Outdoor Lighting, Security Lighting

[HighVelocity]

I have all my outdoor lighting on timers and all my fixtures are enclosed. I have been using the Philips Energy Star halogen bulbs and they work pretty good.
I have a bulb out and realized I am out of replacements and cannot seem to find the same bulb at my usual stores. Wife unit says "all bulbs must match". :rolleyes: I usually buy a couple dozen at a time so it's been quite a while since I bought bulbs. A lot of bulbs I see say specifically on the label that they're not for use "in enclosures" which all mine are. If somebody wants to steel something you're going to have to bust the fixture because there's no way they're unscrewing the bulb without tools.

What popular/common bulb has long life, bright/white light and low consumption?

[Bob F.]

Tempted to jump in and say any halogen, but guess I'll wait for the experts. Sorry I couldn't help but didn't want you to feel lonesome.

LOL
Bob

[HighVelocity]

Tempted to jump in and say any halogen, but guess I'll wait for the experts. Sorry I couldn't help but didn't want you to feel lonesome.

LOL
Bob

I appreciate that Bob. I'm sure there's not a whole lot of difference from one halogen vs another but with the way my light bills have been lately and TXU getting their 24% rate increase approved, I want the most efficient light I can get.

[Colt]

I'm no expert, but I use the flourescent-type (sp?) bulbs. I'm not sure of the exact technical type.

They are very energy efficient, but a little expensive upfront ~$5 a bulb. One drawback is that they take about 2 minutes to warm up to full brightness, but since my lights are set to be on from dusk to dawn, it doesn't matter.

They come in all sizes and shapes. I haven't had to replace any of the 6 in 2.5 years, since I made the switch, and they're on everynight, all night. 60 watt floods.

[pete f]

Do you have a WW Graingers there?

They list a awful lot of light bulbs and lighting systems.

Otherwise, go visit a commercial lighting supplier and talk to a good counterman, I am now using some sylvania traffic signal lightbulbs that are rated for 15000 hours of life, which if you run it 12 hours a day, is almost 3 1/2 years of life. The graingers near me has some LED flood lights that are supposed to be be rated for 100000 hours life. One thing i have found in my commercial life, once a light bulbs goes in a set, you might as well replace them all as they will all go in short order.

We just installed some metal hallide lights at a shopping center, supposedly ten year life span with very low power-to-light outputs.

[Fly320s]

Anyone making LED replacements, yet? They don't draw much power and they have a long life.

I found this one, don't know if it will work: www.doctorled.com/index2.htm

and this one: www.enluxled.com

[pbhome71]

The doctorled looks interesting. However, they did not see what is the output of the light.

[Fly320s]

120 Lumens for the brightest. Look at www.doctorled.com/product_d.htm

[CZ 75 BD]

Well, I am a lighting guy. Halogens are in fact glorified incandescents like are bought in the grocery store. With incandescents you simply do not want to exceed the wattage on the fixture label. You can expect about 1000 hours life at the most. Lamp life is rated at the point of one-half failure. In other words, in a test group, the hour when half are out and half are still burning is the rated life. So any incandescent in the proper wattage will do. Unless you have the tubular quartz halogen 300 or 500 or 1500 watt type. These are superior in terms of bright white color and intensity, usually aided by a reflector in the fixture.

Compact fluorescents with a screw base are the best bet for long life with good light output per watts consumed. Their size and shape may be a drawback as well as the few moments they take to reach full brightness, as others have said. Most are suitable for cold starts, but you will experience delay to full bright. The enclosure actually helps in cold weather.

So are the fixtures screw base sockets or some other type?

[HighVelocity]

Thanks for all the replies and links. I'm geting some ideas.

So are the fixtures screw base sockets or some other type?

They're the typical screw socket type.

[bogie]

Remember that some "turns on automatically at night" fixtures can act sorta like dimmers, which I understand don't play well with the fluorescents.

I'm _considering_ the LED lights for one ceiling light. To me it's worth a coupla hundred bucks to never stand the top of the step ladder again...