Best lights for 17,000 sq ft Sanctuary

[tchism465]

Our church is looking at upgrading the house lights. This church is a remodeled walmart.It has a open grid system (14 feet) and the sanctuary is 17,000 sq ft. seating around 800 people. Our current lighting is scatterted flourescents from (it being a walmart) + scattered par 64 cans throughout the sanctuary (no where enough). We would like to have even lighting throughout the seating area for decent reading ability. Also we want to watch out for heat. These cans will be low roughly 14 feet above finished floor. So we may need to go LED. Also we would like to control them with our Lighting board as well (Hog 500), if possible. I know this will cost, but trying to keep a tight budget. If anyone can leads us in a good direction please respond.
Thanks,
Tim Chism
Heartland Church
Southaven, MS

[Esoteric]

Okay, so there are a few things going on here.

First off, if the lights are 14' off the floor, they are only about 8' above people's heads, so that is your throw.

Next there are a series of calculations that you can do to find out how many units you would need, but first we would need to find out what lighting level (foot candles) you are looking for at the point of illumination and of course how many fc the chosen unit puts out at that height.

Finally, there is a huge difference in the infrastructure needed for LED vs conventional. LED units will need much, much less infrastructure, but each unit is much more expensive (depending on the selected units) while conventionals require a large infrastructure, but the fixtures are cheaper.

Conventional units will generate a lot more heat, but the cost savings for LEDs are often not that good for churches (considering the room is used 1 or 2 days a week for 8 hours), but in the case of a 17000 sq ft room, with the amount of units you are going to need, you might actually see some savings.

I would say be prepared for a bill in the $30000-$70000 range with installation.

Mike

[RickR]

Best advice I can give is to hire a real lighting consultant.

There are 1000 more questions coming your way. The quality of the end result will greatly depend on every single answer.

The critical thing is to get someone with dozens of projects of experience rather than relying on anecdotes from friends and colleagues who know a few spaces. I understand Mike does this and travels. (I focus on local projects.) There are many others all over the world that can help.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, there are tons and tons of companies who do things like this. Some with more experience and some with less. Some who know what they are doing and some that have no idea.

There are an infinite number of variables.

Mike

[BradLyons]

STAY AWAY from the fluorescent lighting that you see in many commercial spaces as you have NO control over stage lighting later. I'm sure I'm stating the obvious here but I do quite a few systems designs for houses of worship all over the country and am surprised how many situations I run into where these are either already installed, or a new construction they have called for this lighting. If this lighting is in place, you have virtually NO control over the stage lighting and projectors, they can't be dimmed, and can cause to other issues including buzzing in your audio.

[tchism465]

What about dimmable cfl's? I was thinking about a cable mounted pendants or a can lights with this type lamp installed? ie; R40 26W dimmable CFL flood.

Thanks,
Tim

[Esoteric]

You need to make sure if you try to do any type of dimmable florescents that you make sure of two things. First off that they are fully dimmable (not all "dimmable" florescents are) and secondly that your control setup has the ability for you to define dimmer curves to make sure that the dimming curve of the florescents looks as natural as possible. Also, keep in mind you will kill lamps much faster than they are rated for (florescents are not meant to be dimmed and it drastically lowers the life of the lamps) and keep in mind that you must recycle the lamps (and for CFLs this costs you money) you can not simply throw them in the trash.