The goal was to light the perimeter of my house for security, convenience and to some extent, architectural interest. Security-wise, I wanted light in the driveway, on both sides of the two side gates (this is a corner lot), in the entryway and above the rear sliding glass door. The lighting is controlled by a timer and stays on during the dark hours (which is about 13 hours right now) and is driven by a Meanwell driver. LEDs are Cree XR-Es in my own special redneck housings. There is an optic in the photo but I ended up using bare emitters.
Here are the housings:
and here is some early experimenting I did with warm vs cool white:
I prefer the warm white for a less industrial feel.
Here is the front of the house with two light rigs over the garage door and one in the entryway.
I like having some light on the vehicles at night, particularly since my 4Runner is popular among catalytic converter thieves. The corner of the house is lit and the entire pathway to the rear of the home is illuminated. The gate in this pic is wide open, but there is a light overhead on both sides of the gate for security. (The light you see directly to the left of the garage door is the house number.)
Here is a view on the same side of house; view looking from the rear of the house to the front:
This view is from the other sideyard, looking toward the front:
There is a light placed right above the access gate, illuminated both sides.
And here is the front view:
The regular porch light is mounted on the right side of the entryway, so previously there was no light outside of the entryway column, no light on the 90-degree sidewalk approach, and no light in the driveway. With one Cree directly overhead in the entryway, light fills the area in front of window and extends far enough to illuminate the 90-degree sidewalk, aided of course by the lights over the garage. To the left of the home you can see the sidegate is illuminated as well.
I am really happy with the result. For one, there is light where the entire perimeter of my home was completely dark before. Now I can walk around the house at night without having to carry a flashlight. The light is dim enough to not produce excessive light pollution yet bright enough that hopefully thieves will be dissuaded. Total draw is under 14 watts and the one in the entryway is bright enough that I no longer use the regular porch light. I was planning on adding another light on the peak over the entryway but decided against it for fear of it looking too busy. Appearance-wise, I like the look but others may not. Just thought I'd share since this forum has perpetuated my LED hobbies. :thumbsup: The next step is to add some LED pathway lighting to illuminate the rock steps in the foreground that you cannot see in the photo.
Here are the housings:
and here is some early experimenting I did with warm vs cool white:
I prefer the warm white for a less industrial feel.
Here is the front of the house with two light rigs over the garage door and one in the entryway.
I like having some light on the vehicles at night, particularly since my 4Runner is popular among catalytic converter thieves. The corner of the house is lit and the entire pathway to the rear of the home is illuminated. The gate in this pic is wide open, but there is a light overhead on both sides of the gate for security. (The light you see directly to the left of the garage door is the house number.)
Here is a view on the same side of house; view looking from the rear of the house to the front:
This view is from the other sideyard, looking toward the front:
There is a light placed right above the access gate, illuminated both sides.
And here is the front view:
The regular porch light is mounted on the right side of the entryway, so previously there was no light outside of the entryway column, no light on the 90-degree sidewalk approach, and no light in the driveway. With one Cree directly overhead in the entryway, light fills the area in front of window and extends far enough to illuminate the 90-degree sidewalk, aided of course by the lights over the garage. To the left of the home you can see the sidegate is illuminated as well.
I am really happy with the result. For one, there is light where the entire perimeter of my home was completely dark before. Now I can walk around the house at night without having to carry a flashlight. The light is dim enough to not produce excessive light pollution yet bright enough that hopefully thieves will be dissuaded. Total draw is under 14 watts and the one in the entryway is bright enough that I no longer use the regular porch light. I was planning on adding another light on the peak over the entryway but decided against it for fear of it looking too busy. Appearance-wise, I like the look but others may not. Just thought I'd share since this forum has perpetuated my LED hobbies. :thumbsup: The next step is to add some LED pathway lighting to illuminate the rock steps in the foreground that you cannot see in the photo.
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