Need to light a Burningman Art car

[docsloft]

Hello,
First time poster longtime reader.

I am building an artcar for burningman and would like some advice on lighting it.

I would prefer not to have to haul a genni arround because of the noise factor, so instead of throwing watts at a problem I would prefer running efficently and off 24ah UPS sealed battries. I have about 18 available to use for the project.

The goal is covering a 1990 chevy van conversion with a 20' long 10' wide 8' tall cloud, there will be a big sun in front and a tall moon hainging over the top in back. Riders will be on top.(pics on www.docsloft.com under cloud69)

I am looking for options on backlighting the cloud 'shell' I was originally going to use about 10 250 watt quartz worklights. The shell is made out of shaped steel rod covered in chicken wire and then white semi transparent cloth. Basicly a Rose Float Parade design before the flowers are added.

I am considering either fluorescent or a number of superbright LED's all running off of inverters and connected to 9 of the 24ah battries, the other 9 will be charging.

Does anyone have any experience with LED arrays or 'blankets' to give a nice bright glow over a large area?
How about DC fluorescent so I can eliminate the power loss on the inverters?

I would love some sugestions.

Thanks
Doc

[robby]

Docsloft,

I have a close friend that is a mainstay at Burningman and every year he puts together a mobile home with LCD projectors and cameras etc.

Obviously this doesn't help you, but seeing as how he is very closely tied to the Burning Man community,I am just curious if you know him. His first name is Paul. Email me if you want to know his last name!

[docsloft]

Actually I considered using some lcd projectors, thought i could make up for the low light by haveing some intresting images.

How about someone with experience doing the LED multicolor wash?
I didnt mention in the opening post that the distance from instrument to the material to be back lit is no more than 1 foot.

[snakebite]

i have a bunch of 24v dc ballasts that can each drive a 6 foot tube.
will also drive a 4 foot common t8 or t12 shoplite tube.
probably best bang for buck for this app.pm me if you need some.

[markus_i]

Don't know anything about Burning man (except reading about it on the web), but 10*250W for background lighting? Some local clubs could use that (almost...) to light their stadium...
Back to your question:
- flourescents would be your most efficient and cheapest bet, even if you do use a large inverter to drive them (instead of a small inverter aka DC ballast for every fixture)
- if you have unlimited funds [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] , what about a _large_ sheet of electroluminescent material?
- LEDs will be expensive, but if you want colour change effects they might be the easiest solution, dimmable coloured flourescents and a corresponding controller might be a bit more difficult
- Problem with flourescents could be mechanical stress, sand and in general the environment you want them to run in

HTH a bit,
Bye
Markus