The wife said "take it outside", so I did!
Seriously, if there is any interest here in outdoor Luxeon lighting, I'll write up my 'lessons learned' from installing 27 Luxeons outside in fixtures.
I had done some outdoor stuff in the past for local builders, but nothing like this before.
It's not like building flashlights!
Anyway, if enough interest, I'll add photos and details....Outdoor Luxeon Lighting
Part One - A little History:
A few years ago I purchased a couple sets of deck lights to provide some exterior lighting around my house. Once installed, the lights provided sufficient illumination around the exterior of the house and upper deck walkway to allow safe walking at night, and provided an increased level of security. The lights did prove to be somewhat maintenace intensive, as the bulbs would burn out after only about a year, and many times just would go out from poor connections in the bulb holder. Sometimes just simply smacking the light would jar things enough to make the light come back on. While somewhat bothersome, it wasn't that big a pain, and just the increased asthetic value of the home's appearance alone made it worth the troubles. The lights provided ample illumination near the house and on the upstairs deck without casting too much stray light as to interfere with using telescopes and other instruments out in the yard for the most part. It was a very good balance of illumination that met my needs. I was "satisfied" overall with the lights, and never really gave them much thought after installation.
However, a few years later, one warm summer night I was sitting outside in the screened in porch enjoying a cool drink, when I smelled the faint odor of burning wood. Not an uncommon occurance out in the rural country side where I live, but after looking around and not seeing any smoke comming from any of my neighbors properties, I decided to inspect the deck lights. To my suprise, I found that most of the 7 watt incandescent bulbs had melted through the back of the light housings and were beginning to scorch the wood behind the lights. I immeadiately shut off the lights, and as an added precaution, removed all the bulbs to prevent any further possible operation.
Gone was the outdoor safety lighting, and the asthetic value of the home's appearance all lit up at night.
I considered several options, amoung them was to replace the bulbs with smaller wattage incandescent bulbs, or leave the bulbs at the same wattage but install an alluminum plate behind each light to act as a heat sheild. A third option I thought about, and then chose over the other two options, was replacing the incandescent bulbs with white LEDs. I never cared much for the orange/yellow glow of the incandecent bulbs and really wanted to change over to the whiter color of LED light.
I constructed LED bulb assemblies for each of the lights consisting of three 5mm white LEDs in series and an in line rectifier diode to protect the LEDs from reverse voltage as the original power supply was 12VAC. These replacement bulbs worked, but barely met the minimum illumination level required, were severely overdriven and ran somewhat hot to the touch. They basically supplied just enough light to walk in the dark around the house and still see obsticals at night. However, they were not bright enough to give the house a good "illuminated" look when viewed from the street. Also, running from an AC power supply, the lights had a slight, but noticeable flicker. I really wasn't satisfied, but accepted their performance since there were few other options, and other life tasks needed my attention more.
After spending much of 2002 experimenting with Luxeons, and the release of the white lamertian Luxeon with it's improved whiteness and high dome lens providing for a more acceptable light output, I decided the time could be right to make the final improvement to the outdoor lights.
Part Two - The Outdoor Luxeon Project - 'several' lights get added
!Bright Light!
Seriously, if there is any interest here in outdoor Luxeon lighting, I'll write up my 'lessons learned' from installing 27 Luxeons outside in fixtures.
I had done some outdoor stuff in the past for local builders, but nothing like this before.
It's not like building flashlights!
Anyway, if enough interest, I'll add photos and details....Outdoor Luxeon Lighting
Part One - A little History:
A few years ago I purchased a couple sets of deck lights to provide some exterior lighting around my house. Once installed, the lights provided sufficient illumination around the exterior of the house and upper deck walkway to allow safe walking at night, and provided an increased level of security. The lights did prove to be somewhat maintenace intensive, as the bulbs would burn out after only about a year, and many times just would go out from poor connections in the bulb holder. Sometimes just simply smacking the light would jar things enough to make the light come back on. While somewhat bothersome, it wasn't that big a pain, and just the increased asthetic value of the home's appearance alone made it worth the troubles. The lights provided ample illumination near the house and on the upstairs deck without casting too much stray light as to interfere with using telescopes and other instruments out in the yard for the most part. It was a very good balance of illumination that met my needs. I was "satisfied" overall with the lights, and never really gave them much thought after installation.
However, a few years later, one warm summer night I was sitting outside in the screened in porch enjoying a cool drink, when I smelled the faint odor of burning wood. Not an uncommon occurance out in the rural country side where I live, but after looking around and not seeing any smoke comming from any of my neighbors properties, I decided to inspect the deck lights. To my suprise, I found that most of the 7 watt incandescent bulbs had melted through the back of the light housings and were beginning to scorch the wood behind the lights. I immeadiately shut off the lights, and as an added precaution, removed all the bulbs to prevent any further possible operation.
Gone was the outdoor safety lighting, and the asthetic value of the home's appearance all lit up at night.
I considered several options, amoung them was to replace the bulbs with smaller wattage incandescent bulbs, or leave the bulbs at the same wattage but install an alluminum plate behind each light to act as a heat sheild. A third option I thought about, and then chose over the other two options, was replacing the incandescent bulbs with white LEDs. I never cared much for the orange/yellow glow of the incandecent bulbs and really wanted to change over to the whiter color of LED light.
I constructed LED bulb assemblies for each of the lights consisting of three 5mm white LEDs in series and an in line rectifier diode to protect the LEDs from reverse voltage as the original power supply was 12VAC. These replacement bulbs worked, but barely met the minimum illumination level required, were severely overdriven and ran somewhat hot to the touch. They basically supplied just enough light to walk in the dark around the house and still see obsticals at night. However, they were not bright enough to give the house a good "illuminated" look when viewed from the street. Also, running from an AC power supply, the lights had a slight, but noticeable flicker. I really wasn't satisfied, but accepted their performance since there were few other options, and other life tasks needed my attention more.
After spending much of 2002 experimenting with Luxeons, and the release of the white lamertian Luxeon with it's improved whiteness and high dome lens providing for a more acceptable light output, I decided the time could be right to make the final improvement to the outdoor lights.
Part Two - The Outdoor Luxeon Project - 'several' lights get added
!Bright Light!
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