Choosing A Floodlight

Security Light

Floodlights are useful for many purposes, whether lighting a building, car park, driveway, garden, fountain, patio, tennis court, tree, or yard. They can be used in accent, task, or security lighting. You’ll want to choose the best floodlight for the purpose you have in mind; this article will look at various floodlight specifications and steer you towards the correct choice.

Equivalent wattages

With filament lighting (i.e. incandescent), bulb wattage and the amount of light produced are directly related. LED technology is not like that. Two LED products of equal wattage can emit different amounts of light, depending on energy efficiency. Comparing LED products by actual wattage is therefore meaningless.

Equivalent wattage addresses this problem by translating the amount of light produced by an LED (or fluorescent) product into the wattage of an equivalent filament lamp (in this case halogen). You can use the table below to choose floodlights by their equivalent wattage for various applications.

Application Equivalent (standard halogen) wattage
Small patio (9m²) 80W
Back yard of house 80W
Small garden (50m²) 150W
Driveway (10m) 150W
Medium patio (25m²) 300W
Building façade 300W
Medium garden (200m²) 500W
Large patio (100m²) 500W
Car park 1000W
Industrial loading bay 1000W

These are estimations only and may not be applicable on every occasion.

Controlling light

One aspect of floodlighting that needs attention is containment of light. If you have neighbours a short distance away, chances are they won’t appreciate their property being blasted by escaped floodlighting.

Most floodlights, as their name suggests, produce a wide beam of light. The beam angles do vary, but you can also control light by ensuring it’s only as powerful as necessary and with careful positioning. The naturally directional output of an LED floodlight helps to cut out stray light.

Choosing a colour temperature

One important specification in floodlighting is its colour temperature. If you’re looking to highlight architecture, warm white floodlights help create a cosy, welcoming atmosphere. They’re ideal for many home or hospitality applications.

A cool white or daylight floodlight is arguably a better choice for security purposes. This is because cool white light appears brighter to our eyes and hence starker and more of a deterrent. This is even more the case when it is suddenly activated by a PIR sensor (see below).

A cooler colour temperature is wise if you’re looking to buy a floodlight for working under. Not only does it look more natural, but it also stimulates alertness and concentration.

You might choose a colour temperature to emphasise garden hues. Cool white is good for water features or silvery metallic surfaces while warm white does well with brick or wooden structures, plants and shrubs. Colourful autumn and winter growth benefits from warm white light.

PIR and dusk to dawn sensors

A PIR sensor triggers light automatically when it senses movement within a given range, making it especially useful in security lighting. The duration of light can often be set by the user.

A dusk to dawn sensor is slightly less economical than a PIR sensor, because it automatically keeps light switched on for the duration of the night. This is useful if you want to create the illusion of a property being occupied and/or to enhance surveillance.

Solar floodlights

A solar floodlight is costlier than a standard luminaire to buy, but is subsequently free to run. The Suri Solar LED Floodlight with PIR Sensor combines a solar panel with a PIR sensor. It charges by day and delivers up to a 500 lumen output for 30 seconds when movement is detected.

Floodlighting versatility

Floodlights brighten up an exterior for aesthetic or security purposes, and they’re available these days with sleeker, more attractive, less conspicuous designs. Check out Lyco’s extensive floodlight range and discover how you and your property or business can benefit.

 

For more useful information and guidance see our Lighting Advice section.

 

andrew-author-bio

Andrew Evangelidis Head of Buying

Andrew is an experienced buying professional who takes an entrepreneurial approach to identify new lighting solutions and ensure Lyco have first-to-market ranges for our customers. Having previously worked for well known brands such as Wickes, Carphone Warehouse and Toys R Us, Andrew has now turned his hand to sourcing commercial lighting and ensure our customers receive top brand quality products at marketing leading prices. He manages a team of commercial and decorative buyers who travel the world finding new products that our customers don’t even know they need yet.

The 24V plug and play range from Markslojd makes garden lighting easy

Garden Spotlight

Now the warmer weather has arrived, gardens and outdoor spaces are really starting to come into their own. Plants are flourishing, flowers are blooming, and attentions are turning to al fresco living. Therefore, now is the perfect time to install or upgrade your garden lighting.

The Markslojd Garden 24V complete lighting system makes outdoor lighting easy. The ultimate in ‘plug and play’ outdoor lighting kits, the Garden 24V range offers a wide selection of products that are both practical, aesthetically pleasing, and simple for anyone to install.

The Markslojd Garden 24V products do not require any hard wiring, making for an easy and economical lighting solution for any home or business. As well as being simple to set up, the lights are dimmable and can be used alongside timers or sensors, delivering a truly bespoke lighting system to suit the layout and style of any property.

All components in the Markslojd Garden24 range have been designed to work in sync with one another so they can be purchased and installed with confidence, offering fantastic versatility for a number of different uses including:

  • Illuminating paths and walkways
  • Adding ambience to decking and seating areas
  • Improving sense of security in outdoor areas
  • Highlighting landscaped areas, architecture, and exterior decor

Spotlights

https://www.lyco.co.uk/garden-24v-6w-led-spotlight-black.html

The Markslojd Garden 24V lighting collection at Lyco features three versatile spotlights in either 3, 6, or 9 watts, with a stylish black finish. These lights can easily be fitted into the ground or attached to guttering without any hard wiring to deliver ambient illumination, perfectly suited to outdoor seating areas in bars, hotels, and restaurants.

Decking lights

https://www.lyco.co.uk/garden-24v-small-led-deck-light.html

Add a stunning ambient glow to outdoor decking and seating areas with Markslojd’s recessed deck lights. Simplistically styled in black with a frosted diffuser, these fixtures are prewired, removing the need for any complex wiring. Each 3W LED offers 65 lumens of warm white light which won’t just improve visibility outdoors but also help create an inviting atmosphere.

Bollard lights

https://www.lyco.co.uk/garden-24v-led-outdoor-bollard-light-black.html

These easy-to-install LED outdoor bollard lights make for a practical and stylish lighting solution, and work particularly well along pathways, walkways, and in car parks. As well as being a high performing light in this practical sense, the fixture will look stunning in the grounds of any venue too – cased in aluminium and finished in an attractive matte black finish.

The Garden 24 plug and play lighting collection from Markslojd is designed to be extremely straightforward to install; requiring very little in the way of tools and and deeply buried cables, meaning there is no need to call upon an electrician for help. Many of the fixtures depend on a transformer or driver (sold separately) in order to work and additional cables may also be necessary, depending on the set up.

Click here to discover the full Markslojd Garden24 collection at Lyco or to find out more by watching this short video.