advice on horse arena lighting
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johns_dmax
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We just built a 125x225 areana and I'm working on the lights now, weather permitting. I have temp lights up now that work OK that consist of 500 watt 120 volt halogen work lights mounted on 14' treated 4x4s. Again they work OK but cast a lot of shadows and the light is in the rider and horses eyes.
Our permanent lights will consist of 6 20' poles with three 250 or 400 watt metal halide floodlights mounted to each, haven't yet decided. Should provide good lighting with less shadows. Very expensive to go this route but keeps the wife happy.
There's a website, RAB LIGHTING, for the light that we're going to use that has a lighting simulator that allows you to chose the light you want and enter the placement of the lights. It works in an XY grid and you set the height of you poles and angle of each light.
Hope this helps.
Our permanent lights will consist of 6 20' poles with three 250 or 400 watt metal halide floodlights mounted to each, haven't yet decided. Should provide good lighting with less shadows. Very expensive to go this route but keeps the wife happy.
There's a website, RAB LIGHTING, for the light that we're going to use that has a lighting simulator that allows you to chose the light you want and enter the placement of the lights. It works in an XY grid and you set the height of you poles and angle of each light.
Hope this helps.
Wheatland KB
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I have not tried to light an outdoor arena but i can tell you what we had in our 120' x 200' indoor arena. There were 6 400 watt metal halide lights on each side spaced out evenly and 16' up, along with 8 - 2 bulb 8' fluorecents in the center of the ceiling and one 400 watt metal halide at each end. That is 14 - 400 watt metal halids, 16 - 8' fluorecent bulbs in an indoor arena with white walls and white ceiling.
If any of these bulbs would go out the riders would complain about shadows. Mind you, they were training in Hunter and Jumper disciplines so shadows were more detrimental than they would have been for Western Pleasure riding or another discipline where foot placement isn't as critical.
I would tend to think that an outdoor arena with no walls to reflect light would need more intense light than that to give you daylight conditions. Depending on the discipline you are riding you may be looking for just enough to be able to see.
I would suggest trying to cantilever the light posts out over the riding surface as far as possible to get the lights overhead 14' to 16' up. I personally would use the 500 watt halogens as they are cheap to buy. 8 or 10 of them would likely give you enough light to ride at night.
Sorry for all of the speculation but I hope the indoor lighting scheme we had helps with your thought process.
KB
If any of these bulbs would go out the riders would complain about shadows. Mind you, they were training in Hunter and Jumper disciplines so shadows were more detrimental than they would have been for Western Pleasure riding or another discipline where foot placement isn't as critical.
I would tend to think that an outdoor arena with no walls to reflect light would need more intense light than that to give you daylight conditions. Depending on the discipline you are riding you may be looking for just enough to be able to see.
I would suggest trying to cantilever the light posts out over the riding surface as far as possible to get the lights overhead 14' to 16' up. I personally would use the 500 watt halogens as they are cheap to buy. 8 or 10 of them would likely give you enough light to ride at night.
Sorry for all of the speculation but I hope the indoor lighting scheme we had helps with your thought process.
KB
I have some about the same size and was interested in the responses you'd get. Here's my two-cents worth.
First, adiquate lighting depends on what you plan to do. We do jumpers, so we need high, bright lights with uniform coverage that minimizes shadows. If we just used the arena at night for hacking, we could get away with much less. Decide what you want in front, 'cause it's not easy to change later and you can have safety issues with too little light. We used a lighting engineer / contractor to model ours.
Other than the sun, there is no cheap light on arenas. It will either cost you in up-front capital, in operating/maintenance cost, or in insurance claims....often all three. We used to have a show facility with large lighted arenas. When the lights went on, you could hear the electric meter break the sound barrier. There was the same amount of noise when I received the electric bill. Shows paid the electric bill and we quickly learned to limit the non-show night-time activity.
When we built this place, I put in plenty of power to the panel. The electric company is easy to work with on the initial install. Getting enough power from the pole is a major expense and it's even more expensive to try and increase it later.
I got a number of bids for lights. The best was around $20K. I could save about 35% by doing it myself. The expense is in the materials and equipment rental. In the end, we decided that the payback on the expense just wasn't there and we've operated just fine without them. With the material prices dropping, I'll probably look at this again in a few months.
My view is a commercial, risk-management one, so I tend over-engineer things like this. I have a friend with a dirt clearing and a dozen or so 150 watt light bulbs hanging over it. He rides at night and is very happy with his "lighted arena". It all depends on how you define it. What are you really looking for?
First, adiquate lighting depends on what you plan to do. We do jumpers, so we need high, bright lights with uniform coverage that minimizes shadows. If we just used the arena at night for hacking, we could get away with much less. Decide what you want in front, 'cause it's not easy to change later and you can have safety issues with too little light. We used a lighting engineer / contractor to model ours.
Other than the sun, there is no cheap light on arenas. It will either cost you in up-front capital, in operating/maintenance cost, or in insurance claims....often all three. We used to have a show facility with large lighted arenas. When the lights went on, you could hear the electric meter break the sound barrier. There was the same amount of noise when I received the electric bill. Shows paid the electric bill and we quickly learned to limit the non-show night-time activity.
When we built this place, I put in plenty of power to the panel. The electric company is easy to work with on the initial install. Getting enough power from the pole is a major expense and it's even more expensive to try and increase it later.
I got a number of bids for lights. The best was around $20K. I could save about 35% by doing it myself. The expense is in the materials and equipment rental. In the end, we decided that the payback on the expense just wasn't there and we've operated just fine without them. With the material prices dropping, I'll probably look at this again in a few months.
My view is a commercial, risk-management one, so I tend over-engineer things like this. I have a friend with a dirt clearing and a dozen or so 150 watt light bulbs hanging over it. He rides at night and is very happy with his "lighted arena". It all depends on how you define it. What are you really looking for?
Soundguy
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I built one that size a while back... I put up 6 20' 4x4's and straped them to fence posts... one post on each of the oblong short ends, and 2 on each of the long sides. i used 500w halogens, and set them so i could turn on 2 middle and an end seperately.. IE.. dividing the field in case I had my round pen panels dividing the areena. worked great.. plenty of light.
soundguy
soundguy
hey guys, thanks for all the great input. we use our arena to rope in, and anybody that knows ropers, knows how cheap we are. lol i was thinking about doing it pretty much like soundguy did, but i was going to put 3 20foot poles down each side, and one at the end, behind the roping boxes. i was thinking about using the square 500 watt light fixtures, because they are economical to buy. soundguy, do you think this will be enough light or do you think maybe two lights on each pole might be better. how are your post holding up to the wind, with having them strapped to the fence posts? i am planning on using 3 inch round metal posts sunk 3 or 4 foot in the ground with concrete, but am still concerned about em leaning. thats as about as deep as you can get here in missouri. thanks again guys
Soundguy
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I have 1 500w square fixture on each post .. provides plenty of light even at pitch black midnight... My posts have been in the air for about 8years now.. no issues.
More posts will = more light.. but also= more power and wireing needs.. that's why i stuck to 6 lamps.
good luck on your project... if you find you need more lights thant he 2 on the side give, you can always snake the poles down and double the lamps up.. one splayed to each side a bit..
soundguy
More posts will = more light.. but also= more power and wireing needs.. that's why i stuck to 6 lamps.
good luck on your project... if you find you need more lights thant he 2 on the side give, you can always snake the poles down and double the lamps up.. one splayed to each side a bit..
soundguy
Soundguy
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While there may be cheaper or easier ways.. I think my way was a good ballance betwixt both.. now if I could have only had someone else do the work for free it would have been great!
soundguy
soundguy
You have around 1900 meter-square horse arena. And thus you will need 1900 * 250 = 475,000 lumen lights.
This horse arena LED lights has very high energy efficiency and thus you can have a very small amount of luminaires. In your case, the power needed is approximately 3700W LED lights.
This horse arena LED lights has very high energy efficiency and thus you can have a very small amount of luminaires. In your case, the power needed is approximately 3700W LED lights.