outdoor cfl floodlights?

[reply]

Hello,

A few weeks ago I was asking about the CPC LED outdoor lamps and I was put off by the comments that they were too blue and other comments posted here.

I wondered if anyone had experience of CFL outdoor lamps, such as this one by Eterna:

I think it, or something similar, is sold by CPC and Toolstation. The only problem is, the pdf file says that the bulb is 6400K for that too; so presumably it is as blue as the LED models we talked of before?

I did have a no-name CFL from CPC before and it was slightly blue but I was surprised that it never seemed affected by the cold. I was worried that a CFL might be dim when cold. Are the bulbs for the outdoor lamps made differently from the indoor ones because indoor cfls are often criticised for being slow to come to full brightness. The colour temperature is one obvious difference between the two bulb types.

Could you put any CFL with an ES end into the fitting or are they special bulbs? For example, is the electronics in the fitting rather than the bulb?

Thanks, Stephen.

PS Is Eterna a good brand for lights?

[chris French]

In message , [e-mail] writes

No, thouhg I have had CFL bulbs in outdoor lamps before with no problem.

Probably not, 6500K is at the bluer end of the colour temp range, biut that is a bit different that the 'blueness' you get from some 'white' LED's

I'd find 6500K fine in an outdoor light - it's kind a harsh I think for main room lighting, but I've a got a desk lamp here than has a 6400K lamp in (cos that is what it came with) and that is fine for desk use

Between which two types?

I don't knwo if they make specific outdoor ones, I've never come across them. IME nowadays lots of CFL's come on at a decent brightness straight away - though not full brightness. Though I did by some from B&Q a bout a year ago that are so slow you don't really notice them being on at first....

Any ES CFL (well that will fit in the fitting) - electronics is all in the bulb)

[newshound]

While ordinary CFLs may take longer to "warm up" at outdoor temperatures I've always found them perfectly adequate. I use 12 volt (boat/caravan) ones run off leisure batteries at my powerless stables and they are fine too. Standard cheapest CPC floodlight bodies.

[Nightjar]

IME it does not take long to get used to the slightly different colour of light. I am replacing CFLs with LEDs whenever new lamps are needed.

I have been using G23 2-pin 9w CFLs, in my garden for around 20 years, in both floodlights and bulkhead fittings. I bought those from Newey & Eyre, but the part numbers don't come up on their web site these days.

That is an unusually high colour temperature, giving daylight colour rendering. Your garden plants will probably like it. Warm white CFLs are around 3000K and cool white CFLs are around 4000K.

You don't need a lot of light outdoors, so, if they are slow, it is probably a lot less noticeable.

Colin Bignell

[PeterC]

I've just replaced the CFL in the light by the front door with a 3.5W LED, as the CFL needed about a minute to warm up in the winter (in the summer, when I don't need it, it's on immediately of course) and the same in a shed where there are 4 bulkhead fittings so 1 is now 6.3W LED.

My neighbour has a floodlight with a CFL of about 6,400K and that comes on at full output (near enough). It's 23W and from Aldi and gives a good light to about 70' down the garden and without the viscious glare of halogen.

Definitely worth having 'outdoor' lamps.

[meow2222]

6400K is pretty nasty blue-white

NT

[alan]

In my opinion, 6400k is better for outdoor use. It's the colour of daylight.

Possibly depending on age and eyesight you may find that using 6400k bulbs indoors actually helps if you need to read printed material.

[Caecilius]

Getting a bit OT, but I find that I prefer a warmer colur temperature, especially at night. I use f.lux on my PC to change the coulr temperature, and have it set for 2700K at night and 6500K during the day.

I think 6400K would look very cold at night time, when the surrounding lighting is generally warmer. Probably fine during the day though :-)

[meow2222]

Eye perception changes greatly with light level. 6400K electric lighting looks very very different to daylight, even if its technically the same CCT.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

The dilemma is that the more efficient fluorescent lamps have a larger difference between the initial light output and the warmed up light output. This is even more pronounced if the lamp is very cold to start with.

If you are using a light on a timeswitch or dusk-to-dawn photocell or other long running time, fluorescent is fine. For a short operated light on a PIR, I'm still going with cheap filament fittings, with the expectation that LED will be good enough in a couple of years. LED is good enough now if you make your own now - it's just that the dedicated LED luminares currently available at domestic price levels are still using crap LEDs.

You are not normally looking for good colour perception outdoors at night, so I don't regard outdoor lighting colour temperature as that critical. Anything from warm white (2700K) through to daylight (5500K) should be OK. It only looks silly to me if you have several lights and they aren't all the same. (It becomes more important if the lighting is part of a scene design, but not just for lighting a path.)

The other issue with LEDs was that until quite recently, the warmer white ones could cost you 50% loss of light output compared with the very cold/blue ones. I'm noticing that this penalty for warm white in new (raw) LED emitters is now down to only about 10% loss, making them more viable in my own LED light designs.

Anything that fits. A secondary issue is the possibility of over heating, which will shorten the life of the CFL integral ballast. A third issue is that effective use of a directional reflector light requires a reflector which is large relative to the light source, and that's almost never the case with CFL lights, which limits the efficiency of reflector CFL luminares (a significant proportion of the light is reflected back onto the tube itself and lost).

It tends to be good value. I look over any luminare in the shop for the design and construction before buying it.

[Adrian]

The PIR outside our back door is a perfect demonstration of this. I really must change it for a good ol' fashioned filament bulb.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Check out Kruithof curve, which describes the relationship between colour temperature and illuminance level for light to appear white.

BTW, I find daylight is