LED security lights

Ganga

Has anyone switched their old type ( halogen bulb ) security lights with a PIR to the new type LED ones? are they bright enough and what sort of price were they?

Regards
:TGanga

Ainsley1

LED lights are not cheap (as cheap as halogen) but are much more efficient and last an awful lot longer so are a good longer term buy.
Find out which type of halogen bulb and replace the bulb with an equivalent led type (it will be much lower power consumption).
You'll probably not notice much difference unlike with fluorescent low energy bulbs that often seem underpowered and have poorer colour rendition.

Ganga

Can you get a replacement bulb? the halogen type have a contact at each end or is it more prudent ( if not more expensive )to buy complete lamp assemblies?

searchlight123

Don't bother. I am in the lighting business and fitted a 45x LED outdoor sensor light above my garage to illuminate the rear driveway, replacing an old 500w halogen one.
Useless. Not enough light at all, certainly not good enough from a security point of view. Have now replaced it with a new 400w halogen sensor and much much better. It's only on for about 5 minutes at a time so electricity savings are not worth calculating.

savemoney

I had a solar one I got from solarcentre and throw it in bin in end as it kept stopping working and yes battery was fine and charged and checked connections inside. I had it for two years didnt do good job in driveway so relegated it to garden. When it stopped working I got a cheap 2 spot pir light from diy shed and just put a plug on end. It was about as bright as a full moon but didnt go far than 20 feet. only decent leds I have seen are made by cree

sew_what

We've just installed a 10W single LED above our patio door and it's more than adequate for seeing the way to the shed about 10m away and finding the dustbin!
Our adjoining neighbour has a 500w halogen on the back of their house and it's much brighter, but I don't see the need to light the whole garden!
I'd certainly rather be using 10w than 500w everytime a cat walks across the patio!
Our unit was £36 from an electrical wholesaler.

Ainsley1

Ganga: It may be possible to get a replacement bulb. That depends upon the type of fitting the halogen lamp is currently in. More details would be required such as the replacement halogen lamp that you would otherwise fit.

You certainly will not get a lamp to replace a very high powered lamp such as tonygold mentions. I'm surprised Tony that you even replaced a high power 500 watt unit with an LED lamp, especially as you are in the trade!! Perhaps you equate 'security' with large scale illumination but many lower power automatically switched (via PIR) lamps for outdoor illumination are listed as "security" but that does not mean large scale.

Sew What is right, it's horses for courses and a 40W LED light will often be more than adequate for many peoples domestic purposes such as lighting up the steps or doorways. It will probably will not light up the whole street and disturb the neighbours at the same time. Similarly, as you say Tony, short bursts of illumination are not costly - unless it gets switched on repeatedly when you don't really want to do so, in which case careful adjustment and positioning is certainly required.

Ganga

Thanks very much for the help guys,i think it will be just as easy to replace both lamps with similar halogen/pir lamps, i think i will reduce the bulb size ie 250/350 watt instead of 500 watt,not to save money but to stop lighting up all of Washington every time a cat walks by.

Thanks again

Ganga

ic

I replaced 3 x 150W and 1 x 500W halogens earlier this year with 5 x 10W LED units. The light is daylight, and far far better. The coverage is better, and I'm using a fraction of the power I did previously. Hopefully I should have a much longer life on the lamps too - I replaced my existing lamps after a break in attempt when two of the halogen bulbs had failed.

I bought the lamps for about £10 each off eBay (an example from a quick search: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Floodlight-10W-20W-30W-50W-Outdoor-Garden-White-Flood-Light-IP65-Waterproof-/130815549596?pt=UK_Garden_Lighting&var=&hash=item1e7536e09c), plus three separate PIR sensors. I've wired the lamps such that any one PIR will trigger all five lights at once - a far better security deterrent. I've also found its far better having the PIRs separate from the lamps, as this has allowed me to mount the lamps high up for better light spread, while the PIRs are mounted lower and in corners to better pick up movement.