Commercial LED Flood Lighting Buyers Guide: Selection, Optics, and Applications

Selecting and purchasing flood lights to illuminate outdoor areas can be a tricky endeavor. Why is that? It’s because the term “flood light” 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.

However, LED flood lights are generally the best option for outdoor illumination and outdoor security lighting purposes. LED Flood lighting fixtures are extremely versatile fixtures and are used in many outdoor applications. Flood lights involve projecting a broad beam of light to illuminate large areas, making them ideal for commercial and industrial settings.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LED outdoor lighting can reduce energy consumption by 50% or more compared to conventional metal halide and high-pressure sodium systems, while providing superior light quality and longer operational life for commercial flood lighting applications.

After specifying and installing flood lighting systems across commercial, industrial, and sports facilities, we’ve found that most performance issues stem from improper optic selection and lack of photometric planning – not fixture quality.

Our LED flood lights are commonly used as LED baseball field lights, LED soccer field lights, LED football field lights, and for illuminating racetracks and LED horse arena lights. LED flood lights can be used for LED perimeter security lighting and are even used for offshore drill rigs and ocean vessels with the proper protective coatings.

If you’re lighting a commercial parking lot, consider using LED parking lot lights instead.

It’s all a function of picking the right type of light, the right power, the right color temperature, and the right optics for your light project. There is no one-size-fits-all flood light for every application. The application itself will determine the best LED flood lights for you. Even more, LED floodlights are known for energy efficiency.

Energy savings will be significant compared to traditional light sources. These outdoor lights 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.

This guide explains how to select the correct LED flood light based on application, mounting height, beam angle, lumen output, and environmental conditions. It is written for facility managers, contractors, and engineers responsible for outdoor commercial and industrial lighting.

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 for Outdoor LED Flood Light Coverage

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

• Very Narrow:
  • NEMA Type: 1
  • Beam Spread: 10° – 18°
• Narrow:
  • NEMA Type: 2
  • Beam Spread: 18° – 29°
• Medium Narrow:
  • NEMA Type: 3
  • Beam Spread: 29° – 46°
• Medium:
  • NEMA Type: 4
  • Beam Spread: 46° – 70°
• Medium Wide:
  • NEMA Type: 5
  • Beam Spread: 70° – 100°
• Wide:
  • NEMA Type: 6
  • Beam Spread: 100° – 130°
• Very Wide:
  • NEMA Type: 7
  • Beam Spread: 130° and above

Professional lighting designers often reference the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) recommended practices for outdoor lighting to determine appropriate beam angles and light distribution patterns for specific applications, ensuring optimal uniformity and visual comfort in commercial flood lighting installations.

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

With so many floodlight 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 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 to 6500K. For flood lights, the two most common color temperatures are 4000K and 5000K.

Takeaway: 98% of all flood lights we sell, and customers ask for, are 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 the 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. Automated Controls

• Dusk to Dawn lights: These lights, equipped with a photocell, turn on automatically at dusk and off at dawn.
• Motion sensors: these lights allow the lights to turn to bright illumination when motion is detected, and dim down when the area is void of movement

Important Safety & Compliance Notice

The information in this guide is provided for general planning and educational purposes only. Final fixture selection, aiming, mounting height, and electrical installation requirements must be verified by qualified professionals and must comply with applicable local codes, OSHA regulations, NEC requirements, and authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) approvals.

8. Specialty Flood Lights – for Demanding Environments

• High Temperature: Do you have high ambient temperatures that exceed 150°F. Our high temperature LED flood lights can perform in environments up to 392°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 LED marine grade flood lights with special coatings that we can add to our high-power flood lights, ensuring years of operation under these harsh conditions.
• Higher wattage lights: If you need powerful outdoor lighting fixtures, the light emitted from our most powerful flood lights can easily match or exceed the lumens of 2000 Watts Metal Halide. Even our most powerful flood outdoor lighting solutions are significantly more energy efficient than the traditional lighting options they are designed to replace.

For hazardous location applications, OSHA’s guidance on electrical safety standards for classified locations provides essential requirements for selecting properly rated explosion-proof lighting equipment. Additionally, UL certification for explosion-proof lighting ensures that fixtures meet rigorous safety testing standards for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.