CFL lights in a can!?!?!?

[flexer]

Everyone that's doing CFL lighting is doing them in a standard ceiling light outlet that just mounts on the ceiling flat. Now I know that the CFL lights hang a good 7-10" hanging down. It's a long bulb.....

What if they were mounted in cans? Would it make the light to directional instead of spreading out? So would it turn them into little spot lights facing down? Should I not be worried that much about them hanging down 10" since I am mounting them in a garage with a 11.6" ceiling height?

Thoughts?

J. R.

 

[jlckmj]

I would think that you would loose half (or more) of your light output if mounted in a can. There is a lot of light coming off the sides of my bulbs. Unless you are using the flood light type CFL designed for that reason.
Jim

 

[bdamico]

why wouldn't you get a cfl flood

 

[Zeke]

Squiggly CFL's don't hang down 7-10 inches. But if you're worried about losing light, go to LEDs. This is the future anyway. LED's are good for directional light.

 

[Stuart in MN]

My understanding is many CFLs aren't designed for use in a can fixture because there's too much heat buildup, so check on that before you buy.

 

[koditten]

Had mine in cans for 4 years. They are a different light, but I'm used to them now.

I have a couple 300w equivalents in a couple cans now. Those are auwsome.

 

[Falcon67]

We have 4 "60W" CFL floods in the living room cans. No problems and once up to full bright they put out a lot of light. Not very much heat generated, surely nowhere near what a 60W incandescent flood would create

 

[MDSPHOTO]

You can also get the CFL floods in a dimming model as well, but they are pricey.

 

[MacTexas]

I have mine surface mounted with a 10 ft ceiling and they work just fine.

 

[ddawg16]

I don't have issues.....16 recessed cans with 23w CFL's.....

 

[GN4WHLN]

I just changed out some of my tube fixtures for cans and CFL's. The fixtures were T12 with 40W bulbs. I enclosed the space on the bottom of the chords and put in cans. I decided to try using the regular CFL's in lieu of the CFL floods because I could buy 4 for a little more then the cost of 1 flood. I could also get them in 120 equivalents with a daylight color temp. I was concerned the bezel would cause me to lose some light but I can't see an appreciable difference. The light I pulled was over the washer and dryer and I wanted to add some lighting over my drill press so I ended up with 4 fixtures. The area has more light than before and the daylight color is better for me. I got more light for the wattage I was pulling using that single T12.

Since this has worked out well, I am going to continue to pull the rest of the T12's out and replace them with a combination of cans and T8 fixtures. In the end, I think my lighting will pull fewer watts and be better quality... not to mention look better.

 

[Highbeam]

The OP is right that the high watt CFLs are really long and will hang down out of the can. CFL floods ****, the current technology takes forever to warm up. Get used to looking at purple floods for several minutes each time you fire them up. Standard CFLs are much faster at getting bright, cheaper, and I had success with them in cans.

Depending on the can's internal reflector, you will see either a small reduction or a pretty significant reduction in output from a CFL in a can vs. open in a surface fixture.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I put three of them in cans in the soffit under the garage porch.