A few weeks ago I noticed for the first time after moving in 18 months ago that the outside flood light up high on the garage wall has no glass in the front of it. "That's going to cause me problems one day" I surmised but have no ladder to reach it or any glass to fit in it if I did.
It appears to have a PIR detector thingy built in but just operates as a flood light via a wall switch i.e. always on or always off. So anyway sod's law, it's worked fine until I noticed the problem and then after the first high winds and gusts of snow blowing that way this year I switched it on and there was a pop and the bulb blew. It probably got thoroughly soaked in the recent weather. Several questions.
1) Do all PIR lights have some sort of switch built in that enables them to work in either flood or PIR mode? Either mine has or it's been bodged somehow to disable the PIR part.2) Can you, in general, get replacement front glass (standard sizes?) or is it easier/cheaper to buy a whole new unit? Especially now the bulb has blown too.
3) I'd rather have the option of PIR if I decide to use it in the future but if the answer to 1) is no then I'll probably just settle for buying a flood light. I now see that LED options are available and no doubt use a lot less electric than halogen although that's probably not an issue for something switched on so rarely but are there any other pros and cons? Life of the bulbs, initial cost etc.4) Until I can get up there and see what bulb it has in it at present I have no idea how powerful it is but it gave a good light down the driveway and was handy if you needed to unpack the car at night or have a gander under the bonnet. What's a good wattage to aim for?