OK, I don't get it. How does the same sconce facing down get hotter than when it's faced up. Where I don't need to bounce light off the ceiling I was planning on turning some facing down to avoid the dust collection mess (I'm the maid. And old and arthritic.)

lindybarts: Does sound awfully suspicious. Any knowledgeable/honest lighting suppliers you can quickly check that out with?

Never heard such a thing. When we went to our house after lighting was installed, we found that some fixtures were turned up and some down (we meant them to be down). Turned out that 3 different guys installed them in the various rooms. So they went up according to the installer's perspective-our builder found it pretty funny to watch as the guys stood there in front of us arguing about the aesthetics!

Last time I checked heat rises.

I can call the lighting company tomorrow. It's not a huge deal because he said he'd fix them later but you know how that goes...all those tiny details that you wait for them to fix seem to take longer than the whole build. I just couldn't figure out a logical reason why a code would be in place for prohibiting them turned up. But I'm certainly no electrician.

OK, let's see if I'm getting this: Hot air does not necessarily rise; it moves to an area of cooler air. (I was seriously trounced recently for making the "hot air rises" statement among a group of mechanical engineers. I still refuse to believe it's wrong. Or only partially true.) Colder air is usually closer to the floor. So, as I was told, the warm air would first move to the closest area of cooler air. Then air mixing would occur and eventually more of the warmer air would get pushed up toward the ceiling. So, doesn't it depend on where the heat-generating part of the bulb is within the fixture plus what impediments there are to heat dissipation at that point? Wouldn't the heat generated by the light bulb move up, down, or to the sides, depending on where the colder air is and what obstacles there are to its transmittance in each of those areas?

I can imagine it is a very complicated situation. Now I'm worried about all my lamps with cone-shaped shades; are they in danger of overheating? Is the cone too narrow at the top so too much heat is getting trapped within the fabric shade? Maybe I should afix the shades upside down. And I've been angry for years that some regulatory agency or underwriting group or somebody decreed that metal architect-style lamps must have slits in the top now so that the shades won't get so hot that they catch fire or whatever. Jeez. I lived through many years with metal shades on unvented gooseneck lamps and lived to tell the tale. Now I have to get flashes of light beams in my eyes from those awful top slits.

Is this really, really a problem? I've never seen a wood siding house catch on fire from a downward-directed, unvented metal light fixture mounted on it, and left to burn all night. Even in August, in south Georgia, where there is NO cold air for heat to dissipate into. It doesn't rise and it doesn't fall. It just sits there and suffocates you.

This is all very amusing. But, as a practical matter, can this possibly make a difference unless your sconces are the size of stadium lights?? I would've loved to see the fixture-installers arguing over which way the sconces should point, though.

sounds like he's feeding you a line... but who knows? i've heard stranger things. just wanted to make sure you knew there are two types of sconce bulbs: bulbs facing up or facing down. if you put "up" bulbs in a down position, or vice versa they will burn out much quicker. i had "up" bulbs in my foyer sconces and they'd go within a couple of days. who knew?

All ours face up. The ones we have look better that way. Plus, you can put a CF bulb in them and not see it.

bj, relax. Heat energy moves from warm to cool in a solid (conduction) but a gas expands, becomes lighter, and moves upward (convection). (I'm going to skip over radiation, OK?)

I didn't say it was a problem; just pointing out that the electrician couldn't use the lesser heat argument to justify turning the sconces downward.

I am sometimes accused of giving electricians a hard time and I resemble that remark. I think it is because many of them pretend to have memorized the NEC and throw out pronouncements as if no else has ever seen it. Well, I know I have a hard time remembering it so I read it more often than they do and therefore catch them in some pretty silly mistakes.

I've read that putting CF bulbs in sconces facing down will not last as long as those turned up. Don't ask me any questions, I just read it, that's all!!

So there's an entire new line of "stuff" I need to prepare myself for when we move into the actual build itself. I'm printing up note paper that says "Please enter the code section for that here:_____________"

So, lindybarts, you can (eventually, at least) get your sconces facing up. Don't let them mark up your walls in the process of reversing the fixtures later. But at least your bulbs will last longer and the heat will rise and the world will be right again.

I do want to know how the "up" versus "down" bulbs are labelled on the box so I can find the correct ones for whichever fixture I'm using. Never knew about that.

The up vs down remark must have been for compact fluorescent lamps. Standard/older ones are designed for up (you don't need to know why I hope) but many are now designed for down (even for recessed housings) and for use with dimmers. You need to read the label carefully if you want the lamp to last or not flicker.

Are the sconces in a stair well?

I can speak from personal experience that CFs facing down last (we purchased ones that say they can face up or down, but the ones we have are not dimmable). We have one that has been on 24 hours per day for over 18 months and it is still going strong (it lights the stairwell to the basement where the cat's litter box is).

We also have numerous CF's that face up, and those are lasting fine as well. The only CFs we've had to replace are the undercabinet ones. I think the ones that came with the fixtures must have been junk because I've had to replace almost all of them.

When we were building our house we has numerous instances of the electrician basically making up his own code (sometimes stricter than code, sometimes less strict). He was fired (for the "less strict" issues), and someone much better was hired. That guy was very good, but a little over cautious (every outlet in my kitchen is 20 amp and on a GFCI).

All receptacles in a kitchen should be on 20 amp circuits and they might as well all be GFCI.

Mightyanvil,
That is what the electrician said (he's from Mass), but I'm not really clear on whether that is code in our area (Maine)since every single new house we've been in around here has only 15 amp, with one or two 20s. Hmm. I actually didn't mind, since it means I don't have to worry about which outlet the high voltage appliances go into.

All my bathroom outlets are 20 amp GFCI, and all lights in the bathrooms are GFCI as well. Thoughts? See, this electrical stuff is complicated.