Lighting my deck!

[bigalpha]

Alright, so I'm an LED newb with the exception of my LED headlamp and LED insert in my Surefire light. I have limited electrical experience, but I've successfully fixed some wiring in my truck without it catching on fire and burning up.

I have a covered deck that currently has no light. This is obviously a problem at night time, since it's a black hole in my backyard.

I've been reading up on here on some other fixed-lighting solutions but it's a lot to absorb all at once. Unfortunately, there are no outside outlets on my house, so I'd have to run an extension cord through the window (or come up with a solar solution).

The deck is approx. 8' wide and 30' long. I'm basically looking for some low-cost and simple lighting solutions to light up the deck while we're out there. It doesn't have to be as bright as the sun, but the goal is to have it bright enough to read something. Integrating a dimmer switch would be extra awesome, too.

Bonus points for pre-fabbed LED light fixture units.

CliffNotes:
- covered deck as dark as a black hole
- no outside outlets; extension cord through window
- enough light to read by; even if it's kind of dim
- prefabbed LED light units are a huge plus
- simple installation

 

[bigalpha]

After doing some research, I'm beginning to think the best thing may be to wire the deck like I was going to connect it to the hardwiring of the house ... complete with dimmer switch, bulb sockets, etc.

Then, I could use the screw-in LED bulbs to light the deck.

Are the screw-in bulbs worth it, or do they generally suck?

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

some of them are good, but they're expensive. Stay away from the bulbs that are made of a bunch of 5mm LEDs.

 

[bigalpha]

Do they make the screw-in bulbs that just have 1 high-quality LED, or are they all "grouped" LEDs?

 

[LEDninja]

Deck is outdoors.
Outdoors need weatherproof fixtures to keep out wind blown rain.
Weatherproof fixtures are enclosed fixtures trapping heat.
LED bulbs (& CFLs) do not like heat trapping enclosed fixtures
Question - How well do your deck roof protect non enclosed fixtures from wind driven rain?
-
LED bulbs are expensive.
Most are no better than CFLs in efficiency.
The Cree and SSC-P4 are better but none of them are in the low cost area.
Calculations on LED bulb sellers web pages show it takes 12 hours a day use to break even. High cost of energy of incandescent vs high initial cost of LED.
Question - How often and long will you be running these lights.
-
8'*30' is a fairly big area, equivalent to 3 apartment bedrooms. Normally there will be 2*60W bulbs per bedroom. Or 6*60W bulbs to cover the deck. There are very few truly bright LED bulbs. The LED bulb manufacturers just love to claim their 100 lumen light is equivalent to a 40W bulb which is 500+ lumens.
Question - Can you go out back with your headlamp and/or Surefire drop in and estimate ho many headlamps you need to light up the deck.

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Do you need to light the deck evenly so you can read anywhere or can you get away with night light brightness so you do not trip over the furniture and have a few strategically positioned reading lights?
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Most current LED bulbs are spot/flood types. Can you use spot flood fixtures or track lighting or do you need globe style bulbs?
If you are using spot/ flood bulbs make sure the bulb has a w-i-d-e beam angle to cover your deck or you have a bunch of small circles of light.
-
Many bulbs are assembled by companies of unknown design ability or quality control. A lot of bulbs from DX lasted a couple of weeks to a few months when they should have lasted years.
Buy bulbs with UL (or CSA or ETL or MET) listings. Your insurance company ( and in Canada it is the law) would insist only listed equipment be plugged into the mains.
CE & RoHS which sounds official is not accepted in North America.

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Now to the types of bulbs:
I am NOT recommending superbrightleds (they have most everything I need on 1 page) but click on the link.
Bulbs 2 (Model E27-W50), 3 (Model E27-W57), 4 (Model PAR20-x36) are typical of the 5mm LED to stay away from. They are usually listed as 20 (and more) LEDs.
Bulb 2 burned out on me after 1 year, bulb 4 is at 1/2 brightness after 1 year.
Bulb 1 (Model E27-W8 - 8Watt) is an older type of LED, not very efficient. When you see #*1W it is this type. Approximately equivalent to CFLs in efficiency.
Bulb 5 (Model PAR20-W3X2.5 - 9Watt), 7 (Model E27-W3X1-21 - 5Watt), 8 (Model E27-W1X4 - 5Watt) is the latest LEDs. Notice the word CREE (or SSC-P4) in the description.
BTW PAR## means ##/8 inches wide. So a PAR30 is 30/8" or 3-3/4" wide. A lot wider than your normal bulb!

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Some bulbs to look at

Philips LED Lightbulbs
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=225441
Got mine at Home Depot $29.99. Not very bright (for a 8*30' deck).
Also available in screw base flood, GU10 bi-pin 115VAC, MR16 bi-pin 24 VDC.

GE spot/flood lights are available at Wal Mart. Again not very bright (for a 8*30' deck).

evolux is equivalent to a 75 watt bulb. $50
zetalux is equivalent to a 25 watt bulb. $40

 

[bigalpha]

Wow that's a helluva response!!!

At this point, being able to comfortably read is not a requirement. This would be mainly so you would have light and be able to see around you so you don't miss the chair, or knock over your glass.

My Surefire is an LR4 with the LED insert, so let me go see how much light it would put out. Since the battery is about 50%, I would estimate that I would need 6-8 lights at that brightness to equal what I'm envisioning in my head.

Now that I go out and actually step it off, the deck is probably closer to 10'x25' - but it's close enough to the original estimate that what you said is applicable.

From what you've posted, it seems that the screw-in LED modules aren't really the best choice for my application -- both in reliability and value.

The CFLs seems like a good fit, except for their tendency to be finicky during colder weather. The deck does do a good job of preventing overspray. It's screened in and such, so most water just hits the screen and just dribbles down.

I would need something that diffuses the light, or is a wide beam to get maximum coverage instead of having a bunch of spot lights.

 

[LEDninja]

The Evolux and Zetalux I linked to are semi globe style bulbs. Yon just have to point them downwards for quite a wide coverage. Unlike regular or CFLs they throw no light backwards so are quite ineffective if you point them up towards the roof.

Here is a picture of a 2W Cree in my hallway. It is bright enough I do not turn the bathroom light on when I go in the middle of the night, just leave the bathroom door open. I took the picture from my bathroom.

A couple of Zetalux @ 7W each might be sufficient if all you need is not to trip over the furniture.
A couple of Evolux @ 13W but 3X the brightness should allow you to read if your eyesight is reasonably good. My concern with the Evolux is it uses a fan for cooling which might draw too much dust into the bulb.
Be warned both bulbs are over 5" long. A regular bulb is 4" long. Make sure your fixtures are big enough.

 

[Illum]

lowest cost is a few hundred feet of LED light rope...but that would require you to run an extension chord over the lawn somewhat permanently, unless you have a fence or a clothing line you could station it on

 

[matrixshaman]

Thanks LEDninja - that's an awesome amount of info and something I've also been looking for. I think they are saying 5 to 10 years before LED's get down in price and up in performance to be serious fixed lighting contenders for the average household. In the mean time we either pay big bucks or put our own setups together at considerable cost to equal incan or CFL. I saw GE was supposed to be making incandescents that were equal in efficiency to CFL's in the near future (saw that about 2 years ago) but I don't know if that will happen since places are now outlawing incan or planning it in the near future. Too bad - I just think they need to improve power generation and solar cell efficiency/cost basis so we don't need to worry about it although I'm still excited about LED's being able to eventually replace standard fixed lighting.

 

[LEDninja]

Hijack

I saw GE was supposed to be making incandescents that were equal in efficiency to CFL's in the near future (saw that about 2 years ago) but I don't know if that will happen since places are now outlawing incan or planning it in the near future.

They are not outlawing incans. They are outlawing bulbs as inefficient as current incans.
I think the bulb companies are milking current incan bulb profits for as long as possible. Then in 2012 when they can not sell them they will bring out the new bulbs at a big increase in price. They can not sell them now because nobody will buy them when 25 cent regular incans are available.
/Hijack