Anyone have a LED dusk to dawn pole light?

[TomSeller]

Something is very wrong if your lights are tripping the breaker. Doesn't sound like you have a handle on what is going on in your home.

You sure jump to conclusions without knowing details. When I bought the house the previous owner had 100W incandescents in every can fixture AND accent plug ins in the vaulted ceilings were overloaded with even more lights. The inspector that I hired before buying the place turned on everything he could on every circuit (house was empty so it was basically the lights in that part of the house) and noticed just turning all the lights on tripped the breakers. I removed all the accent lights and switched the can lights out to LED and don't have any problems. I then replaced every outlet and switch while cleaning up the wire ends for better electrical contact.

I have a very good idea on what is going on in my home. I don't think you have a very good idea of what is going on in this thread so maybe take a break.

 

[Zerk]

You sure jump to conclusions without knowing details. When I bought the house the previous owner had 100W incandescents in every can fixture AND accent plug ins in the vaulted ceilings were overloaded with even more lights. The inspector that I hired before buying the place turned on everything he could on every circuit (house was empty so it was basically the lights in that part of the house) and noticed just turning all the lights on tripped the breakers. I removed all the accent lights and switched the can lights out to LED and don't have any problems. I then replaced every outlet and switch while cleaning up the wire ends for better electrical contact.

I have a very good idea on what is going on in my home. I don't think you have a very good idea of what is going on in this thread so maybe take a break.

I make my living with electricity.

If you are tripping breakers from lights, other then a big shop, your house is circuited poorly. You have other problems. Many people live that way, with band aids. Nothing really wrong with it, if you don't mind.

Do some math, breakers are 15 or 20 amps for outlets and lights. That is not getting into code or sizing.

It was not unusual in old homes to have a whole floor on a breaker. People lived like that.

Replacing all the outlets, switches, and cleaning the ends didn't hurt, but was probably an incredibly waste of time. It did not decrease the load a measurable amount.


Cleaning wire ends is a joke. Shows why home owners should not be doing electrical. It doesn't hurt, but if they think it is make a difference, they probably lack the experience to do the work.

 

[Zerk]

You can around 17 100 watt bulbs on 15 amp circuit before it trips. Again not talking derating or code.
watts=voltsxcurent. 100/120 equals .83 15/.83 is 18. Many homes have 20 amp breakers. I wouldn't bother with a 20 for living rooms and bedrooms. Kitchen and bathrooms should be on their on circuits with 20s each. You should have dedicated circuits in the kitchen. Again, people got by without this. They moved the coffee pot or microwave to a different circuit.


A good thing to do, is turn off breakers and see what turns off. Then label the breakers.

 

[bcp]

It was not unusual in old homes to have a whole floor on a breaker. People lived like that.

Breakers? I've seen many old houses with only two screw-in 15 amp fuses.

Bruce

 

[TomSeller]

I make my living with electricity.

If you are tripping breakers from lights, other then a big shop, your house is circuited poorly. You have other problems. Many people live that way, with band aids. Nothing really wrong with it, if you don't mind.

Do some math, breakers are 15 or 20 amps for outlets and lights. That is not getting into code or sizing.

It was not unusual in old homes to have a whole floor on a breaker. People lived like that.

Replacing all the outlets, switches, and cleaning the ends didn't hurt, but was probably an incredibly waste of time. It did not decrease the load a measurable amount.

Cleaning wire ends is a joke. Shows why home owners should not be doing electrical. It doesn't hurt, but if they think it is make a difference, they probably lack the experience to do the work.

You don't know what your talking about.

 

[ultrarunner]

My first home is like this... 1250 square feet...

One 30 amp Edison Base Screw in fuse for the main and a sub-panel with a 15 amp light circuit and a 20 amp outlet circuit.

Lived there for years and never a problem... toaster, washer and dryer, refrigerator, vacuum... etc...

 

[Zerk]

You don't know what your talking about.

I can't know your exact situation. But there is more to this.


Writing it was a joke, was maybe not the right thing to say. But typically it would be a waste of time to clean connections and change outlets, unless you had 2 prong, and wanted to go 3 prong. Tightening connections wouldn't be a bad idea. But it is not something you would do for no reason.

Maybe down south, wire can turn green from the humidity. I have never seen it here, in wiring that was 50 or more years old. Knob and tube still looked ok.

Either way your story has nothing to do with incanescent lights. You don't clean connections because connections are bad, or because you have to many lights.


I would have clamped the breaker to read amps. While it is typical as breakers get old, they will fail to trip, they can trip a to low of load.

 

[Zerk]

My first home is like this... 1250 square feet...

One 30 amp Edison Base Screw in fuse for the main and a sub-panel with a 15 amp light circuit and a 20 amp outlet circuit.

Lived there for years and never a problem... toaster, washer and dryer, refrigerator, vacuum... etc...

There are still homes like this. We don't typically use alot of power. Old homes they didn't bother with isolation, for ease of future construction.

Years ago washer, fridge,vacuum, and coffee pot were the only loads in the house. Now we have microwaves. Range and dryers were on there own fuses. We still dont have alot of load, when not using tools in the garage, or space heaters. Not sure what some of these big tvs take.

You would need alot of lights, all on the same circuit. Maybe with a shop might be an issue. But an over head light or some lamps, shouldn't do it, unless something is extreme.

Either way this has nothing to do with LED vs Incandescents

 

[PJSprog]

Wow. The fun got sucked right out of reading this thread. :thumbdown:

 

[k0ua]

Wow. The fun got sucked right out of reading this thread. :thumbdown:

Yeah, it kinda went downhill. And to think there is a man in Wisc. that is defending his stock of incandescent bulbs with deadly force. And I would be happy to give mine away. Different strokes for different folks.