[Shop-talk] Need expertise: External halogen floodlight replacement

[Donald H Locker]

Whatever you install, I would recommend avoiding "daylight" colour LED
luminaires. They will ruin your night vision so places that are not
brightly illuminated will appear even darker.

Unless you plan to do surgery, go with the least illumination that
provides sufficient light to see what you need. More than that wastes
dollars and electricity and pollutes the night sky. And shuts off your
night vision so the rest of the property is less safe.

--
Donald.
--

On 2021-02-15 6:57 p.m., The Corvair Kid wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am looking into replacing two long-serving halogen floodlights on the
> exterior of my shop with LED units. I could use some help from the group
> in understanding what choices provide an apples-to-apples replacement
> (or better), in terms of overall brightness and similar coverage.
> 
> The existing units are Heath/Zenith Model SL-5525. A picture of one of
> them is attached, as are pictures of a couple of pages of the
> installation instructions (yes, I saved them from nearly 20 years ago!).
> These units each use a single 250-Watt T3 bulb, which the Interwebz
> claims provide 4000 lumens. The lights are mounted approximately 15 feet
> above ground and shine onto a bare concrete driveway.
> 
> As you can see, these units have both motion and light sensors, the
> functionality of which I intend to carry forward into any LED
> replacements being considered. In addition, I do not wish to remove or
> replace the existing electrical box extensions mounted on the shop
> exterior. The wood is clear cedar and I don’t want to deal with fading
> or differing hole sizes. I realize that this constrains my replacement
> choices a fair amount, since (it appears) relatively-few LED lights use
> a standard round mounting plate. The mounting location under the eave
> also restricts the size of any replacement fixture. (Some high-lumen
> LEDs that I have found are quite large in size.)
> 
> With help from an electrical and lighting supplier near me, one
> candidate (the only one so far) is made by OLF. A spec sheet is
> attached. As you can see, the manufacturer claims that the two LED heads
> provide a total of 2160 lumens. The lighting supplier said that, due to
> the directionality of LEDs, 1/2 the number of lumens are needed for
> equivalent brightness to halogen.
> 
> So, group – any comments or recommendations would be most helpful. Do
> you agree with the “LEDs can have 50% fewer lumens” claim? Any knowledge
> or experience about the coverage (“cone”) of a single halogen vs. 2 LEDs
> at ~15 feet height? Anything else I should consider?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
>  
> 
> --Kent