LED Flood Light

Five series: match the housing to the job, not to the wattage

The five series are not marketing tiers on the same product. They differ in housing material, sealing, driver, optic system and rated life, and the right one is decided by the environment the fixture will live in.

4A slim is the low-cost glass-front unit: a die-cast body sealed with glue to IP65, a tempered-glass reflector and 90 lm/W. It is the correct choice for shop signage, garden walls, residential facades and small forecourts where the fixture is seen from a short distance and is not washed down. 4S keeps the die-cast body but adds a tempered-glass reflector, 130 or 150 lm/W chips and a 100,000-hour rating, which makes it the default for yards, car parks and building facades. FLU is the fully sealed IP66 version of the 30-150W band, with a 60x120° optic and Sosen, Lifud or Meanwell drivers; it is specified where a pressure washer, salt air or food dust is present.

MX is the 100-600W workhorse with interchangeable Type II-V optics, a 270° rotatable bracket, a breathing valve, 4KV surge protection and 0-10V or 1-10V dimming, used on ports, logistics yards and practice fields. 4M is the modular high-power range — 200W to 2000W, 28,000 lm to 340,000 lm per fixture, IP66 IK10 — built for high masts, stadium aprons, mines and industrial plants.

All rows are taken from the published specification tables of the models in this category. CRI is Ra70 as standard on 4S, FLU, MX and 4M, with Ra80 or Ra90 available on request; 4A is Ra80.

How many watts: sizing from the area, not from the lumen number

Flood light sizing starts from the area and the target illuminance, not from the wattage. The workable formula is area = lumens x utilisation factor x light-loss factor ÷ target lux. With a utilisation factor of 0.7 and a light-loss factor of 0.8, the multiplier is 0.56.

Worked example: a 30 x 20 m yard is 600 m². One 100W 4S fixture delivers 13,000 lm, which is 13,000 x 0.56 ÷ 600 = 12 lux over the whole yard. Two fixtures give about 24 lux, which is the normal target for vehicle movement and staff walking routes. If the client wants 30 lux at a loading gate, a third fixture is aimed at the gate rather than added to the general grid.

Mounting height matters as much as wattage. A 120° optic at 4 m spreads a pool about 14 m wide; the same fixture at 10 m spreads it 35 m but at roughly half the illuminance. High masts above 20 m should use the narrow 15°/30° optics of MX or 4M instead of a wide flood.

* Coverage = output x 0.56 ÷ 15 lux, calculated at the lower bound of each model's lumen range. It is a first estimate for flat, open ground with a 120° optic; poles, walls, racking and asymmetric optics change the result. Send the site drawing, pole height and target lux and we return a fixture count with a DIALux, Relux or AGi32 layout.

Replacing metal halide and high-pressure sodium floodlights

A 400W metal halide flood light is not replaced by a 400W LED flood light. The comparison has to be made in delivered lumens, and it has to include the ballast. A 400W metal halide lamp produces about 36,000 lamp lumens, but the lamp plus magnetic ballast draws roughly 440W and loses 15-25% of that output in the luminaire and as lamp depreciation, so the system figure used for replacement is about 26,000 lm at 65 lm/W.

An LED flood light at 130-150 lm/W therefore replaces the old fixture at roughly one third to one half of the wattage, and it holds that output for the life of the fixture rather than dropping 30% in the first two years. The saving on the electricity bill is typically 55-60%, and on a 24-hour port or yard the second saving — lamp changes on a high mast — is usually larger than the first.

Two cautions when quoting a replacement. First, HID luminaires throw light further because the source is small and the reflector is deep; if the old fixture lit a sign 60 m away, the LED replacement needs a 15° or 30° optic, not a 120° flood. Second, check the existing circuit voltage and the pole-top fuse rating before specifying a 277-480V model.

* System lumens use 65 lm/W including ballast losses and lamp depreciation; saving compares LED wattage with lamp plus ballast wattage. Where the old installation is on a dimmed or timed circuit, the metered saving is larger. Confirm the exact equivalent against the lumen column of the model datasheet before ordering.

Beam angles and light distributions

The optic decides where the light lands, and it is the part most often specified wrongly. A narrow beam reaches further but leaves dark gaps between poles; a wide beam is even but wastes light on walls and sky. For flood lighting the practical rule is: distance to the target divided by mounting height gives the beam angle you need, and anything above 45° should be checked on a layout rather than on a datasheet.

Asymmetric optics are the exception worth knowing. A 70x140° lens throws a wide, shallow band along a fence line or a car park edge and cuts the glare that a symmetric flood produces at the property boundary — which is often the actual complaint that starts a retrofit. On the MX series the Type II to Type V distributions come from an IES roadway classification, so a car park can be lit with a Type III or IV instead of a general flood.

Beam angle options per model are listed on each product datasheet. Mixed-optic orders are possible within one model; state the distribution per fixture count on the purchase order.

IP rating, surge, voltage and certification

IP65 and IP66 are not interchangeable on a specification sheet. IP65 protects against water jets from a nozzle; IP66 protects against powerful water jets, which is the grade required for pressure washing, salt spray within 500 m of the coast, and food or beverage plants that hose down equipment. All IP66 ranges here use a breathing valve so that the pressure change during a wash-down cycle does not pull moisture past the gasket.

Surge is the second specification that gets skipped. The MX series carries a 4KV driver as standard; sites with overhead cabling, a history of driver failures after storms, or a utility that requires a higher clamp should state the figure on the enquiry and we quote the matching driver version rather than leaving it to the standard build.

Voltage is the third. A 100-277V driver covers Europe, the Middle East and most of Asia; 277-480V and 100-347V versions are produced for North American industrial and Canadian projects, and the FLU range also runs on 347V and 480V single voltage.

Certificates and test reports are listed on the certificate page. LM-79 photometric files and LM-80 LED data are supplied for most models on request.

Mounting, controls and OEM options

All ranges ship with a bracket; what changes is how much adjustment it gives. The MX bracket rotates through 270°, which lets a fixture be aimed after the pole is up instead of being re-drilled on the ground. The 4M modules are assembled on a frame that accepts 15° to 90° lenses plus a 70x140° asymmetric lens in the same housing, so a high mast can carry two distributions without two part numbers.

For control, MX accepts 0-10V and 1-10V dimming, and photocells are available across the FLU range so that a yard light switches itself and is not left on through the day. Motion sensors are quoted per project rather than as a catalogue option, because the detection pattern has to match the coverage, not the wattage.

OEM and ODM work is done in-house: housing colour, logo, CCT, beam angle, cable length (0.5 m, 1 m, 1.5 m, 2 m as standard), bracket type and packaging. A private-label order normally requires one pre-production sample and a signed artwork approval before the batch is released.

Frequently asked questions

Related ranges: LED stadium lights for sports fields and high masts, LED shoebox lights for car park and roadway poles, UFO high bay lights for indoor warehouses, and wall pack and canopy lights for building perimeters. For conversion maths on a specific field or court, see the guide to 1000W sports light LED replacement.