Spec me an outdoor light to cover driveway

[roadie]

Our driveway is dark at night, as there are not outside lights that cover it. As the garage has power, I plan to drill through the wall above the door and connect to the circuit for the internal light to fit a sensor driven luminaire. Ideally, I would like to avoid a floodlight style light to minimise lightspill and avoid blinding us and our neighbours when we pull onto the drive. I have seen sensor driven downlighters, but given the limited height of the garage, these might not give the light throw to cover the area at least out to the end of the fence on the right, where the gate to the back of the house is.

What I really want is a luminaire where the light source is not very visible, but can achieve light throw that covers the garage door and further away. Any tips?

[greygoose]

Wouldn’t you be better having one on the side of the house to avoid dazzling yourself driving onto the drive?

[Belle427]

Id agree, either a floodlight up high angled downwards or lanterns etc along the wall. There are some good led bulkhead style fittings that are fairly bright if you wanted to try one on the garage but i doubt it would be what you want.

[Liamjrhodes]

Mounting it on the garage front you will struggle to find an angle that does not dazzle and still gives good coverage. A better option would be to mount it higher on the side of the house so it wont blind you and will cover the full driveway

[Simon_GH]

We’ve got a 50 w LED floodlight mounted above the garage door and, counterintuitively, it doesn’t blind you at night. I tend to park backwards anyway but it’s fine driving towards - far less dazzling than the headlights of oncoming vehicles in the road.

You can’t read a novel at the top of the drive (looks a similar length to the OP’s) but it’s plenty bright enough for unloading the car and walking to the front door.

[Peanut Gallery]

Simon_GH said:

We’ve got a 50 w LED floodlight mounted above the garage door and, counterintuitively, it doesn’t blind you at night. I tend to park backwards anyway but it’s fine driving towards - far less dazzling than the headlights of oncoming vehicles in the road.

You can’t read a novel at the top of the drive (looks a similar length to the OP’s) but it’s plenty bright enough for unloading the car and walking to the front door.

This - except mine is not a 50W, mine is a a 10W, worked brilliantly, can see to unload cars, strap small children into cars, maneuver etc. Flicking the internal switch a few times locks the light on for longer jobs like car cleaning.

I say worked fine - it was Screwfixes cheapest, and is starting to either fail, or picking up a spider crawling across the sensor as it keeps turning on through the night. I will be replacing it with exactly the same when I get around to it.

[NDA]

greygoose said:

Wouldn’t you be better having one on the side of the house to avoid dazzling yourself driving onto the drive?

And avoid dazzling the neighbours who live opposite.

[OutInTheShed]

A few smaller lights is often better.

[tux850]

roadie said:

Ideally, I would like to avoid a floodlight style light to minimise lightspill and avoid blinding us and our neighbours when we pull onto the drive.

I think you'd be fine on that front. Just make sure it is angled correctly - which is not something that most seem to do as, particularly with LED fittings, this doesn't mean having it sit at a 45 degree angle on the assumption that this will throw the right shape of light out. They need tilting much more down, almost horizontal in many cases, as illumination of the sky is not required.

Also go easy with the brightness/wattage as you only need enough to illuminate and not too much to cause glare.

Personally I'd buy something, wire it up to an extension lead, and get the wife to stand on top of a stepladder positioning it in roughly the right position. Obviously there'd be loads of arguments about it, but it's just like putting Christmas lights up (albeit with the roles reverse) and we seemed to have made that into an annual tradition in this house.

Edited by tux850 on Monday 9th December 16:04

[roadie]

Thank you for all the responses, definitely some options to think through.

I will definitely use a fixture over the garage door and this Philips fixture looks like it might be a good option.

https://www.lighting.philips.co.uk/consumer/p/outd...

I also have the option of a fixture on the side of the house. There is an external junction box around the corner to suit a light over the lounge doors that I have not installed, which I could repurpose to run a cable around the corner.

[defblade]

For mains powered lighting, I've got one of these on the back of the garage:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C9BZBHVR
It's not dazzlingly bright (I didn't want to be dazzled); one points down for the door area, and the other along the 20-odd meter path to the house which it lights adequately. I used to have a much bright light, and it lit the path really well going away from garage... but blinded me if I was walking towards it!

Also got a few of these dotted around - on the front of the garage, next to where my wife parks (as she was moaning she couldn't see to take the dog in and out of her car at night) and on the patio. They're lasting well for cheap chinese solar, and also cope well with the daytime/nighttime ratio this time of year. Again, enough light for a reasonable area without glare. And obviously no wiring hassle.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B089Y9KXVH