Retail Store converted to church need help with lighting.

[jonnyfishstix]

I have the job of converting our retail space to that of a house of worship. our space is probably 40'w x 100'l with our "sanctuary" taking up probably 32x75. Our storefront is a window wall so we have lots of natural light.
We take the curtain walls to create our "room" and hall to the back area. The curtains will be going all the way to the ceiling.We currently have 12' drop ceiling with 6 banks of 5 florescent fixtures.

Our current plan is to take down the drop ceiling and paint the ceiling black. Doing so will give us the excuse to change the lighting since we really don't like the look it provides. We are wanting to go for some warm lighting similar to a house. Enough that during a sermon they can read but dimmable to 10% durning worship and such. Our ceiling will go from 12' to 18' and for most purposes I would like to use down lighting and not shine light to the ceiling for the house.

To get a better idea of our seating we have 7 rows left and right of 7 chairs each. For my ideas I was thinking of 4 hanging pendants over the seats to provide the warmth and vibe while still providing some light. To add to that I was thinking of adding Par38s close to the ceiling. I however have no experience with the 38s and don't know how bright they are and such. So I'm looking for some advice.

I have some electrical experience and am not afraid to get up there and wire up some lights. I know we will be moving our current switches to our soundbooth if we decide to go with a dimmer switch type thing. We are open to going with DMX controller as well since we have some LED PARs on the stage. Let me know what you guys think or if you need any clarification.

thanx
cole

[jonnyfishstix]

oh and i forgot we are adding a stage that will come out about 15-18' out. so we don't need lighting there. that will be for another day.

[Esoteric]

As always I begin with the caveat: Bring in a professional, licensed electrician to do any commercial electrical work.

That being said, PAR38s (enough of them) should be fine for what you are describing. However since your units will serve as much for decoration as actual lighting, why not look at decorative CAN fixtures?

Also with the huge storefront window you describe, why do you want to dim the lights? It won't make much of a difference in the lighting level.

Mike

[jonnyfishstix]

with the ceiling exposed anything to decorative would prolly look out of place.. but good to know they will work. as far as the window we will be installing a curtain to block out as much light as possible. we need to do this so we can display our videos and such better as right now we get some wash on bright sunny days.

[tedanderson]

Bring in a professional, licensed electrician to do any commercial electrical work.

Or at least get an electrician to wire in a standard 2-phase panel and then do all of your own wiring from scratch from that starting point.

Commercial electrical work can be tricky if you don't fully understand it, and even trickier if the last person working on the wiring didn't completely understand it either.

[Steven]

I agree - bring in a pro. Even if you think you can handle it, as Ted mentioned, the last guy who worked there may not have done something properly. Plus there are warranty and insurance to consider.

Also, since you're still in the conversion process, be sure to accommodate for future growth. (in respect to both technology and seating capacity). You don't want want to build too small. Ninety-eight seats might seem like a lot now, but it can fill up fast. It would be hard if your church spent a lot of time and money moving into a place that will be insufficient in 3 months due to church growth.

[james tucker]

track lights... lots of them.

[jonnyfishstix]

i have my electrician coming in tomorrow to tell me what i need. looks like we will be adding all new lines running them back to the service box. he will then take care of it from there.

as far as expansion or growth the only real way to grow the building would be to take out the foyer area or new building. we have been in this building for about 2 yrs now and have been at a steady number for awhile. if we grew by over 40 or so we would have to go to a new building. we are able to take with us what we put in so if that were to happen then we can take the upgrades and reinstall the hanging florescent.

on a side note i went to guitar center today to check out a 38. i think i have decided to go with 6 hanging pendant lights that are like 4 light fixtures. i'm hoping that will give us the coverage and ample light for our needs. will let you know what our electrician says tomorrow.

[D.R.HADDOCK]

Originally Posted by jonnyfishstix

I have the job of converting our retail space to that of a house of worship. our space is probably 40'w x 100'l with our "sanctuary" taking up probably 32x75. Our storefront is a window wall so we have lots of natural light.
We take the curtain walls to create our "room" and hall to the back area. The curtains will be going all the way to the ceiling.We currently have 12' drop ceiling with 6 banks of 5 florescent fixtures.

Our current plan is to take down the drop ceiling and paint the ceiling black. Doing so will give us the excuse to change the lighting since we really don't like the look it provides. We are wanting to go for some warm lighting similar to a house. Enough that during a sermon they can read but dimmable to 10% durning worship and such. Our ceiling will go from 12' to 18' and for most purposes I would like to use down lighting and not shine light to the ceiling for the house.

To get a better idea of our seating we have 7 rows left and right of 7 chairs each. For my ideas I was thinking of 4 hanging pendants over the seats to provide the warmth and vibe while still providing some light. To add to that I was thinking of adding Par38s close to the ceiling. I however have no experience with the 38s and don't know how bright they are and such. So I'm looking for some advice.

I have some electrical experience and am not afraid to get up there and wire up some lights. I know we will be moving our current switches to our soundbooth if we decide to go with a dimmer switch type thing. We are open to going with DMX controller as well since we have some LED PARs on the stage. Let me know what you guys think or if you need any clarification.

thanx
cole

Par 38s are very versatile lamps, cheap & readily available, using par 38s in recessed downlights gives a nice soft atmosphere ( perfect for places of worship ) and for more bold lighting or high lighting use them on track lights, see very versatile, because they are incandesant they dim smoothly, so dmx controlled dimmers can be used.
I use recessed down lights with 150w par 38s in them, in my church, and they work well.