Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Ok, here are the confused questions for the guys building new houses who are chatting with the electricians.
1. I understand that mercury vapor lights have not been an option for a dozen years and metal hdyrate(?) is going away for flood lights. I have heard the expression led corn cob is the new way for flood lights.
2. do you need a special fixture?
3. can it be connected to the house current and how?
4. do you need to be an electrician to install the new fixture?
5. how expensive are led corn cobs and how long do they last. The old mercury vapor bulbs lasted about 3 years.
6. can you connect the led corn cob to a motion detector and how or can you put it on a timer?

https://youtu.be/D8o5nEtAzlc

https://youtu.be/5ZHUOQgobsY

Video 1 explains the difference between corn cob and what you might put outside.
Video 2 focuses on telling you that you can't use the old base fittings for the corn cob because of directions of the illumination.

I now have the experience of more than 7 years dealing with daylight bulbs for in house lighting.
1. the daylight modern bulbs last longer than the old style bulbs by a lot of time. However, they don't all last 10 years as the manufacturers would advertise.
2. the light fixtures need to be washed/cleaned just as frequently as when I used old style light bulbs.
3. the daylight fluorescent tubes in the garage last as long as the non daylight tubes used to last.
4. with advancing age, the switch to daylight bulbs has helped in reading at night.
5. when I had the attic floored, the pull down ladder replaced as well, I had a licensed electrician install the attic lighting. As the old style bulbs from 25 years ago burn out, I will replace them with daylight bulbs.

Been up at the new house for a couple days. Mounted the Mr. Beams lights at either end of the house. It gets really, really dark back in the woods with no ambient lights so the Mr. Beams light up the woods pretty good. Even though the light is fairly localized it spills out quite a ways.

I did end up ordering the solar powered flood light from Amazon. I should have it by the time I go back up to the house next week. It should provide more light a little farther out.

But like I said, it gets so dark back in the woods so a little light goes a long way.

Now my wife is thinking of putting solar, motion detecting lights on the driveway. It's probably 100 yards long and will invite or deter people from driving up it.

I got this light in to use at the new house. It is solar powered, really bright and lights up the whole back yard. It does use 2 18650 1200 mAh rechargeable batteries.*

I think now I am going to keep it in the back yard at my primary residence.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NWFJH9B/?c ... _lig_dp_it

My wife was at Sam's Club the other day and saw this one. It seems to be a better deal than the one from Amazon. It's more powerful, on sale for $7 cheaper and has a remote control. It also uses 18650 lithium 2000 mAh replaceable batteries.*

https://www.samsclub.com/p/2000l-solr-s ... ance.rr0_1

Told my wife to order a couple of these for the woods house. More is better. I'll then move the Mr. Beams lights to the driveway.

Also available at Home Depot and Lowes but on sale/cheaper at SC.

*One benefit of having solar powered lights with rechargeable/replaceable batteries is that they keep the batteries charged all the time. One can always go out and pull the batteries to use in flashlights, lanterns etc. Or rotate your rechargables and use the solar lights as rechargers.

I was sitting in the family room last night with the flood lights I put up in the backyard popped on around 10;30. I looked out and saw a skunk scampering away. We had a family of skunks last summer (which I got rid of with my 22 rifle and some Super Colibre primer fired loads). Looks like I'm going to have to go hunting again.

2 pack of above lights on sale $49 till the 30th

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Westinghouse-1 ... 1001302962

tom mac wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 9:50 am 2 pack of above lights on sale $49 till the 30th

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Westinghouse-1 ... 1001302962

That's a pretty good deal. I think we paid $24/each on sale at sam's club when they were $35-40 ea at HD and Lowes. SC had the 2 pack as well but the same lights bought individually have a remote control which the two pack doesn't come with.

I should mention that we got both lights,ordered at the same time but delivered two days apart.The box was mashed and the solar panel was cracked on the second one upon delivery. Sam's Club is sending us a new one and told us to keep the broken one. I have that light out in the back yard to see if the solar panel will charge even while cracked. It doesn't appear that the solar cells themselves are damaged just the outer glass.

The other light is up at the house and works pretty well. It is pretty bright and is more of a flood light than the Mr. Beams. One thing I noticed is that while the Mr. Beams light gives off a very white light, these give off more of an orangish light.

We were sitting out on the porch of our new house in the dark recently when the light came on and illuminated a ground hog about 60 feet away.

I live on a dead-end street of 11 houses

Last week, my next door neighbor had two visitors in his dark backyard at 12:30 am. Then two days ago, he had two homeless in his front yard. This a street where upon a vacant lot two doors down sold for $2 million last year. My neighbor does not have a gate between his house and the garage (which used to have a gate), no steel screen mesh front door, no motion detector lights. His theory of discouragement is to put a trash can sometimes between the house and the garage. Burglarized a few times.

I simply ordered another 2 outdoor motion detector lights - bringing the total on my property to 9 with three game cameras, two deadbolts with a steel mesh door on the side of the garage, two deadbolts on each of the gates to the backyard.

Being rural does not protect you from thieves.