Outdoor Lighting

[HarryO45]

I have decided to paint my house. It is a small house, but two story and and hard to get to some of the high existing exterior lights. So I would like to upgrade lighting while I will be up there painting anyway. The current flood lights are old bulb technology. I am
Wondering about LED?

I would like to replace all of them at the same time to have a uniform look.

My initial search on LED flood and porch lights boggled my mind when they started talking about smart and WiFi and Bluetooth lights.

Can anyone kinda simplify and recommend a brand that may help me? I would like to have something that I can change sensitivity to motion with out climbing a ladder. But other than that I don’t think I need to get too fancy with tech. But maybe there are advantages I may find useful if you can explain.

What should I consider?

 

[pjciii]

I have looked at those also. There inexpensive ones that only put out 6 to 8k lum's. I have looked at the big boys but they are about 100.00 or more but they put out 30k lum's. But i don't want to hang out off of the roof and try to change it upside down. I just don't bounce as well anymore.

 

[Spotlite]

I went with these. Dawn to dusk motion light. Had them up for 2 years. They’re LED. I have zero complaints with these.

 

[Swamprat]

Not sure what brand or such but we had the old style floodlights on our second story, Hurricane Michael did a number on them so our electrician replaced with LED's. Turn those things on and it looks like a football stadium outside.

Will take a pic tonight to show but a huge upgrade and well worth it. No WIFI, Bluetooth, etc. just dumbed down for me with a single switch.

 

[Hoss]

Definitely go with LED. If you want to change things, you will definitely need, however, that ups the price and adds more stuff to go wrong. There are a lot of them out which will let you do the changes with switches on the lights. I would probably go with those. hook em up on the ground and figure out the setting you want before putting them up. Once they are up, you will likely never change them. You may want to look at some with adjustable color temperature. Many of the ones out there have really high color temperatures which can make for pretty harsh lighting. Go into Lowes or Home Depot and check out the color temperature displays in the bulb area to get an idea of the differences
I recently changed out the lights on our house to LED. Went from tungsten halogen to LED. Huge difference. Went from 600 watts (4-150W bulbs) to 56 watts and our patio and half the back yard is lite up like daytime. Almost too bright. Here’s what I got And yes, the 5500K is pretty harsh, just hard to find something in the 4000K range I would have liked to have gotten.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083DDCJQX?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

 

[Swamprat]

Here is a pic of my back outside light, forgot flash was on for camera but it no way hindered what the light was putting out.

I took this pic 100' from the light and it was still casting a big shadow behind me. light is facing straight out from house not at me to give you a idea of brightness.

And yes I did some tractor work on the driveway and parking area today after turkey hunting.

Side note, did not go motion sensor route due to yard dog and the occasional deer which the dog and deer ignore each other plus the light is on the second floor so not sure how a motion sensor would work.

 

[HarryO45]

Here is a pic of my back outside light, forgot flash was on for camera but it no way hindered what the light was putting out.

I took this pic 100' from the light and it was still casting a big shadow behind me. light is facing straight out from house not at me to give you a idea of brightness.

And yes I did some tractor work on the driveway and parking area today after turkey hunting.

Side note, did not go motion sensor route due to yard dog and the occasional deer which the dog and deer ignore each other plus the light is on the second floor so not sure how a motion sensor would work.

We do not use motion lights either, for the same reasons. When we go to sleep the outdoors is completely dark. I am a bit concerned because if we travel, sometimes as long as ten days, I would feel better with motion or dawn to dusk lights. But that would be the kinda rare. That is why I was wondering about the lights that I could set with an app. When I leave, change settings to motion and dawn dusk? Has anyone done that with an app?

 

[Swamprat]

Have not for outside lights but we have 4 inside lamps on timers set a various times so it looks like somebody is home when we are away for a week or so.

Our daughter or neighbor will feed our dog and cat so it looks like somebody is always coming and going. Dirt road so easy to see tracks going in and out of drive.

 

[westcobbdog]

We have multiple Ring floodlight cameras, they work good. Bright light on motion. It can make your phone go off with too many alerts if it covers a busy area, however.

 

[Hoss]

Took a look at the residential floodlights from the company I used to work for, they didn’t have any Bluetooth/Wi-Fi offerings. When I was there, the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi was showing up on indoor offerings, but it looks like it didn’t transition to outdoor. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, just not being offered by the big boys in lighting in the US. The thing I would question is reliability, especially if it’s second story.

 

[HarryO45]

We have multiple Ring floodlight cameras, they work good. Bright light on motion. It can make your phone go off with too many alerts if it covers a busy area, however.

Can you use an app to turn the motion and alerts on and off?

I saw those at HD… made curious of course nobody at the store knew anything about them

 

[westcobbdog]

Yes control by phone

 

[HarryO45]

Yes control by phone

Is it hard to set up multiple lights… I read at the HD there is a bridge? Do you have to get one of those?

 

[westcobbdog]

None of that, just installed them where a flood light already existed. Electrician can do it easily.

 

[oldfella1962]

I went with these. Dawn to dusk motion light. Had them up for 2 years. They’re LED. I have zero complaints with these. View attachment 1215980

Wow that is a great price! I might check them out when I go to Home Depot tomorrow.

 

[Crakajak]

We do not use motion lights either, for the same reasons. When we go to sleep the outdoors is completely dark. I am a bit concerned because if we travel, sometimes as long as ten days, I would feel better with motion or dawn to dusk lights. But that would be the kinda rare. That is why I was wondering about the lights that I could set with an app. When I leave, change settings to motion and dawn dusk? Has anyone done that with an app?

Just saying........Any change inoutdoor lighting routine can alert ridebuyers to notice.
"That house has floods on now.....haven,t seen that before......let's go check it out. Must not be there".