2019 21:48:02 GMT, John wrote:

One of the advantages of having moved house - only very modest
external lights. :-)

Do what many seem to do; swap the modest lights for 500watt Eye Burners.

Or more likely these days 20 W LED eye burners that squirt light out
approaching 180 degrees and are next to impossible to control the
light from. It ought to be made illegal to sell floodlights with more
than a 90 degree beam width.


It would be a good idea. I have one pointing almost 80 derees down to avoid
spill beyong my boundary fence. Some sort of "barn door" shutters would
belp. Unfortunately I think some people see "lighting up the air" as a
benefit.

John wrote:
Who fits lights to this specification?

I want an outside light that is brighter than the neighbour's. I want it to
switch on whenever a car goes past or someone walks by.
It must be aimed over the heads of anyone approaching my doorway. Ideally
the light should flood into the windows of the houses across the road.




The village bitch had one of those at the start of this thread, needed it
to see which one of her drug fuelled exes or suppliers was going to paint
strip her Range Rover again. Not that she was worried as Daddy always paid
for it to be repaired, it has been his money employing solicitors that has
kept legal repercussions
to a minimum from other antisocial behaviour such as entering neighbouring
gardens and cutting down trees etc because they could be seen from her new
conservatory.
Still the spoilt brat finally found the social isolation and other
repercussions of being in a small community where you have antagonised
everyone too much , people get back in other ways, cars parked close to
your gate, kids not invited to others parties ,people dont make it easy
for you to pass on the single track road.
Daddies has bought her a new house in a town a few miles away.
The people who moved in two days ago seem fine, someone mentioned the
annoying light to them and they have already moved it to point straight
down.

GH