Yard light question

[bananaman]

Looking to put a yard light up on the front of my shop, and was wondering if there are some really good long lasting brands out there, or are the ones at Lowes/Home Depot good enough? I'm thinking either High-pressure or low-pressure sodium and dusk to dawn photo cell.
Any thoughts or ideas as to which puts out good light and is still efficient?
Thanks.

 

[Scooby074]

What style of light? Wall mount? Post mount? How much area are you trying to cover?

Personally, I like and have installed TONS of these cheap wal-lites, they come complete with PC. Under $100 : WM Wal-Lite

They are available under many different brands at many retailers. HD carries them for one.

Have you considered LED. Prices are cropping fast while output is increasing. For a cheap running, very long lasting and maintenance free light they are the way of the future.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good Luck. I've been playing this game for a few years now. I've tried every brand from Lowes and Home Depot without much success. The lights work great, it's the sensors to turn them on and off that fail or don't work properly. Most of the time, they fill up with bugs and either you can clean them out, or replace the sensor. Sometimes it's just ruined and you need to try again. I'm currently going through the lights at my Electric Suppply house with RAB Lighting. They are the more commercial brand that cost twice as much. The two that I have running have lasted longer then the box store brands, but I still have issues with the sensors from time to time.

RAB Lighting - Energy Efficient LED Lighting

Eddie

 

[zzvyb6]

I picked up a new, sample LED type yard light at a local estate sale. Its twice as bright as my vapor lights. If I can think of it, I will measure the current flow to see how much less juice it uses. I'm still looking for a tall post for it. The light emitters are on a stack, so its not a 'bulb' type of lamp. In the meantime, I wired an extension cord on the leads and have it sitting on a fence post.

 

[podagrower]

I pulled down the exterior flood lights at my house (6 fixtures, 2-300 watt bulbs each) and replaced them with LED fixtures (64 watts each). Huge difference in energy consumption, better light distribution, brighter light. The big issue with LEDs is that they do not like being turned on and off a lot (like fluorescents). They should not be used with motion sensors, but should be left on for extended periods if possible (photocell or timer).

 

[Scooby074]

FYI Cooper is making a LED motion sensing floodlight with either single or double heads aimed at the home market. I havent seen one in the flesh yet and no idea of cost, but it looks interesting particularly for security perimeter lighting.

http://www.cooperindustries.com/content/dam/public/lighting/products/documents/consumer_products/brochures/ADR121804AllProLED_SalesSheet-forWeb.pdf

 

[schweizer]

Look at the lumens per watt of the different bulbs. This varies a lot even between the new LED bulbs. Good output should be in the range of 60 lumen/watt for the best use of your power money. You'll have to personally decide if a $40 LED bulb is worth it, of if you're OK w/ the strange colors from some lights. Nice thing about LEDs is that they are at full brightness instantly, even when cold.

 

[Scooby074]

Look at the lumens per watt of the different bulbs. This varies a lot even between the new LED bulbs. Good output should be in the range of 60 lumen/watt for the best use of your power money. You'll have to personally decide if a $40 LED bulb is worth it, of if you're OK w/ the strange colors from some lights. Nice thing about LEDs is that they are at full brightness instantly, even when cold.

To add to your point.

One thing that should be mentioned is there is a HUGE quality difference between LED fixture and bulb manufacturers (with a corresponding difference in price).

Ive heard people on TBN complain about LED replacement bulbs having a short life with low (for led) output.. Turns out they were using cheap, led bulbs from walmart. Case in point is I have a Phillips LED bulb mounted in an outdoor fixture that's on 8hrs a day (dusk to dawn) and has been running for over 3 years now, every day. And it outputs plenty of light (for a 8W led). It's about $25, not $4.99 however.

Some of the disappointment that some have in LED can be directly related to the inferior product they purchased and they shouldn't indite LED technology as a whole.

Here's another nice little fixture ive installed a few of. 14W 1100 Luminens min. http://www.rabdesign.ca/productdetails/wl-led14.html No complaints at all. Nice look. Made by Rab, but not the same Rab as Eddy posted (weird 2 companies with basically the same name). Around $125.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Note that you will see an increase in grubs & June Bugs around the light if there is grass under it.

 

[schweizer]

The last post I made was texting from a cell phone. I use a new a couple new LED flood bulbs from home depot outside my barn. The cost about $25-30 each and emit 850 lumens at 14 watts (IIRC). The color temperature is great -- not bluish at all -- and they are supposed to last forever. Time will tell. I pretty happy so far.