Thread: outdoor spiked spotlights

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Purchased a few spotlights that spike into the ground from Home Depot today. They use a PAR38 flood bulb. I plan on using them to light up some of my outdoor props.

Saw some posts about incandescent black lights and the heat they generate that have me a bit concerned.

Do the same concerns apply to the colored incandescent/halogen PAR38s? I've been thinking of ordering some red bulbs. I'd prefer incandescents over CFLs so I can dim and fade them up for cool lighting effects, but if the heat they generate makes it a safety concern in case of rain then I'll consider otherwise.

This is where I was looking:
Light Bulbs - Buy Light Bulbs Online at BuyLighting.com

Suggestions?

Thanks!

If heat is a concern get LED lights. No heat and they look better then incandescent/halogen.

Any good source for them? Definitely expensive...

i would guess slightly hotter than white, depends on painted vs colored glass lens I think...but nothing like the 'blacklight'.

Get one at HD/Lowes and see for yourself. If placing out in the open yard, no issue. If putting in enclosed places or somewhere subject to being touched, etc - the LED is the way to go.

How much were the spikes you bought?

Get one at HD/Lowes and see for yourself. If

Didn't realize they sold them there... I'll check it out.

How much were the spikes you bought?

$5!

One thing to note about those lamps is they can be dimmed, while LED lights cannot.

That being said, I made the switch to LED last year and only use a few old skool bulbs for load and heat reasons, amount of light being less of an issue.

Par 38 colored floods can sometimes overpower your props by washing everything else out with it. LED is much more expensive but if you get good quality LED’s the results are well worth it. I have a thred going about them and you can view it here: LED par 30 comparison test to incandescent florescent lights

I saw your thread, thanks! Too bad your vendor is no longer selling them. I ended up ordering a couple from the eBay vendor to try out. MinionsWeb looked like a good source as well, but his are PAR20s which do not fit well into the spike fixtures I purchased. Trying out a couple bulbs here, it seems I need a PAR30 or PAR38 to get a tight fit (and stay relatively weather resistant). The package says PAR38s.

Since you'll be using these outdoors, heat shouldn't be an issue (assuming you're not keeping the spots in enclosed boxes or anything without some kind of ventilation).

The standard colored spots generate as much heat as a typical white spotlight.
The reason the "blacklight" spots become so warm, is the filter they put on the glass, to only allow light out that's at the higher end of the spectrum - effectively trapping the lower, heat producing wavelengths inside the bulb...so, the only way the bulb can shed that energy is through heating the glass excessively.

Get one at HD/Lowes and see for yourself.

Went to Home Depot and bought a few different colors to try. They were BR38 bulbs - not sure the exact difference from PAR38, but they were definitely lighter and more fragile feeling. Tried out the red, and I thought it was horrible. It was 100W vs my white 90W, but the light was far softer and more diffused, and it was pinkish in color. It also go MUCH hotter than my PAR38 bulb.

Definitely not the way I want to go. So, I'm going to return these. I don't mind going incandescent, and might prefer them so I can brighten/dim. Can anyone recommend any incandescent colored bulbs?