Anyone ever try something like these for their outdoor arena lights?
near the bottom of the “Product Overview”
•Brightness is approximately 1800 Lumens, (compares with 120-Watt bulb illumination)
I think you would need many, many, many of them.
And then there is the question of longevity. Those solar powered lights to install next to footpaths, etc seem to put out barely anything before a year has passed. The panel glass clouds, the battery loses capacity, and the LED will lose brightness. I would test a couple if you’re still interested and wait a full year before making a major investment.
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I think you are overestimating the cost of running power to, and continuing to power mains lights. If you want proper arena lighting you’d need dozens of those, and if you were spending those thousands of dollars there are many options. If you just want safety lighting to stop you walking into the fences maybe one on each side would work, but you could still probably do a better mains powered equivalent for the $2000.
Electrician is saying 10 poles with 1,400 lumens on each pole. That’s less than these, and these have directed light and are closer/lower than ones generally mounted on a pole.
Too expensive. You can now get LED spots that are 1800 Lumens for much MUCH cheaper. Here’s one for $17 that 1650 lumens http://www.homedepot.com/p/Euri-Lighting-100W-Equivalent-Warm-White-BR40-Dimmable-LED-Directional-Flood-Light-Bulb-ER40-1000e/206508490
There are also some really nice lights for damp/wet locations that look like fluorescent bulb fixtures. Worked a peach in a covered I know. There are also these:
https://www.amazon.com/LEDMO-Waterproof-Daylight-Equivalent-Floodlight/dp/B01FSD44RI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1474331042&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=outdoor+flood+lights+led&psc=1 which also work well and put out even more light.
[QUOTE=digihorse;8852639]
Too expensive. You can now get LED spots that are 1800 Lumens for much MUCH cheaper. Here’s one for $17 that 1650 lumens http://www.homedepot.com/p/Euri-Lighting-100W-Equivalent-Warm-White-BR40-Dimmable-LED-Directional-Flood-Light-Bulb-ER40-1000e/206508490[/QUOTE]
It may or may not be “too expensive”, but you are comparing a unit with lamps, battery, solar panels and control circuitry in a waterproof housing to a bare light bulb rated for indoor use. That’s a bit like complaining that a BMW costs more than a tire.
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No… I’m not. I’m giving examples. There the same bulb for outdoor use available. I’m just too lazy to hunt all the links. The other link was for an outdoor light. Solar is not a good fit in this case. Should be wired. And yes… too expensive as there are other solar LED flood lights with higher output for cheaper. I think in this case you are paying more for the “parking lot light” type configuration.
But, since it appears no one has used them, no one seems to know if this design would work better or not. We’re all used to flood type lights in outdoor arenas. Would this cut down on shadows, etc., and actually be a better design? That’s part of what intrigues me. As for sunlight charging them, that is not a problem where they’ll be going in. Sunlight most of the time. And, if they are on a motion sensor with a delay to make them stay on longer, then they’ll be in constant use when a horse is ridden in the ring and would then be off when not in use (except for random things that might trigger them). The biggest thing for me is being able to actually turn them off for the night, if possible (or find something similar that could be turned off for the night). Then they could charge all day, be used certain hours at night when riding, and then be powered off and saving their energy so the batteries don’t accidentally go through a full drain. Then if there are some cloudy days, they will have leftover charge from other days.
And for “enough light” it makes me think of old indoor arenas I rode in that utilize more standard light bulbs. No, they are not super bright, but they also were not LED lights. They would not be as clear and have has white a light as the bulbs could have nowadays, so I’m thinking this could still work.
18,000 lumens is less than one fixture we have in our indoor. Unless your outdoor is about 20’ x 20’ there is no way this will be even close to adequate.
CURRENT indoor lights are different. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about older arenas with old, incandescent lights. Your indoor obviously uses newer bulbs and fixtures. I’m not saying this outdoor will be ready to have horse shows, I’m saying it sounds like it could make it very rideable and lighting it very affordable. Maybe not, but it is worth looking into. And, airhorse, your math is way off if you think 10 of these would only work if you had a 20 x 20 arena.
I have a 1500 lumen flashlight sitting on my desk…
We have 35 lumens per square foot in our indoor.
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I just think at $500 plus per fixture you are not going to be happy.
I would also check the continuous run time.
we are in the process of putting lights in our 80x200 outdoor arena.
I looked into solar lights, similar but not exactly what you linked.
General arena lighting guidelines:
higher is better, the lower the lights are, the more long shadows you have, and also risk being blinded when riding towards them
flood is better than focused/spot–you don’t want isolated islands of bright with dark spots between.
Solar considerations:
the technology still isn’t ideal for long term storage
the batteries degrade over a year or so, especially when the weather gets cold
the panels can get dirty/dusty/scratched and become less effective
there are limited designs where you can conveniently turn them on/off
by the time you have the lights mounted high enough to be effective, it become difficult to do things like change bulbs, clean panels, or modify mounting angle.
Based on those considerations, we opted to spend slightly more and go with wired in. It was also important to us (and our neighbors) to have something that wouldn’t be on all night. Electricians gave us whole-project quotes of $10-25K! no way I can afford that, so we’re acting as general contractors, and doing pieces ourselves, and hiring the other individual aspects out.
so, in our case, by step:
- running electric from road to ring area (500 feet), installing transformer on cement pad near ring – $600
- purchasing/installing 6x 30’ utility poles on long edges of ring – $1500
- purchasing 6x LED flood lights (20,000lm each) – $1500
- renting trencher to run wiring ($100/day) plus hours of effort
- electrician to install lights, hard wire everything to a meter, install switches, etc) about $2K
bottom line, this project will cost under 6K total, and will provide bright-enough-to-jump lighting for years. I can turn them on/off, and the LEDs won’t need replacements for something like 50,000 hrs. And being LED, my power use to run them will be minimal.
OP: you are looking at something that is ~500/each. For 10 it would be $5000+, and you’re still looking at purchasing poles. Personally for that $$, I think you’d be best served by doing something brighter/longer lasting for about the same cost. Just my thoughts. If you go with these, we’d love to see pictures and hear how it works for you.
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Wow, thanks ElementFarm, that’s the best reply yet! 
What is the recommended lumens/sq ft?
ElementFarm said they did 20,000 x 6 fixtures for a 200’ long arena.
Just call your electric company and ask the monthly price of a security light. My neighbor has one and it lights up my yard. Goes on at night, off a dawn. Probably a lot more light than the one you are looking at. I pay about 2.50 a month for the security light on my road which is pretty far away from my driveway. The neighbor’s security light is great for me and cost me nothing.
