How Do I Choose A Good Floodlight?

There are many common questions that are asked when you need a new floodlight. How bright do I need? How do you compare brightness? How can I tell if it's good quality? 

Selecting a decent floodlight is quite simple, once you know a few basics. We'll break it down into 5 simple things to consider before your next purchase. 

Application

Choose the brightness according to your need. Security lighting doesn't need to be as bright as if you are working under it. A sensor light can be brighter than a light that runs all night every night. A Tennis Court should be brighter than a BBQ area. Brighter is not always better. In fact, it can cause all sorts of other problems. We'll go into more detail below. 

Mounting Height

Don't make the mistake of mounting a very bright floodlight too low. Eye-level should be no brighter than 20W. Moving up from there, a 4m pole shouldn't be brighter than 70W, and a 6m pole should be no brighter than 200W. Otherwise, you will have a high glare area and will be very uncomfortable to the people around it. 

Colour

5700K (daylight) is a typical industrial floodlight. Very white light is often used on industrial sites likes mines and concrete plants. A lot of cheap floodlights will be this colour because you get more lumens per watt (a whole new topic for another time). We recommend 4000K (Cool White) for commercial applications and 3000K (Warm White) for residential applications. 3000K is a soft light, easy to work under, and doesn't disturb animals & neighbours as much. (You may have heard about Circadian Rhythm, and how removing blue light will help with sleeping.)

Optic

A wide floodlight can be useful for spreading light everywhere. It can also throw light into the night sky, which is bad for the environment as well as wasted light. A focused optic can place the light where you need it, and prevent it from spilling into neighbouring properties. 

Quality

Look for recognisable brands in the components. LED Drivers are made by Philips, Osram, Tridonic, Meanwell, Invetronics; to name a few. There are many brands of LED chips, so don't worry so much about that. Look for the warranty. Anything less than 5 years you should be cautious about. Removing the 2-pin plug should not affect the warranty if it's being installed by a quality electrician. Look for the IP rating - a floodlight should be IP65 or higher.