Outdoor Flood Light Replacement

[spam4us]

Hello,

I am looking to replace the 300 watt R7 Halogen flood light fixtures that I have with LED fixtures. Two of them are mounted about 12 - 15 ft from the ground and light an area of 45 x 45 ft. Two others are about 25 ft off the ground and light up my yard.

I would like the new fixture to have a knuckle mount as in the picture for ease of replacement and produce about the same lumens(5000). I prefer not having a motion sensor.

Going up the ladder every 4 months to replace the bulbs is no longer fun.

Please give some suggestions.

Thanks

 

[CJ7VFR]

It is hard to tell, but is the glass cover missing in the light you have shown? This would cause the bulbs to not last very long.

Jim

 

[spam4us]

It is hard to tell, but is the glass cover missing in the light you have shown? This would cause the bulbs to not last very long.

Jim

No. The glass lens is there. The bulbs just don't last very long.

 

[FreddiFiche]

I am not a employee of Lithonia, nor sell them. I just went through this exercise...so I have a couple for you to look at. (All depends on what light output you want, need, and how much $$ you want to spend.)

Both are knuckle mountable.

OFL1 LED

or

DSXF1 LED

Either one comes in a P1 or P2 Variation, which tells you how many LEDs are installed in the unit, and the resulting Lumens. The OFL1 looks more like the unit you are replacing.

I ended up going with two OFL1's mounted to a single plate for easy mounting to the existing box.

 

[CJ7VFR]

No. The glass lens is there. The bulbs just don't last very long.

Ok. That is the cleanest glass lens I have ever seen! I have one of the same type of lights over the man door outside the entrance to my garage. I would say that I am getting about 5 years out of the bulbs.

There are LED replacement bulbs for the double sided halogen bulbs. I have seen them in 150, 300 and 400 watt equivalents for flood lights.

They are not cheap, and some can cost as much as $21 dollars, but they are an alternative to the halogen bulbs if you don't want to replace those fixtures.

Here is one sold at Home Depot. The second picture is one that a customer posted in his review. He said that the bulb works great.

Jim

 

[fourjeepin]

+1 for keep the fixture, replace the bulbs. I have one of the LED fixtures and it is all plastic, rather cheap construction.

 

[spam4us]

FreddiFiche
thanks for the suggestions. A little pricey. I have a total of 8 of the halogen fixtures that I would have to replace. I also realize you get what you pay for.

CJ7VFR
I usually clean the glass when I change the bulbs. So the glass gets cleaned about 3 - 4 times a year. I have seen the replacement bulbs you mentioned but they do not come near the amount of lumens that the halogen has.

I have also tried the rough service r7 bulbs but they don't last any longer.

 

[PortDI064]

Is it the outer wall of your garage?

LED is a good choice because it has 80000 hours life span, which means 27 years operation (Based on 8 hours per day)

If you need 5000 lm, the calculation is 5000/130 = 38.5 watt LED

 

[66cj225]

Just got done remounting my halogen fixture to the house on the really long ladder, so I was kind of surprised by this thread. It was partially filled with water and hanging by the wires. I removed the fixture, disassembled dried and cleaned the fixture and glass, reassembled and operated it for a bit on the bench before closing the lid and reinstalling. It was a 500 watt tube that I had around for awhile and I can't remember the last time I serviced the fixture (Has to be 10 years). The mounting screws were the problem, not the fixture.

 

[66cj225]

This must be a Jeep response thread.......yes I vote for keep the fixture!

 

[trainer]

I just replaced a couple of those with 50 watt led wall packs. It's pretty close to the same amount of illumination as the 300w halogen. The led units are pretty much non servicible, so changing bulbs isn't really a problem

 

[Bert_]

Ok. That is the cleanest glass lens I have ever seen! I have one of the same type of lights over the man door outside the entrance to my garage. I would say that I am getting about 5 years out of the bulbs.

There are LED replacement bulbs for the double sided halogen bulbs. I have seen them in 150, 300 and 400 watt equivalents for flood lights.

They are not cheap, and some can cost as much as $21 dollars, but they are an alternative to the halogen bulbs if you don't want to replace those fixtures.

Here is one sold at Home Depot. The second picture is one that a customer posted in his review. He said that the bulb works great.

Jim

$21 is DIRT cheap for any LED like this. In fact its so cheap I would guess that they are pretty poor quality too. but for that price if it lasts 25% of what they claim it might be worth it.

That 14 watt bulb claims to replace a 150W halogen, that's BS it might replace a 60w incandescent.

I am guessing if you have a bunch of halogen floods burning all night then your area is way overlit and you could get by with quite a bit less light.

 

[CJ7VFR]

$21 is DIRT cheap for any LED like this. In fact its so cheap I would guess that they are pretty poor quality too. but for that price if it lasts 25% of what they claim it might be worth it.

That 14 watt bulb claims to replace a 150W halogen, that's BS it might replace a 60w incandescent.

I am guessing if you have a bunch of halogen floods burning all night then your area is way overlit and you could get by with quite a bit less light.

I can see your point. The 14 watt LED says it puts out 900 lumens, and a 150 watt halogen double sided bulb puts out about 2400.

I was just letting the OP know that there are alternatives to the halogen that may last longer in his fixtures.

What I posted was just one example of that. There are literally hundreds of examples out there that can be searched for, that I am sure are better than the one I posted about. But at least it is a start!

The real question here is, why do the OP's bulbs keep burning out so quickly?

Jim

 

[checkthisout]

I ultimately gave up on that style of light and just changed back to good old screw in floods without any shields or anything. Anything that helps the bulb run cooler will help.

I also found that I was able to greatly increase the bulb life of either kind of light by replacing the regular switches with dimmers that allow them to be turned on slowly.

I can only hypothesize that preventing sudden temperature shock changes in the filament as well as allowing them to run as cool as possible helps increase bulb life.

 

[checkthisout]

The real question here is, why do the OP's bulbs keep burning out so quickly?

Jim

You have to buy the $7.00 each bulbs rather than the 2 pack for $5.00.

That style of light cannot face down as that traps the heat and greatly reduces filament life. That style seems to last much longer if it's in an application where it can face up which allows (I think) for better heat dispersal.

That style of light benefits from being on a dimmer switch that slowly ramps power and up and down to prevent temperature shock to the filament.

All IMO of course.

 

[Bert_]

OP, I was assuming that you run these things dusk to dawn since that would explain the short lamp life. If these are only on for a short period of time each day then the lamps should last years.

Make sure you are not touching the lamps without a clean glove or towel. Also if the electrical contacts in the fixture are dirty or corroded the lamps can fail early because of the excess heat. I see that quite a bit in 1500w halogen fixtures.

As with anything make sure you are using decent quality lamps.

 

[yeldogt]

I just went through this for my new build ..... really good LED lighting is very expensive. Was able to get 4 BEGA 77653 48w floods for about what one goes for -- e-bay is your friend. Paid $600. Field Lumen of 4200 and beam of 2600.

Really nice.

I have 4 Hubble Metal Halide fixtures at another house -- Think they are 100w and 150w ... they produce a great light. They are being replaced with LED in commercial settings -- I see NOS at very favorable prices. Hubble makes great stuff. I only use mine when I really want to light the place up .. like taking the trash out or doing something in the driveway --- cleaning up the back yard after a party.

Nothing is going to be as small as the high watt halogens you have -- that's what was nice about them .. and instant on.

 

[66cj225]

That style of light cannot face down as that traps the heat and greatly reduces filament life. That style seems to last much longer if it's in an application where it can face up which allows (I think) for better heat dispersal.

That style of light benefits from being on a dimmer switch that slowly ramps power and up and down to prevent temperature shock to the filament.

I'm thinking the metal housing will conduct heat away better than the glass, then again mine is pointed down so I'm partial. The halogen tube radiates light (and heat) all the way around. The fixture I'm using has a metal reflector to direct everything toward the glass.

 

[checkthisout]

That style of light cannot face down as that traps the heat and greatly reduces filament life. That style seems to last much longer if it's in an application where it can face up which allows (I think) for better heat dispersal.

That style of light benefits from being on a dimmer switch that slowly ramps power and up and down to prevent temperature shock to the filament.

I'm thinking the metal housing will conduct heat away better than the glass, then again mine is pointed down so I'm partial. The halogen tube radiates light (and heat) all the way around. The fixture I'm using has a metal reflector to direct everything toward the glass.

I like to think of it having more to do with the fact that heat rises. The housing traps more heat inside VS radiating it out through the glass.

One thing we always noticed is that you can watch that style of light get brighter after it's pointed downward and the temps inside the fixture begin to rise.

 

[spam4us]

These lights are not dusk to dawn. They are only turned on for about 15 minutes at a time when motion is sensed.

The angle of the lights are what is pictured. Look at the light mounted to the left of the downspout mounted under the eve to get an idea of the angle.

Could it be that the fixtures are mounted out in the open? The light to the left of the downspout is mounted under the soffit and seems to last some what longer than the others that are in the open.

I have tried both the $7.00 each bulbs and the 2 pack for $5.00. Also the rough service. All with the same result of not lasting long. I am very careful not to touch the bulb when I replace them.

I believe the lumen output of the 300W R7 is around 5000.

The bulb contacts in the fixture are just a piece of flat springy metal. Hold the bulb in the middle and push it either L or R to seat the bulb in between. Sorta looks like this ]----bulb------[
The ][ being the flat springy metal. Could be that the fixture is just cheap.

The lights FreddiFiche mentioned, although pricey, seem to be a good replacement since they have a knuckle mount.

 

[yeldogt]

High watt halogen bulbs never had a particularly long life and it's now very hard to get quality bulbs in some wattages. The bulbs from China are terrible .... even the good bulbs are only rated for 2000 hours ... and they don't like being turned on and off.

We have interior touchers that use the 150w and 250w linear halogen -- I stocked up on the german Osram before they stopped being available. See if you can get USHIO brand .. I have been buying them for my low volt xenon application .. and the few high watt screw halogen fixtures we have.

When these bulbs became widely available 40 years ago they allowed a level of light never obtainable before in a typical sized fixture ...... it was all about packaging.

 

[CJ7VFR]

...The bulb contacts in the fixture are just a piece of flat springy metal. Hold the bulb in the middle and push it either L or R to seat the bulb in between. Sorta looks like this ]----bulb------[
The ][ being the flat springy metal. Could be that the fixture is just cheap.....

As others have suggested, make sure you are NOT touching the bulbs with your bare fingers when you install them into the light fixture. If you touch a halogen bulb with your fingers, the oils from your skin gets on them and because halogen bulbs get so hot, they will not last very long and they will burn out quicker.

I always use a small piece of paper towel wrapped around the halogen bulbs to remove them from the packaging and to install them. This prevents me from touching them with my bare fingers.

Also, I have had better luck using the more expensive ($7.00 for one) halogen bulbs that say they are for work and security lights than the cheaper ones.

I had one 150 watt halogen double ended bulb last over 10 years in my outside motion light in my old townhouse. I remember that one saying it was for use in "Extreme" conditions, whatever that is. But it lasted longer than any other halogen bulb I ever had.

I wish I could remember what brand it was and where I got it.

Jim

 

[6768rogues]

I recently put one of these up. It lights the area (about 60x75) in front of my shop well and the light is very white, and only uses 30 watts. Less lumens than you stated. I am going to get more, to replace the 4 halogens on the house.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01900EK3I/?tag=atomicindus08-20
It has a day/night eye on it. I put a few in my shop and painted over the eyes. I like the bright white light.

 

[Bretny]

4 months...thats longer than mine lasted! I think i got 2 months out of one.
Took it down and kicked it in the garbage and bought this.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithoni...CH=REC-_-rv_mobileweb_rr-_-NA-_-100652905-_-N
I got the bell brand and its all aluminum. I also got a 3rd socket and put that in the center plug.
Led 120w output bulbs are $17 a pair and you can put flood or spot in this kind of housing. Its old tech but it works

 

[checkthisout]

4 months...thats longer than mine lasted! I think i got 2 months out of one.
Took it down and kicked it in the garbage and bought this.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithoni...CH=REC-_-rv_mobileweb_rr-_-NA-_-100652905-_-N
I got the bell brand and its all aluminum. I also got a 3rd socket and put that in the center plug.
Led 120w output bulbs are $17 a pair and you can put flood or spot in this kind of housing. Its old tech but it works

Thats exactly what I did. Olde Skool is king!

 

[SALIV8]

I have this and like it:

https://www.zoro.com/acuity-lithonia-dusk-to-dawn-security-bronze-oflr-9ln-120-p-bz-m2/i/G2405952/

 

[Bretny]

Thats prety expensive for what your actualy getting and if one led blows. Throw the whole thing out?

 

[dragrcr890]

my new house has 3 of these with the motion activation on them which is fully adjustable for length and sensitivity and also shuts off during the day obviously. I have had them for a full year now and absolutely love them. before that at the old house I had what you had in the picture. old halogen bulbs. NEVER AGAIN!!! these will blind you, be aware!!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYTZOAQ/?tag=atomicindus08-20