deerdance LED Barn Light, Dusk To Dawn Outdoor Lighting

Puts off a nice amount of Bright light for our horse barn. Nice price

Last update – 2/19/23 – it’s dead. Not even 3 months and it’s dead.

Updated review – 2/16/24 – It’s dying quick. When I first installed this, it lit up the front of our back garage, the entire driveway, and a portion of the yard. Now, ‘almost’ three months later it is barely illuminating our garage door. It stays on from dusk to dawn as advertised, but at this rate it will be nearly dead in another month. My initial review would have been buy this, but now it is a very hard AVOID THIS!

Original review – 11/23/23 – This was a weird one when I opened the box. I did not see an obvious dusk/dawn sensor anywhere on the outside of the body, then I saw a small LED sized sensor among the LED’s. Here are some thoughts.

The mounting hole for a post is slightly larger than any metal light pole I have, that are both common and used for area/barn lights. So I modified the flush mount cover with a smaller circumference hole that would clamp onto my mounting post, and applied a pretty liberal amount of 50 year RTV into and around the entry point between the housing and post.

The sensor is both response and very accurate for when the light should come on. I can’t speak to the turn off/dawn shut down time over the two days its been installed. It has not been on any time during the day, and that’s a win.

Mine is mounted at 11′ at a slight cant away from the structure – It brightly illuminates the entire face of my 30′ wide shop, and it reaches out into the middle of my back property lighting a half circle of about 60′ wide, to about 30′ deep. This lighting pattern matches our needs exactly.

I mounted it on 12/1/23 and it started raining about 5 minutes before I threw the switch to give it power. It has not stopped raining here in N. FL for anything longer than 15-20 minutes. My point is that it is waterproof for my application.

Size and price – It is on the smaller side, and not obtrusive. It replaces a rectangular Solar LED light bar, with a Solar Panel, so it’s smaller size is a win. I compare this to my available options from out local Lowes. The Lithonia Lighting 10000-Lumen 120-Watt Area light puts out the same luminous 10,000, but has additional features that this light does not. This example is $99 at Lowes. The next step down is the Lithonia Lighting 6000-Lumen 120-Watt Area light, but it is limited to 6k lumen, although it compares as a single function light, and it costs $69. This Lithonia option only uses 35w compared to its 120w big brother, and this Deerdance produces the same 10,000 Lumen while only using 80w, and I bought it for $40, or less than half that of the Lithonia.

Power consumption – As previously discussed this light is more efficient with power than alternates. In our case, the light will be powered off and on 365 times during the year, and the 40w power savings over a year will add up.

Kelvins or light temperature – The color emitted by a light is intended to be application specific, but is a subjective topic, as everyone’s preferences are different. As we age we need more light, so it is easily argued that the closer to daylight the better as we age. This light and the Lithonia comparison lamps all emit 5000k, and seeing it in application, I would neither go warmer (yellowing) or hotter (more blue).

Warranty – Often not worth the paper they are written on (ask anyone who has brought a new car in for warranty), but they exist to give a false confidence and are polluted with worth-smithing easy outs for the manufacture. I’ve only attempted to get one Lithonia product (dimmable, USB light switch) covered under warranty. I was told I did something wrong during the install, and to effectively get bent. I explained that I’m an Electrical Engineer, and have wired countless outlets, switches, main panels, sub panels, generators and transfer switches, as well as thousands of PCB applications, so I’m not an idiot, or your average home DIY user (their primary target audience). It was a $24 switch, so I took it as a lesson of a product to never buy for its warranty. I did get it swapped out by Lowes (so hats off to them).

Deerdance does not call out their warranty, and asks that you contact them for additional information. This does two things (both positive and negative). It promotes the product on its own merits, and leaves that unfulfilled request up to the customer. As a company, I’d much rather not discuss a warranty that I’m not going to honor, that promote a warranty and have a customer find out the hard way, that warranties are largely worthless.

If the light lasts an entire year, without the loss of any individual LED cell, I will consider it money well spent, and should it fail thereafter, I will replace it with the next new thing, which will by then be using better LED technology. If it fails during that first year, I will contact Deerdance in hopes of a replacement. I will also be sending them a primer email asking what their warranty is now, so that I don’t come to find out it only has a 90-180 day warranty, and be disappointed later.

Installed 15 ft above ground on building with 12ft high garage doors. OK but not as bright as I expected. With white garage doors and snow on ground, light sensor turns off light when I drive up to the door and turns back on when truck lights enter building. I do not know where the sensor is located on the unit but it is affected by the vehicle lights. Interesting but not a big deal. Would order something brighter next time.

I was amaze how bright this lamp was compare to my old one. Very satisfy.