Big Mouth In DC's beautiful black/grey theater - Page 45

Made me giggle

Wow! Your space is Ginormoussses.....!!!

The least he could have done was use either a bicentennial or his own state quarter, not just a plain ole generic quarter. I'm really disappointed in you Big.

Regards,

RTROSE

Did you really have to show those nose hairs too?

I saw that and realized that my tri-colored beagle does shed. Either that or I've got albino rats living in my basement.

Biggy..I just looked at Ruben's trade show booth and his "show off theater" used the same carpet that you have in your theater!

http://www.youtube.com/v/qDOvZKn5Jfc?fs=1&hl=en_US

The thread is here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...840473&page=36

Hey, he has good taste. Actually if you look at his build thread you will notice that he has the same carpet, Masland Quadrate, in a different color. If I remember he had a guy get on his hands and knees and dye all the tan stripes red in his theater to better match the overall Motif. I also remember I compared notes with him and he got a killer price on the Masland carpet in Florida. In my neck of the woods the fix is in. Everyone charges the same price and they make you pay and pay.

Is Ruben's new screen material different from what you both just purchased?

Dunno

Time to call in the BIG gun. Biggie, since you are a wealth of knowledge, I come to you with my question.

The wife and I recently re-did our master bath, the original plan was for 2 6" cans over the vanities. However, during the project we changed from 2 6" cans to 3 4" cans. We thought 3 50 watt ligths would be plenty of light and well, simply put we couldnt be more wrong. For me, I say there is enough light, but then again, I don't do much more than brush my teeth, shave and put in contacts. I feel there is enough for me, but the wife says no way. So, the question is, what can be done to get more light for the wife? Are there bulbs that give more light than the R20 45 watt reveals that I have in there now? I have also tried some CFL bulbs but those are no better, but they were rated at 50 watts so it was worth a try.

I was thinking about the potential to somehow make the holes larger and adding 3 6" cans, but I think that would look a little tight given the space between vanity cabinets. Beyond that the only thing I was thinking was to replace the vanity top and cut 2 6" holes, but that is obviously the most costly solution. This is why I come here to Big as he always seems to have the answer, I figured before I did anything rash, I would ask him...

I'll chime in here.

Cans above a vanity in a bathroom are a no-no. The light that comes from an overhead can is very harsh and is not flattering at all. I know this because I read a lot about bathroom lighting before I started my build. The consensus was that a wall mounted fixture was with 3 or more lights is the best in this type of application. The light sources being spread out above the mirror (and above the viewer) provides much more warm and pleasing light.

You could change these into pendants to get more pleasing light on the subject. They make retro kits to make this change.

Oh goodness, this is not good news. So essentially no matter how much light I can generate from the cans, it doesn't matter because overhead light in the bath is bad...Sweet!

I assume by pendant light you mean lights on wire that hang down, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Y583B85805BFX1

as a quick search reveals here...Ugh, yeah, not sure how that will fly with the wife. I can't wait to break this news to her.

Thanks for the input. I will also wait to see if anyone else has similar advice. I will keep my fingers crossed for the time being.

Smak,
I put in a wall mounted lighted makeup mirror for my wife.
It is on a swivel arm and folds out of the way.
There are even models that stands that you don't need to mount.
I went with the wall mount and even tapped into power to run the wires.
Other versions you don't need to run the wires in the wall.

See loves it. Might give her what she needs.

Paul

Smakovits, Check out this article on TOH: http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/arti...403815,00.html Depending on where the cans are, I've seen people drop pendants down and it looked really nice. If you can still figure out how to add some 'face-level' lighting, you could be creative with the trim ring and direct it away from straight down, or diffuse it.

Now back to our previously scheduled thread...

I would see if you can fit a 100 watt equivalent compact florescent bulb in the 4 inch can.

The trim and can says R20 50watt max, sure the CFLs run cooler, but is this really allowed? I know I know, how do I question big, but still I just want to be certain that if I do find one to work that it will be safe still. and not against code

That's a great idea. You could also put some sconces in beside the mirror to provide some face level lighting and diffuse some of the harsh overhead lighting from the cans.

there is only one issue, the vanities are finished...I cant really go adding any more lights to the face. I will have to snap a picture, but my camera is dead, I lost the charger somehow (I want to believe that my 1yo decided to hide it..., time for a generic $5 one from ebay).

My current thoughts are this, try the 100watt CFL and then halogen bulbs, they use a different trim, like 15-20 bucks a pop, but I think they are eyeball style, so I can shine it off the mirror, would this give me the same effect, or would this be a bad/dumb idea? The downfall with halogen is they are a million times hotter.

women...

If the cans you used are IC rated they will have an internal temperature shut off device that will kill the power at a designated temp. So plug whatever you want to experiment with in and try it.

Hmm, never realized they had such a safety feature...I will give it a shot.

The wife shot down the pendant lights pretty quickly, so it is on to plan B.

My recommendation is do not exceed the maximum rating on the fixture no matter what. To rely on the thermistor tripping for an over heat condition invites trouble of the fire kind! I am sure that your insurance company would think so too...

A compact florescent isn't going to get too hot.

Make sure it's a CF bulb that's rated for use in a can though! I've had several of the typical "spiral" type CFL's turn up melted/burnt after being used that way.

Now that is new information

Yeah, that is interesting....what wattage of spiral were you using?

I wonder if it is the ballast that gets hot as the actual spiral/bulb doesn't. Never really touched the ballast during operation.

Interesting.

Regards,

RTROSE

Yes it is the ballast that gets hot, many of the old bulbs even had warnings on the package about using them in enclosed spaces/fixtures...

So this afternoon I managed to check out the heat from a couple of 100 Watt Compact F bulbs. These bulbs were less than 2 weeks old and I got them at HD. I left them on 2 hours for this test. First the ballast section was very warm but not so warm that I couldn't leave my hand wrapped around it. The tube section was hotter. Not hot enough to burn on contact but too hot to touch longer than a brief moment.

Overall I think they would do OK in an open baffle recessed can. As I mentioned ealier if the light cycles off then it is too much of a heat load for the lamp.

post botched and having trouble getting the system to redo it - sorry.

When I went shopping for CFLs for our kitchen cans four years ago, I found some that warned they were not to be installed in an inverted position inside enclosures. Apparently the heat from the tube overheats the electronics. I bought some others with a glass enclosure around the spiral so they look like traditional floods, and they have been happy in the cans since then. Bottom line: Take a minute to read the labels on the package and on the CFL itself.