outside lighting - what to fit ?

[stunlawless]

Morning everyone,

In my yard, I've got 8 off 500w halogen floodlights.

I put them up to illuminate gateways and tracks so that people can see what they're doing with their horses in the winter mornings and evenings.

They're dirt cheap - only about £4 each - which was really important when we moved in. However, they don't last very long - lamp life seems short, and the contacts and insulators in the luminaires fail frequently as well. I'm fed up with working up a ladder in the depths of winter with a head torch, and I'm looking for something better.

Requirements:

1. Instant, near maximum, light output (I believe 500w tungsten halogen is about 9000 lumens, so I'm looking for something similar)
2. Long lamp life
3. Reliable luminaire.
4. Reasonable running cost
5. Low price

Running cost is not so important; they're not all used every day (depends which fields are in use), and then only for 10 - 20 minutes twice a day, and generally not at the weekends.

My estimate for burning hours & cost is :

26 weeks x 5 days x 30 mins x 4 lights = 260 hours

@ 500w = 130 kwh, @ £0.14/kwh = £18.20

Even if my estimate is 100% out, the actual running costs aren't that much, so I'm not desperate to reduce it.

Instant light output is mandatory - 30s or a minute is too long to wait.

I've got some lowbays in the barn, and the slow start is annoying, and some 250w son type floods on the arena, which light off in geological time.

Any thoughts/experience/recomendations ?

Thanks David

 

[sparkiemike]

Stop fitting cheap tat and using cheap lamps.

I have used these on farms and so far have been reliable
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/PWPFT500.html

 

[stunlawless]

Hello Mike,

Agreed, they are tat!

Failure point is always the connectors for the lamps. Went to relamp one last night, only to find the lamp was welded to the contact, and the white insulator had broken up. The thing that bothers me is that the one you linked to looks to have the same lamp holder assy as the cheap tat, and I wonder if it will be any better.

What lamps do you fit ? I use 500w ones from tlc; last batch were sylvana, but it varies every time.

David

 

[Taylortwocities]

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TLMET150.html

 

[stunlawless]

Hallo TTC,

How long do these take to strike off ?

Descriptions says "where long burning hours are required with economical running" which kind of implies they don't like being switched on & off.

David

 

[Taylortwocities]

And they don't. More the sort of thing for longer lighting periods - sometimes controlled by photocells - the sort of thing that is used in street lighting
so 5 minutes to come up to full brilliance but reliable and efficient.

NOT for switching on and off so not for use with PIRs etc.

Most horse people take hours over everything, so what's the problem?

 

[danechip]

Are you touching the new lamps when fitting? You should use a piece of kitchen roll if you cant use the foam supplied. 4KW in lighting? I hope they are race horses !!

Grease on your fingers will shorten the life of those !!

 

[stunlawless]

Afternoon,

No they're not racehorses...more like family pets since kids arrived. People take ages around the stables, but the floods that bother me are used for illuminating the way to & from the fields, around the muckheap etc, and they're under pain of death if the lights are on unnecesarily !

I'm rigorous in the way I handle the lamps - definitely no greasy fingerprints.

I know how much 4kw costs per hour, so I'm quite keen to keep the burning hours down, and everybody knows not to leave them on. Until
six months ago, I had 10 of the tat - imagine 5kw !

One thing I saw on tlc was an energy efficient 400w lamp, producing 9000 lumens (same as std 500w). Maybe this will give longer lampholder life as the current is about 1.7A compared to 2.1A ?

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LXTHE400.html

Thanks, David

 

[Taylortwocities]

Well its not that much more energy efficient. And they will have same problems as the 500W ones: if you start a halogen tube up it will heat up very quickly. If its a cold, damp morning the lamp has more chance of dying.
Also the end spring connectors suffer if the lights are on for a long time or if the atmosphere is moist.


These are energy efficient floodlights http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSL226W.html

but you may not get the light level that you are used to.

 

[stunlawless]

Yeah, I spotted those, but light output is well down.

I'm now thinking about two of these to replace one 500w halogen, but positioned to give the same area of illumination.

Absolute light levels are not so important - it's only for seeing where you are going, not for working. What's important is that you don't go around a corner on a pitch black night and walk into a tractor...horses don't like surprises anymore than women...

HF florrie strikes off quick enough, albeit with a bit of flicker. Looks the best bet to get instant, reasonable amounts of light.


I see it comes with a flylead, so there's another couple of quid for a jb, although it should be easier to daisychain a few. Also, did you spot the red & black wires inside ? how old is that picture I wonder !

Thanks, David

 

[ricicle]

Why not try 300W lamps instead of 500W. Bit of energy saving and less stress on the end caps ?

 

[flameport]

or how about these: http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LXTHE120L.html

Only 120w, which you might think would be really dim, but I have fitted these as replacements for 500w and 300w lamps for several customers, none of which noticed the difference.

 

[stunlawless]

hallo ricicle, flameport,

I was thinking about lower power lamps to reduce the current - it strikes me that over 2A through a weak spring contact is aking a lot.

However, I'm going to get one something like TTC suggested with HF florrie and see how the illumination compares.

If necesary, then I'll have to add some more units to make sure there's no shadows or dark areas.

Thanks for all the suggestions, David

 

[RF Lighting]

Use a floodlight like the ip66 one posed earlier in the thread and use theatre grade lamps in them if you're determined to stick with halogen.

Personally I'd look towards some discharge lighting which is left on for longer periods, rather than a huge halogen load switched on and off all the time.

If it's designed right it sould still end up more energy efficient than your current set up.

 

[Alarm]

Up the stable fees and provide one per membership....................................
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_561827_langId_-1_categoryId_165488


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