We’ve been working on remodeling our house for a little less than a year now, and so far have gotten lots done! We’ve done a temporary upgrade on our tiny masterbath until we can remodel it, replaced the old floors with laminate floors, painted and replaced the old wood windows (which left me lots of upcycled window crafts to make)!
During all of this it dawned on me that this house didn’t have any kind of lighting in the backyard. So, when offered the opportunity to review the Sansi LED Security Motion Sensor Outdoor Lights, I jumped at the chance!
Our backyard is pretty large, and it backs up to some nice, thick woods. While I love the privacy, needless to say, at night it gets very dark back there. Or rather it used to. Now that we have the Sansi Motion Lights installed, I feel a lot better. I can see the entire back yard (and then some), and don’t have to worry about anyone trying to come up to the house at night from the back.
SANSI LED Security Motion Sensor Outdoor Lights Features
When it comes to outdoor security lighting, people want their lights to be bright. And these SANSI LED Security Motion Sensor Outdoor Lights are exactly that. The Sansi security lights are 30-watt LED lights rated at 3400 lumens. That’s pretty much the equivalent of 250 watts incandescent light, or in other words, bright!
And, since the light produced is 5000k (basic bright white or daylight light equivalent), I can see everything in crisp, clear and bright detail. Even better, since the bulbs are only using 30 watts, we’re using less power. And less power means a lower electricity bill which is a win-win in my book!
Sansi LED security lights are made of a durable, high impact plastic designed for outdoor use. They are weatherproof, but they are not waterproof. So, while blowing rain, snow or a quick rinsing off with a low-pressure hose won’t bother them, they can not be put under water.
Each security light has two lamp heads with four fairly large LED bulbs a piece (so a total of eight bulbs). The heads can be adjusted up, down, left, right and pretty much anywhere in-between, making it easy to get the perfect lighting placement. Note: SANSI sells a different version of this outdoor motion activated light that has the lights in a 1 x 4 configuration instead of a 2×2 configuration like the ones you see here.
The motion sensor is at the bottom of the fixture, in between the two heads. It, too, can be positioned as needed. The sensor can sense light levels and motion with a range of 180 degrees and a maximum of 50 feet.
On the bottom of the motion sensor are the basic controls. There’s a slider switch that can set the time the lights will be on for 1, 5 or 10 minutes, and then there’s a test mode as well. There’s also a dial that allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the light’s motion detector (aka: how far away something must be in order to activate it within the maximum range of 50 feet).
The Sansi security lights have three different sensing modes: Test Mode, Motion Sensor Mode, and Manual Mode.
- Test Mode – Use this mode to test whether the motion sensor is working well. When people or any other living objects pass through the induction zone, the light turns on for 5 seconds automatically. To set-up, put the ON-TIME switch at the bottom of the sensor in the TEST position.
- Motion Sensor Mode (Working Mode) – only works at night. When people or any other living objects pass through the sensing zone, the light will be come on automatically for however long you have it set for (1, 5, 10 minutes). To set-up, put the ON-TIME switch at the bottom of the sensor in the 1-, 5-, or 10-minutes position.
- Manual Mode (Working Mode) – this turns on the light with the switch that you have it connected to inside. The light could be on at night for up to 4-6 hours. *Note: Manual mode only works at night and with the ON-TIME switch in the 1-, 5-, or 10-minutes position. To set-up, flip the light switch off for one second then back on to toggle between AUTO and MANUAL mode.
A few more techy details include:
- for the best performance, lights can be mounted about 3.2 – 13.1 ft above the ground
- lifespan is 50,000 hours, and comes with a 5-year unlimited warranty
SANSI LED Security Motion Sensor Outdoor Lights Installation
Sansi LED Security Motion Sensor Outdoor Lights come with everything you need to install them on an already existing location including detailed instructions. Of course, if you don’t have a junction or power box already installed, you will have to take care of that first and run power wires as well.
Luckily, I am married to an electrician, so while one corner of the house had pre-existing wiring (go figure right?), the side that didn’t, soon did. This is as good as place as any to mention that if you don’t know how to run wiring, hire a professional to do it for you before installing these lights.
When I first opened the box, I was impressed with the care given to the packaging. Inside is the security light, a bar-shaped mounting plate and 3 screws, a waterproof gasket, 3 wire connectors, a mounting bolt, and a rubber screw plug – basically everything needed to install. Did I mention the lights come with a 5-year warranty?!
Please note that this particular light is really designed to be wall-mounted as opposed to soffit mounted. However, we went ahead and put ours on the soffit/overhang, and they work just fine. I did see on Amazon that hanging them horizontally could affect the coverage of the light and sensitivity of the sensor. We have not had any issues and are very pleased with the reach of both the motion sensor and the light itself, although I am guessing this may be because of the height of installation and the way we angled them.
The installation of both lights was very easy and took my husband about 15 minutes tops (once the missing wire and another box was installed). If you are not familiar with installing lights, the instructions are detailed and pretty easy to follow. Just keep in mind that they have to be connected to a 120V power source.
Once installed, he adjusted the lights and sensor, and enabled the test mode to make sure the wiring worked. Then we waited until it got dark and tested each one. Success!
In Conclusion
We’ve had the Sansi LED Security Motion Sensor Outdoor Lights up for several months now, and I love them! Both work exactly as they should and are very bright. The light they emit is very white, crisp and clear, making it easy to see everything in my backyard. In fact, I was actually impressed with how much area these lights illuminate! Some light even spills over into the woods behind our fence.
I have not had any issues with the motion detector tripping on (aka falsed) when there is no motion, nor have the lights come on during the day. And I really like how I can use the switch flip method to override the motion detector and turn them as needed at night.
All in all, the ease of installation, brightness and quality is definitely worth the affordable price!