New LED work lights are safer, use less electricity
Q. I like to work on my cars in the garage and do other projects around the house, and in doing so I use a cage-type work light. It gets hot, so I know it wastes electricity. What other work light options are available?
A. Cage-type work lights are inexpensive to buy, but as with most products, you get what you pay for. All of that heat you feel, sometimes with burn marks on your arms to prove it, is just wasted electricity from the inefficient incandescent bulb it uses. If you are lucky and the bulb does not break, it will last only about 1,000 hours.
What makes efficiency matters even worse is most people end up using long-life or rough-duty incandescent bulbs in this work light. The filament in regular bulbs is fragile and cannot withstand the rough handling and impacts a work light usually receives. The long-life and rough-duty bulbs have heavier filaments, which consume even more electricity than a standard one.
Several years ago, I gave away my cage-type work light and switched to newer, more energy efficient work lights. The most energy efficient work lights now use light emitting diodes, or LEDs, instead of incandescent bulbs for the light source. A work light with 20 LEDs uses only 1.5 watts as compared to a typical 60-watt incandescent bulb.
LED work lights produce a much whiter light than incandescent bulbs and I find it easier to see fine detail with an LED light. LEDs last up to 50,000 hours, so they literally never burn out. Since 20 LEDs under a clear protective lens consume only 1.5 watts, they give off almost no heat.
Another option for a work light is one which uses one or two fluorescent mini-tubes. Various styles are available depending upon whether you need a long or compact one. As with LED work lights, fluorescent ones give off very little heat. Even the brightest ones use only about 13 watts of electricity to produce the same amount of brightness as cage-type work lights and the tubes last up to 10,000 hours.
For completely mobile use, consider a battery-operated LED work light. Black and Decker offers a new one with 14 LEDs and it operates on three AA batteries. The LEDs last up to 10,000 hours and, with the efficiency of LEDs, the batteries last very long. Without having a cord attached to it, it tends to stay in the position you want and does not twist around when you try to hang it.
If you still prefer the light from a standard bulb, select a combination work light that uses a halogen spotlight and a fluorescent bulb for general lighting. A halogen bulb gets very hot so it is protected under a clear housing. Use the efficient fluorescent lighting whenever possible.
The following companies offer work lights: Alert Stamping, (800) 400-5020, alertstamping.com; Black and Decker, (800) 544-6986, blackanddecker.com; General Manufacturing, (260) 824-3440, saftlite.com; Sears/Craftsman, local retail outlets, sears.com; and Woods Wire Products, (800) 323-9355, woods.com.
Q. I have a wood-burning fireplace in my living room. During last summer, there sometimes was a fireplace odor in the room. During the winter, there is no smoking or odor. What is causing this problem?
A. During warmer weather, the air inside the chimney can be colder and more dense than the air in your living room. This colder air, which carries the fireplace odor with it, drops down and out into the room.
Unfortunately, there really is no good way to solve this problem. It is just the characteristic, orientation to the sun, etc., which affect this. You might try having the chimney cleaned in the spring and try to seal off the opening.
• Write to James Dulley at 6906 Royalgreen Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45244, or visit www.dulley.com.