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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
I am looking for alternative lighting other than pagoda lights for a small horeshoe driveway with a small yard and no trees the house sits viery close to the drive. Something like a flood very close to the ground with a deep hood. I am worried about the spill in any direction the fixture gets focused any ideas please comment
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
The store where I buy most electrical supplies has two areas. One is mostly for contractors, which is where I usually go. The other part is retail oriented and specializes in lighting. It would be good to find such a store. There are extensive catalogues from many manufacturers. There probably are thousands of different products to choose from, and a sales person who knows the subject can save a lot of time.
I would figure out the code requirements for standard 120V and for low voltage systems. I think low voltage systems are much easier for most homeowners to install properly. I know that we put a 120V porch light on a post in our parking area and I had to trench 4' under a drive to meet codes. I would have used 120V equipment anyway because I wanted a 120V GFI outlet in the parking area.
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
There are light that mount into the border wall, in the blocks etc.
Have you considered the neon string lights? They are ~1/2 inch in diameter and are available in a number of colors. They prices on these have fallen and can now get them for less than $1 per foot.
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
Can you include the manufacture name of the neon string light or web address. Thanks
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
As an alternative, one of our neighbours (anybody within several miles is considered a neighbour around here) is talking about putting in solar powered lights along their drive. I think the cost of this sort of stuff has come down but I don't know how much light they produce or how many cloudy days it takes before they wouldn't work.
They looked at solar powered lights because they don't have outside power. Somebody wired the hot line for their porch light in the inside switch box rather than the outside light box. If they tapped into the porch light the drive lights would go off when they turned off the porch light. It really wouldn't be that much trouble to run another circuit outside. Maybe they just like the idea of solar powered lights.
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
George, I'm a little confused, of course that alone is nothing new, but, do you mean you want to light the driveway, but NOT direct any light towards (into?) the windows or house generally?
If that it is the case you CAN accomplish it with 'pagoda' or 'carriage' style lamp heads, merely pay attention to the orientation of the glass faces of the lamp head and coat the glass of the offending panel with either reflective (silver, bronze, etc.) window tinting film or merely paint them. If you want to drastically soften but not cut off the light, sandblasting the glass does a nice job, so does the 'privacy' film they sell for frosting a window such as for the washroom.
Best of luck.
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
Murf, this looks like a thread that was a year old that suddenly came back to life. I expect that the problem has been solved.
Tom, I have used the solar powered lights, but I don't think that they work very well. In New Mexico, I get fairly good performance during the summer. We get sunshine about 300 days a year, but during the winter, they do not charge up enough to stay on for more than a couple of hours at night. The light is dim, and the bulbs burn out quickly. Replacement bulbs are a couple bucks each.
I am moving to a new house currently, and I am not even going to take them with me. I will bury cable and put in the style of "Malibu" lights that suit the purpose at the new home.
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
After posting about my experience with the solar powered lights it struck me that this would be a perfect application for white light LEDs like they are using in the high efficiency long life flashlights.
The flashlights that I have seen are brighter than the solar powered lights that I have with incandescent bulbs and they will run for 200 hours on a single battery. Being so efficient, it would seem that they might just stay lit all night.
I did a quick search and LED landscape lighting is under development. So then the only problem will be keeping snow off the solar panels.
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
Bewing;
There are a number of manufactures for the neon bulbs. Most are coming from china. Check you local Home Depot or Lowes.
AC50ZO
I have not seen any LED lights for flashlights yet only the halogens. I have seen the LED's on the street stoplights and truck tail lights. How bright are the LED's?
From MIT Tech. Review (MAY) they were talking about bright white LED's to replace interior lighting. I think they are a few years off yet. Could certainly reduce the cost of lighting the house.
Peters
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Lighting Around a horsehoe driveway
I currently have a 300w power supply powering Malibu landscape lighting. But saw the post concerning the neon string lights and thought that would be something neat. Were you talking about something similar to the lights that are offered for swimming pools now. They have a device that mounts in the pool house and a rope type light is connected to them.
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
05-11-2002, 08:56 
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