38 incandescent PAR 30 lamps at 75 watts would use 2,850 watts of electricity. 38 compact florescent lamps at 15 watts will use 570 watts of electricity.

We are doing this because of the current energy hysteria here in California. In theory we will save just on the cost of lamp replacement. But that theory is blown because we didn’t let the incandescent lamps burn out and thus using their full life. But we also hope to save money by the lobby lights using 20% of the energy that they were using before. Now we don’t expect to see a huge drop in the utility bill because we still have 5 Xenon lamps that can’t be run on less power and we still have 7 HVAC units on the roof and I’m sure they are energy hogs.

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I had to remove a couple of rheostats to install the florescent lamps in the lobby.

Strangely all of the work lights in the booth are on rheostats. When I want work lights I want them on bright!

We will not be using the florescent lamps in the auditoriums.

I have been in one theatre that uses florescent tubes and they are dimmable. It is a rather nice theatre too.

I haven't noticed that they make the food look any different. After all, it's a florescent tube in the popper and the warmers with a yellow filter on it. The color is cooler than with the incondescent but you would have had to know what it looked like before. I'm sure our local taste police will complain; But he complains about everything. There is just a little bit more glare than before.

As for weird light, depends on the lamps you have selected, compact fluorescent and all fluorescent lamps for that matter are avaialable in several different varieties. For general lighting purposes I would suggest selecting a lamp that has a 4100K color temperature and is above 80cri (color rendering index)

The original C.F.'s were 2700K and 70CRI, with electromagnetic ballasts that caused flickering. Not only was this annoying, but you couldn't see a whole lot under this light. Alot of these lamps are still being produced and sold as bargains, so buyer beware.

Fluorescent lighting when applied correctly can be not only a cost savings but a better lighting technolgy all together.

cool, huh?

Josh

This is especially good if you have house lights which are hard to get to for bulb replacement. You wait for one or two to burn out then get the scaffold in and replace them all at once then it's good for several years again.

I like the idea of using DC for incandescent fixtures, especially those that get dimmed a lot. Wonder how I can get (or make) some kind of DC supply to do this made that won't be an occupational hazard....

We now use 50% of the electricity and my light meter says we're 3 times brighter (and evenly lit)!

If you're concerned about strange color temperatures from CF's try some Rosco CTO gels like 3409 or 3408 to balance with incandescent fixtures. Tape into a tube and slide over ... watch out for hot parts of the fixture which will quickly undo your work. We use the same trick to balance Xenon followspots with halogen stage lighting.

Josh

We have them installed in our booth and they do the same thing, turn on and warm up to full brightness.