NickVon
Well-Known Member
Investigating options for HID > LED replacements bypassing ballasts (Direct wire)
We have 12 Metal Halide lights in our auditorium theater space. about 40' that cover the audience seating.
They are primary use as "work lights" or general lights when a show or event is not happening. Things like Faculty meetings, show/event load ins, rehearsals, me generally being the space and futzing around. They are the daily use lighting for the room. House lights are controlled by our LX console and not wired into any sort of unison system, and generally aren't bright enough to facilitate much more then pretty warm light for pre/post show.
The (12) 400w Metal Halide fixtures. that each have (2) 50lb Ballasts that are all in varying states of fine to failure, are just becoming to much to maintain. The building is currently closed for some historical roof repair and myself and physical plant decided now is a good time to think about relatively easy alternatives.
Obviously LED was the initially investigation choice. We purchased and tested one GE 150w 20,0000lm
and the initial results where great, but completely unusable. It was noticeably loud. I guess I didn't think they these sort of units would have fans in then, I was foolishly thinking sold heat-sinks, as a fan would seem to be a component that could fail long before the LED's rated life of 20k hours.
Most inventory I've seen don't specify if any of these retrofits are Fanless Heatsink or have a operational decible rating.
With just the one installed it was a noticeable somewhat high pitch fan whine from 40 ft away. I can't imagine hat 12 of them installed would produce. Unscientifically on my SPLnFFT iphone app it raised the room 5db from 38db to 43db, with just the one.
I spoke to someone at 1000bulbs.com and they suggested a fixture replacement to this https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/201300/PLT-10941.html It seems to have all the guts above the ceiling would I think would certainly make for less noise.
Any other options or thoughts out there. We don't need a direct 400w 20,000 lumen replacement as if we get them all the LED it'll be the first time they all work together anyways. But we definitely need something in that world of output for the distance and coverage.
We have 12 Metal Halide lights in our auditorium theater space. about 40' that cover the audience seating.
They are primary use as "work lights" or general lights when a show or event is not happening. Things like Faculty meetings, show/event load ins, rehearsals, me generally being the space and futzing around. They are the daily use lighting for the room. House lights are controlled by our LX console and not wired into any sort of unison system, and generally aren't bright enough to facilitate much more then pretty warm light for pre/post show.
The (12) 400w Metal Halide fixtures. that each have (2) 50lb Ballasts that are all in varying states of fine to failure, are just becoming to much to maintain. The building is currently closed for some historical roof repair and myself and physical plant decided now is a good time to think about relatively easy alternatives.
Obviously LED was the initially investigation choice. We purchased and tested one GE 150w 20,0000lm
and the initial results where great, but completely unusable. It was noticeably loud. I guess I didn't think they these sort of units would have fans in then, I was foolishly thinking sold heat-sinks, as a fan would seem to be a component that could fail long before the LED's rated life of 20k hours.
Most inventory I've seen don't specify if any of these retrofits are Fanless Heatsink or have a operational decible rating.
With just the one installed it was a noticeable somewhat high pitch fan whine from 40 ft away. I can't imagine hat 12 of them installed would produce. Unscientifically on my SPLnFFT iphone app it raised the room 5db from 38db to 43db, with just the one.
I spoke to someone at 1000bulbs.com and they suggested a fixture replacement to this https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/201300/PLT-10941.html It seems to have all the guts above the ceiling would I think would certainly make for less noise.
Any other options or thoughts out there. We don't need a direct 400w 20,000 lumen replacement as if we get them all the LED it'll be the first time they all work together anyways. But we definitely need something in that world of output for the distance and coverage.