Leaving fixtures powered on

[Jon Majors]

I recently purchased some inexpensive LED pars for an overhead electric. We didn't have it in the budget for a relay but I was able to install several edison outlets on the electric and run them to a switch on the wall. My question is what is a reasonable amount of time to leave them powered on? I'm using wireless dmx and an ETC Ion for control. Should I power them off every chance I get (daily) or is it appropriate to keep them switched on for weeks at a time? I know switching off will extend their life, but was curious what others' experience has been in this situation. Thanks!

 

[TimMc]

Long term, heat is the enemy of semiconductors. Turn them off when not in use.

 

[JohnD]

Also, if you are in an area of thunderstorms it is best if they have the power switched off to keep voltage spikes from frying them.

 

[JakeRhodesTech]

Long story short, at least with your types of units, you can have a lot of issues and your gear will go bad faster due to the wear of hardware or fans and so on. Going back to your question about reasonable time, I would say daily is the best option. It's all a gamble, the cheaper the light, the quicker it will die (from my experience) so the longer you want those lights to work, the more you will have them powered off. I hope they came with a Warranty.

 

[techieman33]

I'll jump on the bandwagon and agree with turning them off nightly, and then back on when your ready to use them again. In my experience the cheap lights usually have really cheap fans in them. They're noisy enough when they're new. And the odds are pretty good that the bearings or bushings will wear out pretty quickly and you'll have really noisy fans.

 

[Crisp image]

Turn them on at the start of the day and then off at the end. Follow a start up procedure and a shutdown procedure. Do it the same way every time and you will not forget anything.
Just my thoughts and what I do.

Regards
Geoff

 

[jtweigandt]

And if you don't have one .. get one of those switch covers with the curve over the top that you have to purposely reach in the side to turn off. I had some that used to be in a similar situation, and despite labeling people would flip the switch accidentally both on or off. Off during a performance .. ouch.. On for weeks when you're between shows.. ouch again.

 

[tjrobb]

We keep people from flipping switches with a keyed switch. Even with the key literally tied to the conduit running to the box, that extra step creates enough cognition to keep the switch from being toyed with. (In our case, it's the stage works so we have to have fast access).

 

[macsound]

I agree with a combination of the above, just getting into the habit of turning them off when you're done is the best practice.

To make this more obvious in some usecases I've setup, I have a backstage blue spot led par on the same circuit so it's incredibly obvious that the circuit is still on.

 

[Ford]

The LEDs are not the weak link in most cheap LED Pars, the PSU and other electronics are more likely to fail first. That said, my advice is to turn them off whenever you're not using them (even just overnight, during Tech Week). Even higher end Pro fixtures will fail over time if they're never shut off. the Capacitors in the PSUs are often rated to 10,000 hours (or so) on decent fixtures. Cheaper fixtures use cheaper PSUs (maybe 5k hours). Some top-end, or architectural fixtures may have PSUs rated for longer. If the power is never turned off, you're aging the PSU, even if the LEDs aren't turned on. So, your fixtures may last 9 months before the PSUs start to fail en-mass (if they're lower quality) if you don't switch them off, or years longer, if you do.