Lighting up back yard

[Reg1952]

Have finished my new garage all except for one light.I mounted a box at the top of my rear wall that I want to but a flood light to light up the back yard.Its on its own switch and I dont want a motion dectection type.I looked at a 500w rectangled shaped one but was wondering about some of the mercury lights.Any one got any ideas?

 

[nehog]

HID or sodium will probably give the most light per watt of power.

 

[donnie m]

i got 3 mercury vapors on my property.....the lamps are cheap and bulbs are bright and last for years. operating cost' are minimal too. the only thing is every couple of years the photo electric cap will go out. these are screwed in on top and cost about 12 bucks.

 

[JYank]

Mercury is/ will soon be unavailable.
Go with Metal Halide or high pressure sodium.
Metal halide will give white/blue light. HPS will give yellow light.
If you are willing to spend a little extra go with new LED lots of bright white light, lasts forever, and is cheap to run..
One other option is quartz halogen.
Hope this helps.

 

[Reg1952]

Thanks so far.I googled some of the sodium lights.Looks like for about $80 you can get something decent.Was wandering how a 150 sodium compared to a 500 watt halogen.The sodium lights all seem to list a lumens rating.

 

[J Persons]

I installed a high pressure sodium dusk to dawn light last year. It gives plenty of light, but it's a yellowish light. I didn't like it at first, but got used to it.

 

[Norcal]

You can always use one of these...

It's a 1000W metal halide, the wallpack below is only 175W.

Edit: The area lit in front of the shop is almost near daylight.

 

[Kevin54]

With most of the sodiums though, they are not "instant" on. The two that I had around my pond would come on, slowly warm up, and take maybe 3 minutes to come to full power as far as light. They are fine if you plan on leaving them on. But if you hear a noise and want to light it up right now, not a good choice. Whatever or whoever made the noise will be gone before you can see them.
I have 500w and 300w halogens at different places on my buildings, front and back, switched separate. They come on to full power as soon as you hit the switch.

 

[slip knot]

I put a couple of 400watt metal halides in the shop and damm thats a lot of light. Not sure I would want that much light in a passive outdoor setting. One thing I noticed about the metal halide is it attracts bugs big time. I'm not sure how this is gonna work come summer time. bugs may be too bad to turn it on.

 

[theoldwizard1]

It depends on how big your back yard is and it you want it as bright as daylight !

Most suburban 1/4 acre backyards will do fine with just a double screw in fixture and some flood light bulbs. Unless getting "full power", instantly at below 10F is a requirement, the CFL floods work, although they take a while to warm up.

Actually, lighting your yard from more than one angle is better than more power from one source.

 

[JYank]

i work for the local school district and most of the lights we have or install are 150 W High Pressure sodium wallpacks. That gives off plenty of light. They do not come up to full brightness for a little bit. I would say that a 500W quartz halogen would give off the same amount of light, and will come on instantly. With lighting, you need to check the current draw in amps, because a 150 W HPS will use a little more that 150 Watts of power. 150 watts @ 120volts = 1.25 amps. Compare apples to apples; best to compare lumens if you can. Good luck.