Installing Outdoor Lights

 

Installing Outdoor Lights

by admin on Aug.25, 2009, under Electrical

We picked up four nice lights at Lowes for $20 each.  They look kinda like a lamp you would find in an old mine.  I thought they would look good on the Littlehouse, so I installed them over the weekend.

Here is what we ended up with...

Outdoor Light 

 

After deciding where to mount the lights, I had to run wire to each of the four corners, and to the two light switches located in the kitchen area. Next, I marked the rough shape of the outlet box on the inside of the wall.  I wanted it up against a stud, so it would have something solid to attach to. With the box outlined, I used the 9/16″ wood bit to mark the corners, then drilled through with a small bit.

 

Outlet location from inside cabin

Once the hole marked the corners, I used the 9/16″ bit again to make the holes large enough for the sabre saw blade to go through.  Note that the Hardie Board is pretty tough on bits, and will pretty much ruin them, so use cheap bits for this part!

 

Location of outlet box from Outside

Next, I used the sabre saw to cut the rectangle out for the outlet box.  The box was inserted from the inside, and brought out flush with the outside siding.  The box was then fastened from the inside with two nails to the adjoining stud.

Once that was complete, the mounting hardware was attached to the box, and the fixture was attached to the mounting hardware.  With the fixture in place, I applied silicone sealant to the upper part of each fixture, where it contacted the wall.  This was to keep rain from flowing in the crack.  I forgot to take pictures, but it was nothing fancy.

So we ended up looking like this…

 

Miner’s Lamp attached

I used 60 watt (equivalent, really 15 watt) compact florescents in each one.  They keep making these smaller and smaller, so it was easy to find one to fit.  That seems to give off about the right amount of light.  We can always go up or down in power to adjust them later.

There was one question that I never found an answer to…  The fixtures called for a “medium base” bulb.  I looked at medium base and standard base, and didn’t see any difference in the store.  Since the CFL only came in standard base, I bought that.  They seem to fit and work fine, so I guess for my purposes, they are the same.

This looks darker in the photo than it seems when you’re there…

 

Front lights

And here is a little closer up…

 

Lights turned on

And finally a shot of the back lights…

 

Back lights

1 comment for this entry (from the old web site):

WB0WHO
August 26th, 2009 on 6:47 pm

Cool, That will make cooking out much easier! Oh, those lights will not work in the winter time! You will need the old bulbs when cold out. Same inside!

John