New house need bright outside light

[Albiemanmike]

Well the wife and I finally got all moved into our new home. It is very exciting but the list of things that need to be addressed is growing by the day. One of the things I need to address now is the back yard. We have two dogs and they have to go out in the evening several times to do their thing. There is not one single light to illuminate the back yard??? I have been researching outdoor motion sensor lighting and it seems the ones you can get easily at the Borg are very crappy quality. The ones my electrician buddy told me about cost a ton of money made by Rab Lighting. I would love to have one of their high quality fixtures but can't afford to do that with other things on the list to fix. So I am looking for some suggestions for a three head fixture that I can install on the brick wall above the deck that will illuminate out to about 70'. I plan on wiring it to a switch that we can turn on in the event we need to light up the back yard in a hurry but also would like a light with good motion sensing capability. My experience with the home store brands is that they just don't live up to the advertising on the box and the motion sensing really isn't any good.

So I realize I am asking for a lot here but any advice/suggestions are very much welcomed. LED would be awesome but the really good LED fixtures like what Rab Lighting sells are insanely expensive. Home Cheapo has some Lithonia LED fixtures but the reviews have me a bit on the shy side going with them but they are affordable for me so I may just have to give one of them a shot and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[Stee6043]

We have two rather plain jane 2 head flood fixtures on the back of our house. One on each corner of the house. With dual 100W floods they are plenty bright for when we service our two muts at night.

My two cents is that trying to do the entire back yard from a single fixture might be more work than trying to split it. Is having two fixtures an option? I'd be shocked if the fixtures we have cost more than $15 each. They are all kinds of bright and...knock on wood...no problems in 10 years of service.

I have absolutely zero luck with finding reasonable solutions with LED so far, both inside the house and outside. I also have a good friend that buys and uses LED on a commercial scale and says they are shoddy at best. Install (100) bulbs and plan to replace (10) immediately (DOA) and another (20) within the first year. That kind of feedback doesn't make me want to run out and spend the long dollar...

 

[where2]

For now, use the plain jane two headed flood fixtures. In less than 3 years, you will see higher wattage LED screw in replacements.

HD just started carrying a Cree screw in replacement flood (Model # BBR30-06550FLF-12DE26-1U110) It's only a matter of time until you see double this light intensity in an LED with an Edison base.

The purpose you describe: "on when the dogs are out, and security lighting after that" is not presently worth investing in LEDs, unless you are abundantly wealthy and afraid of the dark. As I ride my bike around town at night, I find the owners of the $1M-$3.6M homes like to light them up like it is daylight outside, either because they are afraid of the dark, or just to piss money away.

 

[bczygan]

What is the purpose of the lighting?
Is it so the dog can see his way?
Or is it so you can see where he is?
Do you need to see every part of the yard in very bright condition?
How big is the yard?
Where are adjacent homes located?
Usually you cannot have unshielded lighting that shines into adjoining residences. This means you need for lights to shine down rather than out. So if you want to light the entire yard, you need a system of lights.
If you just want minimum illumination around the back door, to cut the pitch blackness, so you can see where he went, then any wall mounted fixture will do. And LED bulbs are now inexpensive to use. I use nothing else outside.

 

[red92s]

I installed a RAB 2 head "Super Stealth" fixture yesterday. Pricey (~$100) but primarily metal construction, and stellar Amazon reviews. Adjustment and setting the features on the sensor was a breeze. Keep in mind that the RAB Super Stealth units can switch up to 1,000 watts of lights, even though they are typically only rated for a pair of 150 watt bulbs in the fixture. So, you can install one more expensive fixture with the motion sensor, then two or three additional cheap, regular, 2-head outdoor fixtures wired down the line. This will allow you to spread your lighting out for good coverage at a reasonable cost, and only depend on a single motion sensor.

 

[1/2 Cup]

All of the above, I have single flood light fixtures positioned so that I can light the entire back yard and sides, some have PE cells and the rest do not with their switches ( some two way) located at the rear entrance for easy access. We have a typical 1/4 acre residential block in town.
The flood lights had 150 watt PAR 38 lamps which I replaced around 7 years ago with 120 watt equivalent output CFL replacement flood lamps, although it can take a few seconds to reach their full intensity they have been very reliable and effective costing about $ 15 each.
In future I may replace them with LEDs but I am not in any rush to do so yet.

 

[Albiemanmike]

I installed a RAB 2 head "Super Stealth" fixture yesterday. Pricey (~$100) but primarily metal construction, and stellar Amazon reviews. Adjustment and setting the features on the sensor was a breeze. Keep in mind that the RAB Super Stealth units can switch up to 1,000 watts of lights, even though they are typically only rated for a pair of 150 watt bulbs in the fixture. So, you can install one more expensive fixture with the motion sensor, then two or three additional cheap, regular, 2-head outdoor fixtures wired down the line. This will allow you to spread your lighting out for good coverage at a reasonable cost, and only depend on a single motion sensor.

That sound like a very good plan of attack! Thanks for the idea!

 

[Joe G.]

RAB are the "high quality" fixtures?


In the commercial lighting world, they're hardly thought of as "quality". Better than the $10 cheapo's at HD = yes, but if you're talking about their LED line, they're low quality compared to Acuity or Cooper products.

 

[Grumpy365]

Please keep your neighbors in mind.

MANY a neighbor war has been started over homeowners choice in yard lighting.

 

[Albiemanmike]

Please keep your neighbors in mind.

MANY a neighbor war has been started over homeowners choice in yard lighting.

My neighbor just installed a flood light fixture on the corner of his house right next to ours and it isn't oo bad when it is on. My plan is to aim my new lights away from his yard and only on my yard which should be doable.

 

[Albiemanmike]

Well have been busy with many projects around the new house. Finally got the opportunity to install the flood lights on the back of the house this past weekend. I used 3/4" conduit (the grey electrical conduit) and a bunch of connectors and junction boxes. I used some square halogen light from a fixture I had installed at the old house and just took the two lights off that fixture and made two separate single light fixtures. The main flood is a Rab 360 Super Stealth with bullet housings which is not what I ordered. I ordered the bell housings but received the bullets instead. No biggie they work fine and look as good as the bell housings. It took me most of the day to do the install working alone and also being interrupted by the wifey. Didn't run into any problems along the way. I wired them so that the Rab light controls all of the fixtures so when it senses motion it turns on all four lights. The Rab also has a manual override that allows you to turn the lights on manually by switching the switch on/off twice within 2-3 seconds. That was a must have for the wife and for me as well. The big floods shine almost all the way out to the back of the yard which is about 90 ft. away so i am pretty happy with the light output. The two smaller halogens on the sides of the house are not as bright as they are a diffused lens design so they put out a wide diffused light. I may change those out for some clear lens fixtures I have instead. All in all a successful project and now on to setting up the garage which is proving to be a colossal undertaking.

 

[Norcal]

If you want light, one of these would do it but neighbors may not be very pleased & the warm up time of metal halide lamps means no "instant on" lighting.



1000 watt metal halide flood , old photo, tree on left no longer exists, Cladwood siding was replaced & repainted years ago.