I hate poor product design (motion detector light).

[phucheneh]

Put up a new one on a friend's house. We spent an hour dicking with the settings, double-checking wiring, playing with the switch, checking for a breaker issues, et al, to try and make it quit flickering.

Then a quick google informs me that lights with a photoresistor in the circuit to prevent daylight operation (seems like all of them) have that issue with bulbs of the CFL variety. Which is to say, the only bulbs Home Depot had on the shelf other than ridiculously-expensive LED's (10-15 bucks a pair for CFL, 50+ for a pair of LED).

WHY? Why do people make products that will NEVER work right for their intended purpose? It's like selling a brand new car that will only run right on leaded gasoline. Should I really need to crack open a brand new fixture and modify it to make it work right? Bastards.

 

[stormkroe]

The same technology worked for decades which was designed for incandescent lights. Blame CFL's for this, yet another in the 'con' lst for them. The life cycles for 'green' products are incredibly frustrating. Step one: suck really bad compared to what you're replacing, don't forget loads of exagerations and non-existant studies. Step two: keep on costing lots! Step three: approach the specifications/performance of original claims. Step four: get EOL'd for a new product beginning step one.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Aren't incandescent bulbs still available? I use them on outdoor fixtures because CFLs have issues with cold temps, but I haven't had to replace one in several months.

 

[edro]

I'm guessing the motion detector was like $10.
You need a better photocontrol.

 

[Sa7aN]

get the led and never replace it.... move on

 

[phucheneh]

Blah LED's. While I trust that the LED's will probably last forever, they have the same issue as a CFL- the rest of it will not. Just assuming that removing a cheap failure point (filament) and introducing more (diodes, resistors, capacitors, ect) will make for a bulletproof is silly. I suspect that current pricing is all hype and empty promises, much life CFL's were when they first came to market; while the tech can come down in price, I'm sure they're already making bank on the markup that they charge because 'it lasts forever.'

Incandescents are definitely available, just rare. I'm just baffled that most of the fixtures with screw-in bulbs cannot use CFL's properly, yet make no mention of it. Then go to the bulb shelf, and it's about 30 varieties of CFL, 10 LED's, and a lowly incandescent or two.

Fixture was like $40. Not high-end, certainly Chinese, but shouldn't be total garbage, either. Next step up was pretty much some kind of industrial-looking huge things.

The motion sensor DOES work really good. They've certainly gotten a lot better than the old POS square radar-gun-looking boxes that are still on my house.