Floodlights are a popular lighting choice for electricians, contractors, business owners, and residential homeowners alike. However, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to floodlights - finding the right floodlights depends entirely on your personal situation.
So, to help you in your quest to find the perfect solution, here is our guide on how to find the right floodlight to fit your precise needs.
What Are Floodlights and How Are They Used?
Floodlights are lighting options with a wide-spanning beam and often a high-intensity brightness. Though they can be used for interior bright ambient light, they are most commonly used for outdoor lighting.
External floodlight applications include lighting football pitches, sports fields, car parks, large properties, and can be used as both commercial and domestic security lights. Floodlights can be used in combination with numerous additional features to develop an excellent security system, either triggered by movement or ‘dusk to dawn lights’ that are set on a timer.
Floodlights can operate side by side with outdoor security cameras, making sure everything is picked up on CCTV, and are compatible with a plethora of smart features. As smart features vary between products, it is important that you check the spec in advance so that your purchase has the functionality that you want. Smart lighting solutions include remote controls, voice control, motion alerts, and compatibility with smartphone security apps.
Vision Lighting boasts a wide range of high-quality floodlights to choose from, with options suitable for all domestic, commercial, internal, and exterior lighting solutions.
Things to Consider When Purchasing Floodlights
Before purchasing floodlights for your home or business, there are many things you need to consider, such as beam angle, location, detection angle, brightness, energy efficiency, colour, and quality.
Beam Angle
When choosing a floodlight, remember that light comes from a small area, but then diffuses to a wider angle. As floodlights are most often used when you want a wide-ranging beam of light, it is essential to consider the beam angle - that is, the angle at which the beam spreads.
Typically, floodlights will have a beam angle or beam spread of 45° to 120°. Steer clear of any lights that claim to be floodlights but only have a beam angle of 25° to 45° as, with a narrow beam like this, you would be better off purchasing a downlight or wall light instead.
The optimum beam angle depends on your personal preferences and what you will use your floodlights for. However, a good rule of thumb is that wider beam angles will always be more effective for outdoor floodlights in terms of security and safety, as they can light up a wider range of your property.
For this reason, we recommend a beam spread of 120° for outdoor floodlights. Not only does this option give you a wider light spread, but you also will have a level of control over the illumination as you can tilt the floodlight on its bracket arm or install an extension bracket.
Location
Where are you planning to locate your floodlight? Is it for outdoor lighting or interior lighting? How far away is it from a power supply? Considering these things before you start to research floodlights will allow you to make a more informed decision.
Floodlights are a popular choice for outdoor spaces due to their powerful and wide-spanning beams. As with all other outdoor lighting fixtures, you must make sure that outdoor flood lights have an appropriate IP rating to make them suitable for external use. Otherwise, your outdoor floodlight may take in dust and water.
Detection Angle
If you want your floodlights to operate as outdoor security lights, you must consider the detection angle. This is the area for which real-time person detection is effective for motion sensors.
To enhance your security system, you might also consider floodlight cameras, such as floodlight security cameras, or a motion detection system that sends motion alerts directly to your smartphone.
Brightness
Put simply, ‘watts’ is the measure of the energy required to power a light bulb, whereas ‘lumens’ signifies the brightness of the light output - though typically a bulb with higher wattage tends to have a higher lumen output.
The number of lumens of light you need for your floodlights depends on the size of the area you wish to illuminate, as well as to what degree you want dim or bright lights. For example, for a back garden, you might prefer a floodlight with around 2,000 lumens, whereas a car park might need upwards of 10 times this brightness.
At Vision Lighting, we can help you choose the right product with a high lumens per watt output so that you get the exact brightness you need without having to use a high wattage to get it.
Energy Efficiency
Floodlights can use a number of light bulbs, from traditional halogen bulbs to modern LEDs. LED floodlights have a lower energy consumption, as they convert more of the energy to light than traditional bulbs. This means LED floodlights are incredibly energy efficient, which can result in significant energy savings.
An LED floodlight versus a halogen floodlight is a great example of this. Where a 150W halogen floodlight, for example, outputs around 1500 lumens, the 30W Trade LED Osram Floodlight outputs 3900 lumens, using around 20% of the halogens energy use and producing 260% more light.
Colour
Colour and colour temperature are key considerations for every kind of lighting solution. For example, coloured LED strip lights can evoke different emotions as LED mood lighting, depending on which colour you choose.
For floodlights, warmer colour temperatures, which have almost a yellow light, will make a space seem more inviting and cosy. An example of this is the current trend of pubs opting for warm white lighting on their signs, and having warm white floodlights to accompany this can really make the pub look warm, relaxing and inviting. In contrast, cool white is more striking and can appear brighter, making it more effective as security lighting where high visibility is essential.
Quality
As the majority of floodlights are installed outside, the quality and durability of the products are absolutely essential to the lifespan of your lighting solution. Here at Vision Lighting, all our floodlights are of the highest quality - our curated collection consists of a wide range of floodlights for electricians, commercial entities, and homeowners alike.
The Various Types of Floodlights Available at Vision Lighting
TradeLED RGB Floodlight with Memory Function and Radio Frequency - IP65
This floodlight benefits from a colour-changing function, as well as modes such as flash, fade, smooth, and strobe. You can use the remote to control the colour settings from as far as 30 metres away from the light.
Trade LED Osram - 3,900 Lumens, IP66
Powered by Osram and driverless LED technology, this floodlight has an efficient light output of 130 Lumens per Watt. Due to its high resistance to dust and water, it is a highly popular light fixture for electricians and sign makers.
TradeLED with Mean Well - 3,600 Lumens, IP65
The Mean Well power supply effectively protects the LEDs from any power surges, making it maintenance-free and highly suitable for both interior and exterior applications. This floodlight is very high quality and energy efficient, with an output of 120 Lumens per Watt.
JCC LED with optional PIR sensor - IP65
The JCC LED floodlight boasts an angled bracket for easy installation on site, adjusting the angle to which the 105 Lumens per Watt beam is broadcasted. With this floodlight, you have the option of a PIR sensor, which turns the light on for a short period when it detects motion, making it a popular option for domestic and commercial security systems.
TradeLED Osram - 6,500 Lumens, IP66
The 50W model of the TradeLED powered by Osram is ultra-slim for a powerful and modern lighting solution, suitable for both interior and exterior applications. This model has a total light output of 6,500 Lumens.
TradeLED with Mean Well - 6,000 Lumens, IP65
This floodlight is just as impressive as its 30W sibling. With a lifespan of up to 50,000 hours, the 50W TradeLED with Mean Well boasts 6,000 Lumens of light output.
Clearance! LED Floodlight - 4,250 Lumens, IP65
- TradeLED Osram - 13,000 Lumens, IP66
The 100W TradeLED powered by Osram is our most powerful floodlight in our high-quality collection. This light is capable of shining a whopping 13,000 Lumens of light, making it perfect for those wanting to illuminate larger or darker areas.
- Floodlight Wall Mount Bracket (Coach Bolts Included)
Our Floodlight Wall Mount Bracket is compatible with most of our available floodlights. This bracket allows the floodlights to be securely fastened to both walls and cladding. Even better, all the coach bolts you need for installation are included. It is available in 500mm or 750mm lengths.
If you would like any advice on which floodlight would be best for you, or whether the bracket will fit your chosen model, just get in touch with Vision Lighting today to discuss your options with an expert.