General Craft & DIY discussion

Hi. I looked around and couldn't decide where to put this topic. Or find it discussed before.

re: in-house lighting.
I am out of the old style 100 watt light blubs and need to buy new stuff.
Has anyone researched this as to the best product that gives out a "normal" color? I mean not like "office florescent" (sp?) which I would find hard to live with.
I need a round top bulb that is gives off a friendly non-depression causing glow. Round top. A lot of the old lamp shades rest on the bulb.

I have the feeling this might have been discussed before because I feel like I am repeating myself.

Jim, move this anywhere you want if home repair isn't the right place.
thanks.

Seems like the right place to me & it's a topic near & dear to my heart. I HATE these new light bulbs & don't believe they're any better for the environment. The florescent coils contain mercury & other bad stuff which have to be worse overall. They have to cost a lot more in resources to make, too. Most of their energy savings seems to come from lack of wattage. IMO, someone got rich off the idea.

I've struggled with the same problem before I realized that I could buy a case of old incandescent bulbs through Amazon & put off the issue for at least another decade for $40 or so.
http://www.amazon.com/GE-White-Incand...

Unfortunately, I wound up spending a lot of time putting a bracket on an old lamp to hold the shade before figuring that out. I had to buy the bracket. A finial for the top cost almost as much. Then I had to take the lamp apart to put the bracket on. I just rewired it a few years before that, so it was OK, but I'm glad I didn't have to mess with another old lamp. Its switch would likely fall apart.

The only decent other round bulbs I found were LED bulbs, but they cost a LOT up front. Here's a good article that compares them to incandescents for wattage & color along with a couple of other things to consider.
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/five-thing...

One of the biggest problems for me is understanding how much light each sort puts out. The packages often lie. The above article has a handy little chart for converting watts to lumens, though.

Another issue is heat. LEDs & incandescent bulbs aren't the best choice for inside a globe. I use the fluorescent coils for the couple in our house & they last the best. I use the brightest one I can find & it's OK.

Thanks, Jim, for helping with this.
I went over to Amazon and bought some bulbs.
Hopefully, by the time I need more there will be an improvement in the new types.

As a side note, I was concerned for my old cats who sit close under my bedside lamp for the heat. Now they will be happy.
I only hope the Christmas rush at the post office doesn't affect the bulb survival rate.

Good luck & glad to help. I only had 1 bulb broken & I didn't bother to say anything about it. I was just tickled to be able to get them.

I agree that the new types should get better & cheaper in time. Obviously, I don't mind using them when they do a better job, but it really ticks me off to force the issue. The fluorescent ones don't work for spit in a drop light outside when it's cold.

When the current bulbs I have in the big barn burn out, I'll have to look into what to replace them with, but they're fairly new & don't get used often. They're 150 watt incandescents. Do LED lights work well out in the cold?

re: LED lights working well in the cold.
I have no idea. But I have to look into an outside bulb of some sort as my last flood light just went dark.

At the front door I have those yellow bug light type bulbs, which are laughable as a deterrent as far as I can tell. There were about 80 winter moths on the door the other night after the bug lights being on for a short time. I don't know but maybe there would have been 800 if I had regular bulbs there.

So, to continue the cold issue:
Lanterns use LED and I suppose some people camp in the cold so...
Anyway, I was looking for a lantern (big storm coming here today. ok, so i'm not planned ahead at all, but for next time i'm going to be all set).
I found this most current review of lanterns:
http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-...
The review is very detailed and interesting (to me anyway).

Interesting, thanks. Long run times on those lanterns, too. LEDs are easier on batteries, though. I didn't see where it said how they achieved the dimming, but just skimmed since I'm not really in the market. I assume by turning some off?

I did google LEDs in cold weather. They work fine which makes sense.

Yeah, I never thought that much of yellow lights or even red ones. Bugs seem to like us, although they're not a problem now. We've been far too cold. I would have thought you would be, too.

"4-Mode electronic switch, high, medium, low and SOS flashing" cut and pasted from amazon

I noticed there is a 60 day lantern too.
It's not all that much more money. I'm thinking it may be overkill for me. Bigger battery size and heavier.
I can't see why I'd need the 60 day one. Maybe I am missing something?

http://www.wintermoth.com/about/
as long as there are warm spells they come out.
We've had snow (twice), but it melted after a few days. It's been snow/rain/sleet the past few times.

It was only in the 40's here yesterday, but I rode through a small cloud of gnats of some sort. Saw a bat just a week ago, too. Still, bugs this time of year surprise me. We've been down into the low teens a few times.

Our weather tends to faster changes & more extremes than the coast, though. I compare frequently while talking to Mom & the kids. Mom & one set live in MD, another lives in RI. They generally get our weather a day later, moderated by a few degrees.

I'm not too sure about those light bulbs.
They went from Los Angeles to Utah to Colorado and tracking shows they have arrived and "are out for delivery".
I'm in Massachusetts.

Jim wrote: "It was only in the 40's here yesterday, but I rode through a small cloud of gnats of some sort. Saw a bat just a week ago, too. Still, bugs this time of year surprise me. We've been down into th..."

If the weather comes from the west I get what RI gets.
On the other hand, your weather sounds familiar for here. The winter moths are still around. They killed a Carpathian Walnut I had that was over 40feet tall. I didn't know they got it until it was way too late to do anything. I used to get lots of walnuts from that tree, so many that I used to give bags of them as Christmas presents.
The woodpeckers have been enjoying what is left of it (not much).

Wandering light bulbs... Not good.

The Carpathian Walnut is even worse. I don't have any of that in my collection. I'd love to see how the wood differs from the native Black Walnut since it's supposed to be faster growing. That usually means the wood isn't as strong or dense. I'd love to get some of that to turn. It's a shame shipping wood is so expensive or I'd ask for some.

I have over 75 different kinds of wood that I've turned eggs out of & well over 100 different standard (1/2"x4"x6") samples. I belong to the International Wood Collector's Society & my collection is pretty small for them. It's very handy for me. The eggs let me see the grain in all directions. Both let me see the color & feel the texture & weight of the wood.

Does anyone have experience with replacing 8' florescent lights with LED lights? I need to replace a bulb in the grooming stall of the barn, but the florescent bulbs that work in low temps are iffy & expensive, so I'd rather do it with LEDs. We need bright, spreading light from the fixture, though. I see they now make some LED replacements that work with ballasts, but that doesn't make sense, does it? Two 4' lights seem more economical than an 8' which are harder to find & more limited in options. Would it be better to buy these on line or at the local electrical supply house?

I've mostly had poor luck with LEDs as far as the long life they promised. I do have an expensive ($40) one behind my left shoulder at my computer desk and it has lasted quite well (I've got the box somewhere but too much trouble to find right now). I read that screwing them in at a right angle rather than directly upward or downward helps preserve their cockamamie electronics. And the one over my desk is in a trouble light reflector that puts the bulb at near a right angle. Also helps to put them in a place where you can leave them on rather than frequent turn-off-ons.
Has anyone had experience with New Incandescents?
http://www.newcandescent.com/
They have electronic innards of some sort and are legal. 3 bucks a bulb. I took a chance on 12 of them in January but they haven't started burning out as yet. I am trying to track their life cycle.
As far as your real question, use in the cold, I have no idea, I just wanted to get a thread continuing on LED bulb use.

Earl, I hadn't even heard about the new incandescents. Interesting. I hate the new, curly florescent bulbs. They don't put out enough light, so I bought a case of regular incandescents through Amazon.

I found these replacement bulbs:
https://www.earthled.com/collections/...
It's $150 before shipping & tax, but they'd fit into the existing light after I rewire it to remove the ballasts.

IIRC, it costs about $20 for each of the current bulbs, so I don't think they're worth it yet.

Earl wrote: "I've mostly had poor luck with LEDs as far as the long life they promised..."

I found a skim of ice on the fish pond today & realized that the GFI breaker had blown, but the outside outlet is wired to another inside behind books in my bedroom. That entire wall is a built-in bookcase & the outlet is actually crossed by a shelf with just a few inches cut out. I did manage to put a nightlight in there, so now I can easily see if the outlets are working or not.

Anyway, the point of this rambling is that the LED nightlight was only $2.50 at Walmart & comes with a lifetime warranty. If it dies, supposedly we can send it back to the company & they'll send us another one. Postage rates being what they are, it's probably not worth it, but a nice idea.

When I turned on the heater in my shop this year, the breaker blew. I pulled the cover off the breaker box & removed the other wires that were on the 30 amp 220v breaker. The heater has been working fine, but I didn't have any power out in the hay barn. I went out there today & cleaned out its breaker box thinking that spiderwebs, stink & lady bugs had probably created a moisture bridge. No such luck.

I turns out I don't really have 220v power out there. What I have is 2 separate 120v circuits each going to a separate breaker. The electrician really should have wired it to 2 separate 20amp 120v breakers in my shop. He also should have used underground wire, but didn't & there's a short after a decade. I pulled 1 leg of the wire out of the breaker & found 120v in both hot wires.

I really want power out there so I can plug in my tractor's block heater this winter &/or run the lights. I wired just one leg into another 20amp 120v breaker & capped the other leg in the circuit breaker box in the shop. Both the outlets & the lights now work in the hay barn. Not sure how long that will last & I doubt I'll be able to use the block heater with the lights until I replace them with LEDs. Right now there are eight 150 watt incandescent bulbs running. I'm not sure how much current the block heater for the tractor draws, but probably more than the 20 amp circuit can handle.

LED bulbs have thankfully come down in price, although 8' ones to replace my existing fluorescents are pretty pricey, about $25 each from Amazon in a set of 4. An electrician told me they're a lot less at his supply store, but apparently only with his contractor's discount. Without it, they're a bit more.

I replaced a set out in the barn & another in my shop. I'm tickled with them. They come on immediately & work without any flickering in any temperature. It's a bit tough getting the correct color, though. That's an availability issue. I prefer 5000 rather than the bluer 6000, but wound up getting the latter.

Rewiring the fixtures is easy from a wiring stand point. Just wire one end to the incoming white & the other to the incoming black. It requires cutting the ballast out of the loop & I just left it in place. I needed slightly larger wire nuts & it moved the ground wire, so I had to add a bit more to it.

From a working standpoint, it's a little tough to do by myself. For instance, getting the bulbs out & standing off to the side securely required 2 trips up & down that ladder in the barn since there wasn't a corner handy & I'm always worried those big bulbs will fall & break. The ceilings in both cases are 10' up. I managed to drop the pliers or a wire nut a couple of times, too. More trips. Otherwise it's not bad, just kind of amazing how clumsy a normal human can be.
;)

I'm no longer as happy with the LED replacements in the shop as I was. Even with diffusers (not all have them) only half the bulb is lit so they don't radiate onto the ceiling & over to the walls as well. It makes the ceiling darker than I'm used to & also throws some shadows down below. They're especially noticeable on the workbench when I'm marking joints.

We had a 4' florescent fixture die at work. Instead of letting it go to the trash, I pulled the ballast & hung it above my workbench with LEDs in it. I had a tough time finding them, though. All Lowe's had were LED replacement bulbs that need a working ballast. They had a bunch of those, but none that didn't need a ballast. I'm bewildered by this since I've been told by several people that ballasts are a big waste of energy. They're also another point of failure & expensive to replace. I don't know why anyone would want to keep them in play. Any ideas?

Jim wrote: "I'm no longer as happy with the LED replacements in the shop as I was. Even with diffusers (not all have them) only half the bulb is lit so they don't radiate onto the ceiling & over to the walls a..."

No, no ideas from me. I'm constantly having problems with not enough light.
I hope someone else has some solutions !

As long as we are asking...does anyone have a recommendation for a flashlight that is actually bright enough and lasts? Rechargeable would be best i think.
I see on that ghost hunters show them going in a cellar or tunnel with a nice bright light. I always think sheesh, I'd be _____ outta luck down there with my flashlight.

We have a handheld spotlight with a 12 volt lead acid battery in it. Ours is over a decade old & says it's a million candle power or something silly. Once when I thought it had died, I tried looking for a replacement, but couldn't find one with the same rating. I doubt it is truly that bright. They sell quite a few for $30-$40, but there are some really bright ones for $200 or more, too.

I carry one of those little 3 triple A battery flashlights with 9 LEDs in it in my pocket. I got a bunch of them from Harbor Freight in 6 packs for under $10 a few years back. I love them, but they don't go too far. They're great when it's really dark out - no moon & cloudy. They're also handy for close work since I can hold it in my mouth.

Remember not to carry change in the same pocket. Their lens is the exact same size as a quarter. I wondered why it didn't work at first. I had to saw a bit of the rim of one off to pry a quarter out.

Jim wrote: "We have a handheld spotlight with a 12 volt lead acid battery in it. Ours is over a decade old & says it's a million candle power or something silly. Once when I thought it had died, I tried lookin..."

I haven't decided on a flashlight yet. Yeah, i have some of those small flashlights too. I don’t know why but it seems when they are older, even with new batteries, the bright light time is much less.
I've always got one in my pocket...good to know about the coins.

By the way, i just used my LAST 100 watt bulb that we bought off amazon years ago (2014?). Remember? They were made in Europe somewhere.

I do not know what place I can publish, so...
Is anyone had bought this floor lamp? It looks like cool but price is a little bit high, is there anyone who can tell me the experience for it? it belongs to CHIPHY: https://chiphylighting.com

Mjkobe wrote: "I do not know what place I can publish, so...
Is anyone had bought this floor lamp? It looks like cool but price is a little bit high, is there anyone who can tell me the experience for it? ..."

Seems like a perfect place to pose the question. I have not seen them before, but the price of $120 or so doesn't seem outrageous given the size & controls. It certainly wouldn't fit in with what we laughingly call our decor (piled miscellaneous), but I could see it fitting well in some places. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Egads... when I was young we had lava lamps, strobe lights and disco balls. I guess digital circuitry has revolutionized young peoples choices for stimulating lighting. On the other hand, if it's left on the soft warm yellowish setting it is a handsome lamp. If it can be dimmed it would create a nice romantic atmosphere similar to low wattage lamps from the "olden days" made into the shape of flowers and critters. (I still enjoy the turtle and flower lamps made with dark orange glass I found in the dump and repaired)

But hey, I bet if your crafty you can make it out of wire, paper stained with coffee and wiring from a thrift store lamp! And you'd have $110 left over.

I'm so frustrated with this lightbulb situation. I bought ones that said "daylight" on the box and they turned out to be bluish light, like florescent. I put one in the cellar ceiling fixture, sat on the stairs and decided to leave immediately.

Turns out the correct color is "soft white". And i bet it varies from brand to brand.
It's pretty bad when trying to figure out lightbulbs exhausts me.
Is there a rhyme or reason to this?

I think the heat is making me stupid (and weak) (not even kidding).

I've been bitten by that before, too. It varies a little by brand, but you mostly have to look at the 'temperature' of the light. I think it's the same for LED & florescent. Here's a chart which helps a lot.
https://www.ledlightexpert.com/unders...

Pretty much anything from 5000 K up is a white or blue-white. It's gets bluer the higher it gets & yellower below that. A soft white is around 4000 & 3500 looks pretty yellowish to me.

Jim wrote: "I've been bitten by that before, too. It varies a little by brand, but you mostly have to look at the 'temperature' of the light. I think it's the same for LED & florescent. Here's a chart which he..."

That's helpful, thanks. I just have to remember lower is better and/or soft white.
I put the stupid bluish ones in the donation box. Maybe someone else won't color care.

I like the bluer light in the shop, but more yellow in the house.

Interesting article re: led bulbs
https://nymag.com/strategist/article/...

That is interesting. Thanks, Jaye.

Jim wrote: "That is interesting. Thanks, Jaye."

I thought you'd find it interesting.
It's amazing the amount of money they charge for these things that are supposed to last longer. Then they're wonky. I noticed some go dim. Only because where i noticed is the kitchen when I'm cooking.

Mine have been pretty solid, but I never thought about the color changes. That was a real eye-opener, especially in the situations illustrated. It's not a big deal to me, but I could understand it driving some people nuts.