Diavolicchio
Well-known member
Next Spring/Summer, I'll be breaking ground for the first of two structures to be built on some property I have here in Maine. The land is basically the beginning of a young fruit orchard and is little more at this point than a large open hayfield with all tall trees limited to the perimeter of the property. The initial structure to be built will be a guest apartment above a heated garage near the back corner of the property. The footprint will measure 20' x 34'. No other buildings (or light sources) currently exist on the land aside from a small storage shed. The building site is at the end of a 550 foot driveway, off of a quiet, two-lane country road. When it's nighttime, there will be no sources of light aside from what I install.
Regarding outside lighting, my current thoughts are to go with six wall sconces plus an additional overhead light above the garage door. Two of the six sconces would be flanking the garage door itself, two would be next to each of the doors on the entry side (East), and the remaining two would be flanking the two garage windows on the West side of the building opposite the entry. The North-facing wall beneath the bedroom window wouldn't have any exterior lighting.
Here's a rendering of the structure to give you a better sense of things:
The six wall sconces would each have one 42 watt CFL:
Each of these sconces would give off the equivalent light of a 175 watt incandescent. The wall pack fixture above the garage door, which will have two 42 watt CFLs, would give off the equivalent light of a 350 watt incandescent:
The building would therefore have outside lighting equivalent to 1 - 350 watt and 6 - 175 watt incandescents, but would require just 336 watts because they'd all be CFLs. Is this amount of exterior lighting overkill for a structure this small? I'm hoping it won't because it'll be the only outside lighting on all 17 acres of land until the main house is built.
There IS a street light near the entrance to the driveway but I won't be lighting the long driveway initially. I plan to simply rely on the lights on my vehicle when I drive in at night. My primary goal in the short term is to make sure that I've got sufficient lighting outside the structure without going overboard.
I 'm leaning toward going with 180-degree motion sensors on the East and West sides of the structure to activate the six wall sconces so that anyone outside the building would have lights that come on automatically when there's activity within 50 feet of the building. This would be especially helpful when walking from the apartment to the garage at night, which would require you to go outdoors. The motion sensors would also be used to help keep the deer away. The overhead wall pack light would not be connected to the motion sensors and would be controlled separately by a remote in my vehicle.
There's one other thing to factor in. Although these seven exterior lights will likely be off when no one's around, there will still be electric candles in all 14 of the windows which will be on a timer and always lit at night, 365 days/year. Therefore, even with all other interior and exterior lights off, these candles would be on and the structure should at least be visible at night as you approach it. The motion sensors would then trigger the outside lights once someone is close.
I'd like to hear people's thoughts about the workability of this set-up. I'm too close to it to have any objectivity. I'm also not locked into my current plans.
Any suggestions or feedback appreciated.
John
Regarding outside lighting, my current thoughts are to go with six wall sconces plus an additional overhead light above the garage door. Two of the six sconces would be flanking the garage door itself, two would be next to each of the doors on the entry side (East), and the remaining two would be flanking the two garage windows on the West side of the building opposite the entry. The North-facing wall beneath the bedroom window wouldn't have any exterior lighting.
Here's a rendering of the structure to give you a better sense of things:
The six wall sconces would each have one 42 watt CFL:
Each of these sconces would give off the equivalent light of a 175 watt incandescent. The wall pack fixture above the garage door, which will have two 42 watt CFLs, would give off the equivalent light of a 350 watt incandescent:
The building would therefore have outside lighting equivalent to 1 - 350 watt and 6 - 175 watt incandescents, but would require just 336 watts because they'd all be CFLs. Is this amount of exterior lighting overkill for a structure this small? I'm hoping it won't because it'll be the only outside lighting on all 17 acres of land until the main house is built.
There IS a street light near the entrance to the driveway but I won't be lighting the long driveway initially. I plan to simply rely on the lights on my vehicle when I drive in at night. My primary goal in the short term is to make sure that I've got sufficient lighting outside the structure without going overboard.
I 'm leaning toward going with 180-degree motion sensors on the East and West sides of the structure to activate the six wall sconces so that anyone outside the building would have lights that come on automatically when there's activity within 50 feet of the building. This would be especially helpful when walking from the apartment to the garage at night, which would require you to go outdoors. The motion sensors would also be used to help keep the deer away. The overhead wall pack light would not be connected to the motion sensors and would be controlled separately by a remote in my vehicle.
There's one other thing to factor in. Although these seven exterior lights will likely be off when no one's around, there will still be electric candles in all 14 of the windows which will be on a timer and always lit at night, 365 days/year. Therefore, even with all other interior and exterior lights off, these candles would be on and the structure should at least be visible at night as you approach it. The motion sensors would then trigger the outside lights once someone is close.
I'd like to hear people's thoughts about the workability of this set-up. I'm too close to it to have any objectivity. I'm also not locked into my current plans.
Any suggestions or feedback appreciated.
John
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) on the candles? I don't understand the significance of it. Are you trying to make the structure stand out at night?
