Security floodlights fall in to two categories one being domestic / household the other being commercial / industrial. The most obvious difference being the size and power of the floodlight.
The most commonly found domestic floodlight is the standard 500 watt PIR tungsten halogen floodlight. This floodlight whilst being bright is far from perfect for normal domestic use.
When using a 500 watt lamp this fitting is costly in consumption cost and lamp cost, the reason being the lamp gets too hot in most enclosed fittings and shortens lamp life (These lamps have an expected lamp life of between 1500-2000 hours) but in reality this can be reduced to 500 hours. Running cost for this floodlight are high at around 5 pence an hour considering this lamp only produces around 18 lumens per watt which falls well below the 40 lumens per watt for energy efficient lighting standards. Over the last few years due to spiraling energy costs and more concern for environmental issues a demand for low energy floodlights with a long life lamp has emerged.
A number of solutions meet this requirement, the best suited to domestic use being compact fluorescent lamp models, while not being as bright as the 500 watt tungsten halogen lamp versions these are more more suited for domestic use. One of the easiest ways to change to CFL lighting is a retro fit lamp for standard 118mm tungsten halogen lamps. This lamp is a 24 watt model about the equivalent of 120-150 watt halogen lamp which is adequate to light up a patio area for general illumination.
The running costs for this lamp is 95% lower compared a 500w halogen lamp with cost as low as 0.003p per hour and an environmentally friendly 52 lumens per watt. One the most popular CFL floodlights is the 2 x 26W PLC version which has a light output comparable to 300 watts halogen.
The main advantage of CFL's is the running cost and extended lamp life which can be anything from 8,000 hours to 20,000 hours depending on lamp and ballast combination. Another advantage of CFL's is the option to change the lamp color from a soft warm white (2700k) which is ideal for summer evening barbeques or a standard white (3500K) which is suited to general illumination and also available are cool white (4000K) and daylight (64000k) which are best suited for use with CCTV use (more about this can be found in the commercial industrial section). One of the recent developments in floodlights is LED technology, these floodlight are now appearing on the domestic market and although they have an initial higher cost this is offset by running costs and lamp life. A floodlight with a 160 LED cluster uses only 8.5 watts of power to produce XXX lux along with an expected lamp life of 50,000 hours making this extremely economical to run. LED lighting is surely the one to watch in for future as it is improving rapidly.
Copyright (c) 2009 Richard D Earl
