replacing exterior & porch lights: what's best? led? cfl? incand?
Stacey Collins
12 years ago
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tirednsore
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Whole house LED recessed lighting
Comments (24)This is a 6-year old thread! But for any readers in the present with a similar concern, the OP really raised two separate questions (perhaps without realizing it): 1) Using recessing lighting fixtures throughout the entire house (regardless of type of lamp used); 2) The type of lamp to be used throughout the house (regardless of the fixture in which it's used). First, recessed "downlights", even with flood lamps rather than spot lamps, is primarily intended for task lighting, not overall ambient lighting, and certainly not for "feature" lighting where the fixture and the glow of the lamp are the "feature" to attract the eye and create a pleasant emotion. Task lighting means lighting placed for a certain task: illuminating a counter top or island; illuminating the area adjacent to a door; illuminating art and wall hung/mounted objects (when the recessed lamp can be rotated and adjusted within certain angles). The only overall ambient lighting possible with a recessed fixture is indirect or "bounce" light, which is greatly reduced in usable lumens. In other words, recessed light fixtures are ideal when you want the light source to not be visible, but you want "something" specific to be illuminated. The best results for overall ambient and special feature lighting are from other types of fixtures--not recessed "task lighting" fixtures. In most situations, strong lighting design is a combination of the three types of fixtures: task lighting fixtures, ambient lighting fixtures and a very few, carefully chosen feature lighting fixtures. There are very few situations in a residence (or any other building) where only a single type of lighting fixture will be satisfactory for every type of lighting need. Second, as to the type of lamp, there are many line and low-voltage lamps (and associated lighting fixtures) to chose from. Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Like fixtures, there is no single lamp which is universally "best" for every lighting need. What all of this means is that for best lighting, one needs to study, become informed and choose wisely to get fixtures and lamps which best fit the various lighting needs throughout a house....See MoreLED lighting for net metering system
Comments (8)Hi David, I had already read those posts, but they don't address my specific concerns. I'm not concerned about LED bulbs being cost effective -- I'm concerned about whether I can buy ones that produce enough light for outdoor decks and kitchen cans. I have my reasons for not wanting to use fluorescent lights. I live on a small island in the Pacific that does not have any means for disposing of the CF bulbs in a manner that prevents the mercury from escaping into the landfill, and from there into the soil and eventually the ocean. Our local power company is handing them out right and left, but everyone is just throwing them into the trash, and our landfill is next to the beach. Second, my daughter has severe brain damage, and her body does not detoxify itself the way a healthy persons' would. She already has toxic levels of mercury stored in her kidneys, and I really don't want to introduce any additional possible sources of mercury into my household. I'm not trying to get into any argument about how much mercury is too much or not enough to worry about, I'm just stating that this is my position. And third, the kitchen lights are wired directly into the pv system, so when the power goes out, I still have kitchen lighting. Obviously I want to pull as little power as possible from my backup batteries in those situations, while minimizing the amount of power I have to buy back from the power company in the evenings. So, if I don't want to use CF bulbs, and I want to keep my power usage as low as possible in the evenings when the lights are on, LEDs are, I'm hoping, the best bet. I wouldn't be putting 100 watt incandescent bulbs in my kitchen recessed fixtures anyway, so if the bulbs don't produce the equivilent, I'm not concerned. The enlux bulbs sold by weidamark claim 400 lumens, and that was why part of my question was is this enough for an outdoor deck, or a kitchen? I know I don't know how to read spec sheets on bulbs, all I can do is try to compare on the basis of lumens. And I still have concerns because I read somewhere about how the warm white degrades over time into a cooler white, and don't know how to read a spec sheet to figure that one out. Does this help?...See MoreRecessed porch lighting - X-post
Comments (19)DH doesn't want lamps on the porch. We had decided on 5 cans, separate switch (dimmer). But if the cans attract bugs that defeats the purpose, we'd want them on for a little light in the evenings while we're out there. Maybe just citronella candles? DH wants to put Moquito Magnet out by the railing end (near basement door, plugged in behind the white table, which is b/t the wooden rockers). Don't want/need fans on the porch - would do that if enclosed but since the floor is what gets hot (plenty of wind around here) it wouldn't help much. When it's really hot we go inside where we have AC. Never seen fans on a NE front porch ;-) - looking for unobtrusive....See MoreLED holiday lights--save massive amts. of energy
Comments (49)My neighbor switched to LED outdoor Christmas lights last year. What I didn't like was how puny the light was....toooooo dim. Big contrast between our C9 reds and his LEDs. We usually run four or five strands of outdoor lights 24 hours a day for the month. We turn off the regular outdoor lights for December. In the house, the tree and a lighted garland and a couple of small lighted things are the extent of it. Our electric bill doesn't rise that much...a couple of dollars from the lights. One of the keys is that we turn off our regular outdoor lamp post and garage light. Indoors one lamp doesn't get used during Christmas. It's a trade-off. We are slowly replacing all our incandesent bulbs in the house. I'll miss the warmth of the old bulbs, but the new energy savers are looking better and better each year. For now, the LEDs are staying in the stores. Someday....maybe..... Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul...See Moregeeman1082
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