The place has a very large garden and it is quite dark out back at night. To add a little glimmer of light to my drive, I added a lantern style fitting later swapping the lamp to an 8w LED, on a dusk to 11pm Smart Plug. For decades I have had discharge flood lights, front, side and rear, originally on a wireless plug, then later swapped for a Smart Plug. These latter, only get turned on as required, but take time to come up to full output.
Just the lantern on, provides little useful light to find my way into the side door of the garage, despite line of sight, so for many years I have been toying with the idea of adding a PIR LED flood. They had some 20w jobs at a reasonable price last time I was in, a choice of a type with a PIR hanging below, or a more compact one with the PIR built into the head itself. I have had the former before and water always find its way into the PIR, making them useless, so I chose the latter.
My original plan was to fit it to the front of the garage, pointing towards the road and drive gates, which wouldn't really help me find my way to the garage/workshop, small rear door, or the hut adjacent and the other side of the path between. Instead, I decided to mount it on the utility/pantry wall, facing 45 degrees, shared between lighting the front of the garage, lighting the path to the rear and some of the garden.
It works surprisingly well, surprisingly bright too and very well built. It's only supposed to be the equivalent of 100w, but it outputs a similar output to a 500w halogen. One of those yellow rectangular panel LED's, with a pointless reflector round the edges. Three adjustments on it - on all the time, off, or PIR including how dark it needs to be to trigger; sensitivity/trigger distance; how long it stays on when triggered. All for £14.99.
Just the lantern on, provides little useful light to find my way into the side door of the garage, despite line of sight, so for many years I have been toying with the idea of adding a PIR LED flood. They had some 20w jobs at a reasonable price last time I was in, a choice of a type with a PIR hanging below, or a more compact one with the PIR built into the head itself. I have had the former before and water always find its way into the PIR, making them useless, so I chose the latter.
My original plan was to fit it to the front of the garage, pointing towards the road and drive gates, which wouldn't really help me find my way to the garage/workshop, small rear door, or the hut adjacent and the other side of the path between. Instead, I decided to mount it on the utility/pantry wall, facing 45 degrees, shared between lighting the front of the garage, lighting the path to the rear and some of the garden.
It works surprisingly well, surprisingly bright too and very well built. It's only supposed to be the equivalent of 100w, but it outputs a similar output to a 500w halogen. One of those yellow rectangular panel LED's, with a pointless reflector round the edges. Three adjustments on it - on all the time, off, or PIR including how dark it needs to be to trigger; sensitivity/trigger distance; how long it stays on when triggered. All for £14.99.
