How Bright Should a Tennis Court Have?

August 18, 2022 Admin

When it comes to lighting tennis courts, many people may wonder how bright the tennis courts should be. In fact, it is not difficult to understand as long as we know the basic principles of tennis court lighting.

What is the standard for measuring the brightness of tennis courts?

One of the practical ways to measure the brightness of a tennis court is to use a lux meter. If you don’t have a physical meter, we can download an app called “Lux Meter” from your app store. If you turn your phone face up, you will be able to measure the lux value of your tennis court.

If you measure the brightness of your tennis court during the day, you might get 30,000 to 80,000 lux, or even 100,000 lux. Therefore, we can understand that the brighter the light is, the higher the lux level is.

At night, depending on the lighting standards of your tennis court, you will get about 200 lux to 1,000 lux of tennis court brightness.

What should the brightness of a tennis court be?

Now back to the question – what is the brightness of a tennis court? The quick answer is that the brightness of a tennis court should be within 200 to 1,000 lux.

Depending on the type of tennis court, there are differences between lux levels. For example, for a casual tennis club we need about 200 to 300 lux, while for hosting international tennis events such as the ATP Tour, Wimbledon, etc., we need about 1,000 lux.

Function of the tennis court	Brightness required	Lumens required
Recreational and training	200 lux to 300 lux	60,000 to 80,000 lumens
Regional tennis matches	400 lux to 750 lux	120,000 to 160,000 lumens
National and international tennis tournaments	up to 1,500 lux	400,000 to 600,000 lumens

From the table above, we can see that we need more tennis courts if the courts are to hold professional tournaments. Therefore, the corresponding lumens required should also increase.

If your tennis court has existing lighting, we can simply put your phone on the surface of the tennis court and see the lux value measured. If it is below 200 lux, we should replace and install some new lighting.

LED tennis court lighting is a better choice because it has a lifespan of over 150,000 hours, so we don’t need to replace the lights as often. In addition, by replacing the metal halide tennis court lights with LEDs, we can save at least 75% to 85% of energy. LED also has better performance than other traditional tennis court lights in terms of anti-glare, dimming ability and operating temperature, so using LED lights is beneficial to tennis court users, owners and spectators.

What if the tennis court lights are too bright?

Not brighter is better, this is because inappropriate brightness can cause many problems. Tennis courts should be too bright because the glare may cause eye discomfort to tennis players and spectators. If we look at the glare for a long time, it can cause eye strain. Some studies have also shown that glare may cause migraines and headaches if tennis courts are lit too brightly.

How can we solve the problem of too bright tennis court lighting?

We can choose the right number of tennis court lighting fixtures and lumens. Generally speaking, recreational tennis courts need 4 to 8 lights, high school tennis courts need 8 to 16 lights, and professional tennis courts need 100 lights. If you need more information about tennis court lighting lumens, please don’t hesitate to contact our engineers for a free lighting consultation.

What if the lighting of a tennis court is too dark?

Too dark tennis court lighting means lux levels are below 200 lux, which would be quite undesirable, as too dark lighting can also cause eye strain. In addition, tennis players and spectators may not be able to see the fast-moving tennis balls clearly, thus affecting the overall experience of the tennis match. Although a dimly lit tennis court consumes less power, it is not the best lighting design for a tennis court. We should keep the lux and lumens of tennis court lighting within a specific range.