Lighting of padel courts

Good lighting of the padel court is more important than you think.

Poor lighting on the padel court In fact, it can have quite serious repercussions on the performance of your business:

• can generate complaints from customers, be they spectators or players;
• may be the cause of the disgruntled of the players;
• can significantly limit earnings based on seasonality;
• can do not ensure compliance of the field, based on FIT approval.

Correct lighting of sports facilities

Lighting for sports fields requires recent and efficient technologies, capable of guaranteeing a high level of customization based on the needs of the specific sport, optimizing costs.

Correct lighting of outdoor or indoor sports facilities is essential to ensure the running of competitive events at any level; but What are the real needs of a lighting system for sports?

The lighting of sports facilities must:

• ensure sufficient and uniform lighting (shaded areas on the pitch can affect playing performance);
• avoid dazzling players, the public or any referees;
• provide the possibility – in the case of competitive sporting events – to carry out television or amateur filming;
• being able to host night-time meetings (guaranteeing greater economic return, higher quality of service offered and the image of the sports centre).

How to illuminate padel tracks and courts?

The high speed of the padel game makes visibility of the court and the ball extremely important for both players and spectators.

For this reason, padel court lighting is even more crucial than in other sports: it must be uniform and ensure constant visibility.

At the design stage it is very important to minimize the effects of glare in the lighting system; in fact, during the game of padel – unlike tennis – moves such as the globe and the smash are used much more often, which require the players to look up to follow the trajectory of the ball.

The the arrangement of the headlights on the track it can play a crucial role in the lighting of the padel court: generally it is recommended to position two light points on each side and outside the enclosure.

Padel court lighting: current regulations

The lighting of a sports facility also involves some critical issues, including compliance with the UNE-EN 12193 Standard, which establishes the lighting parameters both at a quantitative level (the degree of illumination and uniformity) and at a qualitative level (the level of glare and color rendering).

Depending on the lighting requirements of the court, there are 3 types of lighting for padel courts:

1. Class I lighting: for high-level competitions, national or international, on large fields, capable of hosting many spectators.
2. Class II lighting: for medium-level competitions, regional and local matches or professional training
3. Class III lighting: for training camps, amateur recreational or play activities and/or physical education.

Current legislation It provides different parameters for each Class depending on whether the lighting is applied to indoor or outdoor padel courts.

For the lighting of indoor padel courts:

• Class I = 750 lx (light level) with uniformity 0,7.
• Class II = 500 lx (light level) with uniformity 0,7.
• Class III = 300 lx (light level) with uniformity 0,5.

For the lighting of outdoor padel courts:

• Class I = 500 lx (light level) with uniformity 0,7.
• Class II = 300 lx (light level) with uniformity 0,7.
• Class III = 200 lx (light level) with uniformity 0,6.

For the approval of gaming facilities such as Tennis, Beach Tennis and Padel, i.e. the sports disciplines managed by the FIT It is also advisable to consult the requirements requested by the Spring tennis (you can find them HERE), with particular attention – as regards lighting – to point A. 12, for the general characteristics of the systems, and A.14 b/c/d for natural lighting of indoor activity spaces, artificial lighting and safety lighting.

LED lighting for padel courts

On a padel court, the height of the roof and lighting fixtures is free, but must be at least 6 m across the entire playing surface; each floodlight tower can therefore accommodate a variable number of high-efficiency floodlights equipped with photometric lenses.

For the lighting of padel courts it is always advisable to choose LED technologies, capable of halving consumption, generating more light and thus making the system compliant with FIT regulations with energy savings of 50/60%.

The LED lighting also allows for immediate resumption of play even in the event of a power outage.

How many lumens do you need for a padel court?

If you choose LED technology, you need to take into account the quantity of Lumens rather than Watts, to trace the quantity of light emitted by each fixture.

In compliance with the aforementioned UNE-EN 12193 standard, different minimum parameters required for horizontal lighting are distinguished, depending on the level of the competition and the positioning of the track, indoors or outdoors.

For example, an amateur outdoor court requires 200 lux of lighting with a uniformity of 0.5, while a professional outdoor court (such as those on the World Padel Tour) requires up to 500 lux and a uniformity of 0.7.

Are you looking for advice on building your padel court?

Contact us and request HERE Your free quote for a new AmarantoIdea field!