Some of you here may have read a past article by me where I told about changing the bulbs in a floodlight 25 feet off the ground.
Originally about 25 years ago, the dreaded HOA wanted to put a light, for safety, on the end of my townhouse, or semi-facing end of the next building.
I wanted it on mine so I could turn it off when I wanted darkness.
But I didn't want any stinkin' conduit running up the wall, so I had them put it just outside the attic, and wire it to the wires I had installed there. I made the mistake of letting them pick the height and it's 4 feet off the "floor" of the attic. If it were two inches off the floor, I might be able to reach it with a borrowed 20 foot ladder.
Once the bulb burned out and I called the HOA and they sent a whole electrician or two with an electrician's truck, to change the bulbs. I'm sure it cost them a lot of money. Maybe that was the time they changed the fixture from 2 round bulbs to one that's thinner than a pencil. Or maybe they did that the second time, so they wouldn't have to come so often. (Do they last longer?) That fixture burned out at end of the bulb and I replaced the fixture myself, as described below.
Anyhow, since then I've changed the fixture at least once and the bulbs at least once. I came up with the idea (patent pending) of, from the attic, disconnecting the romex, unscrewing the molly** nuts, (used by the electrician when they installed it from the outside) tying a string to the romex, and lowering the whole fixture to the ground. Then doing my work and pulling the whole thing back up.
**The one with the folding wings and the spring. It's a molly or a toggle, never can remember.I've done this two or three times and it was tricky to get the two screws back in their now-enlarged holes. (at least an inch each.) One screw is about 3 inches long and the other about 2. Each time I got the long one in about 5 minutes, and after that, the short one is easy. But the bulbs burned out again (and the wind had turned the lghts on too much) and I bought still another fixture and wasn't sure it would be so easy.
I tried a week ago and the new fixture is so top-heavy that everything turns upside down. Went back in the attic again with a long stiff wire with hooks on each end and tried to grab the 3" screw and pull it around, but no luck. I've spend 40 minutes on it now, instead of just
Almost ready to borrow a 26' ladder, but I know the guy and he'll want to deliver it for me and pick it up, and he does a lot of favors for me. I could put it on the roof of my car, but I have to find one part of the contraption. I have a bike rack that goes into a 1" square vertical receiver that bolts to the drawbar of a trailer hitch. I also made a ladder rack that fits in the same vertical holder. But I lost the holder somewhere in the house 6 years ago, and I still can't find it.
New idea. Tie weights to the light fixture, to the long screw, to pull the long screw to the bottom, instead of the top where the weight of the lights pull it. Never throw anything away. Today I got my brother's dumbells, that he bought about 1956. Took off two of the 1
1/2 pounders plus one collar, about 4 pounds total, and hung them from the screw. Seems to be the right weight.Go inside the attic and pull everything up. Fortunately the extra weight isn't enough to separate the other nylon string from the romex it's tied to. (Tied it to the end so that the the romex would follow the string through the hole.) But I can sure tell that the whole thing is a lot heavier. Still needed the wire with a bend on the end to catch the screw and pull it in, but only took 5 minutes. Cut the string holding the weights. I didnt hear anything, but they were on the wet ground when I went outslde.
And that's how there are two new lights in the xmas sky, although I didnt' connect the electricity yet. .
LED fixture. I hope it doesn't burn out while i'm here.