Sylak a lot of good stuff has been said about LED lighting so I will comment about something else.
First when you say House lights does this mean the lights that provide the light for the audience to get in the theatre? Which is what it would mean here in NZ. Or are you using to indicate the theatre lights that are over the audience to light the stage?
Now my first thought would be why are you blowing so many lights? I have done shows with two week runs + rehearsal time and only had at most two lights blow and that was due to old age. What model strip lights are you using and have these got the correct rated bulbs in them.
Are people blowing bulbs when they focus them? This is quite easy to do if you have the level set to high when moving them during focus.
Are you using pre-heat ?
Also how clean is your power supply ? Do you notice sudden dips and spikes in the odinary lights.
Also a lot of the time blowing an excessive number lamps can come down to bad practice. It is this bad practice that needs to be worked on.
Well they're buying us a Congo Jr next year so...If you look into this problem and manage to bring it under control the School District will look more favourably on the drama department in the future.
I know you won't have an exact figure but what sort % of bulbs need replacing each year?
Actually savings can be significant.
It seems like you could reduce the wear and tear on your equipment by limiting what gets used every day. Classes probably don't need several thousand watts of illumination every day. Why don't you point a couple of scoops at the stage and have the classes use those two instruments and the house lights on a daily basis? Just a thought. Take it or leave it.
Yep. If the real issue is that a classroom is running all the fixtures, then lets give the classroom something else to use. Get perhaps 3 scoops and just shoot them down for the classes. Rig a switch so that the teacher can walk in flip the switch, and the scoops go on. Don't even run it through your dimmers. Also, I suggest explaining that if the district wants to have good quality shows, something that they can be proud of, they are going to have to spend a few dollars on lamps. For what your talking about, LEDs are a frankly absurd idea.
Good luck
Zac
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