Solutions looking for problems, and when those problems can't be found, these solutions create problems of their own.
That depends on the property. I had a problem steps either side of my house from the garage, now a garden room, under the house, to main house, and when I moved in PIR operated lights, these needed the car to be facing up the drive so it detected radiator heat, and the angle they detected was not enough to detect us coming down the steps, and coming up would often turn off before I had reached the top, so left with hands full of shopping, which I needed to put down, to get out my phone, to see up the steps.
So for me turning lights on/off with phone or voice commands is a massive advantage, also having 9 lights around the house, one on a pole top of house, one on shed bottom of house, so using smart bulbs, some socket adaptors, and some smart light switches, having a control which will turn on/off all with one tap on the phone or voice command is also important. So the way Google Home app assigns areas, like outside, bedroom etc. also suits as all different makes work with same app.
But this means, it is very much what suits me, which may very well not suit other households. The shed light,
is a simple bulkhead lamp on the corner of the shed, powered from a socket adaptor, and is the single most useful lamp. I want the 300° angle of light, to see from my wood store, car, and up the steps one side of house, I was not sure if to far away for the hub, but clearly not, but I first took a standard light down to the shed and tested it would work at that distance.
Corner of the house two carriage lamps, one the light masked by trees, the other the old small shed. At my front door an old carriage lamps, controlled with both PIR and a smart switch, the TP-link one with batteries, others would not work, but the light output is nowhere near as good as the carriage lamp at corner of the house, with is the integral type, and the LEDs face down. But the traditional with a bulb looks better, and if bulb fails I can change it. The light on the pole lights far side of upper car when parked,
![20251203_171530[1] - 20251203_171533[1].jpg](https://www.diynot.com/diy/data/attachments/409/409881-52feae8a82911fb0ee4e459ef0c2bc37.jpg?hash=8hi_Akv2uc "20251203_171530[1] - 20251203_171533[1].jpg")
painting the walls white helped a lot, but we live on the side of a hill, we tend to have a lot of hills in Wales, with car parking space both front and rear of the house, with very little light from street lamps, so for us outside lights are essential, specially walking from the garden rooms to main house.
The last house the street lamp lit all required, and outside light just made it look good, they were not really needed.
The original quartz halogen 150 watt lamps fitted when we moved in, lit up an area far larger than the PIR could cover, as it was wind moving the trees would set it off, old house the central heating boilers flue gases would set of the PIR, so using PIR control is very limiting, and also I have some 5 foot shear drops around the house, so security is better if these are not lit. In winter, I do set the light on a stalk to come on 5 am until dawn, to assist the milkman.
Also is it worth having a PIR rather than simple time, last house ally downside of house, had an Ikea 6 watt bulb lit all night, as central heating would trigger PIR and better constant light in window to a light flashing on and off.
But all this shows how it is impossible to select outside lighting for an unknown property. Some of my lights are now redundant, but I have never bothered to remove them.
