An LED question

Something like this might well do the job.

There are cheaper ones too but not quite so nice.

Spotlights sounds like one direction though. I'm looking at something where the large ish globe is all evenly illuminated. My light perception is what I'm after using having no focus any more spots would vanish if viewed from other directions. Brian

I have bought 4 of these for the garage - they're brilliant.

Its a "spotlight" with a beam width of 270 degrees. Basically intended as a functional equivalent of a bare 12v quartz halogen bulb.

I haven't used the new ones but something similar and they are pretty bright compact light sources. The only criticism might be that they are too point source like and a bit dazzling when in line of sight.

LEDs as such do tend to be approaching a point source and directional. The 'lens' on them may modify this.

To get a large even globe, you'd need a lot of them and a diffusing outer.

I've not seen any that look just like opaque globe tungsten - they tend to have more of a hot spot. Tungsten of that type likely have a very long filament which is why they are more delicate than GLS.

Is an opaque one an energy saving bulb as you don't need a filament or is 100% inefficient as it just gets hot?

Use 12V LED lights meant as replacements for car side lights. For example

These have near enough all round illumination. If you need to remove all light point sources simply put a tube of translucent material such as tracing paper over them.

You might need to get someone to do minor surgery to connect to the base wires but that doesn't seem to be too difficult. Run them all off a suitable 12VDC supply (such as a surplus computer power supply).

These

In action here:

You can get them in globes. Although TBH I prefer the cheaper corn on the cob types if I want something approximating omnidirectional.

I nearly got killed while 20 foot up a ladder screwing in a corncob.

All the ones I have are safely encased in a plastic envelope.

I have seen spotlight versions with bare wire connections in a holiday cottage that we hired. I don't think it is a good idea but as Edison used to say DC doesn't normally kill you (unless you fall off a ladder).

I have a large globe tungsten in the light above a table. Used because it looks pretty. Very evenly lit approx 6" sphere. I'd like a dimmable LED to do the same job. But must look as good on and off.

Even without electrical training surely common sense should have suggested to you that it's always advisable to switch off the light before changing a bulb ?

The point being, that if there's already sufficient light for you to climb the ladder and fit the bulb then there should be sufficient light for you to climb down again without the switch having been left to on.

Also given your propensity for jumping off of bridges there would also be less temptation for you to stick your fingers in the live light socket.

I was at the top of a ladder fitting a security light to my garage's loft roof and did not want to have to come all the way down to test it by switching it on at ground level.

Since I had never got an electric shock from a lamp and an LED was not going to get hot enough, it was safe enough a procedure, however, I hadn't reckoned with those naughty Chinese people.

In the end, I did a proper job and fitted this instead.

A number of things that might be, proper is not one of them. Only the terminally antisocial and selfish mount floodlights pointing horizontally rather than vertically.

Odd, isn't it? Perhaps they look brighter that way. What they actually light up doesn't matter.

Well, look who posted it.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

In unrequested defence... the mounting brackets supplied and the PIR position make life rather difficult.

That is always a problem when bodging things. Either a separate PIR should have been used or a bit of surgery done on the cheap combined unit to allow both the light and PIR to be oriented correctly. Flooding the sky and neighbours with light from an ineptly mounted floodlight is antisocial and selfish. "I bought the wrong light" isn't an acceptable excuse. Fortunately in this case the sealing strip appear to have been fitted incorrectly so it should stop working soon.