so... i have a lot of lightbulbs... hundreds of em, and they're all run on 12v, 50w from a dimmer unit called paradimes.

these are 6 channel, dmxable units, with preset "scenes" inside them.

when one channel runs 10 of these lil halogen puppies (12v, 500w), 6 channels (3000w), 10 units, (30,000w) im using a fair whack of leccy...

now 90% of these units are set at about 35-65% brightness, drastically reducing the usage, but i want to look at led conversion.

using the relevant change of bulb, the standard gu10 fitting, about 1-3w per lamp, but a direct conversion... i can set the unit to always output 100%, so the lamp will light effectively, and change the lamp for the desired lumen output, but if i do the entire conversion will i;

a) reduce the amount of leccy used because each channel is pulling less watts
b) use the same amount of leccy cause it'll make no difference to the dimmer pack, 240v in, ground still the same, etc
c) use more leccy cause the outputs are all set to 100%?

i'd like to think that its answer a, as its about a 15k job to complete, but it was a thought!

 

12v 50W halognes are one of the most efficient filament lights you can get and put out a ton of nice white light. To get the same light output as a single 50W halogen you might need as many as 10 to 20 LED "bulbs".

The LED ones might look the same size but will only put out a fraction of the light output!

If you think a 1-3W LED "lamp" is going to put out same amount of light as a 50W halogen you need to do some serious testing.

 

ignoring aesthetics of the amount of light, type of light, etc, how would the power drain work?

 

If I understand you right, just plugging in LED units will result in much less power usage (less power drain) and I would also expect a heck of lot less light.

Maybe you should buy a couple of lights and do some testing before making a large $$ commitment?

You can also buy $20 "energy meters" I have one here that shows current, average power use, peaks etc. You can plug in the different light bulb types and compare power usage vs usable light output.