A Large Array of LED Edge Lights

At June, 2020, I completed this illumination of a walk-out basement in a year-2000 home. The lights are Home Depot Commercial Electric 74206, 800 Lumens LED Disk Downlight. Know these lights are extensively reviewed in this blog. On-offer in-store in 2018, they now are found only online to someone in-the-know. Price $20.57 each with free shipping to store. Illumination achieved is the intended 300 to 350 Lux.

A full report of the work is in this online pdf.

Reviewing this at November 2020, fixing the link to Home Depot online, I am surprised to find revision including a 60 cent price increase. Why, if Home Depot has no evident sales effort? 

This graphic is new:

No mention now of the installation appropriate in new locations, upon a lighting junction box. This fails to offset in-store sales pushing clip-in lights that perhaps demand larger hole cuts even, than can lights.

Here is mass-production assembly of lighting junction box kits. At intervals I consume job-scrap lumber for the usual need of box-setting flush with a 1/2" drywall ceiling. See that kit parts include drywall rings that would patch-in a can cutout, replacing a can with a RACO 175 junction box.

Here is a new-light location ready for clipping-in of the light. See tracings of the ceiling joists by pencil, with a stud finder.The placement pattern has lights centered within joist bays.

Employ a row of ample-sized  ceiling cutouts for pull of wiring

Learn once again that can lights defy elimination or circuit addition. Wiring is accessible only in brutal destruction of a can. 

Placement in any pattern requires planning with a scale drawing that acknowledges wall constraints and probed joists and HVAC ducts above drywall. 

Here is the visual plan of light and switch locations. Another drawing is needed, with perpendicular dimensions of light centers to walls. Those dimensions are inadequate where perpendicularity is uncertain, in  poor light.

Here is that big asterisk:

*

At 12/5/2020 edit this post to admit anomaly in the graphic above. I was very surprised to find lighting just-adequate at full undimmed brightness. So on 6/24/2020, I belatedly bought an inexpensive Lux meter to test my work and my math. A mere $19, yet I trust the readings. Right now, at my 36" desktop level, down 140 cm from a 92" ceiling under a new Avanlo 9" 1260 Lumens LED edge light, the meter indicates 220 Lux. Illumination by this huge-lumens light, is less than expected, by half. This again confirms troubling news about some, or perhaps all, LED edge lights. In June with the new meter and under ordinary LED downlights, 300 Lux readings were observed for both of my home-kitchen installations.


My Home Kitchens With LED Downlighting:

Here is similar planning for constellations of lights in the kitchen of my now-a-very-nice rental home, target minimum 300 Lux, and achieving that, mainly employing LED disk downlights (not edge lights).

And here is the achieved lighting of my kitchen at night, all lights on, all 3000°K.

This is the kitchen where I now live, in a complex of townhouses. There is good 300 Lux from a small array of LED disk downlights. 

Shopping Attic Ladders

At August 2020. I am newly aware of the very large full spectrum of attic ladders offered by Fakro, shipping from Poland, and much smaller offerings by other manufacturers in USA. Here is my Google Sheets summary of an online shopping effort in USA:

Shopping Attic Ladders   (Click this link.)


For Fakro ladders I need its products summary, Smart Attic Ladders 2019. Find this document as a download at this link.I rely on this document to know  unfamiliar Model numbers for searches at Lowe's, Home Depot and Amazon online.

Searching online with this guide, miss important offerings from competent manufacturer SSC MidMade of Northern Sweden, Several MidMade models are distributed in USA by Conservation Technology, in Baltimore, MD.  Also miss products of Marwin Co, built in South Carolina, and Rainbow, built in Germany, and sold via storefronts for finished carpentry.

Pertinent to shopping of a commercial attic ladder, find two clever Fakro steel ladder families with much new invention of features. These are families LML and LMP. They are inappropriately expensive for a bit of loft usefulness, increasing job cost at least 50%, if one fit the need at hand. LML ladders are of odd width. LMP ladders are of extreme length. Do know they are interesting, and display very remarkable breadth of Fakro invention and manufacturing scope.

A Strong, Insulated Garage Attic Ladder, 120" FC

This post explores public information that is available to guide purchase of an attic ladder to serve the common need of  useful access to a garage with ten-foot ceiling, 120 inch floor to ceiling distance, FC.  A very specific need, however typical, clarifies the study of information resources. The study is prompted by knowing that guidance fails for a preferred solution with the current best-value Fakro ladder, LWP 22/54 Model 66853. I hope to be helpful to any shopper of an attic ladder. More, I hope to inspire marketing and product design at preeminent maker of attic ladders and skylights to the world, wonderful Fakro in the forested mountains of southern Poland.

I have so far experienced 120" FC just once, hired to install the ladder chosen and purchased by my customer in Spring 2018, and described in this blog post:

Attic Access with a Drop-Down Ladder and a Storage Hatch and Hoist .

The ladder is Fakro :LWP 22/54 Model 66803, still on-offer at Lowe's, but evidently replaced in production by Model 66853, It is not economical to produce excess families of ladders. A newer model should surely have valued improvements, bragged-of. Product of a discarded design should be sold-off at discount, explained.

Here is a link to my Google Sheets aid to shopping for an attic ladder:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IsEzAUB3mi-GhhQT3qwDaOv9Dzu9Ak0wfoCXWza7ZBU/edit?usp=sharing 

Fakro higher value comes from steady design evolution,  efficiencies in production, and from modern distribution efficiencies. Fakro USA in Addison, IL serves shipboard safe transit most of the way, via Great Lakes, and is the shipper of most online and order-desk sales.  In USA, needs are met from any home computer, with speedy delivery to a store pickup location. Bulky and brittle attic ladders, and probably skylights too, are rejected as Amazon delivery-to-home opportunity.

Amazon still offers a few crummy ladders, perhaps where cheapness counts more than arrival-intact. A determined Amazon-buyer will find some discontinued or over-priced Fakro ladders, in addition to the cheap stuff, for awhile. Somehow I found an unwanted Werner wood ladder at online electrical distributor platt.com. 

Are cheap ladders stocked at Home Depot or Lowe's in-contention? Surely in USA now as in Europe and perhaps everywhere, durability and safety matter more than price, even for a DIY installation. A well-vetted professional offering informed sale and installation, is a good investment, if one could be found. Housing must not be built to survive thirty years, an attic ladder for a decade.

The Fakro ladder families are likely to be available anywhere on Earth. They will be preferred for value and will challenge local ladder builders anywhere. 

On then, to shop a 120" FC Fakro wood attic ladder for a garage. It will be a 54" LWP unless the garage attic is not fire-separated from attics of living space.

This is the default installation of a Model 66803 ladder, just-able to serve 121.5" FC, at steps angle 65° with about 10 mm exposed threads at angle adjusters. At 120" FC I was able to trim at 63°, with 12 mm exposed adjuster threads. My tall customer is happy with his ladder. 

I find nothing wrong with the 12 mm adjusters setting although an 8 mm maximum is warned.

Where I insist on knowing a reason for the warning, I have obtained this unscientific explanation:  (At 7/30/2020)

The limitation of the regulation screw is based on calculations and endurance simulations which are confirmed by tests. Complaints also confirm that the screws cannot be screwed out more than acceptable. Brackets and bracket mounts are designed with a maximum screw output of the adjustment screw at 8mm. The arms are designed to withstand certain tension which is why it is only recommend to be screwed to a max of 8mm.

This post is inspired first, by perceived need of full understanding of the clever angle adjusters, with provided means of half-step trim variations by angle range. There is unfinished business in this, here reported to the manufacturer. 

Here is the default installation of a newer Fakro LWP 22/54, Model 66853. It is dangerously unworkable, yet that is curable to excellence if only we are honest about the deficiencies. Surely instance that a superseded design was then, better, must not hold back progress.

See that an "unlucky bottom step" wiil be a frequent challenge in ladder installation. Where angle is the variable of reach to floor with a concertina ladder, a range of 5° is sufficient to meet the floor, adding or removing a step. The same angle freedom  half the step pitch, is needed for a wood ladder. Protest and demand change then where Fakro wood ladder angle adjusters gives only a 2° angle range, 66° to 64°. Find that discovery in the album of my recent installation of a loft ladder for a coffee shop. 

Album PDF    Blog Post 

A full 6° angle range is easily achievable.

All elements of the better deployment of Model 6685X ladders are proven and available.

Response to Planet of the Humans

Please consider this post in my email feed today:

https://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2020/nrel-research-points-to-recycling-solar-panels.html 

Reporting, for example:

PV modules have a 30-year lifespan. There is currently no plan for how to manage this at end of their lifespan. The volume of modules no longer needed could total 80 million metric tons by 2050. In addition to quantity, the nature of the waste also poses challenges. PV modules are made of valuable, precious, critical, and toxic materials. There is currently no standard for how to recycle the valuable ones and mitigate the toxic ones.

The NREL study will address one negative in our hope for sustained human life on Earth, perhaps among the many heavy revelations in Michael Moore's new movie, Planet of the Humans.  

Just click the search of the above paragraph to watch the feature-length movie for free, and more. Another search  displays much negativity about the movie. 

Find the movie with this graphic link:

Search Results

Videos

REVIEW

1:39:57

Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | Full .

Or, just find the movie at planetofthehumans.com . 

I like this May 31, 2020 direct defense of the movie by Michael Moore, a Rolling Stones interview with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper (about 300,000 views).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcqSTX2yDNc&t=145s   

Also watch this earlier interview, May 5, 2020, (about 30,000 views).

Michael Moore in a live discussion with Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=674qCYOcMXo  

I imagine my own additional responses to the movie via a new Label at this blog, Planet of the Humans.

At September 2020, before I return my borrowed library copy, honor the related book by Ozzie Zehner, Green Illusions . Ozzie Zehner is the Producer of Planet of the Humans. Find in the book that, all we expect of green energy is in our future, but on the way we must consume less energy by about half in USA. Solutions must serve equitably all life on Earth. Energy conservation is more important and more profitable, than capture of solar energy.

A "Commercial" Attic Ladder

This is the situation found in a coffee shop under renovation. Twenty foot industrial ceiling. A scullery and big refrigerator in a back corner under nine foot loft ceiling. There are many uses for the loft, although it is thoughtlessly crossed with head-high gas pipes. The loft was disused perhaps for years with a broken access ladder, not trusted.

This is a common happening with the thin soft-steel hardware.

Werner WH2208 ladders are still sold proudly despite antique hardware. This graphic, compared to my drawing, is from a listing at lowes.com . $294.75. Not cheap. Less-expensive ladders are still made with same antique hardware by several manufacturers in Southeast USA. Multiple offerings from Europe have simpler and stronger assist linkage with springs that drop with the door and have little to snag carried loads.

This is first among warnings of a label glued to the topside of the door panel. Warnings do not address the weakness of the ladder with deformation of the door-assist linkage.

This is my solution in a modern Fakro ladder, defended in this post as a fully "commercial" installation.

What constitutes a "commercial" attic ladder?  Google the question and find no certain answer. Probably see guidance to something metal, perhaps power-operated, $3000. That is not the answer for loft light usage in a coffee shop. I suggest that professional, thoughtful installation of a ladder with clever and strong hardware, costing less than $350, $850 installed, is a better answer. A more spot-on answer is that in commercial usage,safety innovation through a decade of experience is the want, from a highly-regarded installer.  My customer has said he is glad to have found me, for I have no known rival in this.

I delivered the expected solution, a 54" ladder replacing a 54" ladder. I knew however that Fakro wood ladders include a smaller ladder LWP 22/47 Model 66801, costing $40 less. Perhaps that is a better choice, then with a "step-off well." I like a step-off well that is larger however, times-two, with ample space to turn from ascending or descending facing the steps.  The step-off well would yet be superior as a top step, to that on the ladder. Another argument for the 47" ladder with step-off well is that there would be more space to walk under the deployed ladder. 

Safety measures learned in a decade of practice are the most important want of a commercial installation, protecting the welfare of workers. Firmly grasp a sequence of safety pole hand grips in mounting or dismounting the ladder. Securely move out of harm's way over the hole. Don't be turning about in the transition, looking for lighting.

Here there are three safety poles, and they are not in-the-way. The third pole, at the side, is a barrier against backing onto the hole. An installer for commercial use should have the experience and means to invent solutions unique to any job.

The LWP 22/54 Model 66853 installation closely follows an installation one year before, detailed in a pdf album: Varma Ladder . There, I experienced a slam, a hard swing in the process of a second mounting of the door. I knew better. I was aware. The range of down-stability is extremely narrow with default mounting of the assist springs. Hinges of the upper step section were bent in the slam.


I know that stability of a steps-down condition is not yet resolved with factory-installed hardware. The first generation spring upper pulls worked well but were in-the-way of a user with a thin attic floor. My solution is to discard the factory upper pulls, and to pull springs to eye hooks engaged in strong rough framing as far up and as far as allowed, beyond the ladder hinging header frame.

Here begin admission that as a professional advocating for Fakro ladders, I am yet a free agent. I advocate first, for my customer. I will not be constrained against employing a product with adjustments and additions that better serve customer needs and safety, as I judge them. I begin always with full disassembly then able to repair breakage-in-shipment happening far more often than not. 


Factory-applied labels and other instructions are not helpful. I discard all door labels, then dissolve and remove glue and apply several coats of paint or clear polyurethane finish. This is an important element of professionalism wanted in a commercial installation.

I do not accept default factory settings where that would diminish user safety. This begins with the provision of means to adjust ladder steps angle in a full range from 65°, to 60°, to best meet the floor. Where angle adjusters best engage limit arms with zero to 10 mm exposed threads, there is not one best orientation of the adjuster bodies. There is first the default 45° angle of adjuster mounting bolts. Achievable steps angle with adjusters as-shipped, is from about 64° to 66°. This narrow range certainly disserves many buyers having an unlucky bottom step.

Here are the default and alternate bolt-mounting of angle adjusters.  Ladders are shipped with the default adjuster placement. For the alternative, remove and reset the upper bolt to pin the adjuster, as a drill guide.  

The process of angle measurement is well illustrated in the pdf full photo album for this job. Here are measurements for default angle adjusters. Useful angle settings are between about 65° and 64°.

.

Measured δ values are hopelessly inaccurate. Instead, measure by drawing in Adobe FrameMaker, with 0.001" resolution. Here is my drawing at steps angle 60°.

Here are measurements for adjusters with the small upward rotation. Useful angle settings are between about 63° and 59°. 

Cutting step sections to safer, more-useful custom lengths, is among abilities I will share with installation professionals. Here is my first, of a first batch of six drill guides for section hinges, on-offer. Tools and intellectual property are elements of imagined  installer franchising via web site r5portals .


Below the shouldered drill guide with hardened-steel bushings see a section remnant that could not survive as a drill guide, or ever be reliably precise.

At August 2020. I am newly aware of the very large full spectrum of attic ladders offered by Fakro, and much smaller offerings by other manufacturers. Please find this in a new post at this blog:
Shopping Attic Ladders

There are other professional-grade Fakro ladders, LML and LMP, of steel construction and more expensive, but none of dimensions useful in this coffee shop.

International Energy Agency’s First Clean Energy Transitions Summit, 7/9/2020

By posting this to my blog, I retain links and thoughts from my study, and share them.

Forty Ministers in an online conference viewed by one million, and I was unaware. From the IEA news feed:

On July 9, 40 Ministers from dozens of countries took part in the International Energy Agency’s first Clean Energy Transitions Summit, discussing how to bring about a sustainable and resilient recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and achieve a definitive peak in global carbon emissions. 

Six Projects of Importance 

Aviation liquid fuels from sunlight and air 

Involves the concentrated solar decried as awful failure in Planet of the Humans. The process takes CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Solar thermal Venetian blinds: Energy-efficient, attractive, transparent 

Heat pipes. Colossal buildings.

Running combustion engines on non-carbon fuels 

- -  non-carbon fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia offer new opportunities.

Bringing the heat of summer into winter 

- - a heat battery that provides buildings with affordable and effective heat storage.

- -  storage modules contain a heat-storing salt which can be dried in the summer via the solar thermal system, with the heat collected stored loss-free until winter.

Carbon-free hydrogen from low-cost wind power, stored for use on demand 

- - hydrogen use in national decarbonisation plans

In Denmark.

Improving industrial waste heat recovery 

- - consists of using a solid material, such as rocks, to increase storage capacity.

Nothing here for me.  More hot air? Did investor-viewers buy anything?