Lumen is a measurement for light, but what exactly is it? And, what sort of lumens are recommended for outdoor flood lights? Besides, how many lumens are recommended? And how many lights should you use? Let’s find out.
What is a Lumen?
A lumen is the unit of light, it’s measured by the visible light emitted by the source. The purpose of this unit is to quantify the brightness that a human eye can perceive from a specific light source. For example, 1 candle emits around 1 candela of luminous intensity.
In lumen units, it’s 12.57 lumens, as seen by the human eye. However, a flood light is usually around 500-2000 lumens, which makes it one of the brightest consumer lights available.
How Many Lumens are recommended?
There’s an easy way to understand how many lumens will be needed for a space. One of the easiest equations is used by experts like Hyperlite, who measure the light requirement based on the space’s square foot measurement.
In other words, every square foot needs at least 10-20 lumen of lighting. So, let’s say there’s a 100-square-foot room, then it’ll need around 1000-2000 lumens to illuminate the space. However, the watts consumed by such lights can be a bit much, but we’ll come to that later.
Now, porch light is ideally between 800-1200 lumens, but some porches or outdoor areas require more than one or two such lights. So, it comes down to the space, square footage, and necessary lighting needed.
How Many Lights Should Be Used?
It depends on the space, the amount of illumination needed, and the type of light the homeowners find more suitable. For instance, Incandescent Lights take the most wattage, with 100 watts for 1600 lumens. Comparatively, LED lights only consume about 22 Watts.
| Lumens | LED | CLF | Halogen | Incandescent Lights |
| 1600 | 22 Watts | 26 Watts | 72 Watts | 100 Watts |
| 1100 | 20 Watts | 23 Watts | 53 Watts | 75 Watts |
| 800 | 12 Watts | 15 Watts | 43 Watts | 60 Watts |
| 450 | 9 Watts | 11 Watts | 29 Watts | 40 Watts |
As seen in the above table, LED lights consume the least power for most illumination. So, the cost ratio of LED light is much better compared to other options. So, let’s say a warehouse is using Halogen light, then something like Hyperlite UFO high bay LED lights would be much more affordable for them.
On the other hand, if someone is using CLF as outdoor flood lights, then any of the high-quality outdoor flood lights at Hyperlite would be a much better choice. But, to answer the main question, here is how many lights are plausible:
- Pathway lighting – 4 lights
- Patio or deck lighting – 6 to 8 lights
- Garden or landscaping lighting – 5 to 10
- Security lighting – 2 floodlights
- Outdoor entertaining area – 8 to 12 lights for ambiance
- Driveway lighting – 2 to 4 lights
- Pool area lighting – 4 to 6 lights
- Garage or carport lighting – 1 to 2 lights
These are usually the ideal number of lights for each outdoor space. However, depending on the ambiance and lighting requirements, more lights could be added. But, in most cases, these are the ideal number of lighting fixtures.
Recommended Options
There are quite a few lighting fixtures that stand out as the best option. The ones we mentioned earlier from Hyperlite are great, but there are quite a few other options too, such as:
- Hyperlite Led Flood Light – Mars Series
- Hyperlite LED Flood Light – Sirius Series
- Hyperlite LED Flood Light with Photo Cell – Mars Series
- Hyperlite LED Flood Light with Photo Cell – Mars Series (2 Pack)
These are the top/best outdoor flood lights that homeowners or commercial places can use today. And these are the best options, as they won’t have a lot of electricity and provide a lot of lumens.
Conclusion
These are some of the key things to understand about LED lumens and how many floodlights might be needed for an outdoor space. So, it comes down to the nature of the space, the lights needed, and affordability.