Outdoor Floodlights - Halogen or LED?

[Milleniumaire]

Hi, I finally decided to replace the blown bulbs in my two outdoor tungsten halogen floodlights yesterday (with separate PIR controls), so I purchased some new bulbs from my local diy store (2 x 400W, which are equivalent to the old 500W). I spent half an hour shifting all the rubbish in my garage so I could get my ladders out and finally got up to the light at the front of the house, only to find it was in a very poor shape - very rusty and it looked like the glass seal may have failed. I then spent the next half an hour trying to unscrew the rusty bolts/screws to remove it.

After another visit to the DIY store to purchase a replacement, I was advised that I might consider trying a LED floodlight as they would last much longer and tend to be more resilient units. Unfortunately, they didn't stock them, but could get hold of a 30W LED floodlight within a week. I left the DIY store empty handed.

After much research, I've come to the conclusion that LED floodlights are very expensive and don't give out enough light, however, I've just found the following that appears to provide a solution, but I'm very sceptical:

http://www.brightlightz.co.uk/products/led-smd-50w-super-bright-floodlight-in-day-white-500w-halogen

I believe that the 400W tungsten halogen bulbs produce something around 9,000 lumens and I can purchase a replacement floodlight unit for around £10 to £25, although I suspect, like my current fittings, it will only last 3-4 years before rusting up and the halogen bulbs will need to be replaced regularly.

For a LED floodlight that produces around 9,000 lumens I would need to get something around 150W and they cost hundreds of pounds and appear to be huge!

I've seen a few websites comparing 50W, 70W or 100W LED lights with 500W halogen lights and I don't understand how they can be similar given the huge differences in lumens.

Am I missing something? Is it worth paying extra for LED? Will I be disappointed with the brightness of a 50W floodlight, compared to a 400W halogen light?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

There are plenty of options out three and LEDs are more efficient and have a greater life span.

When making your choice you must consider the building regulation Part L.

If you are installing an external light which is supplied from your electrical system and fixed to the exterior surface of your house then you should ensure that reasonable provisions are made to enable effective control and/or use of energy efficient lamps. Two options for achieving this are:

Installing a lamp with a capacity which does not exceed 150W per light fitting and the lighting automatically switches off both when there is enough daylight and also when it is not required at night
Ensuring that the lighting fittings you use have sockets that can only be used with lamps having an energy efficacy greater than 40 lumens per circuit-watt.

 

[Milleniumaire]

I'm not sure exactly what that means when applied to my situation

When my house was built 15 years ago, 3 outside lights were installed (side, front and rear of the house) and were operated via a 3 gang switch in the garage. Each light has its own, separate PIR, with the PIR being installed at a lower level than the light to focus the pickup area. The switches are normally on all the time, with the lights being operated by the PIR's when they detect movements, and this only works at night.

So, in terms of the current building regs, I'm simply replacing two of the light fittings using the existing wiring. The other fitting is a bulkhead and is okay.

Whatever fittings I choose, halogen or LED, the bulbs will be less than the existing 500W, so the wattage would be lower. I don't see how this could be in breach of any regulations. If it is, I would appreciate a little clarity.

Thanks.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Installing a lamp with a capacity which does not exceed 150W per light fitting

You spoke of 400W and 500W lamps.

 

[RF Lighting]

How big is the area that you're trying to light, and how brightly lit do you really need it to be?

I fit very few halogen floods these days favouring LED floods if they're PIR controlled, or PL or discharge floods if they are photocell and or time switch controlled.

 

[ericmark]

There are many more efficient lamps and the 150W limit without LABC approval which you are unlikely to get does mean you do have to select one.

I have a 70W metal halide while makes next doors 500W halogen look like a candle but it will not get to that output quickly and that is the problem.

Using a light to have a bar-b-qua on the back lawn is different to intruder alert and you don't need to blind an intruder you only have to alert people he is there.

LED will work on a PIR and some of the compact florescent units will also work well. But the first question has to be what do you want from the light.

 

[Milleniumaire]

PrenticeBoyofDerry, I guess I don't understand how it can be breaking building regulations if I'm simply replacing an outside light with the same light fitting! I can understand if it was a NEW build, but this isn't. If 150W is the limit, then I guess I'll have to go for LED lights or I just ignore the regs! Bloody bureaucrats!

RF Lighting, I want to light the front drive, which is big enough to park 4 cars (2 in front of the other 2). It will be PIR driven and is required as a courtesy light/security light to enable people to see when arriving/leaving as there is no street lighting. The light at the rear of the house is required as a security light. The rear garden is about 0.25 acre, but I wouldn't expect it to light up the whole garden, just the bit near the house.

ericmark, I can't use metal halide as the lights will work off a PIR.

 

[AdamCH]

Are you saying that you can't replace a 400w halogen with a 400w halogen?

 

[RF Lighting]

I would have though a 30W LED flood would be bright enough for your needs, and it won't break the bank to purchase.

Try installing a 150W lamp in your existing fitting. If this is bright enough for your needs, then a 30W LED will be ample.

I have lit a 6m x 6m area quite well with a 10W LED flood.

My drive is just big enough to fit 4 cars (at a push) and is lit with a 150W halogen flood.

Adam you can replace like for like, but you can not install new uncontrolled 400W floods.

 

[flameport]

Will I be disappointed with the brightness of a 50W floodlight, compared to a 400W halogen light?

This depends on your expectations.
If you want it to look like a football stadium, then you will be disappointed.
If you want a sensible level of illumination, the LED item will be more than adequate, and a 50W LED is probably still too bright.

A 50W or whatever LED clearly won't emit the same amount of light as a 500W halogen effort, but the reality is that the 500W halogen was grossly overpowerful anyway.
I have replaced plenty of busted 500W lamps in the cheap-o-matic floodlights with 120W types, and no one has yet noticed the difference.

Finally, providing vast amounts of lighting around your property does not improve security in any way.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

RF Lighting, I want to light the front drive, which is big enough to park 4 cars (2 in front of the other 2). It will be PIR driven and is required as a courtesy light/security light to enable people to see when arriving/leaving as there is no street lighting.

 

[londonman]

I know this is a pretty old thread but thought I'd post up my experiences as my requirements were similar to the OP. We have four 500W halogen floods as security lights on the four sides of our house. Light output is very good. But I got fed up of clambering up the ladder to replace the bulbs which have a lifetime of about 4 hours over their onsite duration.

After doing a bit of Googling it seemed to be that a 50W LED had an equivalent light output. Just goes to show that there is a lot of duff information out there. The light output is less than a half. So dim that from a security light perspective you might as well not bother.

The halogens are going back up.

 

[Milleniumaire]

The recent update to this thread made me realise I hadn't included feedback after asking my question.

In the end I installed a couple of 50W LED lights; one in the rear garden and one around the front. Both are connected to the original PIR sensors which are positioned lower than the light to control the detection zone.

The light given off is "adequate". In the front garden the light provides a courtesy light for visitors and at the rear, it allows us to keep an eye on our dog when she is let out on her own. The rear light certainly isn't bright enough to illuminate the whole garden and our patio has separately controlled lights to provide more illumination when sitting out on a dark Summers evening.

Unfortunately one of these "cheap" LED lights failed after just a year, but the company I purchased it from kindly offerred a replacement, and then a refund when they realised they didn't have stock.

Over the Christmas hols, I purchased another 50W LED and replaced the broken one.

I'm not sure if I was just unlucky, but I was very disappointed at the failure as these LED fittings should last for many years. I guess, like anything, you get what you pay for!

 

[333rocky333]

 

[londonman]

I did some empirical measurements this evening. Desk research suggested that the light output ratio was 2: 1 (halogen vs LED). It is nothing like.

Using the lux meter app on the phone and pointing it at the lights.

halogen 500w 77 lux unit

LED 50W 14 lux unit

roughly 6:1

I then wondered whether the very low light level of the LED (nothing like the ratio of 2:1 that desk research suggested) was because the spectrum from the LED was either (a) spikier that the halogen or (b) at a part of the spectrum, where the smartphone light sensing array was relatively insensitive compared to the halogen. So I looked at the spectrum display on the camera and found that both lights were peaky (which eliminates (a) but leaves (b) unquantified.

Next I set the camera to manual and 400ASA. The halogen needed 1/5sec at f2.8 to reach a known position on the exposure scale in the viewfinder. It needed 1.3 secs at f2.8 to reach the same position with the LED. Again roughly 6:1


And verifies what the Mk I eyeball was suggesting.

Bottom line ...LEDs are DIM DIM DIM

So they are going back and we've decided that we will stick with the halogen but only bother replacing bulbs on two sides of the house.