Pole Light Choice Suggestions

I am looking for a good vaporlight type of light to light up the driveway between the house and shed-probably about 130 feet apart. Definately want dusk to dawn on it. Energy usage is a concern and I also may end up using it during the summer if I end up working on equipment outside, etc.

I hate to put up a pole if I can put something on the shed and keep the area looking cleaner.

I have 2 questions:

1) So far all the light I have found are vapor lights between 150 and 175 watts-and are on 21" or 23" extension poles. Will that be long enough of an arm to get it out from under the overhang that the light sensor will work?

2) Has anyone tried using one of the square halogen lights to light up an area like that? Would it be too bright or too ineffiecient?

Any input would be appreicated.

Paul Butler

Thanks so much to everyone for the great info!

Scott

I live in Michigan so cold temperatures are a real consideration. I wanted to light a large yard area by my house because we live 1/4 mile off the road and there is no light back there at night. I was also concerned (obsessed) with energy savings so I went with a flourescent area light. Great choice with white light but it wouldn"t start when cold. Replaced 3 of them until I switched to a lifetime warranty Mercury Vapor model made by Regent. Have had no trouble at all and I like it.

A twist that I have in this is that I use a timer to turn it off after midnight but back on at 7:00 am. This saves me energy while we are sleeping but it comes back on when we are going to be up. Power is on between 7:00 am and midnight so the solar cell takes care of making sure that it"s on and off when the conditions warrant.

There may be more energy efficient choices out there but I never have to screw around with this and since it"s mounted on an 18" high pole that"s a good thing. I get tired of fixing stuff that shouldn"t have to be fixed.

Call me cheap but we set up a couple of outside lights with inexpensive outdoor fixtures from the local discount place and we use the screw-in flourescent bulbs--you can get any wattage you want from 15 watts on up and they put out the equivalent light of 4x's their rating. Believe it or not, we have two 15 watt lights over our driveway and it's plenty of light for working or for security. If we ever need more lights for working we just set up temporary clamp type lights close to our work. On the mount setup, if you have a welding machine and a pipe bender, you can fab some nice brackets with flat plate and galvanized pipe. If you don't have a pipe bender, just use screw pipe and fittings for the bends.