TL;DR - want to illuminate about a 100'x60' area without being shockingly bright or "cool", want the option to have automatically come on at dark/off at light and also on/off at a switch. I *think* I'm okay with "on" at the switch being the light sensing function.
We don't live real close to our neighbors, but the terrain is pretty open. Big lights travel a long way here, and there are several newer additions to the neighborhood who are clearly afraid of the dark. We are not those people.
That said, there has been a yard light on the power pole here for longer than I've been around, but the power company has taken to charging monthly for the use of their light, in addition to the electricity it uses. It will be coming down this week, one way or another.
I want to have the option to have a light in the farmyard when I want, and dark when I want. The new shop building has the bulk of the convenient turn-around space in the driveway, so that would make the most sense to me.
Perfectly okay with incandescent or LED. Think I would prefer hardwired to solar. Don't have a preference on remote or hardwired switch, but want to make the selection from the house about 150' from the intended installation point with a garage in line-of-sight, so remote would have to have some range. Not trying to do surgery by these lights, just enough to find a set of keys dropped on the gravel or help an elderly family member back to their car or see somebody helping themselves to diesel fuel in the middle of the night.
Don't especially care what the price point is, more about quality and ability to meet the aforementioned.
Thanks in advance.
If you’ve got the network infrastructure to support it (WiFi) I’ve been really happy with these over at our vet clinic.
https://store.google.com/product/nest_cam_floodlight?hl=en-US
Height is your friend when trying to contain light to a specific area as you can point the lights closer to straight down. Some blinders on the side of the light may be helpful so others are not looking at the light source just the light coming down.
Do you plan on racing at night? You might outrun the light. . . .
https://youtu.be/382WOzt3Wns?t=325
The Wild Career of Eddie Gossage | Dinner with Racers S2 Ep. 4 | MotorTrend & Continental Tire
MotorTrend Channel
I’d recommend motion sensors over dusk to dawn. It’s more convenient, doesn’t blast the area all the time and it’s more effective at spooking miscreants.
I use one of these.
Its solar powered so no wires to run. Has a remote so you dont need to get the ladder out every time you want to adjust the settings. Mine is set to come on at dark and run for 6 hours. After that it's motion activated. It's not super bright but bright enough for walking around the yard.
Amazon carries several. IIRC mine was about $90.
Having worked through LED warranty returns be aware of the following.
Try to get lights that allow for intensity adjustment. Many times the lights are driven hard and this reduces their life span so turning them down helps..
Some enclosures don't seal very well or the gasket shrinks over time so then may need a bit of help.
Some lights don't have the safety ground wire attached to anything so be sure to test.
It is possible to get screw in LED bulbs to retrofit mercury vapor type fixtures.
