options for floodlighting a basketball court?

[jeffcapers]

Hi,
Hope this is the right place to post a question like this, sorry if not!

I'm looking into ways of lighting an outdoor area (basketball court sized) for playing bicycle polo (tennis ball sized ball, so lighting has to be reasonable but not amazing.)

The court is in a park, so any lighting would have to be battery/generator powered, and portable (a bike based trailer might be a possibility for transport..)

Lights would have to operate for at least a couple of hours at a time, preferably longer.

finally, the cheaper the better! would be willing to sacrifice some portability for price..

any suggestions or advice on what the best solution might be? i wouldn't be averse to a home built solution, but it would have to be pretty simple.. i can solder and follow instructions, but that's about it.

thanks!

jeff

ps. i believe you can get balls which contain LEDs, which would mean that poorer lighting might suffice (and be a cheaper option) so any suggestions from that point of view would be appreciated too - i suppose the fact that the whole court needs to be lit at whatever level probably negates any real price savings by going with a lower power.. but i don't know
obviously i'd prefer a proper lighting solution if it was an option.

 

[Random Guy]

Given the fact that you need alot of light, it needs to be highly portable, and you can use a generator, I would recommend those big halogen worklights that you can get at the hardware store. 6 or 7 of those placed around the border of the court should throw a decent amount of light, and be reasonably cheap, depending on the cost of the generator. Assuming that you used 8 lights (one at each corner, and then one at the midpoint of each side of the court), with 250W lamps you would need a generator that could deliver 2000W continuous. Using 500W lamps, that number would jump to 4000W.

 

[JohnR66]

While I don't know the lux level recommended, but proper illumination of sports fields takes lots of light. Several thousands of watts even with high efficiency metal halide lamps. With a rectangular court, Although far from adequate, I'd have 6 lights along each side. I'd use 400 watt metal halide for each fixture. You need the light up as high as possible or the player will have serious glare problems and long shadows on the field.

Not an easy project to pull off.