LED lighting by trial and error

We seem to be getting to the tipping point with LED lights, where they have become sufficiently performant and low-enough in price to be worth installing. Now, you usually can't find anything brighter than the average glow-worm (nothing above 4w that I can remember) on the shelves in bricks'n'mortar lighting departments be it at the sophisticated end with John Lewis or the general DIY of Homebase, but online at the reduced prices available through the usual aggregator, you can find some decent kit, and I've tried a range of models, finally turfing out the remaining few incandescents outside the 60w candle bulb in the bedside sunrise alarm, and the ones in various appliances.

Now despite the equivalent wattage ratings printed on the packs of compact fluorescent twisty bulbs, I've usually found the rough equivalence there of 11w ⇒ 60w incandescent and 20w ⇒ 100w incandescent; and have in most cases been pleasantly surprised by the LED lights outperforming the CFLs watt for watt.

So here are what I've tried (in some cases using an E27 to B22 adapter):

• 10 Watt, B22 Bayonet, Daylight White — brighter than an 11w CFL, somewhat directional beam, and rather blue for normal indoor use. I've replaced 100w incandescents in bulkhead lights in greenhouse, attic and garage with this model, for which it is a more than adequate replacement, and where the clean colour is preferable.
• 10 Watt, B22 Bayonet, Warm White — similar to the above, but a better colour for normal indoor use. Suitable for traditional pendant fittings with a diffusing shade (I still use the paper globes like it was the 1970s), and somewhere between an 11w and 20w CFL in perceived brightness.
• 6 Watt R63 reflector spotlight, E27 screw, Warm White — brighter than the 60w incandescents they replaced. A definite win.
• 5 Watt Corn Style, E27 screw, Warm White — called 80w equivalent, and, despite its deceptively small size, certainly a match for the 60w incandescent it replaced in the downstairs loo in a ceiling fitting where it's horizontally mounted in a diffuser dome with a reflective plate above.
• 10 Watt Corn Style, E27 screw, Warm White — adequate replacement for a similarly small-size 11w CFL in a wall light, horizontally mounted in a diffuser dome. I expect that they would work equally well vertically mounted in a simple diffuser as a bedside light, where the mainly-sideways illumination is at the right height for use.
• 12 Watt Corn Style, E27 screw, Pure White — a clean white light (not as blue as the daylight white above), which is working well in the grey, blue and white bathroom (ceiling mount as above). Not so good mounted vertically as a pendant light, because it shines mostly sideways, leaving the floor underneath darker by comparison than the walls, so the subjective experience is poor there (but it is likely this could be mitigated by using a different shade or fitting).

Some other subjective considerations may apply -- I like the instant-on, though I do know people who find the slow ignition of a CFL useful for a bathroom light when staggering out of bed in the middle of the night and would find the immediate bright white a painful experience. For me, OTOH, between street-lights and the charge indicator for the ceiling hoist immediately above the loo, I find I already have enough illumination for nocturnal micturitions without reaching for the pull-cord; and hate the dingy interval when starting to shower or run a bath.

As we have a stock of CFLs to use, I've not completely replaced those -- as CFLs don't take so well in cases where a light need only be on for a short while as LEDs do, I have put LEDs in non-core-use rooms, and left CFLs in places where they will be in use from dusk to bedtime, or bedtime to settling down time.

Back to front

After 3 weeks for decorating and carpeting, where I'd moved everything from the main bedroom into the spare room, we are now back in the proper bedroom. The only time any of this works on the house actually pushed me out of the familiar east-facing aspect.

What I did on my holidays

Much like n molesworth, I've been doing a lot of "did 0" and "mucked about". A chance to rest has been good, especially after starting the holidays with a filthy drive in fog to go to pay for the newly installed carpet in my den, and continued discomfort from the tooth that's been playing up these last couple of months. At least that has settled down a bit now, even if it doesn't yet feel ready for prime-time when it comes to chewing.

I now have a nicely fitted out and de-cluttered den, sufficiently de-cluttered that Karen can come in in her wheelchair and watch stuff with me; and we've even managed to clear and sort the spare room enough that that's accessible and the bed could be used. Admittedly there's still stuff to sort, and a lot of jumble waiting a chance to offload, but there is progress.

And all the usual seasonal things happened, the dinner with college friends on Sunday, and this year, none of the trauma we had last year.

It's done

The last bit of trim on the flooring; the last touch-up of paintwork. Perhaps the building work is over. Now comes the fun fun fun of properly moving into the new space, and purging all the accumulated dross of 20 years.

Freecycle and Oxfam are going to be doing very well off us for a while to come.

Zeno's Paradox

The wood block flooring is all done, and the chap came on Friday to finish up the rest. He rehung doors, making them clear of the carpet, and put the matting down in the hall. And then didn't have the right threshold strips. When those are done, and the skirting touched up, it should all be done.

Alas, only half the remaining work seems to get done on each visit.

Curtains!

Yes, we now have curtains in the new dining area, and the old kitchen blind has been re-installed for the moment. And tomorrow, we should have flooring in the kitchen and carpet on the stairs and landing!

I wish it could be Christmas every day …

We are now actually able to unpack into the kitchen, and have opened the kitchen related presents we got shortly after the building work started. And there is a lot of stuff to dispose of — graded by junk, recycling, jumble and mathoms.

Things are now asymptotically approaching normality, though the flooring is still to do; and that will spread over the coming month. Maybe by the end of the year, things will have all been sorted out and something like a routine re-established.

Catching up

Woot! I cycled into work every day for the last two weeks, into town both days last weekend, and again today. Which is a first.

It has been hot, though not quite as hot as in the first week of Aug '03, peaking at only about 34C; and for some of the time dry enough that doing the Tuesday lunchtime walk was comfortable.

Ended with film festival by seeing A Scanner Darkly — I never read the book so all I can say was that it was a paranoid junkie fantasy, the rotoscoping made the scramble-suits work (though I don't know if they looked like they were meant to), and that playing a burned out druggie suits Keanu Reeves' acting style.

We almost have a kitchen; last weekend I was able to celebrate with doing the washing up at a sink, rather than in the bath, and the laundry at home for the first time since February. The tiling and touch-up decoration needs to finish, then we can get the floor done. And redecorating the hall and staircase is almost done, so getting those carpeted/wood-blocked can some soon too!

About time too…

They resurfaced (i.e. sprayed some tar and about three times as many chippings as would fit) part of the way into work last week, leading to great drifts at the down-hill end, enough that turning onto that piece of road in my car, I could feel an incipient skid. So on my bike, I've been taking longer alternative routes, extended by the fact that the unofficial side way in to Cambourne is blocked while the dualling of the A428 goes on, and so have to loop back to the Monkfield Farm entrance.

But, this lunchtime, returning home to let the flooring people in, it seemed that they were at last starting to hoover the massive gravel surplus. Two cheers.

In other news, the flooring guy due this p.m. called in at 09:15, while I was on my way to work. Still, I can read MSDN just as easily at home as in the office, and have bheer with it too!

Woot!

Cycled to work each day this week, which is earlier in the season than previous years; and included twice cycling into town on the way home. No rest over the week-end, too (into town, and maybe joining a cycling jaunt to Cambourne on Sunday).

In other news, had an interview, but decided against (on the same logic that “unsure” => “no hire”), but at least it's all good practice.

And we have a functional downstairs loo! No door yet, and the decorating is incomplete, but the plumbing is done and is usable. Luxury!

[Now playing - Planet Rock]

Catching up

I had a much needed break last week — four nights in Salisbury, going to various gigs and concerts around the Arts Festival there in the evenings : Graffiti Classics (string quartet with attitude), Billy Bragg (the usual), Salsa Samba (Indonesian eclectic) and Los de Abajo (Mexican "tropipunk" - punk in the US musical sense).

From the Old Mill, Harnham

Thursday was dull, and couldn't make up its mind if it was cool or sultry, but the rest of the time was clear and warm, good weather for strolling around, as well as doing a bit of shopping — a summer-weight smart jacket, a shoulderback for carrying book and camera; and a panama hat for shade.

Previously, with having to coordinate with Karen, Salisbury had seemed a food desert, with just the King's Head and Chicago Rock Cafe being sensible accessible. Left to my own devices it was a cornucopia, and I could try out the Lemon Tree, the Marrakech, and Cactus Jack's, as well as returning to the Old Mill, plus explore the more interesting pubs.

All in all, a welcome chunk of R&R, allowing me to de-stress, knowing that all that was happening building-wise was the plaster drying in the new downstairs loo. And now, the building work is getting close to the end — the plumbing is done in the loo, though there is still decorating, tiling, carpentry, and flooring. And the kitchen. But now, after more than six months, it's getting close to being able to reclaim the house.

And with the magic of wi-fi, I can compose this post sitting in the warmth of the evening, at a table on the new patio.

[Now playing - Planet Rock]

Moving in

This weekend, I was finally able to re-lay the parquet in what used to be the dining area, and we were able to shift the fridge there, and get the armchair that had been stored in the spare room down into the new space, and shift the hi-fi so there were speakers in the new dining area.

It's amazing quite how much more home-like this is making things feel.

Milestones

14000 miles on the drive.

And in the on-going saga of the builders, the old front porch has been bricked in.

Tired

I am heartily sick of the building works and the time it is taking. And the fact that if I wanted a job done incompetently, I could do it myself.

And the fact that when I went out for a hearty meal to console myself, it became overeating and full-gut ache. Where have life's simple pleasures all gone?

[Later — It turned out to be a stomach upset of some sort, that left me flat on my back for a couple of days, except when having to charge downstairs to the one functioning loo…]

In other news…

I hope bad things do indeed come in threes. We discovered this week that the young guy doing the bricklaying to adjust the old kitchen had managed to

1. put the frame for the new side door one course of bricks too high
2. make a portrait format hole for a landscape format window
3. build a new wall about a foot away from where it should have been (not measuring, and so not noticing that an archway was also being adjusted, and tying it to the old position, not the new.

*sigh*

4 weeks of bedsit life so far, and at least another couple I would expect before we can even have a pro tem kitchen. This is getting very old very fast.

[Now playing - Planet Rock]

Senior Moments

Went to discuss details of the new kitchen with the specialist designer. And amongst all the discussion of features of accessible kitchens, a stray mention of a safety feature — I can't remember which — being good for when grand-children were running around.

Aaaauuuugh! I feel ancient!

Feline Ingenuity

The extension works are close to topping out now, with the two storey part up to the eaves.

I just spotted something moving by the spare-room window; and thought to myself “No — that can't be a cat.” — but it was. The Burmese had climbed up onto the platform under the window and then clambered up onto the sill; probably by taking the ladder, rather than doing a series of Tomb Raider style gymnastics.

So she has figured out how to get around the removal of the conservatory which used to allow her to do the same climb to demand entrance.

Walls

After a month in which we progressed only to footings, the walls (outer skin at least) are almost one storey high after a day's work. The disintegrating section of fence between the new wall and the boundary which I'd been intending to remove when waist-high is now inaccessible unless the whole fence comes down. Which it may have to.

Like, “Season's Greetings”, man

So what's been happening?

Well, we now have new foundations and footings instead of a conservatory and part of the garden. The weather was mild and dry yesterday, so I did cycle to work, denim jacket over T-shirt, and bare feet in sandals, discovering that cycling doesn't keep feet warm the way that walking does. And, homeward bound into the only bit of sunshine for the day, that the 10 rolling miles or so to work are a bit more wear and tear on the posterior than the six flat ones into town (again).

And it was still mild enough to be T-shirt weather when headed into town for a little bit of greengrocery (and brunch) today; too warm for the heavier jacket I'd put on to cycle in.

So, another years survived at work; and even a bit more enthusiasm for hobby coding.

Hedgehog's dilemma

Where the conservatory and patio were is now a set of trenches that were filled with concrete this afternoon, and the near half of the garden is full of bricks, rubble, paving-slabs, and bits of conservatory; and there is a skip and piles of bricks on the drive. Oh, and we can't actually get to the back yard except by climbing out the garage window and slipping between piles of stuff.

First thing this morning, Jemima, the tortie, insisted on going out in the just about getting light pre-dawn and was sniffing around in the trenches (about 4' deep), for quite a long while before heading off down the garden. Then I saw why — there was a hedgehog had fallen in and gotten trapped.

So I had to get out to the greenhouse for gloves and overalls, climb into the trench, and try and corner it. At least it turns spiky by curling up into a ball (unlike cats); so I could pick it up and lift it out, then carry it down to the end of the garden.

So now I have gloves that will attract the cats, being well doused in hedgehog piss.