Is anyone here using LED lights for their Outdoor Arena? What kind/wattage equivalent/etc.? I want to add more lights to our arena, but want to use LEDs to keep the energy consumption down.
We have them.
I love them.
I do not remeber the specs.
Thank you for bringing this up! I am researching this right now also! I have two security lights (front and back of barn) which I want to replace to LED’s then I can add another one or two so the outdoor arena will be rideable in the evenings. The one I’m looking at is rated over 8000 lumens and can’t for the life of me remember the website. We looked at the usual box stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.) but I wanted something brighter than they offered.
I have the papers at home and if you are interested, I can let you know tomorrow.
Sweet! Yes, I’m willing to spend a bit for more output per light. We got the Halogens that we have now at Home Depot, I need to go back and see if I can find out how many Lumens those are rated for to compare.
All the ones from Home Depot and Lowes and Menards are rated much lower than 8000. The highest I saw was 3150. The height of the light fixture also determines how much area it lights up. I googled LED area lights various ways and eventually found the one with 8000 lumens (took me about 45 minutes but I’m not very busy at work…:lol:) That’s why I can’t remember which one I actually printed out and took home.
It was around $130 and DH and I will talk about it this weekend and see if we buy just one and try it out by replacing one of the existing dusk to dawn lights. If good, we can get more and then put a couple on the side of the barn that overlooks the outdoor arena. DH said he can put a switch on it so I can turn it on and off. Don’t need that area lit up all night.
So I messed up with the numbers. The one I was looking at was rated at 4200 lumens and DH just said it wasn’t bright enough. This was the one I was looking at: http://www.ledlightingwholesaleinc.com/WestGate-Area-Light-w-Nema-Twist-Lock-Photocell-p/lr-50-p.htm. However, there are others there that are much higher lumens so I’m back to researching…
Please keep in mind that it’s not just about light-output. Consider the light pattern, too. For arena lighting, you have a “flood” application and a wider light pattern from the lamp is more appropriate than something with a narrower light pattern that is more for “spot” lighting. The combination of the wider light spread where you can have smooth overlap makes for a more consistent lighted environment in the arena. This applies to any kind of lamp technology including LED.
I’d like them, but I currently have 16 500W halogens that are cheap to buy and put out about 10000 lumens each. Replacing them with similarly effective LED fixtures would cost a fortune.
The halogens are expensive to run, but for home use that does not really matter. Their real problem is they need replacing frequently and that’s a pain for high mounted lights. LEDs would last much longer.
We ended up getting 6 of these:
http://thediyoutlet.com/products/100w-led-waterproof-flood-light-fixture-warm-white
One is on each short end, facing in, and 2 are on each long side (alternating sides to eliminate shadows). I LOVE them!!! Only 100w usage each, 10,000 lumens. Our arena is 70’x140’
Thank you! I was hoping for an update as I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t too expensive but had adequate lighting.
[QUOTE=Blacktree;8433984]
We ended up getting 6 of these:
http://thediyoutlet.com/products/100w-led-waterproof-flood-light-fixture-warm-white
One is on each short end, facing in, and 2 are on each long side (alternating sides to eliminate shadows). I LOVE them!!! Only 100w usage each, 10,000 lumens. Our arena is 70’x140’[/QUOTE]
Do you have them on the ground or mounted higher up? My current outdoor arena doesn’t have any posts yet so I’d have to either secure them to the pvc fencing or put them on the ground and angle them up, but I think that would impair the horse’s vision either way
10000 lumens down near eye level will absolutely blind you. Floodlights need to be up on poles.
That’s what I figured, the best I could do would be to mount them on the barn which overlooks the arena but even that I feel would be too low.
Black tree, high high did you mount your lights? What did you use for poles? Is the light output enough for jumping or flatworm only? Thanks!
[QUOTE=ElementFarm;8434475]
Is the light output enough for jumping or flatworm only?[/QUOTE]
How much light does a flatworm need? 
2 Likes
We mounted them on boards and attached them to tall trees that surround our arena. They are about 20 feet up I’d guess. I am able to do flatwork and jumping, but I did decide to paint my formerly natural poles white to increase their contrast with our dark rubber footing. It probably wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to be as safe as possible. I also am careful to only set fences with clear groundlines when jumping at night. I have been able to teach lessons at night, too. A life saver this far north where our winter days get so short!
I recently installed these lights (link below) in my 100x220 arena, they work great and cost approximately $300 a year to run thats considering I only use them about 10-12hrs a week. There is plenty of light for flatting & jumping I can PM a picture of what they look like on if your interested. they are meant for tennis court lighting.
The total costs installed was $1,800 for lights $500 for crane lift with bucket poles were already there so not sure of exactly what that would cost) Labor was done by my guys and mounting supplies junction boxes and cabling were about $400 for a total of $2700 I think they are fantastic. In my area I was quoted no less than 7-10k for stadium lighting on my existing poles.
Hope this info helps I am very happy with how they look!
I’m still trying to decide which ones work best for me so I’d love it if you guys could post pictures of the arenas with the lights on so I can see the light spread.
An idea to consider- Your utility may have a program to sell and install their used utility poles.
Our power company came out and installed a 30ft light pole (even though it was on our side of the meter) for I think $325 or 350? We have a rural electrical cooperative, it’s probably different for folks with a for-profit utility. But anyway, worth asking if they have a program to sell & install poles. You’d still need the electrician, of course.
This lighting chart might help folks who are in the layout/design phase:
http://www.residential-landscape-lighting-design.com/store/images/HORSE02-01.jpg
It uses metal halide but it sh be easy to find out the LED equivalent of the MH fixtures
[QUOTE=HungarianHippo;8439582]
An idea to consider- Your utility may have a program to sell and install their used utility poles.
Our power company came out and installed a 30ft light pole (even though it was on our side of the meter) for I think $325 or 350? We have a rural electrical cooperative, it’s probably different for folks with a for-profit utility. But anyway, worth asking if they have a program to sell & install poles. You’d still need the electrician, of course.
This lighting chart might help folks who are in the layout/design phase:
http://www.residential-landscape-lighting-design.com/store/images/HORSE02-01.jpg
It uses metal halide but it sh be easy to find out the LED equivalent of the MH fixtures[/QUOTE]
HungarianHippo, is your light pole 30’ long, or 30’ above the ground once installed?$325 to install? I’m jealous. Our outdoor arena lighting got put on hold because the quotes I got is more like $1000 per pole (just the pole, no lights, and certainly no electrician). Also, it looks like you install three lights on each pole?
