Has anyone looked at the higher lumen/watt lights on Amazon?
Anyone got updates?
We’re on hold - there are three thoughts:
- Not everyone has seen the Solar LEDs in use so there’s concern they won’t be bright enough (could easily be resolved, if the group had time to trek across town to see the examples)
- If we’re putting up poles, we might as well “do it right” and run power so we can also have an easier source of power closer to the turnout fields (I’m sure we have an electrician friend to make it cheaper but that’s definitely on hold until the ground stays consistently soft to dig it up, also would probably need land owner approval)
- We’re on a leased farm and if we’re putting in the work, it should be able to move with us (the farm owner didn’t even put lights in the indoor so he definitely wouldn’t contribute to this project)
So the new plan is probably to just give them a Visa gift card for any light project (one option is buying a used lighting tower, which I’ve used in the past and was largely okay, didn’t love the sound but it’d definitely be mobile)
At the top of a 20 pole?
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So my lights (finally) arrived. BO and I spent an entertaining afternoon figuring out how to mount them - this is a temporary fix until I’m able to move my horse home to the farm we’re building, so no permanent poles/infrastructure, and they are designed as streetlights, so they shine straight down - not ideal if you’re not mounting them high - and then got to turn them on this week. They are not as bright as I was hoping, but light up about half of the dressage arena reasonably well. I think four of them (two at each end) would light up a small dressage arena quite well; her arena is a large ring, and two of them light up around 25 meters reasonably. I think I can get to X without running into anything, but the far end of the arena is definitely dark. The timers did work, so I turned them on and used the remote to ask for 2 hours, and they did turn themselves off after two hours. The remote does have an off button, so they can also be turned off manually. Need to play with it more to verify I can actually get them to turn on with the remote - otherwise it would be a pain if they are mounted overhead as they are designed to be!
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Well, of course not. But the motion sensor can be rewired and moved lower to facilitate this option. Not a hard thing to do.
Which ones did you order?
I called a manufacturer who makes electric and solar street lights. they calculated the lumens needed for a 60’ round pen and a 15’ tall pole to mount on, and their suggestion was two of these:
I ordered these:
I knew I was going to mounting them eye level, so I was trying to balance brightness vs blinding me. I knew they weren’t going to be super bright, but I was hoping they would cast light a little further than they actually do.
Side note, shipping through this company was a pain, so I probably won’t order from them again.
So you put one 6000 lumen light at each end of a full sized dressage court? Yes I think you’re right - two at each end, or putting them in a zig zag pattern of two per long side, staggered, would be better.
That aligns with the 10,000 lumens for a round pen calculation that the lighting company I called mentioned, and I feel more confident now telling our barn manager that anything less than that might be a waste of his money unless he’s ready to have multiple fixtures.
I have one electric light mounted above the door but the other three are $60 solar lights off Amazon. No other lights at the other end. Ring is 100 feet from where I am standing to the light on the left.
They are either dusk to dawn or on demand with a remote. We have one above another door and it’s survived 2 years in Indiana summer/winter so I got some for the arena.
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We attached one light on each side of the mirror at one end of the arena - so two lights at the same end. We have nothing to mount them to at the other end unfortunately, and since I board I was trying not to make permanent infrastructure changes like adding poles.
