led floodlight

[Stephen]

Hello,

I wanted to install a floodlight to light my garden in the winter.

What is Eterna like as a brand? Is it better than the "no-name" makes out there?

I've seen two of their lamps on CPC; both are rated 20W and give the same output in lumens.

The first is rated IP65 whereas the second is "only" IP44 but the main difference is that the first has a colour temperature of 6200K whereas the second is 4000K

Has anyone tried either of these? Which would you go for? I'm worried the first one might look too blue? Does it?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Graham.]

Yes some give a very "cold" looking white but they may be more efficient than the warm white ones in terms of lumens/watt

The mirrored reflector is just for show and plays no part in beam forming, the housing simply casts a shadow. Consequently, you have to angle them downwards to a greater extent than many people realise, to keep the incident light out of the eyes of friendly witnesses and observers, and the windows of the houses opposite. I know this because I am on the receiving end of one.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

'Cold' might be ok in this instance - to look more like moonlight. And is usually more efficient with LEDs.

[ARW]

Eterna is a cheap known name.

However as the market demands cheap LED floodlights for £30 a pop that is all you will get.

Give it 3-5 years and then replace it when it fails.

It's better than replacing 500W halogen lamps every 3 months.

[Dave Liquorice]

For something that is exposed to the weather IP44 may as well not have a case... Check the descriptions carefully, if stainless screws are mentioned is it just the ones holding the glass bezel in place or the ones that attach the lamp to the bracket as well? The latter are often omited from the stainless description and are "chromed" steel that show signs of rust within 24hrs of being outside...

6200 k will look very blue and cold. Personally I don't like "daylight" unless it is at real daylight levels. I've a 10 W "White" LED flood it's OK but if buying again I'd look for something "warmer".

That applies to the bog standard halogen type as well, ours is almost horizontal to keep the "hot spot" out of the eyes of approaching drivers.

There are a couple of flood lights at a farm the other side and a further down the valley. We are 3/4 of a mile and 300' *higher* than that farm but those floods give enough light to read by up here...

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

The 125 Watt halogen reflectors can't be tilted down to keep the light on your own land because the sensor gets in the way:-(

I suppose this could be overcome by changing the mounting bracket but for a *use off the shelf* item, this is poor design.

>

[Bill Wright]

Black insulating tape on the glass is a good way of confining the beam.

Bill

[Stephen]

Thanks. What i9s a better quality known name?

It doesn't have to be LED necessarily as it will only be switched on for brief periods.

Thanks, Stephen.

[Stephen]

It seems that the IP44 one has the better colour but not the weather proofing but the weatherproofed one will be too blue! Perhaps I need to find a third option.

Thanks, Stephen.

[RJH]

/snip

I think that's a bit much. Light pollution is something some take very seriously - in the same ball park as say noise and air pollution. Sheffield University and Derbyshire Council did some lobbying/studies recently. I went to a talk on stars (or some such) and they were getting very animated about the whole thing.

Might be worth contacting your council if it bothers you.

[Chris French]

In message , Stephen writes

The halogen bulbs will still blow often enough to be annoying.

Fit an LED one and then not have to worry about it for a few years at least

[Chris French]

In message , Stephen writes

CPC seem to have a quite a selection.

[Stephen]

I was thinking perhaps CFL as a compromise, if the colour was better, though perhaps it would be dim when cold?

[ARW]

I don't think there any better alternatives. They are all about the same price and all are made to the lowest possible budget.

I fitted two 20W Brackenheath LED floods with PIR today. I can highly recommend you avoid using them. The PIR sensor is mounted in such a way that the light cannot be tilted down by much of an angle.

And as Chris has said - it is still worth fitting LED.

[Vortex11]

A few years ago in a rash moment I purchased a Steinel XLED like this:

About 3 times the price of the cheaper ones but a nice, quality wide angle flood light that does not give you arc-eye.

I now have 3.

D

[ARW]

I have found that they are not very good at aiming down enough to stop light spillage.

[ss]

I bought 2 x 10 w and 1 x 20w Cheap LED floods on ebay for around £10 each I then used the Lidl PIRs, that was over a year ago and all works fine. The light from all of them is contained within my property so wasnt bothered about warm or daylight as used mostly as a burglar deterrent.

[Dave Liquorice]

Dim is not the word for CFL at near freezing ... glimmer is closer. And they take even longer to warm up. If it's simply going to be on and left on there is little to choose between CFL and LED (ATM). But if it's just switched on to call the cat or move the bin, remember to switch the CFL on 5 mins before you go out...

[Dave Liquorice]

At the expense of reducing the light where you want it. Fitting a barn door to create a shadow in the desired direction but still allowing all the light out would be better. The illuminated side of the barn door can be painted white to reflect light to the wanted area.

That's a full set of adjustable barn doors for a stage/filming lamp but you get the idea. The narrow at lamp wider away shape is probably best made out of thin sheet ali (shiny and reflective) or as these are for an LED light (no heat...) stiff opaque UV stable plastic. (Split and flattend down pipe or flattened gutter?).

[Dave Liquorice]

These are quite large high pressure sodium judging by the colour (orange but not mono chromatic). They are on from dusk to dawn.

Agreed but I think these are just aimed by someone without a clue. It's to light an area used to store farm impliments, haylidge, etc that extends 50 yds+ from the barn that they are attached to. So they have simply pointed the lamp at the far end of the area ...