Floodlighting

Hi All,

Have been looking at this site for a while now and this is my first post. I am looking for help /guidance with regard to a problem we are having with the running of our floodlights. The are Eircom U-21 standard apparantly and are 400 lux or something like that. We put in 3 phase electricity with the ESB and apparently had to request a certain "draw" of electricity. We have been receiving bills of 1500-3000 and we might only use the lights once or twice a week but we are incurring charges whether we use the lights or not. We are under contract with the ESB until April and will be switching to a generator or something else then... the ESB are basically saying like it or lump it. Hopefully this is in the right forum and someone might have been in this predicament already. As I said the are very good lights but unbelieveably expensive.:confused:

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Originally Posted by Flexible

Hi All,

Have been looking at this site for a while now and this is my first post. I am looking for help /guidance with regard to a problem we are having with the running of our floodlights. The are Eircom U-21 standard apparantly and are 400 lux or something like that. We put in 3 phase electricity with the ESB and apparently had to request a certain "draw" of electricity. We have been receiving bills of 1500-3000 and we might only use the lights once or twice a week but we are incurring charges whether we use the lights or not. We are under contract with the ESB until April and will be switching to a generator or something else then... the ESB are basically saying like it or lump it. Hopefully this is in the right forum and someone might have been in this predicament already. As I said the are very good lights but unbelieveably expensive.:confused:

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The 400 Lux refers to the lighting level that is required at pitch level. From the above i reackon that the tariff you are paying is based on a 'maximum demand' figure agreed to prior to switch on and then units at a another rate

eg Max Demand 50K VA or KW then units at 0.2p per unit.

The Max demand figure is the figure you have said you will not exceed. eg if you switch on a electric motor the start up current can be as much as 7 times its running current.

You may be exceeding you max demand, - normally a high max demand (ie a bigger customer the lower the unit price. Check you bill thhat you are not being penalised for exceeding your MD

Thanks Newryrep - We were told that the lights would need 130 KVA and you are right about the maxium demand bit but on last bill it says 240 KVA was used at certain times. We did nothing out of the ordinary with them is there a way of checking what KVA they are running at.

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Originally Posted by Flexible

Thanks Newryrep - We were told that the lights would need 130 KVA and you are right about the maxium demand bit but on last bill it says 240 KVA was used at certain times. We did nothing out of the ordinary with them is there a way of checking what KVA they are running at.

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Flexible i dont think it matters if you exceeded the MD once or 24/7 you exceed what you agreed to so they are in effect penalising you. The ESB must be able to tell you a time and date you exceeded the MD eg 19.00 Fri 3rd Jan. Try and find out and relate it to anything specific that you may have been doing at the same time eg switching everything on at the same time. As i said before alot of things have a much larger start up current (up to 7 times) so if everything is switched on at the time it can easyily exceed MD. On large industrial plant there is frequently a staggered start on plant so the MD is not exceeded.

If it is a one off, try and change your procedures, if it is all the time you were given duff info but 240KVA seems a pretty big load for a few floodlights

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Originally Posted by Flexible

Hi All,

Have been looking at this site for a while now and this is my first post. I am looking for help /guidance with regard to a problem we are having with the running of our floodlights. The are Eircom U-21 standard apparantly and are 400 lux or something like that. We put in 3 phase electricity with the ESB and apparently had to request a certain "draw" of electricity. We have been receiving bills of 1500-3000 and we might only use the lights once or twice a week but we are incurring charges whether we use the lights or not. We are under contract with the ESB until April and will be switching to a generator or something else then... the ESB are basically saying like it or lump it. Hopefully this is in the right forum and someone might have been in this predicament already. As I said the are very good lights but unbelieveably expensive.:confused:

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what club are you from?

Brideview Utd Tallow Co Waterford

What we have is an All Weather pitch,Showers and the main floodlit pitch. Usage would be All weather 7-10 Mon-Fri with showers and a floodlit match once a week with training twice a week using bottom two lights of main pitch which light up second smaller pitch.

Flexible - contact ESB for details of when you exceed Max demand, it will determine whether you have a problem or not otherwise engage a spark he can put an energy meter on your supply