LED cafe bulbs and string lighting— photos of the front porch.
We wanted to use our front porch cafe lights as security lighting… so we swapped out the string of incandescent bulbs to LED and added a motion sensor. This lights up the entire perimeter of the porch— so nice when you come home after dark!
But.
Shopping for LED bulbs is a guessing game… the description tells you one thing… then they arrive.
We ordered and returned an endless selection of bulbs that assured us they were WARM white.
Lies.
It’s not just the color spectrum—called kelvin… it’s also the wattage; the packaging will say that it is equivalent to such and such… but what they ACTUALLY mean is three-thousand-watt greenish-alien-spaceship-beam.
Photos for comparison:
First, the (pretty) summer porch… these are traditional incandescent café bulbs, strung in a V pattern across the roof… the string is EXTRA long! Such nice light! So much wattage!
Incandescent string is here.
LED bulbs we ended up with.
Cord we used with LED.bulbs.
Now.
LED bulbs.
We used two 48-foot cords end to end.
We have a lot of porch!
Photos are unedited, taken with my phone.
It was about 5 degrees outside so there was no staging-of-pretty-ness.
First photo is half bright, second photo is full brightness… I’ll explain below.
The motion sensor we are using gives you the option to have them on at half-light; when the motion sensor is activated, it brings them up to full brightness… which is how we discovered that the dimmer they are, the more-incandescent they look.
The bulbs we ended up with are 1 watt AND… I like them even better at HALF light… BUT just dimming any old LED bulb would not duplicate the color. These are much warmer than all the other bulbs we tried.
Thing I am compelled to explain:
Above photos of the LED string, we wrapped the leftover extra cord around the INTERIOR perimeter on the short/right side of the porch– you can see one of the extra bulbs, but you might not realize it… I’d previously had the extra cord wrapped around a pillar and I wanted to see it this other way, which now I am certain is wrong.
I may have Paul just shorten it to be exact along the roof line.
I thought I was going to find the new alignment unappealing in comparison to the previous café string. But surprisingly I like it fine.
Something I wasn’t anticipating–it is so nice to SEE that space from INSIDE the house in the evening!
The lights give such a nice glow to the front room that Paul set them to come on at dusk at half light and stay on for three hours.
Below, half-light is first, then full bright, then incandescent.
.
Paul got the cords at the scary electric supply warehouse. We paid $25 a cord. They do not have a website.
If I wanted to get into it, I could possibly improve this amalgamation by having Paul rewire the cord so that the first bulb starts directly at the side of the house. As it is, there is a space before the first bulb.
Each of the sockets is dropped from a very heavy duty outdoor type of cord. I think it is good they are spread out more because there’s no such thing as a dim LED bulb… BUT if you prefer them in the V arrangement, (and have an unlimited budget for LED bulbs) I now see that with a dimmer, you could duplicate the V, without blinding the neighbors.
Front porch posts:
porch BEFORE– orange AND purple!
mixing paint for the front door, (in my laboratory of exactness)
Also, it’s that time– my most popular post is actually NOT the kingdom mirror… it’s
HOW TO MAKE A BOW
… which comes with life wisdom gleaned from my mother and also Kenny Rogers.
November 26, 2018 @ 11:04 am
We have recessed lighting with LEDs in our new white kitchen. Kelvins really make a difference in what color the cabinets look like. We had to experiment to get the exactly correct kelvin and wattage. (I hope I wrote it down someplace but I know my husband has it memorized.) You will save a lot on your electric bill.
November 26, 2018 @ 11:18 am
If you are not in the mood to do a big Christmas blog could you please repeat the wonderful one with Paul in charge of ribbon cutting,Mom in servitude to Mao like dictator gone mad with delusions of dominance and superior skills of festivity. I laughed over that one and sent it to everyone I knew moaning about “putting it all up and taking it alllllllll down!”
‘
November 26, 2018 @ 11:38 am
I like the photo of the LED’s at full brightness. The stringing is neat, orderly and allows for full visibility.
I’m anal that way.
November 26, 2018 @ 11:48 am
I have been playing with LEDs a lot lately: I painted my bathroom and in the process put three new LED lights in our fixture. I also bought an antique Stiffel six-way light that calls for a standard 3-way bulb and three candelabra-shaped bulbs. No matter how warm they claim to be, the lights look practically florescent and are so obnoxiously bright. I finally found some insanely expensive ones at Lowes that have an amber coating that are the equivalent of about 20 watts each for the bathroom fixture. Now the bathroom isn’t really light enough. I wish I could find some that are the equivalent of 40 watts. I still haven’t found any acceptable three-way lamp bulb, so I’m about to hoard incandescents (but I’d much rather go with LEDs for environmental reasons). I wish someone (hint hint) would do all the research for me and write an extensively long post on warm and not-too-bright LEDs of all types.
November 26, 2018 @ 12:02 pm
I realize we need to conserve our resources by having LEDs, but I absolutely abhor them. We were putting up our Christmas lights this weekend, found we needed a fuse in one of our strings of C-7’s, but could not find one in our tiny town. Hubs bought a string of leds, thinking we could add them…nope, not at all similar. So he headed back to the store to buy all needed leds, where he managed to find ONE package of fuses that we needed. YAY! We will eventually need to convert to leds, but for now, we are basking in warm incandescent glow. I DO like the lights you ended up with, they are, dare I say, prettier than the befores!
November 26, 2018 @ 12:22 pm
Victoria, your front porch is beautiful. I especially love the last picture – white pillars, blue and white furniture, and the lights on against all the green landscaping – it’s magazine worthy. I always wanted to be a lighting and color expert. In my next life, maybe.
November 26, 2018 @ 12:25 pm
Unrelated “look there’s a bunny!” question, and you have my permission to answer as vaguely as you wish, but – in what industry does the Sainted Paul toil? He seems to have unrestricted free time and the relish to devote to this home, and I recall that you/he restored a previous home – you can be as vague as “he spends inherited millions”, “he works in tech”, “ he toils at Gringotts Bank”, etc.
November 26, 2018 @ 1:36 pm
Love LEDs, hate LEDs, I have 4 of the expensive amber tinted ones in living room fixture. Lovely. Have couple of warm bright ones in laundry area. ok so far. Last year bought new bulbs for Xmas tree – LEDs did not look comforting, looked like red & white alien teepee. Will see if they are dimmable. Will be going through old lights shortly, if I can’t find enough of the right ones there may not be a tree. I love your porch. I need a Paul.
November 26, 2018 @ 2:10 pm
What motion sensor did you use? That would solve our porch lighting problems easily, but I was only aware of motion sensors on light fixtures, not free-standing ones.
November 26, 2018 @ 2:26 pm
I was wondering about the motion sensor also, as I have not been able to find any that are not part of a fixture.
November 26, 2018 @ 3:02 pm
“How to Make a Bow” is how I found your site in the first place, years ago! I’ll always love “How to Make a Bow”…
November 26, 2018 @ 7:30 pm
I found this blog post extremely helpful when it comes to picking out bulbs:
https://www.chrislovesjulia.com/pick-right-light-bulbs-home-favorites/
November 27, 2018 @ 1:04 am
Beautiful fairy lights to fill young and old passers by with delight. With Christmas coming up they will add to the feeling of the festive season. Cool!
November 27, 2018 @ 9:39 am
Love your charming porch – and yes I see what you mean about the dimmed lights, I wouldn’t have guessed LED. I totally feel your struggle with LEDs, though, and for us the struggle continues inside with our inset lighting, chandeliers, etc. My husband DOES NOT SEE what I see. He sees no difference in warmth. He cannot understand my pickiness. I will show him your post, and hopefully he will see the light. That is all.
November 27, 2018 @ 12:56 pm
One thing I learned about LED bulbs is that there is an additional criteria you need to pay attention to when selecting the perfect bulb. Wattage, Lumens, Kelvin… and CRI. Color Rendering Index is a measure of how closely the spectrum of the bulb matches sunlight. The spectrum is the rainbow of wavelengths emitted by the bulb. A low-CRI bulb emits a narrow spectrum, usually with gaps in it, and a high-CRI bulb emits a nearly full spectrum. I learned this the hard way – bought boxes of LED bulbs for the bedrooms, turned on the lights… and Gaak – felt like I was in a giant refrigerator. Suddenly the room was a hard white, almost devoid of color. Look for bulbs which have a CRI of 95 or better for excellent color rendering.