paint booth light upgrade

[9erDriver]

I was unsatisfied with the amount of light in my home-brew paint booth (can you ever have enough light to paint?), so I upgraded my lighting to the new big CFLs. I now have 14 CFLs that put out 300W incandescent equivalent each for a total of 4200W equivalent light. At 68 actual watts each, the actual total load is 952W, about that of a heat gun. Much better!

I used a mix of 2700k and 4000k spectrum bulbs for a nice blend of cool and warm light. At around $17 per bulb (Lowes) and $3 for the surface mount sockets (Lowes again) plus a 14 gage cord to connect them in 2 circuits, it looks like I now have about $300 into my paint booth lighting. I think it will be worth it if I can do a better job at seeing the edge and flow on coats 2 and 3.

As a bonus I can use the room when not painting to get a tan or at least fend off seasonal affective disorder.

 

[JonJay]

Dont blow yourself up! A common failure mode of these lamps is rectification. Lots of heat and potentially a point of ignition. Also, if you accidentally break one, the exposed filament will burn hot and fast, another source of ingition.
In general, I don't recommend lamps in an enclosed space with paint fumes unless they are rated for it $$$.
All is not lost, move them
Outside of the plastic enclosure and let them shine through.

 

[ppilotmike]

Dont blow yourself up!

Now that would NOT be cool..

 

[9erDriver]

Dont blow yourself up! A common failure mode of these lamps is rectification. Lots of heat and potentially a point of ignition. Also, if you accidentally break one, the exposed filament will burn hot and fast, another source of ingition.
In general, I don't recommend lamps in an enclosed space with paint fumes unless they are rated for it $$$.
All is not lost, move them
Outside of the plastic enclosure and let them shine through.

Hmmm...I need to think about that. The reason I went with these lights is that they do run cool (enough to keep your hand on them when on), and the fire department approved them for use as primary lighting in my hangar, saying they were 'non-explosive', while normal incandescent or halogen lights were not. Granted, this mission is well above and beyond normal primary lighting. I guess I can move them outside, but they won't be near as effective. Always a compromise....in this case it's apparently a choice between Light and Death. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Paul K]

I agree with JonJay and besides, they will act like paint magnets attracting paint dust. Difficult to remove and clean all the time. Put thembehind the plastic and make the plastic removable so you can "refresh" it when needed.