Illum
Flashaholic
I'm thinking of installing a couple XRE Neutral whites in a screened sunroom to accent the plants we have in there as well as faciliate lighting when we occupy it.
Our house is U shaped, this portion represents the inside of the U, flanked either side by the garage and master bedroom.
Dad and me raised the wooden structure upon the existing concrete slab poured by the former owner and screened it. Heres some of the build pictures, its now complete and filled with all sorts of plants, being under the maple tree most of the vegetation consisted of leafy greens and ferns.
the lights will be mounted behind the horizontal beams lined against the roof of the house and right below the gutter. this helps to block glare into the central compound and prevents the leds from getting wet in the event the gutter decides to overflow, and it has happened before
Heres the issue, how long will LEDs [mounted on stars, don't know if that matters] last if left in the elements? Rain, fog, high humidity, etc?
the LEDs will be mounted in Copper end caps with the cap end facing down and the outer end epoxied to a L bracket and secured in a removeable way by short galvanzed screws. This leaves the LEDs completely exposed from the bottom but provides ample splash protection from the sides.
I don't want to fill the copper end cap with epoxy because it may distort the output of the lambertian dome, but driven at 350ma any method of containment [with the exception of glass] filters out quite a percentage of light. Without potting also allows the LED to be swapped out in the event that they decide to quit or through observation realized some reases can use WW or CW instead of NW.
I plan to have 8 CREE XREs NWs in operation by christmas [or as proposed], three outside the master bed room and four outside the garage. [second pic the garage is to the right] the additional LED is for the wash basin. One LED will be mounted on top of the large window in pic 2. I've estimated sufficient heatsinking to ensure safe 24 hour operation.
Its not shown but behind the central post on pic 2 theres a existing 60W light fixture that we converted to a fixture that runs on 2x "35W" CFL lamps that lights up the central area nicely.:twothumbs
All this will be driven by a xitanium 350ma off line driver housed in a water proof enclosure and will use a weather cap equipped AC switch and powered through a GFCI equipped AC pigtail salvaged from a broken hair dryer, but since its rated for indoor use only I wonder if it might trip sitting outside. Would building an enclosure over the receptacles help?:thinking:
I'm currently considering the use of 24 gauge consolidated hookup wire but since the LEDs are in a series run the returning wire will cover at least 100 feet if not more from side to side, up and down walls, etc. and the wires between LEDs being at very minimum 5 feet. I was wondering whether I need to add a capacitor somewhere or use a bigger gauge wire, like 20 gauge to prevent interference or resistance issues?
Our house is U shaped, this portion represents the inside of the U, flanked either side by the garage and master bedroom.
Dad and me raised the wooden structure upon the existing concrete slab poured by the former owner and screened it. Heres some of the build pictures, its now complete and filled with all sorts of plants, being under the maple tree most of the vegetation consisted of leafy greens and ferns.
the lights will be mounted behind the horizontal beams lined against the roof of the house and right below the gutter. this helps to block glare into the central compound and prevents the leds from getting wet in the event the gutter decides to overflow, and it has happened before
Heres the issue, how long will LEDs [mounted on stars, don't know if that matters] last if left in the elements? Rain, fog, high humidity, etc?
the LEDs will be mounted in Copper end caps with the cap end facing down and the outer end epoxied to a L bracket and secured in a removeable way by short galvanzed screws. This leaves the LEDs completely exposed from the bottom but provides ample splash protection from the sides.
I don't want to fill the copper end cap with epoxy because it may distort the output of the lambertian dome, but driven at 350ma any method of containment [with the exception of glass] filters out quite a percentage of light. Without potting also allows the LED to be swapped out in the event that they decide to quit or through observation realized some reases can use WW or CW instead of NW.
I plan to have 8 CREE XREs NWs in operation by christmas [or as proposed], three outside the master bed room and four outside the garage. [second pic the garage is to the right] the additional LED is for the wash basin. One LED will be mounted on top of the large window in pic 2. I've estimated sufficient heatsinking to ensure safe 24 hour operation.
Its not shown but behind the central post on pic 2 theres a existing 60W light fixture that we converted to a fixture that runs on 2x "35W" CFL lamps that lights up the central area nicely.:twothumbs
All this will be driven by a xitanium 350ma off line driver housed in a water proof enclosure and will use a weather cap equipped AC switch and powered through a GFCI equipped AC pigtail salvaged from a broken hair dryer, but since its rated for indoor use only I wonder if it might trip sitting outside. Would building an enclosure over the receptacles help?:thinking:
I'm currently considering the use of 24 gauge consolidated hookup wire but since the LEDs are in a series run the returning wire will cover at least 100 feet if not more from side to side, up and down walls, etc. and the wires between LEDs being at very minimum 5 feet. I was wondering whether I need to add a capacitor somewhere or use a bigger gauge wire, like 20 gauge to prevent interference or resistance issues?
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