On 12/2/2010 7:17 PM, Christopher E. Brown wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Dec 2010, Diane and Edward Swynar wrote:
>
>> Hi Guys,
>>
>> How have you found CFLs to behave in outdoor applications...?
>>
>> Here in The Great White North it's not uncommon to have sub-zero (Fahrenheit
>> scale) temperatures in the long, cold winter months. I have porch lamps&
>> driveway lamps whose only protection from the elements are decorative glass
>> enclosures.
>>
>> Will these things fire-up when the thermometer dips, or will we be left
>> here---literally--in the cold& dark...?
>>
>> ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
>
> I ran outdoor rated CFLs in the front and back porch and fron of garage
> lights for a while.
>
>
> In the -15 to -25 (F) range they could take 3 - 5 minutes to fire up (dim
> glow
> in 5 - 30 seconds, jump to 50% light after minutes). They never hit full
> bright no matter how long they ran.
>
> Below -25 they often did not fire up at all.
>
>
>
> After 3 failures in one winter I replaced the front porch and garage front
> lights with 30w clear bulb conventionals.
I have a 6W conventional CFL recessed in the roof over the stoop on the
shop. It has lasted one winter and one summer so far and we are now to
the point where it seldom gets above freezing even for a high. OTOH our
winters in Central Michigan have gotten mild enough over the last 60
years it is rare to see temps get below zero F. OTOH so far we've only
had 2 days so far this fall that have not made it above freezing. BUT
only 3 out of the next ten make it above 32F in the forecast. No single
digits at night yet. Actually no teens at night ...yet! <:-))
> Still have a 100w "equiv" on the back porch, but we generally only use in
> summer.
>
In the garage I have 4, 46 watt (forgotten the equivalent W) mounted
inverted. They do pretty well except for the two close to the garage
door openers.
73
Roger (K8RI)
> That particular one will fire up below -30, but we only turn on every
> couple weeks in winter to shovel rear porch and turn on at least 10
> minutes in advance.
>
>
>
> In general the outdoor types do seem to be much better about actually
> firing up, and the larger the unit (higher output) the better it seems to
> work.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> RFI mailing list
> RFI@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
>
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
|