Outdoor lighting under the roof overhang

Hi everyone,

our roof extends about 50 cm beyond the insulation, which brought up the idea to take the opportunity while insulating to nail some LED floodlights to the rafters.

Cables could still be comfortably pushed into the attic at the moment, and the lights would be switched with 1 or 2 Somfy IO radio sockets.

The idea is just to make it bright outside when needed, for whatever reason:

[*]Cleaning up after the barbecue party
[*]Messing around with something that can’t wait until the next day
[*]Possibly also security aspects, having the chance to see who’s lurking outside...

So not cozy lighting, but lighting to actually see something!

In my parents' house, an alarm system along with outdoor spotlights was installed. The alarm system was garbage, but the lighting was occasionally really worth its weight in gold!

My idea would be to install two floodlights on each of the 4 sides. The main body of the house is roughly square with about 10.5*10.5 m. Then, each floodlight about 2.5 m away from the corner of the house.

The question is just which and how strong?

I have a mobile 30-watt LED floodlight from Brennenstuhl, which makes a very good impression in terms of build quality; it’s even IP 65. However, 30 watts is definitely too strong, presumably 10-watt floodlights would be enough, available in a 4-pack for under 80 €.

Has anyone done something like this and with what result?

It should be bright, but not force the neighbors to wear welding goggles...

Best regards,

Andreas

Hello Andreas,

we have installed the 10 W LED floodlights, also IP65, under the carport for the same purposes. Those things definitely produce quite a lot of light. We took no name ones from Aldi for 10 EUR each.

Regards
Michael

I preferably installed LED recessed spotlights in the clad roof overhang (to my knowledge, mine are about 5 W at 220 V, 130-degree beam angle). No idea if that is an option for you. I distributed them so that the light circles on the ground still overlap sufficiently according to calculations. I calculated an approximate distance for each side of the house and then sensibly distributed the spotlights according to the position of the windows (small deviations from the exact measurement are not noticeable, but if the spotlight is offset from the window, it looks awkward). It worked out well for me and is also quite bright. I did not use floodlights because I think they cause more glare, as they are usually not aimed vertically downward and are generally even brighter. For the renovation, I used 2 halogen floodlights as work lights, which often glare more than one would like. Outside, I installed two 270-degree motion detectors on two corners of the house and thus covered almost everything all around, since on the fourth side there is a garage facing the street and there is also a street lamp at the corner of the property.

good idea, would definitely look great. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit with us. It remains open under the eaves, just like in the picture. It will only be whitewashed. So we don't have a horizontal surface at the bottom where recessed spotlights could be installed.

Therefore the idea is simply to screw floodlights from below onto the rafters or the wooden boards.

Best regards,

Andreas

Good morning everyone,

the topic is already somewhat older, but it exactly matches our problem. We will also not box in our roof overhang, but we want to have recessed spotlights installed there. Has anyone already implemented this?