Need to Update my Exterior Lighting

[Sunset]

We just have regular cheap light fixtures and use dusk to dawn LED's in them ($5). They work so much better than the socket adapter with a light sensor that I tried.

I've also tried a motion activated LED light bulb and it worked great ($10) but it died quickly.

 

[MC Rider]

I see you moved from a city to a village, good for you.
I'd love to get out to but the kids and grand-kids keep me here.

Loving it here, thanks. The sign on one end of town says population 2112, the sign at the other end says 2200. Close enough either way I guess. A huge change from Los Angeles.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

We just have regular cheap light fixtures and use dusk to dawn LED's in them ($5). They work so much better than the socket adapter with a light sensor that I tried.

I've also tried a motion activated LED light bulb and it worked great ($10) but it died quickly.

Are you saying you have a standard light fixture with a dawn to dusk bulb something like this
https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Light-Sensor-Lumens-Daylight/dp/B09GKXDXX8

 

[njhowie]

Just a few days ago I ordered (to be delivered by end of week) a few smart switches for our porch and two outdoor lights above our garage. I had wanted to do this a while back, however most all of these require a neutral wire, and our older home does not have a neutral wire to the switches. Recently there a couple that do not require the neutral wire, so figured I may as well give it a try. I like that they are programmable and manageable through Google Home, which we are using with a number of smart devices in our home already. If these work well, I may purchase a few more for other switches inside our home.

Last year, I updated those lights to LED, so they use almost nothing as far as the electric is concerned.

The new switches were delivered late yesterday. I quickly just hooked up the switch for the porch lights to see how it would do and if there would be any installation complications. It was up and running very quickly - no issues whatsoever. The switches are GE Cync, again, because we require ones that can work without a neutral wire. Hey Google works fine for turning them on/off as well as manually through the app, and of course just flipping the switch by hand. I'm setting up the schedule for turning them on at sunset and off later and will see how that goes tonight.

 

[Badger]

I have installed and removed a few solar powered lights. Not had good luck with solar longevity. Most didn't last much more than a year. Now I have a couple of hard wired motion sensor lights in the back yard and a front light next to the door that is on 24/7. All are LED lights that I installed/wired in about 5 years ago. I am impressed with the front door light for lasting so long. It has been shining non-stop for over 43,000 hours.

Cheers!