Lighting

This is on the woodworking page because it usually involves a little woodworking to conceal or support the lights.

About 10 years ago (2004), the country and news media started talking about conserving power by using flourescent lighting.   I have always liked flourescent lighting, since its much more effecient, doesn't produce as much heat (wasted energy which you have to remove using AC), so we got on the band wagon.   Now, the new high effeciency, flourescent tubes and non-magnetic ballasts are great.   Betty and I really like the pure white lights so I avoid the "cool white" lights and get 4100K or higher which produce a pure white light instead of pink or yellow.   The house already had decorative shelves in two bedrooms and the den so I made boxes to hide 48" fixtures and added a hidden plug above the shelf to power them, switched by the normal room light switch.   All the rooms had fans with light kits so we just changed the incandescent bulbs for CFLs, but we turned the fan lights off since we have 48" LED bars in each room.   Outside I put one 75 Watt projector flood CFL in each motion detected light, CFLs have a tiny ballast inside and the motion detector can't handle much of an inductive load.   I also replaced the porch lights with CFL bulbs.   Originally, I put one double and one single 32 Watt T8 (3 total tubes) under the car port, activated by a motion detector.    

Over a period of several years we transitioned every incandescent light inside and outside our house with flourescent lighting, finished in 2014.  

The motion detectors I have around the outside of the house are the cheapy ones from Home Depot which were meant for two, 60 watt incandescent light bulbs, but they won't handle two CFL flood bulbs.   The ballast in the CFL has a transformer (inductive) back EMF will quickly kill the cheap solid state switch in the motion detector.   So I removed one of the bulb sockets and put one 75watt CFL in the remaining socket, which appears to be tolerated very well by the switch in the motion detector.   Now that LED bulbs are available, you could probably use two bulbs per motion detector.
The ligts under our car port are the same as the fixtures I use in the house but these will quickly kill a normal motion detector, so I bought a commercial device, Visonic 360° (about $55) but I can no longer find it (2020).  

2020 update
Replacement tubes for the T5 13W and T8 15W fixtures are about $9 each.   There are LED lights which are more effecient than the Flourescents and available in 4000K or higher (we like very white, bright lights), we are starting to convert again.   The old T5-13W produce 850 lumens and T8-15W produce 920 lumens, the 22" LED bars give out 1100 lumens of light and only use 10 Watts of power.   Fixtures I have purchased in the past few years have been LEDs.   Replacing: ceiling and under cabiet flourescent tube fixtures in the kitchen, wall light in bathrooms, ceiling lights in bedrooms, and the workshop already converted to LED light bars.   I found a pretty good substitute for the 13W and 15W flourescents on Amazon.   These are 10W (less than the flourescents) 22", put out 1100 Lumens, come with a variety of hookup cables, and very inexpensive (6 for $42 or $7 each).   Buying LEDs from Amazon means you usually buy in slightly larger quantities, so we are replacing fixtures a few at a time.   A couple of years ago I replaced the 48" flourescent lights in the workshop with LEDs.   About a year ago I replaced all the 48" flourescents in the den and badrooms with LED bars (found a good sale on LED fixtures).  
There are many equivalent motion detector switches that are much less expensive now.   Amazon has quite a few for around $20.   If this link goes away, search for: "360 Degree PIR Occupancy Sensor, Hard-Wired Motion Sensor" on Amazon.
Motion Detecting Lights

	Be sure and get one that sees 360°
	Will handle ballasts (inductive) if you have flourescents.
	Knows when it is night (LUX adjustment- doesn't come on during the day).
	Make sure of it's mounting height, especially high ceiling (high bay) like my carport.

Converting dual T8 fixtures to LEDs
After I saw the 22" under cabinet LED tubes, I got this idea, I could replace the T8 tubes in the dual T8 fixtures with two of these LED tubes.   I found these LED bars at Amazon they are "LELEJU LED Under Cabinet Lights, 2ft, 1100lm, 6000K, 10W", for about $6.75 each.   So I took the diffuser, tubes, and cover off of one, then removed the ballast and T8 recepticals from inside.   I drilled holes, in the covers, for screws to hold the LED clips and another larger hole in the center to pass the power line through.   Mounted the two clips and tubes, connected the power feed to one end of the first then linked the other end to the second tube using the supplied link cable.   The instructions say you can link up to 8 bars.   I cut off the switch and plug from the power cord, stripped and tinned both wires (make it easier to twist to the 14AWG house wiring) and I'm ready to install.      

Kitchen ceiling lights, I removed the light from the fan and added the two slightly offset ceiling fixtures so the counters were better lighted.   Having the light in the center of the room caused shadows when you were at a counter top.

I also replaced the light over the sink with one of the new LED bars.   All the above counter cabinets also have LED lights under them and there are lights in the cabinets below the counter.

Here is our kitchen with just the under counter and under cabinet lights on.   The under cabinet lights come on when you open the cabinet door.

One of the under cabinet storage areas.   Note small box on the right, near the hings, with the white pushbutton sticking out, that switch turns the light on in this area.

Our front bath, I replaced the incandescent light bar with these two flourescent fixtures.   2020 - These are now LEDs.

Our back bath, plenty of light from a one dual T8 15watt fixture.   Again I replaced a dual incandescent light bar with a flourscent.   Please ignore the old fat guy in the mirror, this bath is so small there just wasn't any other decent angle.

Flourescent in front bed room (my office), a dual T8 32watt fixture.   The two bed rooms already had shelves so I just added a switched plug electrically parallel with the normal light switch in the room.   2020 - These are now LEDs.

Here is the plug just above the shelf in the front bed room.   This circuit is connected to the normal room light switch.   This is to code meaning its safe and legal.

Corner bed room, same situation as the front bed room.

Our den is much larger than the two bed rooms, so It got two dual T8 32watt light bars.   You can see the boxes I built to conceal the two light fixtures, I painted them white to reflect more light.   Again I wired a new dual receptacle just above the shelf and wired off the normal switched light circuit.   The easiest way to do this is to go into the box above the original light fixture and connect the new receptacle circuit.   You can just switch off the room light, check that is really off, then splice in the new wire to the receptacle.   The lights in the den and bed rooms were on fans so there is another light switch switch on the fixture which we keep off unless we need extra light in the room.   The shelf in the den is painted dark green (a common color in this house) I will soon paint it white.   2020 - These are now LEDs.

Tv watching light on the Chili's shelf at the rear of the room.

LED bars above the night stands.

Dual T8 fixture in the master closet.   This guy has also been converted to LED bars.

Betty's Office two under shelf lights.   Same LED tubes as the kitchen.

Ceiling light in the utility room.   This is a dual 48" fixture with full length LED T8s in it.

Our little hall coat closet.   I put a small single T5 13watt fixture above the door (like the under counter lights in the kitchen).

The hall closet fixture, notice the switched receptacle where it plugs in.

The dual T8 in the hall.   This fixture has now been converted to T8 Led bar.

At night when the motion detector triggers two 48" fixtures.   Its almost like daylight when you drive up under this and it comes on at night.   Burglars are generally discouraged when this comes on. 2020 - These are now LEDs.

LED bar light fixtures under the car port.

Motion and daylight sensor under the car port.   Note this is not in direct sunlight but a little rain might blow on it, I did put a gasket between the box and the switch.   It also needed to handle inductive loads (flourescent ballast).   Now that I have switched to LED light bars, I don't need to worry about inductive loads. Origianlly a Visonic 360° high bay switch, would handle inductive loads. Replaced: Steinel, Mod: IS3600 4025/6026 Replaced 11/07/22: J.LUMI YCA1001

We also have one of our IP cams mounted under the car port.   This thing sees in the dark and is powered via POE (power over ethernet).

Back yard motion detecting light above the grill.

Closer look at the motion contorl above the grill, you can see I have only 1 LED light not (it was a CFL).

Motion detecting light on fornt porch, you can also see the IP cam.

China cabinet in the den.   These are LED lights.

A little closer view, note how the crystal really shines.

This is what it looks like with the lights off.

I added three 24" strips of LED lights, plenty of light and they don't get hot.   Here I am looking up at one of the LED strips.

I cut and stained strips of wood to hide the LED strips from the front, now all you see is the crystal.

Small china cabinet in dining room with LED lighting added.