Comments on: diy project: whitney’s mason jar lights

By: Nigel

Nigel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:22:59 +0000

What a great idea! It does seem to me that they would generate a bit of heat though?

Nigel

By: Drake

Drake — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:34:13 +0000

I went to Ball State so we use as many Ball jars as possible around the house. This is too cool

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:06:11 +0000

Wow. I love the mason jar look! Too bad I live in an apartment. I don’t think they’d appreciate me messing with the electrics!

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:13:07 +0000

I really like this look!
I would like to see the top (ceiling) where the light is attached, so I would have a bettter idea of how that was done

By: Jill Cooper

Jill Cooper — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:33:48 +0000

You may want to put a caution on this one! These get extremely hot even if you use very low wattage. On one of the forums I read years ago about putting Christmas lights (which are very low wattage) into jars on your mantel. They got so hot with the lids on that I was worried they would catch something around them on fire. Evidently the glass heats up really easily. If you leave the lid off it’s much better. Perhaps for the hanging ones you could either drill lots of holes in the tops or replace the lid with screening. Either way it would be a lot safer – there must be air able to get into the jar to keep it from overheating. Thanks!

By: Elle

Elle — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:21:42 +0000

Wow! I have some old Blue mason jars which would be gorgeous as a light fixture in my entryway. Beautiful…

By: al

al — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:01:52 +0000

thoughts on heat build-up:

with low-wattage incandescents like large xmas tree light bulbs, it probably wouldn’t be too bad, but you could punch some extra holes in the lid for more ventilation. flame-tips seem to generally be about 40w, so that probably would get hot, but then again mason jars are made to be boiled over and over again in the canning process, so they probably would be fine?

compact fluorescents do emit less heat and (obviously) use less energy, but they are more susceptible to damage from heat build-up than incandescents (shortens their useful lifetime), and above a certain wattage they aren’t recommended for enclosed fixtures, like these jars. they do make smallish candelabra-type CFLs now that are unfortunately pretty hideous but only use about 4-5 watts and would probably be safe with some ventilation holes.

these really are pretty!