What NOT to use

I cannot tell you how many homes I go to every week at which some company installed a painted aluminum MR-16 fixture.  This is the “standard” fixture used by many in the lighting industry today.  In fact, if you were to call someone out to your home to give you an estimate, I would guess that 90% of the time this is what they would be using for an uplight.

The question people may ask is: “what is wrong with this fixture? After all, if so many people are using it, could it really be that bad?” The answer is yes, it is a terrible fixture.  It is chosen because it is an inexpensive fixture and it can look good for the first few years after installation.  The problems with this lighting fixture are:

• The paint. Aluminum will not rust, but it will oxidize.  This will cause the paint to peel off and leave the fixtures with a grey “chalky” look as the raw aluminum is exposed to the elements.
• The sockets.  The bulb in the fixture goes from air temperature to 400-500 degrees in a moment.  Even if the fixture is perfectly sealed, condensation will build up in the light and cause the socket to go bad.  Most of the time, because of the condition of the fixture, it is just easier to replace the whole fixture versus just replacing a socket.
• The light output.  This is considered a bullet light for a reason.  It does a great job when trying to pinpoint light on an exact target, such as an address sign, but it does not give an even light output from top to bottom or side to side as does a socket-less par 36 quartz halogen bulb.
• Durability of bulb.  Again the par bulb is a much more durable bulb.  We have found that it can run as high as 11.6-8 volts without any problems.  Just today I had two 35 watt mr-16 bulbs running at 11.5 and both burned out before one year and 18 par bulbs had lasted over 2 1/2 years without one burning out.