Do it Yourself: [DIY] No Bugs

17 January 2013

[DIY] No Bugs

I suppose I could hook up a photo diode and my oscilloscope to find out if there is a "flicker rate" that bugs don't like, but LED's being diodes to start with will have an instant flicker rate that we have never had with any other light source. However since this would be at either 60 or 120 hertz it is beyond the persistence of the eye and would appear to us to be a steady light, much the same as moves and video are. Without cutting one apart to find out, I suspect there is a small bridge rectifier and dropping resister in the base of each one, other wise they would need to daisy chain them in multiples much like Christmas lights as the normal DC voltage drop across a diode is less than 2 volts.

Dale in the Flatlands.

Bob Davis wrote:

Thanks for the insight, Dale. If we could figure a way to have light without mosquitos in the summer, it would sure be welcome.

From: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Dale S
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 11:07 PM
To: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [DIY] Re: Traveling outlets

They have not caught on out here yet so replacement bulbs are not readily available locally. I'm tempted to try one or two of the LED floods at one end of the shop where I could use a little more light and see how well they work.l I have noticed however that the LED's I put on the deck area do not seem to attract bugs like CFL or Incandescent but I'll wait until next summer to give them a real full season test.

Dale in the Flatlands.

wrobertdavis wrote:

Regarding quick and cheap on lights, I thought I would comment on my choice of T5 fixtures. Most people have never seen T5 lamps. The tube is only 5/8" diameter. A four foot tube is nominally 5000 lumens and always used with an electronic ballast, so they are virtually instant on. The fixture I chose uses four 4' tubes. It mounts to a sheetrock ceiling with four toggle bolts and is connected with a single 110 volt plug.

So I used 6 fixtures for a total cost of $534.

To achieve the same result with 100w equivalent CFL's would only cost $375, requiring 72 fixtures.

CFL's win on cost.

T5s win hands down on installation labor and amount of ceiling real estate required.