Exterior wall lights with ambient light sensor?

[brettjbuckley]

I'm wanting to install 3 or 4 exterior lights around the sides of the house which automatically come on when it starts to get dark and stay on until daylight.

I first considered having them all powered from the same point which had a timer plug on it, but this would then need adjusting throughout the year.

Other than the 500W security light variety, I cannot find any regular wall lights (100W) that are light activated.

 

[securespark]

I have seen many 500W floods with PIR's, but never any with photocells.

But there are many fittings with photocells built-in in various different designs (drum, bulkhead, coach lantern etc) or you can buy a stand alone photo cell and wire the output to ordinary fittings.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Waste of electricity.

Waste of lamp life.

Bad for the environment in terms of energy consumption and increased manufacturing, transport and disposal of lamps.

Don't do it.

 

[securespark]

Don't do what?

Lamp life can be increased by using CFL's.

A lot of comfort and security can be drawn from all-night illumination, especially for the elderly. Why do sheltered housing complexes use CFL's on a photocell?

I think your response is a bit OTT, Ban....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You won't think so when they introduce a carbon tax....

 

[plugwash]

all night lighting is one thing but you sure as hell don't want to be doing it with halogens or normal incandescents.

incandescents can start quickly (which is a big advantage) but have a terriblly high power consumption when running you need to be using stuff like CFLS or sodium lamps or LEDS