The Best Ways to Light the Jobsite This Winter – A Site Lighting Guide

Winter is coming.

It’s the harsh reality of autumn, and while the changing colours of the landscape may warm the cockles of your heart, the falling temperatures will be matched by shorter days and longer nights. Yeah, not great is it?

So with the darker days just in front of us, it’s time to think about lighting up the jobsite, and answering the question:

How can I make sure my work area is bright during winter?

We’ll take you through some fantastic lighting products, from contractor lights – as seen above – to torches, headlamps and tough LED spot lamps.

What Should I Look for When Choosing Jobsite Lighting?

This is going to depend very much on where you’re working, how many people you’re working with and the type of job you’re doing. However, this is our shortlist of features to consider when choosing jobsite lighting:

• LED Bulbs. These are more power efficient, have longer lives, and run cooler than halogen bulbs
• IP Rating. Keeping the lighting protected from dust ingress and liquid splashes is important. IP44 is the minimum level of protection to look for
• Rugged. As the lights will probably spend time in the back of your van, not to mention a potentially harsh jobsite, make sure the light you’re choosing is designed to take a knock
• Daylight. 6500K lights are going to give you the same colour spectrum as natural daylight. This is preferable as it’s easier on the human eye and doesn’t cast yellow-ish or blue-ish tones all over the room. It’ll make you feel like you’re working during a lovely spring morning, rather than a dark and damp afternoon in January
• Power Supply. Can you live with a light that needs to be plugged in? What about 240V or 110V; which is required on-site? What about battery power and the flexibility this offers you? Weigh these factors up when choosing new jobsite lighting

Contractor lights are usually big boxes of light that cast a broad wash over wherever you’re working. One to consider is the DEFENDER E709278 LED CONTRACTOR FLOOR LIGHT. It requires a 110v power supply, like this one, and, once plugged in, offers two 110v power take-off ports.

It casts 1243 lumens from the LED bulb across a 120º spread. LED is definitely the way to go when choosing jobsite lighting as it’s 90% power efficient than halogen, more durable and runs cooler. The E709278 features a tough frame, polycarbonate diffuser and ABS base, and it folds down for easy transport either across the site or back and forward from the van. Click/tap here to see all the spec and features.

Completely flooding the area you’re working in is often preferable, and that’s where a twin LED jobsite light will be essential. One great example of this type of jobsite lighting is the Defender LEDDF1200 Twin Head Work Light on Telescopic Tripod. As its one a tripod, the LEDDF1200 gives you control over the height of the lighting, from 0.7m up to 1.7m, perfect when you’re working on internal scaffolding. Each of the LED bulbs outputs 1200 lumen, making a combined 2400 lumens, which is plenty bright!

The bright lighting has a 120º spread and you can choose between 240v and 110v plug options. As you’d expect – and require – it’s a tough set up with a rugged tripod and shatter-proof plastic lenses on the bulbs. Click/Tap here to learn more about it.

When you can’t rely 100% on being able to plug your jobsite lighting into a power supply, then it’s time to consider a battery-powered option, such as the Defender E709192 Rechargeable Battery LED Floor Light.

Featuring 120 solid state LEDs provide ultra bright light of 932 lumens, the rechargeable battery will give you around 3 hours of lighting on full beam, and 6 hours on half power. The light spread is 100º which is perfect for when working in tighter areas where you need a concentration of bright light. The E709192 is built tough, with an anti-shock rubber base provides dependable protection and stability, and a tough polycarbonate lens and ABS body withstand knocks and drops. Click/Tap here to learn more about the E709192.

Personal Lighting for On the Jobsite – What Should I Buy?

You may not always need big lights to brighten the entire dark, wintry jobsite, but instead need a torch, headtorch or inspection lamp. So let’s consider some great choices from these categories, starting with torches.

We’ll start with the Nebo NE6525 Slyde+ Dual Led Torch/Light. We’re big fans of this torch, in part because of how rugged it is thanks to the IPX grade body, making it water and dust proof. You have 4 stages of control on the “zoom” of the beam of light from the 300 lumens LED, casting either a pin sharp light or a wide sweep. The torch has a magnetic base and can be turned into an LED inspection lamp. You can see more of it in action below.

This is classed as a tactical torch and it’s a bit of a beast. We’re big fans of it here in the office. Click/Tap here to learn more about the Nebo NE6525.

Click/Tap here to see all the torches available for next day delivery!

When you need personal lighting on the jobsite but also needs your hands free to work, then there’s nothing better than a classic headtorch. Once such model is the Scangrip I-VIEW 160 Lumen COB LED Rechargeable Head Torch.

With a manufacturer promised runtime of 6 hours, the I-VIEW will see you through the day working in those dark and dingy parts of the jobsite, like crawl spaces! A huge benefit of this headtorch is the COB LED, which Scangrip say offers you a uniform beam of bright light across your whole field of view.

Protection-wise the I-VIEW is rated IP65, which is a very high level of water and dust proofing. It can also take a known with IK07 impact protection. The 1600 mAh Li-polymer rechargeable battery powers the 250 Lumen COB LED bulbs for up to 6 hours. Watch the headtorch in action below.

Click/Tap here to see all the details on the Scangrip I-VIEW 160 Lumen COB LED Head Torch.

Lastly, let’s look at inspection lamps. An inspection light is ideal when working under the bonnet of a car or in the back of a dark cabinet, for example. A good starting point inspection lamp-wise, where all the bases are covered in terms of LED light, good runtimes, is Sealey’s LED3601CF.

Putting aside the fact it looks fantastic with its carbon fibre effect finish, it will give you between 3 and 6 hours of runtime, depending on how bright you run the 100 lumens LED bulb. The head swivels through 360º and the rubber coated base is magnetic. The 3.7V 1.5Ah Li-Polymer battery takes around 3 hours to fully charge via Micro USB. Click/Tap here to learn more about the Sealey’s LED3601CF.

Finally, another inspection lamp to consider from Sealey is the LED180 Rechargeable Slim Folding Inspection Lamp.

The design is based around a slimline foldout inspection lamp for use in confined spaces, with 6mm minimum thickness. It features 12 SMD LED‘s which produce up to 400 lumens, operated by a rolling dimmer switch, and a 1W SMD LED in the end for use as a directional torch.

For hands-free use, it has 3 magnets and a hook, and then it folds down really small to slip into your pocket. The rechargeable battery will run for 8 hours before needing a charge. The inspection arm can be rotated through 180º to give you light exactly where you need it. Click/Tap here to learn more about the Sealey LED180 Rechargeable Slim Folding Inspection Lamp.

That’s our guide to jobsite lighting to see you through this dark winter. What do you rely on? Let us know in the comments section below, and be sure to SHARE this your friends on Facebook and Twitter.