Outdoor Garage/Driveway Lighting

[XJSuperman]

UPDATE: I bumped the thread on 9/26/2024 in Post #12. Please pick up there for new replies, thanks.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I wasn't having any luck finding threads with my application of lighting. So I apologize in advance if I missed some good info (I'm sure I have).

I'm a first time homeowner, and recently purchased a small home with a detached 2.75 car garage with a concrete pad large enough to park 3 or 4 vehicles. It currently has 2 basic 300-500Watt halogen floodlights mounted to each side of the 2-car garage door no more than 8ft high. They are very bright and do a good job of illuminating the concrete in front of the garage. They are hardwired to a switch and do not have any motion detecting ability. Through a small series of events of my own doing, neither light is currently working (bulbs are bad). The following pic is similar to the existing lights.


My question is what next? My options are to get replacement bulbs and keep the old lights, or replace with new LED as I am doing with most of the rest of the property. I don't want to spend a ton on new fixtures, but I like the cost-savings of LED and the simplicity. I could also get replacement fixtures that are nearly the same as the current ones, which would be a cheap option as well. Im trying to follow a "do it once" policy for the most part.

My application is that I spend a decent amount of time in the garage/driveway working on my stuff, and want everything lit up well for snow removal, mowing, wrenching parties, etc. I do not need motion detection, but I am not against it. I will be using the light switch the current lights are wired to.

For those of you who know your lighting, do you have any input for led vs halogen, temp scale for light output, or motion-detecting or not? Many of the lights Im looking at give output specs for being mounted much higher up than my current lights.

Any input is appreciated gentlemen and ladies. Thank you.

 

[tyme2par4]

I would upgrade to LED. You can get LED flood lights for pretty cheap on Amazon. I have one that I use as a work light that I paid like $15 for, and it has worked great indoors and out for 5+ years now.

 

[XJSuperman]

I would upgrade to LED. You can get LED flood lights for pretty cheap on Amazon. I have one that I use as a work light that I paid like $15 for, and it has worked great indoors and out for 5+ years now.

Do you have any specs on it? I really don't want to downgrade my brightness, and most LED lights Ive seen are not as bright as the current setup, and though they are overkill, its hard to go backwards...

 

[tyme2par4]

Do you have any specs on it? I really don't want to downgrade my brightness, and most LED lights Ive seen are not as bright as the current setup, and though they are overkill, its hard to go backwards...

The one I have is only about 2000 lumen, so about a 100W halogen equivalent I believe.
You'll probably want to look for closer to a 100W LED like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077BP34H4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[yeldogt]

While you can get LED flood/ spots that are as bright as the 500w halogens -- most of what you find at the big box store are equivalent to a 120-150 typical spot/flood bulb.

Those 500w halogen fixtures are great for some application -- they were cheap -- good light (output and color). The bulbs just don't last all that long and they use a lot of power if you use them all the time. I have four of them along an alley behind a wall -- flip them on and it's like stadium out there. They are not used very often -- so bulb life and electric cost is not an issue.

At only 8' up -- why not install a more traditional fixture with a LED bulb to have on all the time for general lighting and install something else to provide high illumination when you need it. With the low running cost and long life of the LED bulbs -- we have some on all the time vs using any kind of motion detector.

Those floods must blind at only 8'

 

[driftpin]

I installed Costco 'alien-head'-looking LED's, one on each of two sides of my garage. They are motion detector, and have a great range of adjustability. An easy install, and no issues, only 6 mo. old, each luminaire has two 'heads.' I have a couple lights like yours that I took down and will probably get sold in a yard sale. The LED's are $40 apiece, I got one for each side of the building. Only 2 made it up so-far. They have another model which has a surveillance camera in it.

https://www.costco.com/Home-Zone-LED-Motion-Sensor-Security-Light.product.100354462.html

 

[XJSuperman]

While you can get LED flood/ spots that are as bright as the 500w halogens -- most of what you find at the big box store are equivalent to a 120-150 typical spot/flood bulb.

Those 500w halogen fixtures are great for some application -- they were cheap -- good light (output and color). The bulbs just don't last all that long and they use a lot of power if you use them all the time. I have four of them along an alley behind a wall -- flip them on and it's like stadium out there. They are not used very often -- so bulb life and electric cost is not an issue.

At only 8' up -- why not install a more traditional fixture with a LED bulb to have on all the time for general lighting and install something else to provide high illumination when you need it. With the low running cost and long life of the LED bulbs -- we have some on all the time vs using any kind of motion detector.

Those floods must blind at only 8'

The floods are certainly blinding if you look at them yes. However, I can see everything I want when Im outside on the concrete. I won't be running them all night, or all day, or leave them on motion-detect so I suppose power isn't a huge issue, but long-term it could be. A more traditional fixture is not really in my taste, but the main thing is that it won't provide the amount of light I currently have. A downgrade just doesn't sound appealing (Must be the Jeeper in me but we don't downgrade, if it breaks you replace or upgrade). Unfortunately I don't have anywhere else on that side of the building to mount another brighter light, short of screwing something into the roof (and that isn't happening).

Sounds like the simple answer is to grab some bulbs for the existing lights. Ill look into it.

Thanks everyone, all input is appreciated whether I follow the advice or not, its good to know options and paths I hadn't thought to take.

 

[timewarp]

The one I have is only about 2000 lumen, so about a 100W halogen equivalent I believe.
You'll probably want to look for closer to a 100W LED like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077BP34H4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

These LED lights that tyme2par4 posted the link to have the same amount of light (8000 lumens) as your existing light but instead of 500watts they are 100 watts so you'd be using 1/5th the electricity and the LED bulbs will last much longer than the halogen bulbs do. That sure seems like an upgrade to me.

 

[XJSuperman]

To sum it up: I cheaped out and Lowes had identical fixtures to my old ones on sale as they were being replaced by LED (as they should be). For $11 each, I grabbed 2 and just replaced the whole light on each side of the garage. Works great and provide tons of light. Someday I may replace with LED lights to save the power bill, but at the end of the day I won't be in this house that long so Im not going to worry about it. There are other priorities. I really appreciate everyone's info and advice.

 

[yeldogt]

To sum it up: I cheaped out and Lowes had identical fixtures to my old ones on sale as they were being replaced by LED (as they should be). For $11 each, I grabbed 2 and just replaced the whole light on each side of the garage. Works great and provide tons of light. Someday I may replace with LED lights to save the power bill, but at the end of the day I won't be in this house that long so Im not going to worry about it. There are other priorities. I really appreciate everyone's info and advice.

You were being practical ... not cheap. Really is no affordable solution to the high watt halogen floods. As I said above .. I have four 500w fixtures in an alley/parking area. They may be on 1 or 2 hours per week at the most -- there is no reason to switch them out. Bought a box of quality bulbs a few years ago when my lighting supplier wanted to unload.

What I was trying to explain above -- I have other lights in the area that produce enough light to get around and see in the area. Those are LED and run all night ... but, I want to be able to flood the area when needed ... nothing works as well as the high output halogens for the money.

 

[XJSuperman]

You were being practical ... not cheap. Really is no affordable solution to the high watt halogen floods. As I said above .. I have four 500w fixtures in an alley/parking area. They may be on 1 or 2 hours per week at the most -- there is no reason to switch them out. Bought a box of quality bulbs a few years ago when my lighting supplier wanted to unload.

What I was trying to explain above -- I have other lights in the area that produce enough light to get around and see in the area. Those are LED and run all night ... but, I want to be able to flood the area when needed ... nothing works as well as the high output halogens for the money.

Thats pretty much exactly my case here. Well put.

 

[XJSuperman]

Well folks, its been a few years and I'm out of bulbs. Its time to upgrade the halogens I bought in 2018 and as expected the LED market has further developed. I've got a light in the ol' Amazon cart, but I remembered my thread and figured now was as good a time as any to ask again. Does anyone have a suggestion for bright outdoor flood lights that will mount on an exterior wall that they have been happy with?
Some of these newer modular lights that can be pointed in several directions seem to fit the bill for me. It would be nice to better direct the light towards the driveway and a bit off to the yard side. After some thought, I still don't need motion sensing or d2d or anything like that. I only use these when unloading a vehicle in the dark or working out in the driveway at night.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09XTKV81F/?tag=atomicindus08-20 is one that should work well for my case. I am open to suggestions however.

 

[Snapped-off]

Well folks, its been a few years and I'm out of bulbs. Its time to upgrade the halogens I bought in 2018 and as expected the LED market has further developed. I've got a light in the ol' Amazon cart, but I remembered my thread and figured now was as good a time as any to ask again. Does anyone have a suggestion for bright outdoor flood lights that will mount on an exterior wall that they have been happy with?
Some of these newer modular lights that can be pointed in several directions seem to fit the bill for me. It would be nice to better direct the light towards the driveway and a bit off to the yard side. After some thought, I still don't need motion sensing or d2d or anything like that. I only use these when unloading a vehicle in the dark or working out in the driveway at night.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09XTKV81F/?tag=atomicindus08-20 is one that should work well for my case. I am open to suggestions however.

I prefer fixtures where you can replace the bulb. I don't trust the panels to last for their rated life.

 

[Criss]

I have had panel led lights (and bulbs) fail within a year or two. A fixture with replaceable led flood bulbs would be my recommendation.

 

[imagineer]

I recently installed one of these above my garage door and am very pleased with the light it puts out.

Feit Electric Motion-Sensing Hardwired LED Bronze Security Light Mfr# S105DFL5CCTMMBZ - Ace Hardware

Keep your home safe and secure with the Feit Electric S10.5DFL/5CCT/MM/BZ motion-sensing dual-head flood light. Integrated dusk to dawn and motion sensors turn lights on automatically at night when they detect motion. This fixture features selectable color temperatures. During installation, you...

www.acehardware.com

The light is about 15' above the driveway and it fully illuminates better than 75% of the 110' x 20' driveway

 

[racecougar]

I installed a bunch of these in '22, and they're still doing great. Looks like the same thing you posted a link to just a different foreign company name.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092D2ZYJC/?tag=atomicindus08-20

They work very well:

 

[XJSuperman]

I went with the 60W versions of the ones I linked, and yes they are chincy but so is every other light fixture I've bought or installed or seen in the last decade. The single screw mounting is unfavorable, but they were easy to aim and certainly bright enough for this application. Thanks for the suggestions all.