Commercial Flood Lighting Buyer's Guide

Selecting and purchasing flood lights to illuminate outdoor areas can be a tricky endeavor. Why is that? It’s because the term “floodlight” is very general. The type of flood light fixture that you need depends on what exactly you are using it for. And there are many types of them. For example, you wouldn’t use a landscape light to light up a parking lot. Or you wouldn’t use a stadium light to illuminate the side of a building.

Flood lights are extremely versatile fixtures, and you might be surprised how often they are used in different outdoor applications. LED Lighting Supply has provided LED Flood lights to illuminate baseball fields, racetracks, and horse arenas. They’ve also been used to provide lighting for perimeter security and are even used for offshore drill rigs and ocean vessels.

It’s all a function of picking the right type of light, the right power, the right color temperature, and the right optics. There is no one-size-fits-all flood light for every application. The application itself will determine the right flood light for you.

Even more, LED floodlights are the best choice because they have an expected lifespan that far exceeds metal halide fixtures. They provide powerful, bright, high-quality light for years without the need to replace bulbs and ballasts. Maintenance costs are near zero.

Click Here to See All Our Commercial and Industrial LED Flood Lights

1. LED Can Easily Replace Metal Halide or High-Pressure Sodium Flood Lights

For example, you may have an outdoor area that uses Metal Halide or High-Pressure Sodium Lighting. It’s possible that they could be 400 Watts, 1000 Watts, or even 1500 Watts. Being able to replace these lights with LED is easy – you can do a one-for-one replacement. Here are some guidelines on how to convert your existing floodlights to LED.

• 1000 Watts Metal Halide: 50,000 to 60,000 LED Lumens
• 1500 Watts Metal Halide:  80,000 to 90,000 LED Lumens
• 2000 Watts Metal Halide: 110,000 + LED Lumens

2. Picking the Right Optic / Beam Angle is Crucial

The main difference between “flood” lights and “spot” lights is the beam angle chosen. There are many different optics available for flood lights, from 10 degrees up to 130 degrees or higher. Trying to light up an area 200 feet away with a wide beam angle won’t work. Trying to light up a horse arena 60 feet wide with a 10-degree optic is a bad choice.

Takeaway: Choosing the right optic for your flood light application is important. Fortunately, we can make that process easy (read #3 below).

Nema Beam Spread Classifications

Beam Description	NEMA Type	Beam Spread in Degrees
Very narrow	1	10°- 18°
Narrow	2	18°- 29°
Medium narrow	3	29°- 46°
Medium	4	46°- 70°
Medium wide	5	70°- 100°
Wide	6	100°- 130°
Very Wide	7	130° and above

A Real-World Example of How Optics Work

Here are 5 simulations. Each simulation illuminates an area 100 ft wide by 200 ft long. There are 2 lights mounted on poles that are 30 feet high. The fixture aiming remains the same for each simulation, the only thing that changes is the beam angle. We use a 400-Watt IMF Flood fixture for these 5 examples.

10 Degree Optic

15 Degree Optic

30 Degree Optic

45 Degree Optic

60 Degree Optic

3. The Key to a Successful Flood Light Conversion – Create a Lighting Plan!

With so many flood light fixtures available, which one do you choose? Do you pick the light based on watts or lumens? Do you know the beam angle? Mounting type? Voltage?

Choosing flood lights by “watts” is not a good decision. You should make the decision based on lumens. Step 1 above gives you an approximation of how many lumens you need.

But if you don’t understand which optic to choose, there’s a risk that you’re not going to be happy with the end results. 

Our best advice is to start with a Flood Light Lighting Plan. It’s a report that shows you how your outdoor area will look with our LED fixtures. It’s also Free. We model your space using special lighting software. This software can be modified to add or remove fixtures, refocus, and re-aim lights until the space is properly lit and meets your expectations.

Takeaway: Save yourself the trouble of determining the watts, lumens, or optics that you need. Let a lighting plan choose the best light for you.

Get your Free Custom Flood Lighting Plan

4. Choose the Best Flood Light Color Temperature

LEDs are available commercially between color temperatures of 2700K up to 6500K. For flood lights, the 2 most common color temperatures are 4000K and 5000K.

Takeaway: 98% of all flood lights we sell, and customers ask for, is 5000K.

5. Understanding IP Wet Weather Rating

You’ll need your outdoor fixtures to withstand the elements to function properly.

Wet weather IP ratings start at IP65 and go to IP68. IP69K is a wash-down rating and is typically not needed for outdoor flood lighting. Many of the flood lights you will find on this site are IP66-rated.

Takeaway: make sure the floodlights you purchase are at least IP65 or higher.

6. Understand What Voltage Support You Need

For LED flood lights, there are two common ranges of voltages, standard and high. Understanding the voltage you have ensures that you order the right LED driver that will accommodate the voltage at your site. LED drivers automatically switch to incoming voltage. So, a 100-277V will auto-adjust to 120V, 240V, or 277V.

• The standard voltage is 100-277V.
• High Voltage can either be 277-480V or 347-480V.

7. Specialty Flood Lights – for Demanding Environments

High Temperature

Do you have high ambient temperatures that exceed 150 degrees F? Our high-temperature flood lights can perform in environments up to 212 F.

Hazardous Location

Explosive or Hazardous Location? We offer both UL Certified C1D1 and C1D2 Flood lights that will meet your hazardous location requirements.

Marine Grade

Marine Environments with Salt Water and Fog? We have marine-grade coatings that we can add to our high-power flood lights, ensuring years of operation under these harsh conditions.