Skip to content
| ZGSM
  • Home
  • About usExpand
    • Company Profile
    • Warranty term
    • Blogs
    • News
    • Privacy Policy
  • ProductsExpand
    • LED Street Light

      Solar Street Light

      Led Flood Light

      Solar Flood Light

      LED High Bay Light

      High Mast Light

      red green yellow LED Traffic Light

      LED Traffic Light

      tunnel lights

      LED Tunnel Light

      LED Garden Light

      LED Canopy Light

      Led Bollard Light

      adapter

      Lighting Accessories

  • SolutionExpand
    • Smart Systems

      Smart Systems

      Simulation Design

      Smart Financing

      Smart Financing

  • Applications
  • Case Studies
  • Videos
  • Contact
  • ENExpand
    • FR
    • ES
    • RU
| ZGSM

Floodlight or spotlight?

Floodlight or spotlight?

table of Contents
  1. Introduction
  2. What are floodlight and spotlight?
  3. What's the difference between floodlight and spotlight?
    1. Beam angle
    2. Beam width
    3. Wattage
    4. Application
    5. Below is the summary table regarding the difference between floodlights and spotlights
  4. Which factors should be paid more attention to when we choose LED floodlight and spotlight?
    1. Beam angle
    2. Wattage
    3. CRI
    4. Other factors
  5. Summary
  6. Rated Products
  7. Related Blogs
  8. Related Cases
  9. People also ask
  10. Author introduction

Introduction

Today, LED lamps are used in a wide variety of applications, including streets, retail stores, warehouses, parking lots, plazas, exhibition halls, stadiums, and more. To obtain better lighting effects, a combination of different types of LED lamps may be used in a single application. Floodlights and spotlights are popular choices for lighting needs due to their high efficiency and low energy consumption. But it seems that people often confuse the difference between floodlights and spotlights. You may also be wondering which light is more suitable for your application scenario. We would like to introduce what floodlights and spotlights are, how they differ, and how to choose them for your lighting project. Hope this article helps you.

What are floodlight and spotlight?

Floodlights generally have a wider beam distribution and are usually used when wider illuminance is required. The beam distribution usually exceeds 45 degrees and can reach up to about 120 degrees. Floodlights create a highly diffuse, non-directional light rather than a well-defined beam, resulting in soft and transparent shadows. Due to the wider beam angle, larger spaces can be illuminated. Such as lighting in the surrounding area of the factory, gardens ( Please review case studies of Garden Flood Lights. ) , billboards, stadiums, etc.

Spotlights are lamps that are used to specify that the illumination on the illuminated surface is higher than that of the surrounding environment. In contrast to LED floodlights ( Please review case studies of LED flood lamp. ) , the beam distribution generally does not exceed 45 degrees. Spotlights project a directional, well-defined beam of light that illuminates a specific area. For example, if you install light fixtures to highlight your favorite landscape features, spotlights are required while floodlights are generally not an option at this time. Spotlight’s application scenarios include architectural decorative lighting, commercial space lighting, and places with heavy decorative components.

If you find it hard to remember the concept of floodlights and spotlights, keep this in mind: a floodlight illuminates an area with a wide beam, while a spotlight illuminates a specific point with a narrow beam. This might come in handy when creating your lighting plans.

What’s the difference between floodlight and spotlight?

Through our understanding of the concept of floodlights and spotlights, we can also know the approximate difference between them. They include beam angle, beam width, and application. Other than these, the wattage I think is also a difference between them.

Beam angle

LED flood light can diffuse light with a beam angle of up to 120 degrees. It can illuminate a larger amount of space with the same wattage and lumen output as a spotlight.

LED spotlights to emit a very narrow beam, usually no more than 45 degrees. This beam angle is more focused and easier to control and aim.

Spot vs flood
Beam angle

Beam width

To know how wide my light’s beam will be from a certain distance away. This matters to beam width. Knowing the width of a light’s beam in degrees isn’t always helpful, while it would be much easier to know the beam width in feet or meters, from a given distance away. Luckily, there’s a simple formula that can help you figure this out:

Angle of Beam x 0.018 x Distance from Light = Beam Width

So, if you have a 90 degree 100W floodlight, and want to know how wide the beam will be from 10 feet away, just do the math:

90 degrees x 0.018 x 10 feet = 16.2 feet wide=4.89 meters wide

If you have a 25-degree spotlight and want to know how wide the beam will be from 10 feet away, here’s how you calculate it:

25 degrees x 0.018 x 10 feet = 4.5 feet wide=1.36 meters

Beam width

Wattage

Floodlights are normally with a higher wattage than spotlights. Below is the common wattage for floodlight and spotlight.

  • Floodlight, 10W, 20W, 50W, 100W, 150W, 200W, 300W, 500W, 750W, 1000W or even more.
  • Spotlight, 6W, 9W, 12W, 15W, 18W, normally less than 20W.

What’s the best wattage for outdoor flood lights? Floodlights with different wattages have different application scenarios. Of course, floodlights with different wattages can also apply to the same application scenarios through the proper lighting arrangement. So below we list the recommended application places for floodlights of different wattages.

LED WattageLumensTypical UseArea Covered
10W1,200lmGateway and Patio Area5m x 5m
20W2,500lmDriveway5m x 20m
30W4,000lmSmall Garden10m x 10m
50W6,000lmMedium Garden15m x 15m
100W12,000lmLarge Garden20m x 20m
150W18,000lmParking Lot20m x 40m
200W25,000lmSquare and intersection30m x 30m
300-400W40,000-50,000lmSmall sports fieldAs per lighting design
>400W>50,000lmLarge docks, transit center, football pitch and other large sports fieldsAs per lighting design
Best wattage for outdoor flood lights

Application

When larger areas, such as driveways, stages, warehouses, parking lots, or any other areas should be illuminated, you can use LED light with a wide beam angle which is with broad beam width and even light coverage.

When specific points such as display objects, wall art, architectural details, or landscape features should be lighted, you can choose LED light with a small beam angle.

In our opinion when an area should be lighted, the LED light with a narrow beam angle (spotlight) or wide beam angle(floodlight) can be used together so this area can be lighted with good uniformity. For example, when doing lighting design for a football pitch, a stadium, or a port, we can use both LED flood light and LED spotlight (We call LED stadium light).

Flood lighting project

Below is the summary table regarding the difference between floodlights and spotlights

LED Flood LightLED Spot Light
Beam angle45-180°Less than 45°
Beam widthBroadNarrow
WattageNormally less than 20W10w to 1000W or even more
Applicationdriveways, stages, warehouses, parking lots, sports fieldWall artwork, architectural details, or landscape features

Which factors should be paid more attention to when we choose LED floodlight and spotlight?

Beam angle

In general, if you need to illuminate a large area, it is best to choose a larger beam angle. Instead, if you only need to illuminate a specific area, choose a narrow beam angle.

But in practical applications, we also need to pay attention to the distance between the light source and the illuminating surface. In the beam width section, we have already mentioned that the beam width is proportional to the installation distance. For the floodlight, its installation height directly determines its irradiation range. If we install a ZGSM Zoom series 200W floodlight (90°) on a tennis court with a pile height of 10 meters, its beam width (irradiation range) is 20 meters diameter circle. For a tennis court that is only 10.97 meters wide, this means that a lot of lights are outside the tennis court. So, our lighting design is a failure. Therefore, the beam angle should be determined according to the actual application. For this tennis court, we need Zoom with a 25° or 60° beam angle. If you want to know how to choose the beam angle for a tennis court or other sports field, please contact us. Or please check “Find right sports lighting fixtures for your sports complex” to find more.

Wattage

When introducing the difference between floodlight and spotlight, we mentioned that the spotlight generally has a lower wattage, while floodlight has a wider wattage. If we need to illuminate a stadium now, would you choose a spotlight? You may think that since the spotlight has a narrow beam angle, it should be able to illuminate the sports pitch. ZGSM has done a similar test. When a 20W spotlight is installed at a height of 10 meters, the average illuminance in the area of ​​5*5m below it is only 50lux, which is obviously not enough for stadium lighting. The reason is that the wattage of the spotlight is too low. Therefore, we need floodlights with high wattage. For example, ZGSM 100W Zoom floodlight with a 25° beam angle, its average illuminance (​​5*5m area below the floodlight) is 200lux, while for a 400W Zoom floodlight, its average illuminance is 800lux, which can meet the stadium lighting requirements. But if it is for landscape lighting (such as TV background wall, wall lighting), we think a 20W spotlight is ok.

CRI

Spotlight usually requires a high color rendering index, because the spotlight is usually applied to illuminate specific display objects, architectural details landscape features, so it is best to use CRI80 or above to better display the color of the object itself.

However, floodlights with CRI70 are enough for most applications. But sometimes, for sports field lighting or stadium lighting, we need high CRI to get a good visual effect. For example, in a tennis court field that has a TV broadcast, we normally need a higher CRI. Check tennis court lighting.

Other factors

Besides beam angle, wattage, and CRI, the luminous efficiency, heat dissipation, waterproof and dustproof, flickering issue, CCT, lighting uniformity, and warranty are also should be considered. We will discuss this for LED floodlights in our other articles.

Summary

The choice of floodlights or spotlights depends on your needs. Note that floodlights and spotlights sometimes cannot be used alone. The combination of floodlights and spotlights has its own advantages and disadvantages, which are more conducive to improving the lighting effect and increasing the visual effect. Each part of a lighting project has its own lighting requirements. For example, the halls and aisles of a gallery need to be flooded, uniform lighting to illuminate the space, but the artwork needs sharper lighting to differentiate it from the background. Therefore, understanding your lighting needs is very important to your choice. Figure out what lighting effects you really want, and then decide on the right fixture for your application.

Rated Products

ATEX approved LED Flood Light

Series Primo ATEX approved LED Flood Light

Driverless Led Floodlight

Series Stellar Driverless Led Floodlight

landscape flood light

Series HB modular design Outdoor Flood Lights

led flood

Series ZOOM Tool-less Led Flood Light

led high bay lights 200w

Series H Modular Design High Bay Led Light

Series FL10 LED Mast Light with High-Power Luminaires

Related Blogs

Tennis court lighting

Find a solution for your sports field – Tennis court lighting

TagsSports Field Lighting
led driver

How to choose the right LED driver for your LED light?

TagsLED Driver
IP rating

IP rating-important factor of LED lights

TagsIP rating

How to Calculate Lighting Uniformity?

TagsFlood Light

Class I vs Class II vs Class III, or Class 1 vs Class 2

TagsClass rating

How Long do Led Lights Last ?

TagsLifetime
something about leds

Something you should know about LEDs

TagsLEDs
ik rating

IK rating-important factor of LED light

TagsIK

Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Power and Solar Street Lights

TagsSolar Street Light
things about led street light

Several things you need to know about LED Street Light

TagsLED Street Light

Related Cases

outdoor flood lights for Billboard

Series HB flood light lamp for warehouse lighting and Series J outdoor field lights for Billboard in Finland

best outdoor flood lights

Series H best outdoor flood lights for Football field lighting in Indonesia

street lighting luminaires for road

Series H floodlight and street lighting luminaires for road and building lighting in Indonesia

LED Flood Light

Series HB LED flood light in a shipyard of Croatia

floodlight for lighting Highway bridge

Best 60W Outdoor Floodlight Supplier for Highway Bridge in Slovakia

led outdoor wall mount flood light

Series H flood light fixtures for area lighting in Israel

50 watt led flood light for building lighting in The Czech republic

Series HB 50 watt led flood light for building lighting in The Czech republic

led sensor flood lights

Series HB led floodlight for roadway lighting in the Czech Republic

Series H outdoor led flood light Fixtures

Series H outdoor flood light fixtures In Asian Terminal Block 143 Container Warehouse Expansion in the Philippines

led outdoor flood light in the bus station in Ecuador

Series H led outdoor flood light in the bus station in Ecuador

People also ask

Applications
Bridge Night scape lighting, gas station and the parking lot lighting, landscape lighting, fountain lighting, stage lighting, billboards light, advertising board lighting, greenery landscape lighting, tunnel lighting; hotel, facilities a culture lamp lighting and other specialized facilities, lighting, bar, stage and other entertainment venues atmosphere lighting.
Energy efficient
In the same brightness, it can save 90% electricity compared with common filament lamp.
Long lifespan
Theoretically, the lifespan can reach more than 50000H while the lifespan of filament lamp is more than 3000H.
Healthy light
No (UV IR) radiation, no pollution and no radiation.
Green and environment protection
No Hg and other heavy metal in high power LED, recyclable, no pollution and electromagnetic interference.
Eyes protecting
It adopts the isolated low-voltage constant current driver, no flash while the common lamps all use DC driver which will inevitably strobe and do harm to the eyes.
High luminous efficiency
Small heat 90% electric energy of LED light can transfer into visible light while the common filament lamp only transfer 20% with 80% transferring to heat energy.
Highly secure
The voltage and current is small, small radiation , do not have potential safety hazard. It can be used in mine field and other danger places.
Wide application
Easy to install and low maintenance cost.

The price of a led floodlight is determined by its quality, which is determined by heat dissipation and the impact of LED Chips, power supply, and shell on heat dissipation.
Choosing constant current power supply
On the market, floodlight power supplies may be classified as constant current drive or linear drive. Constant current power supply is much more expensive than linear power supply.
Why choose constant current drive?
According to the V/A characteristic of the LED chip, a little change in the input voltage of the power supply would increase the current flowing through the LED chip, resulting in a temperature rise.
Constant current drive is the optimal approach for preventing the temperature increase produced by the power source. To maintain the current running through the LED constant, so as to guarantee the LED beads’ longevity and light degradation
Choosing high performance aluminum shell
Radiator, glass cover, reflector, and an aluminum substrate constitute the shell. The performance of the projection lamp’s heat dissipation will impact the lamp’s attenuation. The fundamental criteria for selecting shells are as follows: Die-casting using all-aluminum materials and specific treatment technologies should be used to create a surface that is resistant to humidity, heat, salt spray, acid-alkali corrosion, water resistance, and dust resistance. In addition, the optimal shell should be chosen based on the overall structure of the light source and the characteristics of heat dissipation.

The ambient temperature may contribute to an LED lamp’s premature demise before its specified lifetime. Insufficient heat dissipation might cause the LEDs in the light to overheat and fail if the surrounding temperature is very hot.

LED flood lights produce heat. However, compared to traditional incandescent or fluorescent lamps, LEDs generate less heat, which can better save energy and maintain ambient temperature. In addition, most LED flood lights are equipped with radiators, which can effectively dissipate heat and maintain the long-term stability of the lamps.

Author introduction

About the author
Author

Hello Customers,

My name is Taylor Gong, I’m the product manager of ZGSM Tech. I have been in the LED lights industry for more than 13 years. Good at lighting design, street light system configuration, and bidding technology support. Feel free to contact us. I’m happy to provide you with the best service and products.

Email: [email protected] | WhatsApp: +8615068758483

  • Mail
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest


Post Tags: #Flood Light

Get In Touch

We're always excited about your message,
so feel free to get in touch, we will reply to you ASAP.

Category

LED Street Light
LED Flood Light
LED High Bay Light
LED Canopy Light
LED Garden Light
Solar Street Light
High Mast Light
LED Traffic Light
Lighting Accessories

Don't Want to Miss Anything?

Be the first to get updates and information about products and services.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

© 2005 - 2025 · ZGSM Tech Warranty Terms | Privacy

Language Selection ES | FR | RU

  • Home
  • About us
    • Company Profile
    • Warranty term
    • Blogs
    • News
    • Privacy Policy
  • Products
    • LED Street Light

      Solar Street Light

      Led Flood Light

      Solar Flood Light

      LED High Bay Light

      High Mast Light

      red green yellow LED Traffic Light

      LED Traffic Light

      tunnel lights

      LED Tunnel Light

      LED Garden Light

      LED Canopy Light

      Led Bollard Light

      adapter

      Lighting Accessories

  • Solution
    • Smart Systems

      Smart Systems

      Simulation Design

      Smart Financing

      Smart Financing

  • Applications
  • Case Studies
  • Videos
  • Contact
Search