A bunch of electrical work got finished up today and we are now ready for our final electrical inspection tomorrow morning. Nearly all of our fixtures are industrial vapor-proof lights because they happen to be both inexpensive (about $30 a piece) and not visually excessive. We have a few modifications that we’re going to make to them before they’re really done though… We really want them to be frosted and there is an option to get them with “opal” globes, but those are special order with a serious up charge that doubles the cost of each fixture. So our plan is to frost them ourselves either by getting them sandblasted, or there is apparently something you can pick up at craft stores to etch glass which might be the good $10 solution. Additionally, our outdoor fixtures as they are are not dark sky fixtures, so we’ll be making little reflective hoods for them that fit snug to the posts to cut down on light pollution.
Street Trees
We picked up our street trees the other day, but are a little hesitant to get them in the ground right now with all the work going on in the street. So hopefully next week the excavators will be gone and we can plant them. But for the moment, our trees are living in pots on our ecoroof. I went over the story of selecting them back in June, and they remain unchanged - a black hawthorn and an Oregon white oak. Over the last nine months, we have second guessed this and considered swapping the oak for a big leaf maple (which you can apparently tap for syrup), but decided to stick with the oak because you really don’t see them around much.
Did you consider the color temperature (kelvin) of the CFLs that you have installed in your home? I walk by your house all the time in the evening, and the cold sterile light you have in there is cold and sterile and makes it feel very uninviting. Perhaps this is your preference. But my concern is that people who look to your house as a model of how to do things efficiently will be turned-off by the lighting and may register that negative feeling regarding efficient lighting and homes in general.
In fact, there are high-performing, reliable, and energy-efficient CFLs (ENERGY STAR-qualified) available in color temperatures ranging from 2700K (warm or “soft” white) up to about 6300K (cold very bright light, such as what you seem to have in your home). They come in a variety of sizes and shapes, as well.
In case color temperature isn’t something you had considered before, I hope you won’t mind if I bring over a few samples of some warm CFLs for you to try.
We did consider the color temperature when picking out the bulbs… But we’re not totally sold on them. The problem is that I’m not really sold on warmer ones either, to me they tend to have an unnatural pink tone to them, so given the choice of bulbs that make things look a little off, we decided to give blue a shot.