Flood Lights

Twin Security Lighting | Heath Zenith SL-5318

If you are looking for inexpensive outdoor motion lighting that puts function above form, this is your light. At 240 watts for around $25, it is plenty bright for outdoor lighting, and the motion sensor will keep the bills down.

It has some good adjustments for sensitivity and brightness, and features pulse counting to reduce false triggering from wind, adjustable detection range, swiveling sensor and lights, and duration controls. There is a dim setting for outdoor accent lighting that will brighten upon detecting motion, making this an excellent choice for exterior commercial lighting. It has up to 100′ range and 240° of sensitivity, making this double light ideal for corners. It isn’t built to handle a lot of abuse, but it it’s cheap, the manufacturer does provide a 10 year warranty, and it should hold up under normal outdoor use. The company provides good customer service.

Many sites seem to be implying that 300 watt bulbs can be used in this light, but they are mistaken it has a 150 watt maximum per bulb. Click here for the very thorough owners manual (pdf).

This lighting is available in black or white.

If you want to just click and be done, you can get them through amazon, with free prime shipping if you have a prime account: Heath Zenith SL-5318

You can get bulbs for it here, or pretty much anywhere that sells light bulbs.

If you don’t have an amazon prime account, it may be cheaper to get them through the Plumber Surplus links below. The price is a little higher, but they have free shipping and I’ll try to post any promotional codes I find below as well.

Heath Zenith SL-5318-BZ Dual Brite Motion Sensor Light Control with Full Metal Covers, Bronze


Heath Zenith SL-5318-WH Dual Brite Motion Sensor Light Control with Full Metal Covers, White

If you are willing to pay more for increased quality and construction, check out the Twin 300 Watt-Heath Zenith sl5512 Security Light

Flood Lights

Heath Zenith SL-5511 150 Watt Security Floodlight

If you are tired of dim security lights, then this is the light for you. With150 watts of halogen, this heavy duty security light will put out enough light to make sure you feel comfortable going out at night without all the bumbling and lurking shadows.

It has some good adjustments for sensitivity and brightness, and you will likely want to use them. This isn’t a good light to have pointed at your neighbors window and waking them up all night every time the cat walks through the yard. The wattage is such that you don’t want to pay for a lot of false triggers either, although motion lighting is much more economical than leaving them on full time. It features pulse counting to reduce false triggering from wind, adjustable detection range, swiveling sensor and light, and duration controls. There is a dim setting for outdoor accent lighting that will brighten upon detecting motion, making this an excellent choice for exterior commercial lighting. It has up to 50′ range and 100° of sensitivity. It is built to last with a heavy duty cast metal shell and the bulb is included.

Available via Amazon in white or bronze.

This security light also comes in a double setup ideal for corners, large spaces, or just to double light output to a whopping 300 Watts of light.

Flood Lights

Motion Sensor Security Camera and Floodlight by Stealth Cam

This motion detector light with built in digital camera and card reader is at the top of its class because it is in a class by itself. To the look at it, it appears to just be a normal motion sensing light, but it has a hidden security camera (two megapixel) built in. The wiring is as simple as any motion detector. They accomplish this by incorporating a digital card slot for SD digital camera cards. Just pull the card out and put it in your computer to view the pictures. It records video in ten second increments as well! When the card fills up, it overwrites the oldest files, so no worry about having to empty it all the time. With a couple gigabytes of memory card, you can get a lot of data. It is full color. It time and date stamps every image. This gives you not just security, but evidence. The light is a 500 watt halogen, so this thing will really light up the yard.

There are some problems with this light. There is very little customer support. While the light will only be triggered at night, the camera takes pictures all day. This may be a good feature, but you have no option to disable it short of wiring it to a switch, which brings me to the next problem: when the light loses power, it loses track of time. There is an LCD screen for programming the device, but it is placed in an awkward location and upside down. The motion detector will detect things that are outside of the camera’s 52° viewing angle, which could be good considering there is a long shutter lag, but it will also give you some pictures with nothing in them. The camera does take two pictures each time it detects motion. The light can be swiveled up and down, but not side to side. There is no sensitivity switch, so end up with lots of pictures of your cat.

I hate to recommend a light that has so much room for improvement, but it really is in a class by itself for the moment. If you want this functionality at this price, this is your light. If you have a problem and the light snaps a shot of it, it has likely already payed for the additional price for the motion camera. Costco used to carry this camera, but I don’t believe they do any more. It is available through amazon.

Update: I recently had a trackback from a post on West Seattle Blog. Apparently, the author came home from work on a bright rainy afternoon to find that someone had squeezed through an eight by twelve window, stabbed their alarm system with a kitchen knife, and made off with their TV, wrapped in their favorite blanket. I know how hard it can be to come home to this. It is an awful feeling that doesn’t go away for a long time. After reading this, the feature set of this light really came together for me. The camera being hidden prevents it from ending up stabbed with a kitchen knife, and the photos being taken during the day is really nice when thieves don’t wait for dark. With this hidden camera light, the story above could have ended with them pulling the card out of their light and handing photos of the perpetrators to the authorities and having their favorite blanket returned, possibly still wrapping their television.

I’ve also found a near identical light under a different brand name with a slightly expanded feature set at Brickhouse Security: 
Catch ‘Em Motion-Activated Light, Camera & DVR (Black)