LED PAR38 500W replacement bulb

[theatre4jc]

I've been told our house lighting must be changed to all LEDs by the end of the summer. Currently we have 500W candela base cans. The base is going to be retrofitted to a Medium Screw Base. Our "energy expert" has come up with a LED PAR38 120W Replacement 1250 lumen 40° lamp that is dimmable. Currently our system does not have dimmers but I'm probably going to put in an ETC Echo system with this conversion so dimmable is key. I'm looking for something with more lumen output than 1250. Does anyone know of a PAR38 40° Flood that has more lumen output than 1250? Our throw is 28' from bottom of fixture to floor, and it's already a dark room with the 500W fixtures we have. So I'm nervous about the foot candle loss we will encounter. Unfortunately I don't have a choice in this matter, and I'm just trying to prevent the lighting being screwed over just to "save energy".

While searching I thought I would see if someone knows of a lamp that I've not discovered yet.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I suspect it is not a PAR38, if candelabra base and 500 watts. Probably a T4 500 watt inside a ellipsoidal reflector.

The proposed solution will suck. It will look bad from below, the light level will be anemic, and the dimming especially at low end will be very poor.

If you only want to change the lamp, try Canto's RLED: http://www.cantousa.com/rled/. I emphasize try one. Much better dimming since it finishes a fade by slowly discharing the capictor after the driver stops working around 10 volts. Will bump on if it's been off any length of time - but not as pure crappy as what was proposed.

If you can afford to change sockets and add dimmers, instead replace these with Pro Four-Cell Pendant from ETCs ArcSystem series. Great color, great dimming without adding dimmers - just a transmitter and use thier mesh network.

Good luck!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I suspect it is not a PAR38, if candelabra base and 500 watts. Probably a T4 500 watt inside a ellipsoidal reflector.

The proposed solution will suck. It will look bad from below, the light level will be anemic, and the dimming especially at low end will be very poor.

If you only want to change the lamp, try Canto's RLED: http://www.cantousa.com/rled/. I emphasize try one. Much better dimming since it finishes a fade by slowly discharing the capictor after the driver stops working around 10 volts. Will bump on if it's been off any length of time - but not as pure crappy as what was proposed.

If you can afford to change sockets and add dimmers, instead replace these with Pro Four-Cell Pendant from ETCs ArcSystem series. Great color, great dimming without adding dimmers - just a transmitter and use thier mesh network.

Good luck!

PS - the RLED is available with a candelabra base - or so they told me. Reflector would have to be pulled but that's invariably easier than changing socket. And I skipped the whole part about this violating the NEC because I have a feeling the response fro the PTB would be "so what?"

 

[microstar]

Get an Altman Chalice 100 demo fixture, either the DMX or mains-dimmable version; not a retro-fit but a complete fixture. Various lenses available for beam control.

 

[FMEng]

I have experienced an ellipsoidal reflector retrofit disaster, where we spent many man hours restoring things back to original. Some of the so called energy consultants don't know what they are doing. Request that any retrofit be tested on just a couple of lights before spending more money and effort on the conversion.

 

[theatre4jc]

The retrofit has been tested for the past 6 months (2 of which I was unaware of) and aside from the drop in footcandles has been very successful. The light actually looks a lot better than what was originally installed, but it just needs more intensity. Unfortunately purchasing new fixtures is out and the odds of that changing are slim to none. I did find a lamp http://ledt8bulb.com/500w-e11-halogen-led-custom-retrofit.html that may fit the bill and not need a retrofit, but it's 3 times the cost, so it will take a lot of convincing. The boss doesn't care about the brightness at this point, but I know will hate fielding the complaints so I'm trying to stave off the "why didn't you warn me" argument. We shall see I guess.

 

[Malabaristo]

It's worth noting that testing a single lamp on a circuit with incandescent lamps can be very misleading for two reasons. The first is that several common problems with dimming LEDs get worse as more LEDs are added to the circuit. The second is that your ability to see flicker (and other poor dimming performance) is affected by how much other light there is in your field of view. The stable incandescents may mask the LED ficker.

If you're adding an ETC dimming system, you should definitely contact them to see if they've done any testing with either of the lamps you're planning to use.