What type of attic light

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jttheclockman

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I am looking to install attic lights in a ranch house. I am looking for suggestions as to what is a good type. Is an led light acceptable for the extreme heat and cold of an attic. Being we can not buy incandescent bulbs any more what else is there? If i get led flourescents will this work up there. I am having central air conditioning installed this year so would like to have lights up there and also will use the space for storage of unwanted items . It is a crawl space but in a ranch house that is 60 feet long. Will install a pilot lighted switch in the hall for the lights.

Thanks in advance.
 
I am allowing this thread since the OP didn't ask "how" to install or wire anything.
So please only respond to the OP's question concerning lighting types and their suitability.
 
Just my opinion, didn't look up the facts on this:

LEDs are fine for cold but very expensive. High temps shorten their life.

CFLs don't like cold, take minutes to warm up to full brightness. Not good for quick look around the attic. They are cheap. They make low temp versions down to 0 degrees I hear. Never seen them.

Halogen is probably your best bet. Relatively inexpensive, works in all temps, instantly bright.
 
Some ranch style homes have very low attics "ceilings" so a florescent or LED strip light is a better choice than a porcelain. I had keyless fixtures in my attic and changed them all to strip lights after I hit and broke the third hot lamp with my head when when climbing around up there. :)
 
K8MHZ said:
3 60 watt equivalent for 8 bucks, 10,000 hour life at Ace Hardware. That's what I would use if there was room for incandescent bulbs. Even if their life was cut in half, that's still 5,000 hours.
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And the leds would probably last forever- barring someone living up there, how often is the average attic light actually used?

To the op: whatever you decide to do, give this a little thought and try to put your lights above where you wouldn't store anything-( you want to be able to reach the fixture to replace the bulb) and where the light will not be obstructed by framing. One near the entrance and the rest mounted below and between the rafters near the peak, along with one near the wh vent/ hvac is usually a good layout.
 
Some good points made. I am worried about the breakage because it is just a crawl attic. I am going to have air conditioning guys crawling around up there with duct work. If I go with the keyless fixtures I may have to use those metal guards. I would not mind the led strip lights if I know they can withstand the heat and cold. Have to think about this more. I will start running the wire next week hopefully. Thanks.
 
Don't put them right over the main walkway, then you won't have nearly the chance of bumping into them accidentally. CFL's and LED's won't take the heat as well as an incandescent, but lights in such locations typically don't get hardly any hours on them in the first place. I'd put some incandescent bulbs up there myself, but I am still seeing them in the stores, maybe some of you out there aren't finding them at all?
 
kwired said:
Don't put them right over the main walkway, then you won't have nearly the chance of bumping into them accidentally. CFL's and LED's won't take the heat as well as an incandescent, but lights in such locations typically don't get hardly any hours on them in the first place. I'd put some incandescent bulbs up there myself, but I am still seeing them in the stores, maybe some of you out there aren't finding them at all?
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I still see incandescents being sold as garage door opener bulbs, and for appliances like ovens.
 
K8MHZ said:
I still see incandescents being sold as garage door opener bulbs, and for appliances like ovens.
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I recall seeing an end cap display at Menard's recently of incandescent lamps. Don't recall what wattages were there, but pretty sure 60 watt lamps were in there and maybe 75 or 100. I know they were not GE, Phillips, or Sylvania lamps. Probably some lot of lamps they bought from China and when they are gone they are gone. They may buy another lot sometime, though it may not be exactly same thing.
 
strip, tape, or low profile. maybe decorative type light emitting decorations. you want low watt per feet density. localized brightness is bad given the low height.
 
There are metal cages for keyless lamp holders, and Leviton makes a nice LED lamp fixture that mounts to a junction box
 
In mine, I installed a couple of porcelain fixtures, the furthest one w/ a pull string switch. They are on the (attached) garage light circuit, so there is no chance of leaving it on when not being used. The CFL bulbs have lasted 2 years now, no problems. They draw so little power I don't mind them being on when the garage lights are on.

In another installation, where garage light power was not as convenient, I installed a porcelain fixture inside the garage w/ a 7 watt bulb that was lit w/ the attic lights were on, because I knew the owner would want to make sure they were out when not in use.
 
For a basic attic without a floor and maybe an air handler, I install keyless lampholders with incandescent lamps. Yes, you can still buy them.
 
This stuff is pretty good if you can afford 4" of protrusion and light light distribution is very wide and preferable to thin stuff.
It can hard wire it it screws into a standard surface mount socket so it ends up like it's flush. It's not undestructible but non-shatterable. Realistically, it ends up matching 100w bulb in a similar fixture since its rated something like 750 or 800 lumen the way it is while a fixture of that type with a bulb is about 50% efficient.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commerci...ite-LED-Easy-Utility-Light-54606241/205890895

With a low ceiling height, you want the lowest lumen per fixture surface area to avoid bright spots. An ordinary surface mount intended to imitate a can light in a J-box would be quite narrow and have a tunnel vision light.
 
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I am not a fan of CFL but I would try Allied LH-CFL1. They are low profile, don't break easily and cost less than $20.
 
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