Exterior lighting in cold climate
I’m wondering if anyone has found any energy-efficient lighting that works well for exterior applications in a cold climate. We are in northern MN where winter temps remain well below freezing for months, and bottom out at around -40F. We have replaced all the incandesents lighting inside our houses with CFLs but ouside, the CFLs we have tried poop out when it is much below freezing- by the time they start putting out any intensity, you are already through the front door and don’t need ’em! Our existing 250W outside motion light is using more electricity that the rest of the house combined. I have seen some LED motion lights, but not sure if they will perform in the cold…any feedback?
Thanks
Replies
None of the LEDs I've seen are affected by the cold.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
In theory LEDs should perform OK in the cold, though the currently available models may not be very well temperature compensated. You probably have to just buy one and try it (which is a bit of a problem given the cost of the things).
Do note that many/most of the LED lamps and fixtures you see advertised (especially the cheaper ones) are very low output units, equivalent to 10-50W of incandescent. The brighter ones are gonna be more expensive. Be sure you know what brightness you're buying.
However, in the more expensive category are screw-in units in both "bulb" and "reflector" configuration that could possibly work with your existing light fixture, making substitution simple. (Though again, whether or not the LED units will work with an existing motion detector is a big question.)
In any event the light's going to be an annoying blue-white. Not much you can do about that.
Well, my only experience has been with LED headlamps, which we use for outdoor activities in extreme cold. They seem to work just fine. however, the LED "bulb" lights that I was looking at (this is in the Real Goods catalog) lists a required operating temperature of 14F for all of them (which, compared to the CFL's rating of -5F, is not very promising)...Shawn
Unlike CFLs, there's nothing inherent in LED lightbulbs that would make them excessively temperature-sensitive. The problem is that they contain electronics, and all electronics are somewhat temperature-sensitive unless an effort is made during design to do temperature compensation.Hard to say whether the listed temperature range is just a CYA thing or whether they actually malfunction much below that point.
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As eluded to ... LED ... not affected by the cold ... at least in a negative way. In fact the opposite ... they like cold temps and don't llike hot temps. But they can be pricey.
Other alternative is low temp ballasted fluorescents; either CFL or standard linear. I've been buying street and security fluorescents. I think they simply call them low temp ballasts. Electronic ballasts made for exterior applications. I think that exterior CFL fixtures are (should be) made for low temp operations.
Keep looking ... you should be able to find something.
We recently installed Lithonia 'I-Beam' fluorescent in our farm shop and they have a great cold weather ballast and come on instantly w/o flicker. Can't recommend them enough, was really surprised by their performance since we have never had much luck with older style fluorescents. We live in N. Nevada - about as far from Vegas as possible - and it will get down to -25*F every winter and will be below freezing inside if we don't leave some heaters on all night and lights still come on right away but take a little while to reach full intensity at colder temps.
Not sure if these are suitable for your application, I'm looking for a decent plumb soffit/garage entry lighting setup and I'm not sure about the variety of fixtures available with these cold ballasts but it's worth looking into based on the performance of the other units IMO.
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In general, LEDs are good in cold. Better, even.
Forrest