Impressed with these keystone Xfit area lights

[brantmacga]

Customer had four existing poles in his back yard with 250w quartz halogen floods. Wanted something a little brighter. I sold him these 290w Keystone Xfit floods, 40k lumens each.

He previously had to go into the garage and flip a breaker. I changed that to the new Legrand Zigbee switches and put a wireless switch at his back door to operate them.

Fixtures were about $390/ea. He’s well pleased with them and so am I.

https://imgur.com/a/PndLK28

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[brantmacga]

I was testing one out in my yard before I installed them…. I have a pole outside my fence in need of a fixture. Not sure what the wife is going to say

https://imgur.com/a/B19ANvD

Nevermind the pic under the video in that link. That was a different fixture I put up last week, didn’t mean to upload it.

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[Fred B]

Wow, that is some light. Probably see then from the space station. Hope you are very rural. Around here the neighbors would be calling law enforcement over the lights being so bright.

 

[brantmacga]

Wow, that is some light. Probably see then from the space station. Hope you are very rural. Around here the neighbors would be calling law enforcement over the lights being so bright.

It’s just on the edge of a small town. He has plenty of trees between himself and the closest neighbor.

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[Flicker Index]

Just making things bright isn't necessarily better though. In a long tunnel, the illumination level is different from the midspan vs the end to minimize the temporary blindness caused by sudden light level transition.

From security perspective, over lighting or sharp cut off effectively drowns out the activity in the backdrop. Basically like how you can see people inside a well lit room like a museum exhibit at night but the window basically look like black panels to people inside and completely unaware of what's happening outside the windows.

 

[brantmacga]

alright

 

[Flicker Index]

That backyard is lit up like you're playing night time miniature golf.

 

[electrofelon]

I installed something similar for a client. They were 300W LED's IIRC. They really put out some serious light. AT the same site, I installed some to light a driveway, and we didnt need as much light there so I just got Home depot's version - $80-$100 each or whatever they were compared to the $300-$400 for the big boys. The Home Depot ones definitely look like "fisher price my first floodlight" compared to those big boys in the parking lot!

 

[brantmacga]

That backyard is lit up like you're playing night time miniature golf.

It’s exactly what the customer asked for. They’re thrilled. I’m missing the point ?


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[ramsy]

It’s exactly what the customer asked for. They’re thrilled. I’m missing the point ?


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It's a familiar commentary on the flashlight at night analogy. Monsters in the dark can see you coming long before you see them.

In your case, one pole light can see Mad Max coming from a quarter-mile away, at the expense of advertising where you are to higher elevations 100 miles away, and blinding your vision in other directions of attack.

Perhaps an engineered approach would prefer more poles with less intensity.

 

[brantmacga]

Perhaps an engineered approach would prefer more poles with less intensity.

absolutely. how much will you contribute to funding it?

 

[ramsy]

how much will you contribute to funding it?

A couple of points here:

There is a difference between someone playing armchair engineer, trying to criticize good electrical work from the internet, and a real architect with experience.

Not sure there is much reward for real architects trolling the internet, but they would deal more with Dark Sky luminaries, and circumstances raised earlier by forum member Flicker Index.

 

[brantmacga]

A couple of points here:

There is a difference between someone playing armchair engineer, trying to criticize good electrical work from the internet, and a real architect with experience.

Not sure there is much reward for real architects trolling the internet, but they would deal more with Dark Sky luminaries, and circumstances raised earlier by forum member Flicker Index.

I've tried to ignore the comments but here goes.....

I identified the fixtures that are installed in the first post, and they are full cutoff area lights; look at the surrounding trees/landscape in the video. There is zero light scatter outside of the intended area to be illuminated; these fixtures are installed parallel to the ground and the optics are doing the work of putting light where its needed. Look at the ground; the light doesn't fade it, it cuts off immediately where its designed to. Of course you'll see glare in the camera when looking up at the fixture from below. I ordered two Type III, one Type IV, and one Type II, purposely so the patterns would overlap using the existing pole layout. The only one that doesn't overlap is in the back of the video across the pond, because it was impossible, and because there are trees in front of the pole (which you can see), I used a Type II distribution optic to illuminate the bank of the pond instead of throwing light into the trees out front. A lot of time and effort went into selecting the fixtures, and I didn't really see the need in explaining all of this in the original post, because its pretty evident in the video what I've done. Or at least I thought.

Here's the ticket showing the distribution types ordered, just so there's no questions about that. And yes, I know it says $410/ea, I paid $390 when it was settled.

 

[electrofelon]

I've tried to ignore the comments but here goes.....

I identified the fixtures that are installed in the first post, and they are full cutoff area lights; look at the surrounding trees/landscape in the video. There is zero light scatter outside of the intended area to be illuminated; these fixtures are installed parallel to the ground and the optics are doing the work of putting light where its needed. Look at the ground; the light doesn't fade it, it cuts off immediately where its designed to. Of course you'll see glare in the camera when looking up at the fixture from below. I ordered two Type III, one Type IV, and one Type II, purposely so the patterns would overlap using the existing pole layout. The only one that doesn't overlap is in the back of the video across the pond, because it was impossible, and because there are trees in front of the pole (which you can see), I used a Type II distribution optic to illuminate the bank of the pond instead of throwing light into the trees out front. A lot of time and effort went into selecting the fixtures, and I didn't really see the need in explaining all of this in the original post, because its pretty evident in the video what I've done. Or at least I thought.

Here's the ticket showing the distribution types ordered, just so there's no questions about that. And yes, I know it says $410/ea, I paid $390 when it was settled.


View attachment 2558214

Brant, why can't you just admit you did a crappy job? Go back to pulling Romex and let random internet forum people do the design next time

 

[rambojoe]

Now im in a tiff over architects...
How do we stop them?
At the end of the day, flood light demos are gold...thx brant!

 

[ramsy]

they are full cutoff area lights; look at the surrounding trees/landscape in the video. There is zero light scatter outside of the intended area to be illuminated; these fixtures are installed parallel to the ground and the optics are doing the work of putting light where its needed. Look at the ground; the light doesn't fade

Just saw the video. No light in treetops

illuminate the bank of the pond instead of throwing light into the trees out front. A lot of time and effort went into selecting the fixtures,

Amazing. Never seen that done before, just read about it during CEU class with the utility. I hope you charged for the architect salary.

 

[brantmacga]

Installed a few more of the Xfit line of fixtures for a friend of mine.

This bracket was custom made. I used 1/2” rod and bolted it to a steel beam behind the siding. That strut strap is bolted through to steel for additional support, but it doesn’t move at all without it. Just makes me feel better about how far it’s hanging off the wall in case of high winds.

35w and 60w cutoff wallpacks

A pair of 140w area lights for this parking area.

35w flood on a 0-10v dimmer.

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[retirede]

Installed a few more of the Xfit line of fixtures for a friend of mine.

This bracket was custom made. I used 1/2” rod and bolted it to a steel beam behind the siding. That strut strap is bolted through to steel for additional support, but it doesn’t move at all without it. Just makes me feel better about how far it’s hanging off the wall in case of high winds.

35w and 60w cutoff wallpacks

A pair of 140w area lights for this parking area.

35w flood on a 0-10v dimmer.

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I want that building. And those old trucks!

 

[James L]

That's pretty impressive. I like the flood.

I have a first-time use of a Night Falcon.
Customer wants a basketball half-court in his back yard about 50 feet from the house, and wanted a fixture mounted on the house to light it without lighting up the neighborhood.

The specs (which I can't find now) showed a pretty narrow beam angle. It's installed now, but I haven't seen it at night yet.

 

[brantmacga]

That's pretty impressive. I like the flood.

I have a first-time use of a Night Falcon.
Customer wants a basketball half-court in his back yard about 50 feet from the house, and wanted a fixture mounted on the house to light it without lighting up the neighborhood. View attachment 2560320

The specs (which I can't find now) showed a pretty narrow beam angle. It's installed now, but I haven't seen it at night yet.

The large flood is also for a basketball goal…

It’s a 290W type IV distribution; about 48,000 lumens.

KT-ALED290-L1-4-NM-840-VDIM

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