Porch Lights

For about 2 years I have wanted to brighten up our porch. It is tucked away, covered and very dark at night. During Christmas I kept looking at all the fun lighting every where and got thinking about what I could do to get more light. 

The one pathetic bulb just did not do the trick, so I remembered that 3 or 4 years ago I bought a bunch of LED's on clearance after Christmas. Each box of 100 lights was just $3.00. Amazing, right? So I bought all they had--15 boxes.

I knew that some day I could find a good use for them. (I can wire 12 together if I want.)

Got my electrical conduit 3/4" and used my bender to make a frame. strung the lights and used duct tape to hold in place. Got on the ladder and hoisted the frame up to 10 feet, then used conduit straps to mount. 3 straps on each side since the frame is 8 feet x 15 feet. 

Took out the burned out bulb and put in an outlet converter. Plugged in a 6 foot extension cord and now I have tons of light with a simple flip of the light switch.  I used 2 sets of lights and they overlapped in a few places. Had I been more methodical, I could have used 1, but I like a lot of light, so not a problem.

Recently Nett bought a tiffany style, hanging lamp shade from a thrift store. It is a 25" diameter, but all of the lighting was missing.

I took the light home to St. George, because I saw a lighting place with a sign saying, "We repair lamps." 
Took it to them for an estimate. They said,"$180"
 The part they were going to use was and ugly black thing the cost $3.49. I decided to do some research and figure it out myself.

 So with a plan in hand, I went to Home Depot, (took the lamp shade too) and went to the electrical dept. 
I got an electrician and told him my plan. He told me how to wire it so it would be safe and was surprised that I sort of knew what to get.                                                                                                 After my purchase of $23.00, I went home and got to work.  20 minutes later it was done.
First I had to attach the 4 lamp sockets. The junction box has 4 opening and they just screw in



                                                     

 Then  strip the ends of all the wires and gather all of the wiring together, whites and blacks.

 Pull the lamp wire through the top, strip the ends and join all of the whites  and put on an electrical nut (get the right size to house them) I had 5 whites and 5 blacks. Do the same with the blacks. Pull the ground through and wrap it around the grounding screw a couple times and tighten. Tuck them neatly inside the box and put on the cover plate.  Ta, da! 
All that is left is to get a heavy duty chain and wire to the ceiling. We may have to replace the box in the ceiling and get a heavier duty one since this is a heavy lamp. 
Forgot to say the she got the stained glass shade for $4.00! Not bad for a $27.00 lamp. Saw a similar one on line that was only 21" for over $200.00