Dusk to dawn light to CFL

[QRTRHRS]

I really cannot complain about the CFL's I have used so far other than maybe not liking the color while trying differently rated bulbs. My barn was full of "Jelly Jar" lights with 60 watt incandescent bulbs which I was regularly replacing regardless of long life ratings, etc. I put six 100W CFL's in the highest lights over my aisle and have blown one. Mostly I use the lower rated bulbs but they are all hanging upside down. I have several 13W CFL's around the outside of the house for task lighting. I had one go so far but they are all upright. I would have to say they are in at least two years maybe more. I had a bathroom vent/light bezel scorch with a properly sized incendecent so I put CFL's in those too. I don't particularly like the delay of course. Those and the ones for my garage door openers are horizontally mounted.

Still, now that LED's are getting more inexpensive, I plan on going that route.

 

[kenmac]

If the HPSV luminaire is a quality one it should last decades but the lamps themselves do start to cycle on and off as they age, it's just a characteristic of them, and all that's need to correct that problem is a new bulb. .

Your right .. As the bulbs age they give problems... I replace my bulb as soon as problems start... My HPSV light has been up for some 20 yrs.. I have yet to replace anything but the bulbs

 

[chad22]

I read somewhere that CFL bulbs need to be mounted upright to last. If you mount them in the ceiling, facing down, they overheat and quickly fail

Eddie

That's interesting to know. I bought some cfls a few years ago to put in my bedroom and they were hanging upside down and only lasted around 5 months. But when I put a cfl in a lamp it lasted for 2 years. Probably would've lasted longer hadn't a piece of plaster fell on it knocking the lamp down off a table in the house I'm remodeling.

"I believe I was supposed to call in a haz mat team to cleanup the broken bulb" lol But I just swept it up and threw it in the trash.

My 500 watt Halogen work light bulb went out and I didn't have a replacement at the time so I decided to use my table lamp with the cfl to see somewhat.

A big hunk of plaster I was knocking off the ceiling in the living room took the cfl bulb out. I thought I'd put the lamp far enough away but the plaster went towards it.

I guess the plaster didn't like cfls either. I don't like them myself. I just don't like the light they put out. I prefer the incandescent. But sadly I may have to get used to the cfls if I can't find anymore incandescent in the future.

 

[Trkrd]

I replaced all my Al Gore bulbs(CFL) with LED. Much more efficient and will probably outlast me. I have a 55 watt LED wall pack on the barn that lights up the yard like a stadium.

 

[MossRoad]

In my experience, all the sensors that are built into the dawn to dusk lights fail fairly quickly. To get a good sensor, you need to buy it separately and mount it in a junction box before the light. This is how I've seen commercial jobs done and how I do it for my own place. ...

I've done that and it works very well. Much better than having the sensors located near the lights. :thumbsup:

 

[QRTRHRS]

A couple of stories about mercury: A number of years and states ago I had replaced a bunch of eight foot bulbs. I had put the burned out bulbs into the box that the new ones came in. Garbage man would not take them nor a local landfill. So...I smashed them up, put them in a container and into a bag with the regular garbage.

Go back even further to a time when glass thermometers were commonplace. When one got broken and we could capture the mercury, we used to play with it kind of like the alien fusing back together in T2. I really have no recollection about where that mercury eventually ended up but I am the youngest of five and everyone is in their sixties and seventies and still kicking. I don't think anyone was stupid enough to eat it, lol.