Has anyone had experience of the lamps/fittings:
The questions are:
How well do they work in cold temperatures?
Is there a mechanism whereby they can be turned on for long periods, such as an evening, as the timer only goes up to 7 minutes?
The maker's web site doesn't mention these aspects.
TIA
Terry
Terry Fields was thinking very hard :
Well, I'm finding the more recent CFL's and especially the few spiral ones we have do warm up quicker than before, but they are still not quite instant full light output. Maybe a few seconds, versus minutes of the older ones.
I would expect them to do the usual 'few seconds to 15 minutes' via an adjustment, plus being able to force them to stay on by turning the supply off then straight back on - as this seems to be a standard feature these days.
The web site has a 'contact form' and a phone number. Speak to them and they should be able to provide the definative answers.
I haven't used one, but I've seen them in the shops, and some thoughts...
They can't possibly be equivalent to a 300W halogen. Max achievable would be 4 x 36W = 150W. Then you need to derate this because of the reflector being small compared with the tube size (so the tube is significantly shadowing it's reflection), and I would guess it's probably equivalent to something less than 100W, say 80W.
Having said that, 80W [equivalent] outdoors is plenty for most home applications, and 300W [equivalent] is way over the top.
Fluorescent tubes are not ideal for short switching, and hence PIR use is not ideal. (If it is a cold cathode tube, then that wouldn't be an issue, but it would be less efficient too.)
It sounds more like you want a dusk to dawn light than a PIR.
I wouldn't buy one myself. The none PIR version is £16 and you can add a separate PIR for £8.50 from tool station. Then you can put the PIR in a sensible place and the lamp in a sensible place. You can add more lamps too as they wont be as bright as a 300W halogen lamp.
You can add a switch across L1 and L2 on the PIR (usually at the lamp end and use three core and earth to the PIR) to work as an on off or use the built in off for a second and then on to keep it on.
B&Q had some much nicer flood lights with a 42W lamp in them but they were £40 without the PIR and £51 with.
They also do a 70W halide lamp which is far brighter but not much use as a security light as they don't instant start.
Don't know, never tried one, probably ok once warmed up!
Almost certainly. Most standard PIRs can be overridden with a switch. Some also allow "trick switching" where you flick the power on and off in the space of a short delay to latch them on.
A standard switching approach would be like this:
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