What are flood lights

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What are flood lights?

Flood lights are the most popular type of lights that are used outdoors. Basically, flood lights are used to illuminate large areas. You probably have seen some sort of flood lights outdoors, for example, street lights in city are also type of flood lights. The definition of flood light could be – lighting fixture that is mostly used for outdoor application to illuminate larger areas at night. What makes flood lights so popular is the large amount of lighting they can produce, which is perfect for illuminating large areas like stadiums.

flood light

LED Solar flood light

Components of flood light fixtures

Flood light fixtures are pretty different from other types of light. First of all, flood lights are mostly used outdoors, so they need to be durable and withstand al sorts of weather conditions. There are special type of flood lights called outdoor flood lights that are made with durable metal (usually aluminum) casing and protects lighting fixture from high winds, rain, storms, high and low temperatures. There are also more basic flood light fixtures made for regular outdoor usage. These fixtures are made with less durable plastic casings, but also are able to withstand common weather conditions like rain, hot temperatures and even snow. Another common outdoor flood light type are solar flood lights that collect sun energy using a solar panel and stores it into a rechargeable battery and later at night uses this energy to power the light.

As lighting source floodlights usually uses CLF, Halogen or LED bulbs. CFL flood lights are less common, because CFL bulbs are more brittle, with much larger form factor and have significantly shorter lifetime than, for example, LED bulbs. Halogen bulbs are the brightest ones, but have shorter lifetime than LED diodes. LEDs are the most popular type of bulbs used in flood light fixtures. Besides previously mentioned advantages, they also are the most energy efficient, so will cut more on electricity bills.

Where flood lights are used

Flood lights are mostly used outdoors, but you will also see flood lights being used in larger indoor places, like arenas. The most common place, where people use flood lights is around the house. Flood lights are great outdoor lighting source and come in all sorts of sizes, from few watts to couple hundred watts. Flood lights are great to illuminate dark areas around the house at night for comfort and security purposes. It is common to use flood lights to provide light for security cams in dark, or to scare unwanted persons and animals away from backyard. Many people use flood lights to illuminate doors at night. In this situation, flood lights with motion sensor are used. Besides individual usage around the house, flood lights are also used in much larger areas. Some of these areas are:

  • Stadiums
  • Sports fields
  • Streets
  • Driveways
  • Parking lots
  • Indoor and outdoor arenas
  • Warehouses
  • Many other large areas

Flood light advantages compared to other lights

The closest type of lighting fixture to flood light is spot light. Spot lights are also used indoor and outdoor, but in opposite to flood lights, they have much smaller and concentrated range of light. Spot lights are great for illuminating one spot, but cannot be used to illuminate a whole area. High powered flood lights can provide close amount of light to daylight. For example, in some sports fields flood lights are arranged in such way that you have feeling that it’s actually bright outside. Flood lights also are being used as work lights. Miners use flood lights to shed light into dark passages and caves they work in. Battery operated flood lights are used as emergency lights in places, where it’s crucial to have permanent lighting source. Portable flood lights are also used by rescuers in disaster-prone areas, where other types of light sources are not available. As you can see, the advantages and usage of flood lights are practically unlimited, which makes them one of the most popular lighting source from small houses to arenas and other large areas.

ledwatcher

Blogger, editor, developer who loves green living. Interested in photovoltaics and solar lighting. Reviewing solar products since 2013.

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4 Responses

  1. Ron says:

    well written blog on flood lights.

  2. andrew russell says:

    Thank you, Arthur, for shedding some light on uses & importance of flood lights. Very well written. Keep sharing your knowledge through your wonderful blogs.

  3. Candice Eisenhower says:

    It’s interesting to learn that solar flood lights exists and has the same function as the regular flood light but with the use of solar panels to recharge the battery for nighttime use. It seems to me that this can save energy costs due to the use of solar energy for electricity while lighting your large space effectively. If I were to own a factory, I bet the use of solar flood lights should be a way to go to light the dark areas at the time of the night.

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