Outside lights

We have four of these around the house.

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Two of which are now very slow to warm up and sometimes one of them never does. What's the most economic fix?

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike
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I would replace with PIR LED units, cheapo on ebay, in fact 8.5 w were in lidl the other day for £8

Reply to
ss

what is it, sodium, mercury, hid?

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

High pressure Sodium by the look of it - don't like being turned on and off frequently so should never be on PIR activation and need to be left on for several hours periodically. Cheapest fix is a new bulb but making sure it is the right type as some haave integral igniters and some don't. Lots of slightly yellowy light for the money so efficiency is good.

Reply to
Peter Parry

Put a new bulb in.

Reply to
Peter Parry

With one small snag. The 8.5W PIR LED units at LIDL give out 760lm.

A typical 70W SON (which it appears that the OP has) gives out around

5000lm.
Reply to
ARW

I have three on a daylight/night-time sensor and they last years and years. By the time I have to change a bulb the screws on the fitting have usually rusted up.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

What does it say on the receipts? ;-)

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Can I tell without getting the ladders out? Its a tad to windy to mess with ladders at present.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

Can't be. LEDs are the answer to everything. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Yes - they generally last very well. But would be useless on a PIR. Take far too long to get up to full wick.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

What receipts? They were there when we bough the house 12 years ago.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

Whoosh! ;-)

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

These have daylight sensors built in but we don't use them in that way. We switch them on as needed. I have two other outside lights (ex RAF airfield lights) mounted on the workshop pointing at the drive and house that are on a PIR for security and guiding visitors to the house door.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

Looking around our area I still see many lights that have been fitted so that the centre of the beam points to the end of the property - this means half the light is causing a nuisance or is wasted. Mount them high and point them down. Light (source hitting) in your eyes just makes everwhere look darker.

My drive runs up the side of the house (similar to most neighbours). Most have fitted them to th efront of the garage to shine down the drive and onto the houses across the road - dazzling you as you drive toward the garage. I defied this convention and mounted mine high under the eaves of the house and pointed it down and slightly back toward the garage. Light source not seen from car!

Reply to
DerbyBorn

Then you'll have to put up with warm up times of minutes, depending on which type of discharge lamp it is

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

They are probably high pressure sodium or possibly high pressure mercury lamps. The clue is in the colour of the light which for high pressure sodium is somewhat orange/yellow tinged (unlike low pressure sodium as used in older street lights which is very orange coloured). For High Pressure Mercury it will be a clear white light with a blue or blue/green tint.

To replace them you will need to get up to one fitting to retrieve a bulb and see the wattage and whether it has an integral or separate igniter.

Look like this

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For domestic use as convenience/security lighting 70W would be the most likely size. 70W high pressure Sodium bulbs are about £8 each, Mercury somewhat less.

They have a very long life - 21,000 hours to 5% failures.

Reply to
Peter Parry

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Whatever happened to good old fashioned low pressure sodium? I thought they were the most efficient light source of all and even the astronomers don't mind them as they can filter out the single wavelength they emit.

Philip

Reply to
philipuk

So its probably just the bulb then, not all the other gubbins in there.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

We don't mind a few minutes warm up, its the current "will they/wont they" ever start that's annoying. Most replies point to the bulb being the culprit so I will have to get the ladder out, see what's in there, and cost a replacement. I just didn't want to go buying what looks like an expensive bulb when it may be the gubbins behind it at fault.

Mike

Reply to
Muddymike

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