I just put bright 8mm leds in a Lionel floodlight tower with good results. I used these-151187143491-which are 8mm warm white wide angle high power .5w leds. They are rated at 35 lumens. These- 390924538180- are the same specs but rated at 100,000 mcd. According to the calculator I found they are 10 times brighter. I used the first ones because they were half the price. Can they be that much brighter with both being .5w 100ma leds? You can Google the numbers for the specs.
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For a floodlight you are interested in illumination (vs. narrow/focused lighting which would be indication). Hence the relevant metric in choosing your LED is Lumens per Watt. Your first LED is 35 lumens for 0.5W or 70 Lumens/Watt. That's actually pretty good for hobby-grade LED. I seriously doubt that second LED is 10 times that or 700 Lumens/Watt which they can't achieve in a lab environment (yet!). Note a typical incandescent bulb might be, say, 15 Lumens/Watt.
You've probably heard the expression, "there are lies, **** lies, and statistics." To that list I add LED mcd ratings! You probably plugged some mcd numbers, and beam angles, or whatever into that LED calculator. I'm sure you can get all kinds of opinions about this but for floodlighting, I think the goal should be to maximize your Lumens per Watt - and if you're getting 70 Lumens/Watt you're in good shape.
I followed Dale H's instructions and they really look good. Thanks for the help.
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