pole mounted floodlight info needed

[Revin]

Getting hassles from the wife because "It's too dark in driveway"
So I got a 3" x 14' metal electrical pole(free) and want to install a dusk to dawn light on it.
I want something cost efficient and bright.
Wanted LED but not sure if there are any that are good enough for a flood light. Well at a low enough price that last a while.

the ones at HD look kinda "cheap"

Thank you

 

[Revin]

How about some suggestions on a good brand??

 

[Gotcha640]

I'd get the pole set and the wire run, then go buy the light. I have parts for way too many projects that will be months before I can get to them, if ever.

There are LED floods, but again, if it were me, I'd buy the cheapos first to get the thing aimed and all, then replace with LED when they burn out.

I'd suggest a timer rather than motion sensor. We have a motion sensor light on our driveway, and I'm always wishing I could just flip a switch. Timer would save me having to flip the switch.

 

[ishiboo]

The SAMs Club Honeywell is pretty great and would work at 14', but it's only 40W.

 

[Rookie2]

see my picture:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274005&highlight=dusk+dawn+light

 

[theoldwizard1]

"Flood" versus "spot" versus whatever only has to do with the reflector.

On incandescent bulbs, this is built into the bulb. Pretty nuch every thing else, the reflector is part of the housing.

 

[happy2rv]

I don't have any experience with these lights, but the specs look good and the price is right. You would have to mount a box for the wiring and figure out how to mount one or more of them to the pole. Reviews are mixed.

This one would probably look more at home on the pole, but it still doesn't appear to include the bracket for pole mounting.

Both of these are cheap Chinese imports. I'm a fan of LED lighting, and I think for interior lighting we're getting to the point where it makes sense financially. But I personally don't think outdoor flood lights are quite there yet. Most of what I see is the flimsy lightweight plastic junk you see at the big box stores. Most of those are also too dim for their stated purpose.

Having said that, this one actually looks somewhat decent. At $139 it's not bad for that style of fixture. But it's still pricey compared to something like this and at 3150 lumens the LED is still half as bright as the 6300 lumen HPS. The upside to the LED is it's rated at 100,000 hours compared to 24,000 for the HPS. However, the LED isn't replaceable and the HPS bulb is.

 

[matt_i]

I use this one found at Lowes, as a worklight for my wintertime-short day shop building framing. Its mounted on the top of a 12' treated 4x4. Lots of light! No problem to draw lines, do cutting and framing at night. I also use them inside my machining center. It has the dusk-to-dawn photocell already internally mounted.

One problem. It is a CFL bulb, 65 actual watts. I had one ballast go bad, the bulb swapped over to the other fixture just fine. But, there is no such thing that I found as a replacement ballast....it is complete new fixture time. It seems like a pretty nice light for $46 or so. However I cannot comment with authority on the long-term durability of the unit. I would describe the ballast fail as "infant mortality" as it probably had less than 10 total hours of use over about 2 years before it died.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_296861-2042...=4746703&pl=1&Ntt=utilitech+fluorescent+flood

 

[Revin]

Hey thanks guys! I think I found one I can live with now.

I am such an idiot for not doing a better search on here!

Sorry for the headache and unnecessary typing from my stupidity. I will search before I leap into posting again on here!!

 

[Jason B]

I don't have any experience with these lights, but the specs look good and the price is right. You would have to mount a box for the wiring and figure out how to mount one or more of them to the pole. Reviews are mixed.

This one would probably look more at home on the pole, but it still doesn't appear to include the bracket for pole mounting.

Both of these are cheap Chinese imports. I'm a fan of LED lighting, and I think for interior lighting we're getting to the point where it makes sense financially. But I personally don't think outdoor flood lights are quite there yet. Most of what I see is the flimsy lightweight plastic junk you see at the big box stores. Most of those are also too dim for their stated purpose.

Having said that, this one actually looks somewhat decent. At $139 it's not bad for that style of fixture. But it's still pricey compared to something like this and at 3150 lumens the LED is still half as bright as the 6300 lumen HPS. The upside to the LED is it's rated at 100,000 hours compared to 24,000 for the HPS. However, the LED isn't replaceable and the HPS bulb is.

Anyone go with any of these? That first option looks nice.

 

[Bert_]

Having said that, this one actually looks somewhat decent. At $139 it's not bad for that style of fixture. But it's still pricey compared to something like this and at 3150 lumens the LED is still half as bright as the 6300 lumen HPS. The upside to the LED is it's rated at 100,000 hours compared to 24,000 for the HPS. However, the LED isn't replaceable and the HPS bulb is.

For that price I would look at the cooper caretaker. It's not super high end but I have had decent good luck with them so far, they can be had in 50w and 70w. The 70W version is a good replacement for up to a 100w hps even though they claim higher.

Be sure to order the optional refractor. It does helps spread out the light but it's still doesn't have quite the coverage of a hps nema or other hid security light.

The bare fixture is about $130 and the refractor is another $20.

 

[Jason B]

I ended up going with this light,. Looks to be super powerful.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DO3AIVA/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I will report back after install with some pics, etc!

 

[Jason B]

Finally got it up. This thing is AWESOME! It kills the lights of american flood I had before and lights up super bright and it's a very high quality metal housing and nice that the photocell is replaceable. I looked at just about every light and this seems to be the best you can get for the output and quality. There are a bunch more day and night pics in my other post here!

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7238658#post7238658

Here is the order link for the TorchStar:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DO3AIVA/?tag=atomicindus08-20