What makes a wall light good quality?

[puntloos]

Inside, the thing that seems to distinguish internal and external lighting quality is - strangely - the use of custom leds, in particular with cooling. (since the problem with all these standard bulbs is that they are crammed into a small enclosure, no cooling kills them)

 

But I want a simple up-and-down sconce, eg:

And even the expensive ones seem to house GU10 bulbs anyway. 

 

What do I look for to make sure they are "OK"? 

[Kelvin]

I’ve never had any problems with the design killing GU10 bulbs in the past. 
 

They look like the Astro Dartmouth lights. We’ve gone with those both single and doubles in textured grey. They are very nicely made. 
 

https://www.keslighting.co.uk/astro-dartmouth-single-gu10-outdoor-wall-light-in-textured-grey-1372010.html

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Kelvin

[saveasteading]

I'd think that this style allows any heat to flow upwards, so ideal for avoiding heat buildup.

[puntloos]

16 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

I’ve never had any problems with the design killing GU10 bulbs in the past. 
 

They look like the Astro Dartmouth lights. We’ve gone with those both single and doubles in textured grey. They are very nicely made. 
 

https://www.keslighting.co.uk/astro-dartmouth-single-gu10-outdoor-wall-light-in-textured-grey-1372010.html

 

Yours seems to only downlight though, we'd prefer 'up' as well, at least in some areas.

[TonyT]

The ability to fix a back plate and thrn

secure the light To the back plate.

 

all lights in my opinion should have a conduit box or architrave box fixing to make It easy to terminate cabling.. and get a secure fixing 

[Kelvin]

1 hour ago, puntloos said:

Yours seems to only downlight though, we'd prefer 'up' as well, at least in some areas.

They are both uplight and downlight (doubles) and downlight (single) It’s why we went for them as we are using the singles (downlight) in the single storey section and doubles (up and down) in the 1.5 storey section. 

 

I’m down the plot later so shall take some pictures for you. 

[Kelvin]

1 hour ago, TonyT said:

The ability to fix a back plate and thrn

secure the light To the back plate.

 

all lights in my opinion should have a conduit box or architrave box fixing to make It easy to terminate cabling.. and get a secure fixing 

Yes the ones we bought are like that. 

[saveasteading]

And all wall lights should be set at least 100mm off the wall to avoid casting shadows of wobbles in the plaster or, especially, jointing.

[Kelvin]

That’s hard to achieve in practice. We have very few interior wall lights because of the unflattering way they can light the walls. I actually loved the irregular brickwork that the outside lights highlighted in our previous house.

[TonyT]

Got to live up/down coke can lights, keeps sparks in work for years changing them due to water ingress

[oliwoodings]

I got these, very happy with them: https://www.screwfix.com/p/zinc-eos-outdoor-up-down-wall-light-anthracite/813fh

 

They do a single-direction one as well.

 

Chose them because they are diecast aluminium so won't rust. Quality is really high, feels really solid. Leagues apart from the steel LAP ones I got for a less-important project.

[puntloos]

https://gardenandlandscapelighting.co.uk/product/aluminium-up-and-down-light-240v/ look pretty good too.. also better IP rating..

[Onoff]

18 hours ago, TonyT said:

The ability to fix a back plate and thrn

secure the light To the back plate.

 

all lights in my opinion should have a conduit box or architrave box fixing to make It easy to terminate cabling.. and get a secure fixing 

 

I modded cheap ones:

 

 

 

 

 

[Mattg4321]

Saxby Atlantis are very good quality if you like the styling 

[puntloos]

5 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

I modded cheap ones:

That's pretty industrial strength right there. I'm not 100% clear on the rasoning though - sure, if you literally try to drill plugs into insulation material (my walls are very 'fluffy' for that reason) they might start to come out much faster than you'd expect, but why would this additional piece of pipe not suffer the same problem?

Edited December 27, 2023 by puntloos

[Onoff]

23 minutes ago, puntloos said:

That's pretty industrial strength right there. I'm not 100% clear on the rasoning though - sure, if you literally try to drill plugs into insulation material (my walls are very 'fluffy' for that reason) they might start to come out much faster than you'd expect, but why would this additional piece of pipe not suffer the same problem?

 

Not sure I understand what you have wall wise? Could a heavy duty plastic conduit not perhaps support the light if properly glanded. Plastic wouldn't cause a cold bridge either?

 

Fill the tube round the cable with wonder gel etc. 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Onoff

[puntloos]

4 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

Not sure I understand what you have wall wise? Could a heavy duty plastic conduit not perhaps support the light if properly glanded. Plastic wouldn't cause a cold bridge either?

 

Fill the tube round the cable with wonder gel etc. 

Perhaps I don't quite understand why you built the whole metal construction just to create a conduit box?

[Onoff]

19 minutes ago, puntloos said:

Perhaps I don't quite understand why you built the whole metal construction just to create a conduit box?

 

The black 100x100 steel is my sliding gate post. I wanted a downlight on it. I drilled the box and fitted a 20mm flexible conduit gland. Flexible conduit goes back to the control box where the power is.

[Pocster]

4 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

The black 100x100 steel is my sliding gate post. I wanted a downlight on it. I drilled the box and fitted a 20mm flexible conduit gland. Flexible conduit goes back to the control box where the power is.

Is it finished ?

[Pocster]

11 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

I modded cheap ones:

 

 

 

 

 

The glory hole doorbell ! . Promised for so long , yet to deliver …

[Kelvin]

 

The mounting holes have rubber grommets for the screws and the rest of seems well sealed against the rain. It’s certainly better made than what we had in the previous house and they never leaked. There’s a bit more wind driven rain here though. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by Kelvin

[puntloos]

49 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

 

The mounting holes have rubber grommets for the screws and the rest of seems well sealed against the rain. It’s certainly better made than what we had in the previous house and they never leaked. There’s a bit more wind driven rain here though. 

That's a nice attention to detail. I do hear that aluminium isn't great in rain though. How long have you had these?

[Kelvin]

Fitted them today so about 3 hours 😂 They are powder coated. My son in law is an electrician and he rates them.