Interesting Power Consumption Article

There goes my argument "we'll be saving electricity" as justifying $30,000 in LED's


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So, the buildings water heaters take over twice as much power to run then the whole stage lighting system!
I love the fact that this study was done. People tend to be under the false impression that since the total numbers are so high on stage, that the lion's share of power consumption must be the stage lighting system. The tend to forget that most of the time, the stage sits in darkness, and that even during a show only a small percentage of the equipment is in use at any given time. The power handling equipment provides the visual, but in truth, keeping the filters clean in the HVAC would probably affect the electric bill more than eliminating the full stage lighting system!
 
While the article does a good job of debunking some of the myths around green lighting, it admits that it is not a definitive guide for all venues. The relative contribution of stage lighting to the electricity cost is going to vary significantly between venues. Geographic location plays a major role too.

The article also fails to consider the rising costs of electricity. In the past decade, electricity costs in my jurisdiction have risen 65% from 2000 to 2010 and are projected to increase an additional 42% by 2015. The situation is worse for theatres since the bulk of that 42% comes from increases in off-peak billing, the time when stage lighting is most likely to be in use.

Neglecting the reduced usage, my facility shed 40 kW of potential peak power by switching to LED. This brings us under a significant threshold for demand billing. Avoiding that charge alone pays for half a fixture for every month we stay under the billing threshold.

I think the most important advice in the article is to justify the new technology for artistic reasons.
 
Read this article about two weeks ago, and have been spreading it around, too. It's great information for anyone managing a performance space.

Anyone else looking into this kind of study after reading this?
 
25 or so years ago I proposed a study of lighting system feeders and it was funded by USITT. I don't know what happened but somewhere there's an Amprobe recording meter.

I'm not sure I can endorse the study but it is a great resource and I'm not surprised they find stage lighting is a small part.
 
There goes my argument "we'll be saving electricity" as justifying $30,000 in LED's


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I would actually like to see the same study done in a place like yours or mine Steve. I have a feeling the results would be a bit different. Not saying they would be a much higher, but the total load would be higher.

I actually do have metering on my company switches onstage. I don't have metering on my dimmers.
 
Interesting and relevant. I'll check my 176-seat venue. It's possible that we have stage and house lighting on one meter and everything else on a second meter. I need to check the panel again. Our highest usage is clearly the electric heat (desert SW) and AC. I would guess that house lights comes in higher usage than stage lights. We have a plan to switch house over to LED. I think I can do a pure cost argument for that. I agree that stage lighting choices should be driven by art not cost. Maybe half our instruments are for wash. The other half will stay Source4 ellipsoidal for a loooong time. LED for wash will save labor and make productions both easier and prettier. The LEDs will be out of date before they pay for themselves by electricity savings.
 
While the article does a good job of debunking some of the myths around green lighting, it admits that it is not a definitive guide for all venues. The relative contribution of stage lighting to the electricity cost is going to vary significantly between venues. Geographic location plays a major role too.

The article also fails to consider the rising costs of electricity. In the past decade, electricity costs in my jurisdiction have risen 65% from 2000 to 2010 and are projected to increase an additional 42% by 2015. The situation is worse for theatres since the bulk of that 42% comes from increases in off-peak billing, the time when stage lighting is most likely to be in use.

Neglecting the reduced usage, my facility shed 40 kW of potential peak power by switching to LED. This brings us under a significant threshold for demand billing. Avoiding that charge alone pays for half a fixture for every month we stay under the billing threshold.

I think the most important advice in the article is to justify the new technology for artistic reasons.

Demand metering is a good point. For those unfamiliar, with this billing technique, your billing is based (in part) on the highest demand you registered within a given billing period. Thus, the brief "full wash" could be a budget killer. There are many variations on this type of system. I remember the first one I saw back in the 70's where an indoor meter had a chart recorder next to it. A real "head scratcher!"
 
Interesting. Nice to see that it mentioned Seattle's low energy costs and much milder climate than the rest of the country. One thing that I didn't see is that over 98% of Seattle's City Light's fuel mix is renewable or nuclear, so any energy savings is for reducing the bill and not the peace of mind with reduced greenhouse gases as many like to hope.

If this was to be done in a school theater, the slice must be a line with another little line to cover AC use. Only theaters, computer labs, and kitchens get AC provided in new school construction.
 
I would actually like to see the same study done in a place like yours or mine Steve. I have a feeling the results would be a bit different. Not saying they would be a much higher, but the total load would be higher.

I actually do have metering on my company switches onstage. I don't have metering on my dimmers.

We did have a one-month meter test done about 2 years ago, on our entire building. Of course they didn't actually ask us which month would see the highest usage of the stage lighting, so they metered in January, when we were dark for 2 weeks. Sigh.

So that told us little, except they used that info to add a 600 amp, 3 phase service to the main 3,000 amp SE.

My demand load of all stage and work lighting, as well as house lighting, is around 820 amps per phase for the 2400 seat theater That does not include HVAC or audio, nor the company switches, but if my company switches were in use, then parts of the house systems are dead.

I suspect that typical usage would be similar to Seattle Rep's usage patterns at around 20% and then not for multiple days of events for shows running "in rep", as we do one-off's.

As well, the performing arts center does not actually pay for the electricity we use. The buildings are metered separately from others on campus, but the college pays the bill, which in any event and as a State of NY entity, is NY Power Authority, not Con-Ed.

Thus no push to go green in this building. In the new facility under construction - yes, totally green, but that's just being compliant with building codes for NYC.

Thus I cannot make the case in the current spaces to go LED, at least for power saving reasons.
 
Thus no push to go green in this building.

And around here if it ain't an LED, they (NYS Office of General Services/Our landlord) are not buying it. I've been working to get rid of the last vestiges of asbestos in the space which happen to be on some worklight scoops. Instead of buying 200 dollar worklight units, we are buying the L&E LED worklights at 1400 a pop. Its not my money... but it is what they want. They re-lamped every single common space in the complex, some 10,000 heads, to all LED. There is a large push to convert all of our stage lighting over to LED is well. We have had the units in, every liked them... and its what they want to do.
 
And around here if it ain't an LED, they (NYS Office of General Services/Our landlord) are not buying it. I've been working to get rid of the last vestiges of asbestos in the space which happen to be on some worklight scoops. Instead of buying 200 dollar worklight units, we are buying the L&E LED worklights at 1400 a pop. Its not my money... but it is what they want. They re-lamped every single common space in the complex, some 10,000 heads, to all LED. There is a large push to convert all of our stage lighting over to LED is well. We have had the units in, every liked them... and its what they want to do.

Then don't be showing them this report. Not that doing so would change minds, once a government employee at that level gets the ball rolling, it does not ever stop.
 
A lot of these organizations are switching to LED on the promise of reduced maintenance rather than reduced power consumption. Operating expenses aren't limited to the electricity bill.
 
A lot of these organizations are switching to LED on the promise of reduced maintenance rather than reduced power consumption. Operating expenses aren't limited to the electricity bill.

Which is the premise for a proposal I'm doing to add 8 MAC Aura's or Robe Robin 800's to our 1A extra electric that currently has 6 Mac700's. Potentially using the LED's as primary back lighting for our Vegas/Carib events that currently require a 46 unit conventional focus. Would save time not cutting/framing some gel, focusing units (1/2 hr per event), re-focusing back and/or ability to transition to 2nd event faster, etc..... Possible labor savings that might add up, as well as cost of lamps, etc.... I had an event in last Sunday that used the Aura's, they are very, very nice units.
 
Instead of buying 200 dollar worklight units, we are buying the L&E LED worklights at 1400 a pop. Its not my money... but it is what they want.

I love having LED worklights over HID or CFL ones. You don't have any warmup time and they can frequently be turned on and off during focusing. Also don't give people the sickly green glow, and the Leviton ones are completely silent. Not as flashy or exciting as LED cyc lights or anything else really, but makes a space easier to work in.
 
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A facility designed from scratch to make extensive use of LED for stage and house lighting would be primarily be using remote controlled power distribution and a lot less of that then dimmers for incandescent .

I could see where the reduced hardware and installation costs would easily make up the purchase costs of the more expensive LED systems. Then the electricity saved long term is all gravy.


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Fascinating article Steve. I've forwarded it to a bunch of my local friends. For those of us here in the Seattle area this information is even more relevant than to the rest of you.
 

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