This is the culmination of the information presented at the lighting workshop on April 8 by the Krewe of Olympus - Texas, Inc. This document was created by Bruce Reeves and Gary McCoy. LIGHTING WORKSHOP Lighting, for the most part, is created using ELECTRICITY. If you are going to WEAR lights, only use BATTERY operated lights. DO NOT PUT 120 VOLT LIGHTS ON YOUR BODY!!!! Neither of us is an electrician - we simply know what has worked for us in the past. We do not guarantee any of these methods will work for you and neither the Krewe nor the Pride Committee can be held liable for anything you do with this information. Battery Operated Lighting Options: Flourescent - either 6v (6", $7.50 & 4 AA batteries) or 12v (12", $9 & 8 AA batteries) - run about 10 hours. Home Depot is a source for these. Car lights (6v or 12v) - use bulbs and sockets both available from auto parts supply stores. 12v RV bulbs (standard size but use 12v) available from some auto parts stores, recreational vehicle stores or some hardware stores. Battery operated Christmas lights (bought in store) 15 lights, $4, 2C batteries) - run over 3 hours (fairly dim) Create your own using regular Christmas lights. BATTERY OPERATED CHRISTMAS LIGHTS Christmas lights are designed to be run using 120 volts of AC power. They must be rewired to run on batteries to either 6 or 12 volts of DC power. To do this, you must cut the Christmas lights from the string so that each light has a few inches of wire attached. If you are using 12 volts, cut every OTHER light loose. Ultimately, we will connect one of each each of these short light "strings" to batteries as shown below: NOTE: In actuality, 6 volts is the maximum you should try to use. They will run 12 volts singly, but the bulbs will not last very long and they get extremely hot. They can be light with as little as 1.5 volts, but the more voltage, the brighter the bulb. In the 12 volt circuit, you can run 3 bulbs in series (4 volts each) and achieve longer bulb life and a reasonable light output. To do this, requires a soldering gun, rosin solder and either black electrical tape, shrink tubing or a glue gun to insulate the resulting connections. Begin by twisting your wires together. You may group several lights together if they will be spaced close to each other, or you may include extra pieces of wire to space them out more. Once the wires are twisted together, use a soldering gun to heat on one side of the wire placing the solder on the other side, until the solder flows into the wire, securing the seal. Once this has cooled insulate the wires using hit shrink wire insulation (best) or you can use hot glue to make a glue "bulb" around the wires, or you can simply wrap the wires in black electrical tape. Because we are using low voltage, the bare wires are not a physical danger unless the SHORT in which case, the string of lights may MELT down from the large amount of current created by the short circuit. Because of the possibility of shorting, connections to the battery should either be via a crimped terminal so they can be disconnected easily (in case of a problem) and/or a switch that can be turned on and off. The size of the battery determines the number of lights you can use for a given length of time. Numbers here are considered rough estimates and you should probably allow yourself MORE burning time than you expect to need. Basically, you should create what you want to light and test it with a battery. See how long it lights and based on that add more batteries to get the length of time you want. (Be sure when adding batteries, that you connect positive to positive and negative to negative, otherwise you change the voltage.) In a six volt (6v) circuit, each lamp pulls .3 amps. A rechargeable battery will generally marked with its amperage load, such as 4AH, which means 4 amps over a one hour period of time. Therefore, a 4AH 6v battery would probably run 14 lights for one hour. (Using 4 AA batteries, I was able to run 5 lights about 30 minutes. Using 4 D batteries, it went 3-1/2 hours. In a 12 volt circuit, each set of lamps pulls .3 amps. Again, a 7AH 12v battery would probably run 23 sets of lights (46 lights) for one hour. Choices for batteries include (but are not limited to): 6 volt battery packs from Radio Shack (hold 4 flashlight type batteries). Advantanges include readily available and easy to change batteries enroute. Disadvantages are primarily the one use and their cost. Can also use lantern batteries. 12 volt battery packs (usually 2-6 volt packs connected together). If you are connecting to six volt battery packs for this purpose, make sure a red wire from one pack and a black wire from the other are connected together. Then make the connections to your lights from the other two. This connects the packs in series, giving you a 12-volt circuit. (If you connect red to red and black to black and then connect your lights to one red and one black, you basically having a longer lasting 6 volt pack.) CAN also connect to your car battery VIA the cigarette lighter. DO NOT DIRECTLY CONNECT LIGHTS TO YOUR CAR BATTERY!!! 6 or 12 volt rechargeable batteries. Generally, the heavier the battery, the longer the burn. Rechargeable batteries may be bought from several sources including Electronic Parts Outlet (on Fondren) and Ace Electronics (on Antoine). Cost runs from $6 to $30 depending on new/used and size. Used batteries carry no warranties and about 1 in 3 will be BAD - but the price is right so buy several expecting this. Christmas lights may be purchased year round at Arne's, Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Light Bulbs Unlimited. Light Bulbs Unlimited has also special ordered different battery operated lights with the parade in mind, so check out what they have in stock and their catalog. Remember, if it lights, you can use it!!! For floats, you can choose to use either battery operated or standard electrical lights. For battery lights, you can power them as above, or directly off a car's battery (but remember, if you drain the battery, the car WON'T start). Additionally, you may be able to use an inverter pack (Radio Shack $100, 140W CONTINOUS) to power regular lights from a car battery. This particular inverter will carry 300 lights. (Lights pull more amperage when they initally light up, so even though one string of C-7's is only 120W, the inverter overloads before (or right after) lighting them.) (I powered 150 lights for 30 minutes using a 7AH battery). For regularly powered lights, you need a generator. Sources for generators (that we know of) are: Parades, Etc., $75 to rent a 20-amp/2400-watt generator Aztec Party Rentals, from $125 for 75A/9000W to $350 for 415A/50000W Home Depot, $400 to BUY a 25-amp/3000-watt generator $500 40-amp/5000 watt generator A set of 50 small christmas lights pulls about .2-amps(24 watts), so on a 20-amp/2400 watt generator, you can use 5000 lights. A set of 25 C-7 christmas lights pull about 1 amp (120 watts), so on a 20-amp/2400 watt generator, you could use about 250 lights of this size. Remember, if you are using a sound system, the amperage the devices pull will be marked on the back of the case (usually on a silver label) and MUST be taken into consideration for total amperate load. (Wattage on these devices is usually NOT input load, but output load, so use the amperage rating.) The label should read something like AC120 (or VAC120 or 120V~) 60Hz 330W 440VA. In this case the wattage is 330 (330W) (440VA is NOT amps but voltamps). Amperage is computed by dividing wattage by 120 (volts) (2.75A). Another tag might say 120V~ 0.6A which would indicate that the devices pulls .6 amps (which would be 72 watts) (multiply by 120 volts).