I would recommend a total re-lamp of the fixtures to long life GLA, and GLE versions for where you need more output. Initial output should be enough in punch to get used to as only slightly
dimmer and lower in
color temperature. Than as the designer type.. gets used to the new lamps, as the lamps age and have less output, his expectations of output on
stage will also lower some psychalogically in needs. Or he or she will add more fixtures which won't help green up the
house in energy usage but will inititally be a fighting
point at least. Kind of like going from a brightly lit room to a dim one - you notice it, if you go from one dim room to another instead... you don't think it's dim. (How did they ever survive in theater before the 750w high output S-4 era?)
While in using or experimenting with GLC and GLD lamps you have an expectation and they are more efficient, they are only 300hr @ 115v lamps. Sorry but to be more at least energy if not cost effective your situation says long life lamps are best for it, you should be using the above long life lamps and in that way it don't matter if S-4 or what ever your
fixture for energy usage.
Other things to
throw back to the bean counters or designer in making it their fight and no longer yours.
First that while the long life lamps use just as much energy, they are five times longer in lamp life thus in changing to them you would save money in another way.
Second, once you propose this, it's now in the designer's lap and not your's as to why you don't convert.
Third, the other option in perhaps happy medium would be replacing the fixtures with new more efficient ones. (A sort of cost/benefit type of thing you could get grants for.) Once the higher wattage nitrogen filled versions of
incandescent lamps came to the market (about 1916),
Bunch light (many lamp) versions of the Olivalitte (about 1906) became obsolete. Once Major Lighting invented the Azark process for aluminum in being a better
reflector,
ceramic white painted single lamp Olivalitte fixtures became obsolete also. (about 1926.)
Stuff gets obsolete in technology both by way of efficiency and lamp type - the FEL nobody should be using - got a like 18"
monkey wrench available if necessary or the Philips #6981P lamp designed for the High End Color Command should be above a GLD higher output and better
color temperature to fool the eye into thinking it's brighter - given an also more efficient and smaller
filament. As with your lights saved for secondardy purposes, they are still useful but not as efficient. If your designer has a problem with lower wattage on older gear in output, the other option is lower wattage still but with more efficient gear.
Ok.. high output
house or long life
house. More efficient fixtures or it would seem you are doing the best you can so far even if high output versions.
Less a fight with you in getting efficient but high output lamps, and more a fight with this designer that wants a certain amount of output that's not realistic and he need to move from dim room to dim room in getting back to a
base lighting expectation of needs. The 575w versions should be fine and the 750w versions saved for punch or less efficient fixtures. Both I would think in your situation long life versions unless absolutely needed for more punch. Gee, how did they do it in the 1950's mount such great shows with radial mounted Lekos and Fresnels... at about 500 or at best 750w but normally not? Imagine say West Side Story... how did it ever become so popular given 500w/120v lamps and radial Lekos in doing so? Your designer perhaps has his bar raised too high in
intensity for what he or she is used to but not the necessity for properly lighting it.
Sub notes: There is a Ushio 1.2Kw lamp available which puts the FEL lamp to shame, and other you can do in staying the same and more, but not energy efficient. I think on the other
hand it better to lamp it down and be more efficient in getting back to older standards for
intensity. Sorry you are the middle man as it were between a designer's expectations and that of the management that wants to lower costs. But not your fight also in throwing it back to them.
That Olivalitte... about 1916 that I have, it's obsolte but going out on a show next week in a museum of antiques for a vendor tent. Just finishing texture painting black the outside of it and new "
ceramic white" for the
reflector of it. This is now a prop
fixture - lots of prop fixtures worked on in the past - espcially the big ones like 10Kw Mole Fresnels as made into
LED source fixtures. Short on time in needing a more accurate
reflector, I went with a latex based Pittsburgh Paints Acrylic "with
Ceramic formulation". Na... that won't take a 300w to 2Kw lamp but if the
fixture is plugged in at all, it would be dimmed way down as per a prop light. Should it ever be used to capacity, easy enough to scrape off the paint and re-paint with a proper high temperature
ceramic paint as often required and mentioned in the 1929 Fuch's
book.
At some
point a light becomes obsolete and museum grade. Prop light or museum grade light restored to what it would look like if new when no longer what it would be back than, or ever again used for it's purpose. (I should have gotten some
ceramic high temperature paint... in doing it accurately, but it's now a museum piece and will never again be used for a production other than as a prop. Should it become a
fixture again, I will scrape off the stippled paint to it and re-paint. Easy enough.)
This or spread around the older lights - many schools or theater's that would kill for what lighting you currenty have. Save one or two for the historic value if even becoming
lobby sculpture as it were, but give to good homes the rest should your theater get an upgrade. An upgrade that in efficiency given your designer's expectations of output, and management's expectations of greening up due to energy bills.. perhaps is necessary in satisfying both.
If not, it's really more their battle and you have to get yourself out of that battle. You have what you have to work with and in most cases made them as efficient as possible, I'm sure you wouldn't mind going long life but again that's going to be a Designer end choice it would seem. New fixtures or go long life
etc... your hands are tied in presenting it more between the two sets of antagonists you are for the moment between.
Really would go for lamping down and long life in doing so. Something to get used to but it works for lots of places sufficiently. In doing so, you now also have head room in getting brighter. Still though even if lamping down would save energy or at least lamp replacement costs.. not much you can do beyond that before the designer and the board figure out their differences.
Beyond that, the HPR lamp is now discontinued. Great idea and might come back some day in concept say once
ETC looses their pattent to the
HPL filament design but this lamp was based about the FLK
filament. Difficult to get a
reflector inside a more complex
filament assembly I'm told but possible stilll. This and say in some concept - liquid filled lamps. Got them for various xenon lamps... Plazma and other technologies TBA but not here yet. I would take GLA the HPR while I can still get them - not as good for
gobo perhaps but good in punch, than afterwards the GLC for normal lights and the GLC for
gobo's... (Assuming both the HPR and GLC are high output and overall better would be Philips or Osram GLA lamps), but that is me and the industry didn't catch on in time to save the HPR lamp. A few disributers like me have some in
stock in the HPR still, but overall like the FEL/R lamp of the same concept... dead lamp type. Yes there really was a
reflector version of the FEL lamp at one
point.
As one of my friends might say... What's it take to sell a lamp? We even gave away free samples and T-Shirts to make this lamp a go? Still the HPR lamp is no longer and a shame. It did out punch a S-4
fixture. In a few years we will see what comes out.
Lamp down and go long life is my advice.