LED Yard Light?

[Hunter65]

I have a nice yard light by my front door. It casts an orange glow, similar to street lights. Picture of the bulb attached. The light is on a photo cell when the light switch is on, so it comes on by itself at night, and takes a minute or 2 to become fully illuminated. I have no idea whether this type of bulb is expensive to operate or not, so i just leave it off unless I'm going outside. I think it says 70 watts on it - looks old school. I tried a 14w recent model LED, 2700k. No go at all.

So - is this bulb expensive to leave on all night? Can I get a LED or new tech/cheap to operate replacement?

Thanks all!

[cdmc]

We switched to led yard lights last month from high pressure sodium. 11 bux less on this months bill.
You can switch out your bulb to a "corn cob" LED bulb by bypassing the ballast. We tried this approach with not much success as others have had.
If your gonna go led buy the whole fixture.

[Etownpaul]

If you are looking to replace the entire fixture, Check out Costco. I had 3 of the old style 2 bulb motion sensor flood lights in my yard that needed replacing. I looked around for a while and the cheapest I could find the led fixtures was $100 each. Costco had them on for $30 a pop and they have been working great for over a year now.

[urban rednek]

That is a 70W HPS (high pressure sodium) lamp. IIRC The load is around 90W with the reactor ballast typically used for medium base HPS fixtures. Slightly less if it has an HPF magnetic ballast.
A good quality LED fixture in the 30W-50W range would be a suitable replacement. Although, you will likely have to come to terms with the "whiter" LED light at 4000K to 5000K when compared to the "yellow" HPS at 2000K.

[deerhunter]

I had some defective 70 watt HPS fixtures with photocells in them
I removed the ballast and put in 100 watt led light bulbs
Not the same light output but good on the garage to light up the back at night

[Kim473]

Lowes has a couple led yard light bulbs. I think they are 300 and 500 watt equivalent. Check their web site.

[260 Rem]

I replaced my pole yard light with a new LED fixture ... with whatever the biggest Home Depot sells ... it throws off lots of light in a well defined circle. No ballast to worry about. Flawless starts in cold weather. IIRC lifetime warranty.
I also use LED floods with motion censors in the driveway. They are instant on.

[reddeerguy2015]

Fortis just changed our high pressure sodium ballast/yard light to an LED.

Not sure that it throws light as far as the old one. Seems to be more of a spot beam vs a flood light.

The area underneath is certainly brighter... As well as the colour temperature being much cooler.

Not sure that I like it as much. But soon I'll forget about it and won't care. Bonus is not having to change bulbs for about 20 years lol.

[Puma]

LED actually works better, the lower the ambient temperature. I have switched all my yard lights and interior barn lights to a LED Daylight bulb and love the color and cost performance. At dusk they come on and stay on for 6 hours, with a few on dusk till dawn.

[Big Grey Wolf]

I hated the sodium bulbs, light seemed much dimmer than the equivalent mercury and bulbs were twice the cost for sodium. I now have one mercury and one LED and like the light coverage for yard. After "rats" come and steal some of your stuff in the dark the cost for yard street lights is cheap insurance.