LED Bulkhead Lights

Davesnave

We're having the bungalow rewired as we renovate, and the time has come to add a couple of outdoor lights, enabling us to walk from the back door to the boiler room/bin area at night. One light will be on the rear elevation and the other on the end of the property, somewhere well clear of the boiler flue. We just need bulkhead PIR lights, as it's a rural place and nothing fancy.

I notice that the newer LED type bulkhead lights do not allow one to change the luminaire, which is supposed to last a very long time, but there again, we all know about 'supposed to!"

Older, bulkhead lights usually take an E27 screw in bulb, but as E27 compatible LED bulbs are now available, would there be any disadvantage in fitting those to a PIR equipped unit, rather than buying one with a non-serviceable luminaire? Allowing for buying the LED bulb, costs would be similar for something like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/iq-bh-1-pr-b-rectangular-bulkhead-with-pir-black-60w/39450

Also, I've been reading the instructions for this modern LED unit :
http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-rh60b-led-bulkhead-led-wall-lamp-with-pir-black-6w/86524

In the notes, it says,

" The Bulkhead Light should be wired to its own lamp switch. Do not interconnect with other lights on the same switch."

I was intending both lights to be controlled by the same switch near the back door, so would this not be possible?

The instructions for theLED unit also say it shouldn't be mounted facing the sun. This is quite hard to comply with, given that the back of the bungalow faced dure south. Any thoughts on that?

Sorry for the 3 part question. I thought this outdoor lighting would be the easy bit!

brightontraveller

Just get standalone external PIR
E.g.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-140-standalone-pir/11291

Most will switch higher loads,*more lights . Your also not limited then to ones with built in PIR which tend to cost more and look pretty ugly thus allowing far more choice of external lights, cheaper to replace, Stand alone sensor can be used to make light come on even If not in line of site of light fitting e.g sensor pointing at main entrance gate switching side/rear of house external lights etc
(little Tip PIR tend to work better if you walk across the beam than towards it) Also allows you to control both lights from one point overide sensor off or on from house etc

Jonesya

Each to their own, but I never understand why people buy those bulk-head fittings because the light control is rubbish - a lot of it goes straight up into the sky and they create a lot of glare.


A little 10W LED floodlight, or a low energy flood light, angled down gives a much better light and a lot less glare.

Something like this, £10, fit any low energy/LED bulb you want: http://www.toolstation.com/m/part.html?p=98403