What is Flood Light | LEDVANCE

What is a Flood Light: Comprehensive Guide

A floodlight is a high-intensity light with a wide-beam that can illuminate expansive areas efficiently. It is commonly used in yards, sports fields, parking lots, patios and other outdoor spaces.

In this blog, we’ll break down what a flood light is, various applications and how to choose the suitable floodlight for your lighting solution.

What is a FloodLight

 

Floodlights are a type of light fixture with high intensity and wide beams. They are different from the ordinary bulbs we use in daily life. Ordinary bulbs have a narrow light range. Floodlights can cover a wide area with strong light intensity.

One main feature of floodlights is their wide coverage. They have a large beam diffusion angle. This allows them to project light evenly across a large space. Unlike some lamps, they limit light to a small area.

Another feature is strong illuminance. The brightness of floodlights is high. In dark environments, turning on a floodlight quickly increases ambient brightness. This meets the need for strong light in various scenarios.

Floodlights are mostly suitable for outdoor use. They have protective features. They can resist wind, rain, and dust. Even in complex outdoor environments, floodlights can still work normally.

How Floodlights Work

 

The basic working principle of floodlights relies on the combined action of the light source, reflector, and housing. The light source is the core component. It generates light by converting electrical energy into light energy.

The reflector is placed around the light source. Its main function is to collect and reflect scattered light. This helps direct the light in a specific direction and angle. It also expands the illumination range and improves light efficiency.

The housing protects the internal parts. It blocks dust, rain, and other substances from entering the floodlight. This prevents damage to the light source and reflector. The housing also helps with heat dissipation, which extends the service life of the floodlight.

Benefits of Floodlight

• Illuminate outdoor space and enhance security: Floodlights are widely used for outdoor illumination, providing bright, broad-beam lighting to enhance visibility and safety. They emit a 120-degree beam to light up the dark areas around properties like driveways, gardens, and other building perimeters to provide visibility during nighttime.

 

• Ensure clear visibility at sport field: Floodlights can provide uniform and high-intensity light during night-time. Therefore, installing floodlights on sports fields or stadiums can ensure clear visibility for players, spectators, and cameras.
• Enhance aesthetic appeal of architectural and landscape: Floodlights are ideally used in buildings, monuments, and landscapes to highlight architectural features and enhance visual appeal. For example, designers place floodlights strategically to accentuate textures, shapes, and other natural features of their works. In this way, the creation can show the unique characteristics more effectively.
• Ensure safety at construction and work sites: Floodlights provide essential illumination at construction and work sites to ensure safety and productivity for workers. Especially during night shifts or some areas with limited natural light, floodlights can help workers see clearly, reduce the risk of accidents, and enable continuous operation in low-light conditions.

Common Light Sources in Floodlights

Floodlights use a variety of bulb types, with the main options being LEDs, CFLs, and halogen bulbs. In this blog, we'll explore these three main types.

• LED bulbs: LED floodlights are widely used in residential, commercial, and industrial applications for their energy efficiency, long lifespan, and bright light output. Moreover, they consume less power when compared to other bulb types and generate less heat, which can help businesses save more energy bills.
• CFL bulbs: These bulbs consume more energy and emit more heat when compared with LEDs. Since they contain a little mercury, they need a warm-up period to reach their full brightness. However, they're a better choice than halogen bulbs because they have a longer lifespan.
• Halogen bulbs: These bulbs emit bright and high-intensity light with great color rendering. Halogen bulbs take more energy than LEDs but cost as much as 50% less.

Advantages of LED Floodlight

• Easy to install. If the fixture is already connected to a power source, it should only take a couple of minutes. It can be done in under 20 minutes even if you need to connect it to building wiring.
• Low power consumption. LED flood lights use about one-third the power of a traditional bulb.
• Longevity. A LED flood light rating of approximately 50,000 hours with many models today, which is up to 50 times more than what a standard lighting option provides.
• Ideal option for commercial lighting. LED floodlights provide top-notch lighting for any space, project, or event. They're a popular choice for illuminating a company's parking lot or adding brightness to office ball game competitions.

Floodlight Applications

Floodlights, with their core advantages of high intensity and wide beam, along with their adaptability to complex outdoor environments, have been used in many areas of daily life and work.

Outdoor Lighting

In the factory area of an enterprise, floodlights can be installed around factory buildings, at warehouse entrances, and along factory roads. This helps ensure employee safety during night work or patrols. It also prevents accidents caused by poor lighting.
Parking lots have heavy traffic, especially at night. Sufficient floodlighting allows drivers to see vehicles and pedestrians clearly. This reduces the risk of collisions and falls. At the same time, floodlights improve overall safety. They help lower the chance of vehicle theft.

Stadium

All kinds of sports competitions have high requirements for venue lighting. On the football field, floodlights must evenly illuminate the entire area. This helps athletes clearly see the football’s path and their teammates’ positions. It allows them to make accurate judgments and movements. It also helps on-site audiences and TV viewers watch the game clearly.

The same applies to basketball courts, tennis courts, and other venues. The lighting effect of floodlights directly affects the fairness and entertainment value of the game. Outside of official competitions, people often exercise in stadiums. Good floodlighting makes exercise more comfortable and safe.

Landscape and Architecture

In landscape lighting, floodlights can illuminate rockeries, fountains, trees, and other features in the park. This creates a different kind of beauty at night compared to daytime. It helps build a unique atmosphere and attracts people to visit and enjoy.

In architectural lighting, many high-rise buildings, ancient structures, and landmark buildings use floodlights for exterior facade lighting. Floodlights highlight the outline, structure, and features of the buildings. This makes them more eye-catching and beautiful at night. It also enhances the city's night image and cultural atmosphere. Floodlights have become an important part of the city's night view.

Industry

In the industrial production process, some factory workshops need to operate 24 hours a day. Large mechanical processing workshops and heavy industrial production workshops especially require sufficient light. This ensures the accuracy and safety of workers' operations. Floodlights can meet these lighting needs. They help maintain clear visibility and support the smooth progress of production activities.

LED Floodlight in LEDVANCE

LEDVANCE stands as one of the USA's most popular light bulb suppliers, offering a diverse range of high-quality flood lights.​ We'll introduce the newest LED floodlight from LEDVANCE, which is an ideal option for commercial and industrial lighting needs. Explore its features and benefits below!

Performance Class Dual Selectable Flood Light

This floodlight is a versatile solution for buildings, facades, signs, and other outdoor areas. It provides dual selectability, two mounting options inside the box, and an integrated photocell or photocell receptacle.  Besides that, you can choose from selectable color temperatures ranging from 3000K to 5000K with a CRI > 81.

Benefits of LEDVANCE Floodlight

• Up to 150 LPW
• Selectable wattage and lumens: ​​​​
  15/25/30W | 2,250/3,700/4,500 lm
   35/45/60W | 5,250/6,750/9,000 lm
   80/100/140W | 12,000/15,000/21,000 lm
   200/250/300W | 30,000/37,500/45,000 lm
   350/400/470W | 52,500/60,000/70,500 lm
• DLC 5.1 Premium Listing assures high energy efficiency and qualifies this product for utility rebates
• NEMA Type 7H × 6V wide flood distribution

FAQs: What is a Floodlight

1. What distinguishes flood lights from other outdoor lighting options?
Floodlights are significantly different from other outdoor lights. They have a wide beam and strong illuminance, capable of providing uniform illumination over large areas. They are suitable for scenarios with strong light requirements such as stadiums and construction sites.
2. What is the difference between floodlight and spotlight?
The core difference between floodlights and spotlights lies in their beams and applications. Floodlights have a wide beam. The light is dispersed and uniform. They are mainly used for large-area lighting, such as illuminating stadiums and construction sites.
Spotlights have narrow beams. Their light is concentrated and focused. They emphasize specific targets, such as outdoor sculptures and stage figures. The scenarios they are suitable for are significantly different.
3. Why are flood lights called so?
Floodlights are called so because they “flood” an area with light. The word “flood” here doesn’t mean water. It refers to overwhelming or filling a space completely, in this case with illumination.