Recommended Fixtures

As you might expect, visits to retail stores across the U.S. turned up a wide variety of outdoor-lighting offerings. The largest retail chains — Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, and Sears Hardware (Orchard Supply Hardware in California) — tend to carry well-established product lines, though the items in stock vary from region to region. In most cases the ones described below are only examples; there exist many acceptable variations on these themes.

Floodlights and area lights. The Heath Zenith Decorative Halogen Motion Sensing Security Light (SL-5597; $40 at Home Depot) is one of the few shielded motion-sensor lights we found. It has a 240° detection zone, adjustable 15- to 100-foot range, manual override, and 10-year warranty. Thanks to its innovative “Dual Brite” feature, you can choose to have the light turn on at dusk at a low level. It will momentarily brighten whenever someone walks by, triggered by a motion sensor. Then, three or six hours later (once everyone is in bed), its motion-sensing electronics revert to all-or-nothing operation.

Online option: RAB sells the Stealth Sensor with two floods for $90 on eLights.com. Shields cost $8 each.

Many motion sensors can be purchased separately to install with an existing fixture. One example is the Regent 180° Motion Sensor (MS180; $20 at Lowe’s). It has a broad detection zone, a range of up to 70 feet, manual override, and 5-year warranty. Regent also makes a 240°, 10-year-warranty version for $25; RAB sells sensors with a few more features on eLights.com for $39 to $60; Heath Zenith makes a line of motion-sensing adapters for both flood and decorative fixtures.

If motion-sensor lighting won’t work in your situation, try using a timer. Unfortunately, there are few outdoor timers from which to choose. (In fact, some models we saw had been on the shelf so long, their batteries had corroded.) The Intermatic Heavy-Duty 24-Hour Outdoor Timer (HB31R; $18 at Home Depot) permits two on-off cycles per day and comes with an override switch.

Other options: Outdoor Lighting Associates sells DPN Photocontrol for $50. This creative alternative to dusk-to-dawn lighting will keep your lights turned on for exactly half the night.

A recent entry in the home-lighting market is the GlareBuster (GB-1000, about $60), manufactured by Lighting by Branford. Light-pollution activist Bob Crelin teamed with his longtime friend, lighting engineer Perry Maresca, and Peter D’Engenis to create a true full-cutoff fixture that homeowners can easily install themselves. The GlareBuster accepts various standard bulbs, comes with an adapter for mounting on siding (eave mount available), and can be outfitted with a motion sensor. Unfortunately, the GlareBuster is not yet available in any retail chain, though it is available through a growing number of independent dealers.

Other options: Regent makes two area lights with full-cutoff designs. The sleek RSM100 ($35 at Lowe’s) comes with a 100-watt mercury-vapor bulb, while the dome-shaped LP175 ($49 at some Lowe’s stores) has a 175-watt mercury-vapor bulb. However, these high-output bulbs will be too strong for many homeowner applications.