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Ghost Light


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Wow it's been a while since I posted. Between family stuff and my job, my head's pretty much been spinning (Wheeee!).

OK our new managment is on a energy saving kick. When not in use, they have us kill every light in our theatre (except of course exit lights). I understand the costs of lighting a big room 24/7. In the past we used to dim the house lights to "show" setting (which was just foot border lights and some tivoli) but we'd leave the work lights on. Often there is either a show loaded in, prewired or a bunch of props from a production show hanging around. It's absolutly black in the curtained deck area and wings. I fear an accident is waiting to happen. Did I mention the main glass doors don't lock?

 

I've mentioned the idea of leaving a small "ghost light" on stage (even a small 15w bulb would do) but have been pretty much ignored. Can the corporate folks really be this stupid? I wonder how the cost of a major injury law suit compares to 15watts of electricity? Go figure!

 

Cheers

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With management you need to do it there way so submit a energy savings suggestion. Leave a 3 watt LED Ghost light on 24/7 in order to save turning on the house lights for quick in and out stuff.

 

At the suggestion of the fire inspector our church installed 3 watt LED lights in each hall way. It is amazing what 3 watts can do. I often walk in at night, and go all over the building and don't turn a light until I get to the room I am going to work in. those tiny lights are enough.

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With management you need to do it there way so submit a energy savings suggestion. Leave a 3 watt LED Ghost light on 24/7 in order to save turning on the house lights for quick in and out stuff.

At the suggestion of the fire inspector our church installed 3 watt LED lights in each hall way. It is amazing what 3 watts can do. I often walk in at night, and go all over the building and don't turn a light until I get to the room I am going to work in. those tiny lights are enough.

 

Love your idea! It even makes me an energy saver :-)

 

I'll give it a shot. Considering the current dimmable incandesents in the house (OUCH!) and the floresent work lights, Just a couple of minutes could equal a month of use.

 

Andy, Yes We thought about all of those hundreds of slot machines (the energy cost difference is insane). I recently ran the idea across my boss (again), maybe we can work something out. I'm just thinking liability mostly (don't want to see anyone get hurt). Maybe if I send the ideas to our OSHA/HR person they might take note. It's realy a HUGE safety issue. Our front glass doors don't/can't lock and many times I've shoo'd away adventurous (and often tipsy) patrons of the casino (I'm pretty nice about it :-) even when the house was dimmly lit.

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Remember, it could be you, or your boss that has an incident where you wished there was a ghost light on. Those sort of accidents tend to hurt a LOT.

A couple years ago I had a need to install a light in a new stairwell. Running the conduit and wiring for light switches at the top and bottom of that stairwell was a bit "complicated"... nothing money and time couldn't over-come... but "some real" money and time would have been involved to put in the switches and wiring (a couple hundred bucks as I recall)... but just hardwiring the light in to burn 24-7 was cheap (< $50)... involved a grand total of about 6ft. of flex conduit a box and a ceramic bulb socket. I went the cheap route: hardwired in a ceramic socket and stuck a 9 watt LED bulb in it... which seemingly lights that stairwell just shy of "daylight" . Our power costs approx. 7 cents per KWH. I figured that if I'd installed the light switches and the switches actually got dutifully used, the bulb would "off" 70 hours a week, or 3640 hours a year that it would otherwise burn running 24-7 hardwired with no switches. A little quick math suggests putting in the switches might save me $2.29/year in power usage... so if I'd spent an extra $229 in putting in the switches, the switches would pay for themselves in about 100 years... assuming the switches got dutifully used and didn't wear-out in a hundred years of dutiful usage.

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A couple years ago I had a need to install a light in a new stairwell. Running the conduit and wiring for light switches at the top and bottom of that stairwell was a bit "complicated"... nothing money and time couldn't over-come... but "some real" money and time would have been involved to put in the switches and wiring (a couple hundred bucks as I recall)... but just hardwiring the light in to burn 24-7 was cheap (< $50)... involved a grand total of about 6ft. of flex conduit a box and a ceramic bulb socket. I went the cheap route: hardwired in a ceramic socket and stuck a 9 watt LED bulb in it... which seemingly lights that stairwell just shy of "daylight" . Our power costs approx. 7 cents per KWH. I figured that if I'd installed the light switches and the switches actually got dutifully used, the bulb would "off" 70 hours a week, or 3640 hours a year that it would otherwise burn running 24-7 hardwired with no switches. A little quick math suggests putting in the switches might save me $2.29/year in power usage... so if I'd spent an extra $229 in putting in the switches, the switches would pay for themselves in about 100 years... assuming the switches got dutifully used and didn't wear-out in a hundred years of dutiful usage.

 

Back in the late eighties, when I used to spend a little time in Europe, many, or most of the commercial building stairways were controlled by timers. It was often a race to make it to your destination (or the next light switch) before the lights went off. I'm a fast walker and stair climber, but they must have set those timers with Olympic atheletes. I imagine they have that ironed out by now. Probably motion controlled.

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