[smo1345]

I am installing an outdoor lighting system with my father. I have done a ton of research and I have good ideas on do the wiring & tranformer plus my father has done quite a bit of electrical.

Given selecting the newer LED fixtures, I am struggling on what I should buy. I have been focusing on either Kichler LED's or VistaPro LED's. I have a good idea of what I want to accomplish in my front yard. Awhile back, I had a lighting company come out and do a demo. They do not offer LED though is why I am doing it myself. In their demo they simply used 6 well lights and one bullet. My wife and I loved the look of what they accomplished. In summary here is what they had setup.

-- 2 well lights shining up from each side of my 3 car-garage and driveway towards the peak. From my landscape beds, it was probably 6-8 feet from the house.
-- 2 well lights (one shining up each of my porch column posts. Pretty much angled straigt up with a very slight angle (4-5 inches)
- 1 bullet light shing up to my highest peak above my porch.
- 2 well lights shine up at an angle towards my bay window and up the rest of the house to the left of my porch.

Does anyone have any advice on LED's and if so what fixtures I can accomplish something like the above. I could post pictures of the demo I had done that we liked as well as pictures of my home.

 

[Bob Mariani]

LEDs would not be a good substitute for the effect of well or floods. Actually for the well lights, make one. Use a LED headlamp and place it in a cut piece of 4" pvc. I do this all time.

 

[smo1345]

Many of the Vista In-Ground and Well Lights are offered in LED. Are you saying that these wouldn't achieve the same?

 

[Bob Mariani]

Actually never saw these. So the may work. LED are somewhat new and no accepted standards are available. And OHLED may happen soon, replacing LEDs. VCR or Beta? They only LED I saw were only 20W, we usually use 50W in well lights to give a good silhouette of the tree. And the variety of fixtures is limited and the costs are somewhat high yet. Best way is to test one before comminting to the whole package.

 

[smo1345]

For Kichler this is the fixtures I was thinking. Says the following:

High quality, long lasting and energy efficient LED 8.5 watt flood provides light equivilent to a 35 watt halogen landscape lighting flood lamp.

http://www.lightyournight.com/item.php?item_id=581

They also have a wider flood the same wattage in 60 degree beam.

Would you happen to snow the typical beam spread for a 35w and 50w hallogen well light?

 

[Bob Mariani]

Beam angle is typically 50. One advantage is more selections allow adjusting bulb and fixture prism to only light the area you want and have no stray lighting.

 

[brokenknee]

Actually never saw these. So the may work. LED are somewhat new and no accepted standards are available. And OHLED may happen soon, replacing LEDs. VCR or Beta? They only LED I saw were only 20W, we usually use 50W in well lights to give a good silhouette of the tree. And the variety of fixtures is limited and the costs are somewhat high yet. Best way is to test one before comminting to the whole package.

Are you sure you are talking about LEDs? 20W 50W sounds to me they are halogen. I do not know about landscape lighting, but flashlight LEDs are rated by the emitter and # of lumen's they put out.

A Cree Q5 emitter will put out approximately 180 to 220 lumen's depending on the driver. A P7 emitter will put out anywhere between 450 to 900 lumen's. The low beam of a car headlight is rated at 700 lumen's.

The lumen rating is somewhat subjective as stated earlier there is no standards set to measure them.

 

[Bob Mariani]

50 watts were for halogen. 20 Watt was the largest LED I used.