Replacement Makeup Room Lights

[Chris Chapman]

Our Makeup Room has the standard sets of soft incandescent lights set up around each mirror. Our energy teams wants me to replace these with CFL's. (The other point I'm making at a meeting today is that these lamps aren't on very long. Over the course of a year, they might get 80 hours of burn time.)

Of course, all of my stage light is incandescent, so I'm trying to educate them on why the change to CFL in this application is not the best.

The color temp is all wrong, and trying to do corrective makeup under CFL's and then moving to Incandescent is... problematic. Also, staring into the CFL's, with their associated reflections in Makeup seems to give some folks headaches. (Literal ones, not the figurative one that I'm running into.)

Any hints on other info I might be able to pass on to these folks to get them to put my incandescents back?

 

[Dionysus]

Our Makeup Room has the standard sets of soft incandescent lights set up around each mirror. Our energy teams wants me to replace these with CFL's. (The other point I'm making at a meeting today is that these lamps aren't on very long. Over the course of a year, they might get 80 hours of burn time.)

Of course, all of my stage light is incandescent, so I'm trying to educate them on why the change to CFL in this application is not the best.

The color temp is all wrong, and trying to do corrective makeup under CFL's and then moving to Incandescent is... problematic. Also, staring into the CFL's, with their associated reflections in Makeup seems to give some folks headaches. (Literal ones, not the figurative one that I'm running into.)

Any hints on other info I might be able to pass on to these folks to get them to put my incandescents back?

I agree that CFLs are not the best solution for makeup lights. The light quality, well it sucks; that and the light is just different. Many people get headeaches for various reasons from fluorescent lighting (I am one), one of the main reasons I always hated math in all the rooms but one (the one has a skylight).

LEDs can be had that have a much more comparable light, are more energy efficient than CFLs, however they are also quite expensive still. Also the light from the "a socket" incandescent replacements generally tend to be extremely spotted.
Perhaps a little research may find something that may work, or a complete rethink on the lighting around the makeup mirrors.

With Flourescent TUBE fixtures you can get gels that go around the tubes to do colour correction.

OR you can just keep the incandescents, or use a mix.

 

[MNicolai]

Which wattage are the existing lamps?

Our building was stocked for 100w bulbs at the mirrors but we found that to be seriously overkill. Any chance you can please the powers that be by lowering the wattages? Or by just slapping them across their faces and pointing out how negligible your dressing rooms are on the building's overall electrical use?

 

[Edrick]

I just recently saw a few studies that prove that CFLs cause dirty power and induce headaches and other medical issues because of the EMF caused by them.

 

[WooferHound]

In my bathroom at home I use a mix of incandescents and warm colored CFL bulbs. This really works good with instant-on and good quality color rendition. The energy savings will only be half by doing this.

 

[mstaylor]

I use incandescents in my house and will continue as long as possible. I will not use CFLs, I will spend the extra and go LED if regular bulbs become unavailable. I would try showing the savings is too small to make a difference because they aren't on very often.
See if you have records reflecting how many bulbs have been replaced the previous year. With a math you should be able to figure kilowatts used per year. Then apply the killowatt usage to the CFLs and you should find the savings very small. Add to that the incorrect color for makeup and see where it gets you. You may be banging your head on the wall but it's worth a shot.

 

[techieman33]

I use incandescents in my house and will continue as long as possible. I will not use CFLs, I will spend the extra and go LED if regular bulbs become unavailable. I would try showing the savings is too small to make a difference because they aren't on very often.
See if you have records reflecting how many bulbs have been replaced the previous year. With a math you should be able to figure kilowatts used per year. Then apply the killowatt usage to the CFLs and you should find the savings very small. Add to that the incorrect color for makeup and see where it gets you. You may be banging your head on the wall but it's worth a shot.

Don't forget the huge upfront cost for the CFLs too. For what little they are used it would take an long time for them to pay for themselves if ever.

 

[Les]

I have no real qualms with CFL's in utility settings, but they are crazy for wanting you to put them in dressing rooms. Not only is the color usually different from what you need, but the entire wavelength is wrong. Just keep some spare incandescents on hand and swap them out before you leave every night if worse comes to worse .

 

[cpf]

...And don't forget that the Walmart 15-pack econo-brand CFLs will most likely fail more quickly than the incandescent they're replacing, especially in your situation. Plus, I've had (cheap) CFLs light on fire in their sockets, it's kind of concerning.

CFLs are fine for general use in moderate temperatures where light volume is more important than light quality, but they're not ready for a full incandescent replacement.

 

[ship]

CFL's while you can dial down the color temperature, you cannot dial up yet the CRI for matching what it will be under stage lighting. (If Derik hasn't done so yet, he should do the link to CRI for the other concept in them.) CFL's at this point don't match up to the CRI of modern stage lighting sufficiently in why it's not yet possible. Nor do LED's.

Your 100w lamps seem a bit high in wattage - way high assuming a standard 6" on center. Like 40w at best I would guess if not 25w would be the norm.

After you lamp way down, look into a company called Aero-Tech for distributers or direct sales. Can't beat a 20,000 hour incandescet lamp for 100% CRI and energy efficiency. This even if still a heater lamp for concept. Present the above lamp for a concept in much less wattage and you no doubt will have a winner for compromise. Lamps are not that expensive either.

 

[seanandkate]

Can anyone give me a lead on a distributer (ideally Canadian) for light fixtures for makeup mirrors? This kind of thing:

Looking to replace a bunch of old dead candelabra base bulb fixtures with something a little more durable for high school use.

 

[FMEng]

What your picture shows is a string of lights built on site by an electrician. It uses EMT conduit, 4-0 boxes, and common, Leviton porcelain lamp sockets. Any decent, commercial electrician can do that.

 

[Robert]

I think current code requirements would have you put metal cages around each light or each section if you change them.

 

[ElGusto]

For this type of application why is no one talking about LED lamps? Better quality light and lower power consumption than CFLs. Yeah, its a big up front investment., but you probably wont have to worry about them until they become obsolete.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I think current code requirements would have you put metal cages around each light or each section if you change them.

That is a National Electric Code requirement but the photo is Canada, so not sure. That requirement is not particularily new.

 

[garyvp]

Our Makeup Room has the standard sets of soft incandescent lights set up around each mirror. Our energy teams wants me to replace these with CFL's. (The other point I'm making at a meeting today is that these lamps aren't on very long. Over the course of a year, they might get 80 hours of burn time.)

Of course, all of my stage light is incandescent, so I'm trying to educate them on why the change to CFL in this application is not the best.

The color temp is all wrong, and trying to do corrective makeup under CFL's and then moving to Incandescent is... problematic. Also, staring into the CFL's, with their associated reflections in Makeup seems to give some folks headaches. (Literal ones, not the figurative one that I'm running into.)

Any hints on other info I might be able to pass on to these folks to get them to put my incandescents back?

Our DR is 50 year old with porcelain Edison sockets and 15 watt incandescent soft lamps. The actors love them. And we can still find the bulbs. No way they go for CFLs. If we change we'll probably go with LEDs a.s you can get good color. I also agree that the cost is not that much we do 90 performances a year - about 300 hours. Burn up about 10 bulbs a year.
I have also been disappointed with the longevity of the CFLs we use in hallways and such.


If fddfdfd

 

[AlexDonkle]

Our DR is 50 year old with porcelain Edison sockets and 15 watt incandescent soft lamps. The actors love them. And we can still find the bulbs. No way they go for CFLs. If we change we'll probably go with LEDs a.s you can get good color. I also agree that the cost is not that much we do 90 performances a year - about 300 hours. Burn up about 10 bulbs a year.
I have also been disappointed with the longevity of the CFLs we use in hallways and such.

Just a note that if you ever have trouble finding incandescents, "rough service" lamps are still allowed and are except from the energy efficiency laws. They're designed for construction sites, coal mines, etc. so they have stronger than typical glass and internal filaments, more tolerant to voltage fluctuation, and they generally last much longer than standard incandescents ever did.

 

[venuetech]

Can anyone give me a lead on a distributer (ideally Canadian) for light fixtures for makeup mirrors? This kind of thing:

Looking to replace a bunch of old dead candelabra base bulb fixtures with something a little more durable for high school use.

the other thing that i am not seeing in this photo is that the outlets should be switched and have some sort of indicator.

 

[gafftaper]

I recently upgraded my dressingroom lights to LED. The old fixtures were 60 watt round globes. Far too yellow in color temperature for stage makeup and the dressing room quickly reached over 80 degrees with them on. The replacements I found cost $5 each, cut the energy consumption to 8.5 watts, jacked the color temperature up to 3,000K, and the room is cool and comfortable. It cost me $350 to do it, but I am so happy that I did the upgrade.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

the other thing that i am not seeing in this photo is that the outlets should be switched and have some sort of indicator.

Thew pilot light for the receptacles should be in the corridor outside the dressing room. We usually put the switch for a bank of relays next to the entrance door.