Outside Wall Light Location

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360Youth

360Youth

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Newport, NC
I have a pet peeve when it comes to a wall light installed at an exterior door. I despise them. IMO they are nothing but bug collectors as you come and go. Has anybody come up with an alternative (soffit lights, nearby flood or post lights, etc) that meets customer satisfaction, or is it just not an issue. I have briefly suggested to customers in the past when doing layouts, but never with much agreement. Maybe it is me, but if I have another house there will not be a wall light within 10' of a door. There seems to be quite a bit of leeway within NEC as to exactly where the required light can be.
 
360Youth said:
I have a pet peeve when it comes to a wall light installed at an exterior door. I despise them. IMO they are nothing but bug collectors as you come and go. Has anybody come up with an alternative (soffit lights, nearby flood or post lights, etc) that meets customer satisfaction, or is it just not an issue. I have briefly suggested to customers in the past when doing layouts, but never with much agreement. Maybe it is me, but if I have another house there will not be a wall light within 10' of a door. There seems to be quite a bit of leeway within NEC as to exactly where the required light can be.
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do you have a drawing of what you are trying to light up? it depends alot on the design of the building what you can do....
 
360Youth said:
I have a pet peeve when it comes to a wall light installed at an exterior door. I despise them. IMO they are nothing but bug collectors as you come and go. Has anybody come up with an alternative (soffit lights, nearby flood or post lights, etc) that meets customer satisfaction, or is it just not an issue. I have briefly suggested to customers in the past when doing layouts, but never with much agreement. Maybe it is me, but if I have another house there will not be a wall light within 10' of a door. There seems to be quite a bit of leeway within NEC as to exactly where the required light can be.
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An electrician who hates lights......... Imagine that?
 
I guess you could put some grazing lights and or floods in the yard pointing at the front, but you may have troubles being blinded walking out... my suggestion for you when you design and build your next house would be to put a tall archway above the entry and light it with can lights up high, that would keep most of the bugs up and away from your entrance....
 
I just discovered something last week.

I saw a 13W compact fluorescent "bug light" (anti bug light actually) at True Value.

I have a cabin in the mountains and the CF's I installed there attract a ton of bugs, which is annoying because I like to leave the screenless doors open for the fresh mountain air and the view.

DSC01756.jpg


ANYways...I bought one to try it out and it actually WORKS. The light is yellowish but not bad at all and I am a Kelvin snob. There were NO bugs around the South side where I installed the light....NONE. I ordered 5 more to complete the job.

In my opinion, it is rare that a product like this actually does what it's supposed to do.


Re the OP, If I have eaves or patio covers to work with, I much prefer recessed lights overhead instead of wall mounted fixtures.
 
My father-in-law is a painter and he told me he never commented on a clinets choice of color, is this any different?

Is it a service or dis-service to provide what you've described ? Luminaires-Entrance doesn't exist in the index but theres plenty of other entry's that are present, but your free to seek all the entry's of luminaries that exist... frankly I don't recall making a calculation required within residental construction that required a lamp at the front or back door, while a GFCI is...

Gezz you just added a stroke to the fire for 2011.
 
210.70(A)(2)(b) requires a wall switch-controlled lighting outlet to provide illumination on the exterior side of outdoor entrances or exits with grade level access. (Dwelling units) However, exact illumination levels are not addressed. Is that in the building codes?

I ask because, if there is a required level, moving the light away from the door would have to take this into account.
 
JohnJ0906 said:
210.70(A)(2)(b) requires a wall switch-controlled lighting outlet to provide illumination on the exterior side of outdoor entrances or exits with grade level access.
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Ok thats because its a branch circuit or other? I'm not questioning your statement I'm point'n out the lack of Index power because an item is not mentioned more than 2 - 3 or 1 - 2 times in the Cook Book its not indexed.

Stroke the Fire ...

I was floating in the 400's try'n to deal with this ...
 
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cadpoint said:
My father-in-law is a painter and he told me he never commented on a clinets choice of color, is this any different?
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One of my favorite sayings is "Painters don't pick the paint and I don't pick the fixture." But I will make suggestions on locations for reasons that I feel will benefit the customer in the long run.
 
360Youth said:
One of my favorite sayings is "Painters don't pick the paint and I don't pick the fixture." But I will make suggestions on locations for reasons that I feel will benefit the customer in the long run.
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Several years ago I wired a new house, and the customer had a chandelier on order that was going to be at least a month before it would arrive. the painters had scaffold sat up in the entry so I took advantage of it being in place and climbed up and installed a keyless fixture and a 100 watt lamp just to close the box so it didnt have exposed wires for the inspection, the homeowner must not have been informed that their fixture was on backorder and went ballistic because I chose what they got in thier entryway, LOL.....
 
220/221 said:
I just discovered something last week.

I saw a 13W compact fluorescent "bug light" (anti bug light actually) at True Value. . . . . . .

ANYways...I bought one to try it out and it actually WORKS. . . . . . . .
Click to expand...


I have that very same bulb installed at my backdoor and it works famously. The one I have is made by TCP.
 
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