RGB Flood Lights

[WhoDat]

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

 

I want to flood this building this year with rgb flood lights. It kind of hard to tell how big it is from the picture, but it's about 4 stories.

 

Anyone want to help me estimate how many i might need?

 

Would 1 of these kits be enough? Maybe 2? 

 

http://store.lightorama.com/10wrgbfl8pa.html

 

[Tim Fischer]

No I don't think you'd be happy with 2 or 4 floods.  That's a pretty big area so I'd probably concentrate on the stone areas - one or two floods on each side of the entryway, plus a flood shining up of the 4 "columns".  Even with that you're going to have some dark spots on the top, so it would look best to have some hanging over the roofline shooting down. 

Alternatively you could get some commercial Dmx floods (e.g. the Colorado series) and shoot them all from the ground, but now you're talking $$$$'s for as many as you'd need.

[WhoDat]

Thanks Tim. There are 8 - 10 watt lights in each kit. I was thinking of putting either 8 or up to as many as 16 floods on the building. I'll take a look at the Colorado series you mentioned, as I don't mind spending a little bit to get this done. Thanks!

[Santas Helper]

That's a big structure.

I would suggest bigger than 10w LED floods no matter where you put them.

If you stayed with 10w floods on top and even bottom, I'm afraid your going to have some darkness in the middle and in between each flood.

Even going with bigger floods, your going to have to have them quite a ways away from the building to keep from having some darkness in the middle of the building and in between each flood.

A 2 story building is a little easier. A 4 story building... a lot of space/distance to light up.

This is only my opinion as I have not dealt with that size building. But playing around with the 10w floods like I have this summer, I am guessing it's going to take a lot of any watt of LED floods.

Now if your okay with darkness in the middle (and in between each flood), then go with 10w floods. But you might be surprised how many you will want (or need) for a nicely lit up structure like that.

I would suggest buying a couple cheap ones from ebay (less than $20 with shipping included) and try a small corner section to get an idea.

Just saying.

I wish you good luck either way.

 

Tom

[Tim Fischer]

Thanks Tim. There are 8 - 10 watt lights in each kit. I was thinking of putting either 8 or up to as many as 16 floods on the building. I'll take a look at the Colorado series you mentioned, as I don't mind spending a little bit to get this done. Thanks!

Ah, I was thinking of the CCF kits.  That's why I was thinking you were talking 2 floods.

The little 10W floods are bright for their size, but they won't even dent this structure.  I use 4 of them on my pond fountain.  You need something bigger.

This isn't a great pic but here's the fountain.  It works great for that (note that these are usually not submersible, I beefed mine up) but you'd need a LOT to cover that structure.

Edited October 23, 2013 by Tim Fischer

[Santas Helper]

Ah, I was thinking of the CCF kits.  That's why I was thinking you were talking 2 floods.

The little 10W floods are bright for their size, but they won't even dent this structure.  I use 4 of them on my pond fountain.  You need something bigger.

This isn't a great pic but here's the fountain.  It works great for that (note that these are usually not submersible, I beefed mine up) but you'd need a LOT to cover that structure.

 

Nice pond action Tim.

I love it!!!

[scubado]

You're gonna want 100w leds for each color, in other words, 100w red, 100w green and 100w blue.  These leds need serious heat sinks too.

 

I have a 100w led to light up the canopy of my giant Maple tree.  Don't have any pics or video yet.

Edited October 23, 2013 by scubado

[Tim Fischer]

Nice pond action Tim.

I love it!!!

Thanks!  We just pulled it for the season on Saturday.  Those little 10-watters held up great.

Here's a video I forgot I took earlier in the season.  We just had it doing slow color fades half the time, and the standard "white" look at the beginning and end of the video the other half of the time (the video doesn't show most of that section).

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200985306702113&l=3107867062102766116

 

[scubado]

You're also going to need commercial grade housings since it's a public building.

[Santas Helper]

Jim,

I knew you would chime in on this. And agree on both quotes.

[Santas Helper]

Thanks!  We just pulled it for the season on Saturday.  Those little 10-watters held up great.

Here's a video I forgot I took earlier in the season.  We just had it doing slow color fades half the time, and the standard "white" look at the beginning and end of the video the other half of the time (the video doesn't show most of that section).

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200985306702113&l=3107867062102766116

 

 

I'm using those 10-watters in my display (house and trees) this year. Nice output for their size and cost.

Nice use of the floods BTW.

I have a 100w led to light up the canopy of my giant Maple tree.  Don't have any pics or video yet.

 

Would like to see pics/video when available.

[scubado]

WhoDat, can you give a little more info on what you want to achieve?  Are you wanting to just change colors as a whole, or pan or chase colors too?  Are you animating the lights with or w/o music?

[scubado]

I found this on Ebay, not as bright as it should be for 200W though.  My 100W white puts out the same amount of lumens.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200W-Flood-Light-RGB-16-Colors-LED-Bulb-High-Power-110V-277Vac-VVME-/171050023940?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d3603c04

[scubado]

The 100w white led I have is about the same as a mercury vapor light in brightness.  I took one to my friends shop to compare lights, converting his shop to led early next year.

[WhoDat]

Basically we set up a pretty big display out in the grass. 3 Mega trees, leaping arches, fire sticks and various other animated items. But the building gets lost in the background We added commercial icicles to the top of the building, and superstrings of red, green and white, but still not enough. I wanted to try and flood the building with red, green and white. Not necessary to pan or chase them, just flood red, then green, and white during the sequences. 

 

I don't mind spending money, as i'd much rather buy less bigger lights than a bunch of small ones. It's my first jump into rgb, so while i'm confident, there are sill some questions in my mind that i probably wont solve until i set it all up. 

 

Thanks again everyone for your help. 

[WhoDat]

I found this on Ebay, not as bright as it should be for 200W though.  My 100W white puts out the same amount of lumens.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200W-Flood-Light-RGB-16-Colors-LED-Bulb-High-Power-110V-277Vac-VVME-/171050023940?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d3603c04

 

That's not bad. I am probably going to need 4 of those for each for the big columns + controllers.

After reading the comments, i highly doubt i should even mess with the 10w lights, although i can always use them somewhere else. 

Edited October 23, 2013 by WhoDat

[WhoDat]

That's a big structure.

I would suggest bigger than 10w LED floods no matter where you put them.

If you stayed with 10w floods on top and even bottom, I'm afraid your going to have some darkness in the middle and in between each flood.

Even going with bigger floods, your going to have to have them quite a ways away from the building to keep from having some darkness in the middle of the building and in between each flood.

A 2 story building is a little easier. A 4 story building... a lot of space/distance to light up.

This is only my opinion as I have not dealt with that size building. But playing around with the 10w floods like I have this summer, I am guessing it's going to take a lot of any watt of LED floods.

Now if your okay with darkness in the middle (and in between each flood), then go with 10w floods. But you might be surprised how many you will want (or need) for a nicely lit up structure like that.

I would suggest buying a couple cheap ones from ebay (less than $20 with shipping included) and try a small corner section to get an idea.

Just saying.

I wish you good luck either way.

 

Tom

 

Thanks, That sounds like a quick and easy test to see what the 10w lights would look like. After reading though, i know i'm going to have to go much bigger. Appreciate your help.

[Tim Fischer]

That's not bad. I am probably going to need 4 of those for each for the big columns + controllers.

 

Do a google search, there are DMX versions of those same floods for just a bit higher.  Would be worth it to have it all self-contained, plus that's a lot more wattage than most RGB controllers can handle.

[Ken Benedict]

While everyone's trying to solve the problem with various floodlights, I'd suggest something a bit different:

 

The four vertical faces can be easily washed using several 16 foot strings of LED strip lights attached to thin electrical strut.

Put dual strips in an aluminum channel and attach them to the strut then mount the strut about 12-14 inches from the face of the building.

Or hang them from the edge of the roof with a ground support.

 

These can be either dumb or smart strips. Inject power every now and then.

The strut probably will not be seen at night, since it's only 2 inches wide.

 

For the top part, either 10w RGB floods or more strips.

 

Just my two cents worth.

[WhoDat]

While everyone's trying to solve the problem with various floodlights, I'd suggest something a bit different:

 

The four vertical faces can be easily washed using several 16 foot strings of LED strip lights attached to thin electrical strut.

Put dual strips in an aluminum channel and attach them to the strut then mount the strut about 12-14 inches from the face of the building.

Or hang them from the edge of the roof with a ground support.

 

These can be either dumb or smart strips. Inject power every now and then.

The strut probably will not be seen at night, since it's only 2 inches wide.

 

For the top part, either 10w RGB floods or more strips.

 

Just my two cents worth.

 

Ken,

Trying to wrap my mind around that just a little. Do you know of any examples of something like this so i can get my feeble old brain kick into gear? I "think" i understand what you're saying there. Any suggestions on what led strip lights to use? I wouldn't mind trying this out. Worse case scenario, i use the led strips somewhere else. I've been searching for rgb dmx floods, but still unsure what to purchase.