Has your flashlight know how helped pick out other lighting?

As in has your knowledge of watts, cri, tint, candela and what not helped you decide things like kitchen lighting? Outdoor lighting? Lighting reccomendations for other folks?

I ask because today at my work there is a need to add a street light at a fairly well lit corner on 3 sides but we need to add a 4th one. The other 3 corners have very diffused lollipop lights near the road meant for pedestrians. So the 4th light needs to provide lighting to motorists without blinding them in rain events. It will be about 30' above the road and set back much farther than the lollipop lights.

Typically sodium bulbs are used. Orange-ish pink ugliness. My brain said LED would be great.

So this morning I was copied in an email regarding an LED lamp that fits the look the customer wants.
All the engineers scratched their head at all the info provided by the manufacturer. Uh, cri? Um, err uh...mA? Lm/W?.... What I received was a copy of the engineers asking the supplier asking "got pix of one in use?"...

I saw 75cri, 112 LED's putting out 18xxx lumens with a 4250 kelvin etc, etc.
I raised my hand like "ew, ew I know"...and proceeded to inform the customer (via email Re) my thoughts of the characteristics of the 'beam' as it were and a bit of flashlight jargon...using day to day words that allowed him to say "I'll take it"...

My response to the supplier is "we need candella info to decide which model to pick"
As I type this the engineers are scratching their heads asking how some 'field guy' knows this stuff as my boss is smiling knowing 'that guy who carries 3-5 flashlights at all times sure is handy to have around at times'.

So cheers to those here at CPF for helping this flashaholic pick out a streetlight.

Helps me pick auxiliary vehicle lights, or at least learned to stay away from most of them. It has taught me most of these lights bars, pods, fog lights, etc etc are nothing but useless decorations. They have way to high of a Kelvin value to be useful in the fog and rain, candela is to low, you just end up with all flood and a horrible glare, the claimed outputs are based on ultrafire specs and most of them are way behind the times.

For the most part I have yet to find a quality aftermarket light work spending money on.

^^ funny thing you say that...
The street light manufacturer had a statement that stated 'due to the rapid accelaration in LED technology we reserve the right to makes changes to specs without notice'....
I suppose Phillips is saying they try to keep up. lol

But yeah all those lights at big box stores make your home glow like a fish aquarium.

I'm looking to upgrade my 70's kitchen light and after going through 3 electricians who propose what I consider garbage...I've decided to diy the thing using LED's....

Why? Because thanks to CPF Ima tint snob.

Yes it has. I am currently sitting in my living room which is lit by Cree 350 lumen, 5 watt, 90+ CRI, 2700K, LED candelabras.

bykfixer said:

^^ funny thing you say that...
The street light manufacturer had a statement that stated 'due to the rapid accelaration in LED technology we reserve the right to makes changes to specs without notice'....
I suppose Phillips is saying they try to keep up. lol

But yeah all those lights at big box stores make your home glow like a fish aquarium.

I'm looking to upgrade my 70's kitchen light and after going through 3 electricians who propose what I consider garbage...I've decided to diy the thing using LED's....

Why? Because thanks to CPF Ima tint snob.

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I have told my wife when we buy our first house and do renovations I'm going to install all the lights myself. I'm just going to make my own ceiling can lights with 5k MT-G2 on a nice chunk of aluminum with a CPU fan and a nice frosted lens. I will get me a 110v to 12v converter and run one buck driver per led at 4 amps. Should give me right around 1800 lumens per light which will be plenty in most rooms. If not then I will go with xhp70s

Tac Gunner said:

I have told my wife when we buy our first house and do renovations I'm going to install all the lights myself. I'm just going to make my own ceiling can lights with 5k MT-G2 on a nice chunk of aluminum with a CPU fan and a nice frosted lens. I will get me a 110v to 12v converter and run one buck driver per led at 4 amps. Should give me right around 1800 lumens per light which will be plenty in most rooms. If not then I will go with xhp70s

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I would only use 5000K for areas like the laundry room, entryways, stairwells, and maybe the kitchen. In living and dinning areas 5000K is too cool for most people, especially after dark. 4000K is the highest I would go in these areas. Most use 2700-3000K. I would also try and source the 80+ CRI version of the MT-GT or preferably go with another emitter capable of 90+ at 5000K like the XHP series. I changed my living room lighting to 90+ CRI from 80 CRI and it made quite a difference.

Also, you can buy many different kelvin and CRI lights pre-made and properly safety rated. If your house burned down and your insurance company found out you were using homemade lights you would likely not be covered. Just something to think about:thumbsup:

I'm trying to figure out how to Malkoff my kitchen light...
A buncha side by side M61N's would be cool.

I wonder if Vinh does home lighting. lol

When I showed an architect friend my high-CRI L3 Illumination L11C Nichia 219B flashlight recently, he told me that high-CRI LED lighting is being used in all the jobs he is doing these days.

I believe he meant 90+ CRI (Ra). Next time I see him, I need to get his take on the new standards for CRI coming down the pipeline. CPF member maukka has described a few that are much more demanding than the common Ra measurement.

bykfixer said:

I'm trying to figure out how to Malkoff my kitchen light...
A buncha side by side M61N's would be cool.

I wonder if Vinh does home lighting. lol

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He has pics on his Facebook page of led household bulbs with the globe cut off for a more concentrated light. I guess he dedomed everything lol.

bykfixer said:

I'm trying to figure out how to Malkoff my kitchen light...
A buncha side by side M61N's would be cool.

I wonder if Vinh does home lighting. lol

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I recalled seeing some pics of McGizmos' home.

He stated that the pictures for the most part were underexposed, and didn't show how well they lit the interior, as well as they depicted what the light fixture itself looked like.

http://www.dmcleish.com/MauiHome/

Poppy said:

I recalled seeing some pics of McGizmos' home.

He stated that the pictures for the most part were underexposed, and didn't show how well they lit the interior, as well as they depicted what the light fixture itself looked like.

http://www.dmcleish.com/MauiHome/

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Amazing setup! This is similar to the setup I want to have in my house. With xml2, mt-g2, and xhp50/70 you could get a lot more light with a lot less work, just have to make sure heat sinking is adequate. I would also add a solar panel and battery storage to it for use during power outages.

IIRC, he does use solar with a battery backup. Not positive though.

^^ I took note of a Diehard in one of the photos.

Wife won't let me Malkoff the kitchen...dratz!

Poppy said:

I recalled seeing some pics of McGizmos' home.

He stated that the pictures for the most part were underexposed, and didn't show how well they lit the interior, as well as they depicted what the light fixture itself looked like.

http://www.dmcleish.com/MauiHome/

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As cool as that setup is, where can you use a flashlight in that yard? Or in the house either with the nighttime lighting in the halls? What fun is that?

Revisited my wife's living room where she had replaced some incans with LEDs awhile back. The original lights were recessed, but had been altered a bit to accept regular bulbs, but I found a few different conversion kits that worked for it. A few things i had to determined had the following options:
-Flood or spot; Since there are a total of six fixtures I'm considering having some of both
-CRI; Was going for a high CRI. Of the lights that were actually marked with enough information (a whole different problem), the CRI values range from 80 to 90
-Tint; Narrowing from above, the tints offered were 2700 or 4000k (may have been a 3000k as well on one of the other brands). I prefer warm and ultimately went with 2700.

Anyway, all the above features were something i had already researched with flashlights.

^^ good info obtained from flashahol-ism...

bykfixer said:

^^ good info obtained from flashahol-ism...

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Yeah.. at least NOW I know what the numbers mean.

A couple of years ago, all I knew was cool white, or soft white.

I knew that different florescents would give different tints, particularly noticeable in pictures. Probably more so with my old 35mm Cannon, maybe not so noticeable with auto white balance digital cameras.

Poppy said:

Yeah.. at least NOW I know what the numbers mean.

A couple of years ago, all I knew was cool white, or soft white.

I knew that different florescents would give different tints, particularly noticeable in pictures. Probably more so with my old 35mm Cannon, maybe not so noticeable with auto white balance digital cameras.

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Yep, same here...a clear bulb means a nice glow but lasts a few hours, a white bulb means a soft light that still only lasted a few hours and a curly fry that lasted years but made the room look like a fish aquarium...

At that time life was simple...grab bulbs and keep going...

Today I'm spending waaaaaay too much time on the bulb aisle...actually leaving a store bulbless and going to another store looking for better.

Then I discovered some halogen incan table lamp bulbs and life is good again...

Now light vs the film camera...ugh! But one thing we discovered was using the white canister of Fuji film over the flash created a nice diffused flash that drowned out all but the worst flourescent tint.

You cut off the bottom, slice the remaining tube and slip it over your flash...amazing results.

MX421 said:

Revisited my wife's living room where she had replaced some incans with LEDs awhile back. The original lights were recessed, but had been altered a bit to accept regular bulbs, but I found a few different conversion kits that worked for it. A few things i had to determined had the following options:
-Flood or spot; Since there are a total of six fixtures I'm considering having some of both
-CRI; Was going for a high CRI. Of the lights that were actually marked with enough information (a whole different problem), the CRI values range from 80 to 90
-Tint; Narrowing from above, the tints offered were 2700 or 4000k (may have been a 3000k as well on one of the other brands). I prefer warm and ultimately went with 2700.

Anyway, all the above features were something i had already researched with flashlights.

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Remind myself next time I go to a home improvement store to look in the light bulb section. Hasn't occurred to me to check out those specs. I did the thing of just looking at the total watts..

bykfixer said:

Today I'm spending waaaaaay too much time on the bulb aisle...actually leaving a store bulbless and going to another store looking for better.

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Did that indeed. At the third store I finally did wind up with a kit for the lights and found myself thinking $20 for a light is pretty cheap. It dawned on me later that I used to only spend $0.99 on a incan bulb...and i was comparing it to my flashlight purchases :shakehead Of course every time i go, it gives me a excuse to peek in the battery disposal bin to see if anyone tossed their Li-Ion tool/laptop batteries :thumbsup:

tops2 said:

Remind myself next time I go to a home improvement store to look in the light bulb section. Hasn't occurred to me to check out those specs. I did the thing of just looking at the total watts..

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Yeah, i know a whole different level. I passed on a few different type of light simply because all the specs weren't listed for comparison. I figured they were not as good or they would have listed them.