These floodlights use tungsten halogen lamps; they are the big brothers of your household security lamps.

They can take up to 1500-watt lamps and so produce a huge quantity of light.

They do use a lot of energy compared to a metal halide or sodium floodlight but they have two great advantages.

Firstly, they provide instant light.

Vital for security or emergency lighting, sodium and metal halide lamps take time to warm up.

Secondly, they can be switched on and off regularly without damaging the lamp or the fitting and they will relight immediately.

Sodium and metal halide lamps need to cool down before they can be turned back on.

So, use tungsten halogen where you need a lot of light instantly for relatively short periods.

The lamps only last for 1000 hours compared with 20.000 for sodium lamps but the lamps are very cheap as are the fittings.