Color washing a backdrop

[Zeromus-X]

I've got a 10' tall x 20' long white piece of fabric I'm using for the backdrop of our band. I'm running lights from the stage on a custom light controller, and one of the effects I've been trying to get situated is washing the background with a certain color. I've got the place somewhat fogged to give a bigger impact, but I'm running into one major problem -- power. I'm currently using four 500-watt halogen lights, three of which have gels in front of them (red, blue, green) and one is white.

These are pretty successful, but if I run all four, I risk blowing the breaker at the venues we're playing at. We run through the same outlets as the sound most of the time, and it just becomes too much. As well, 500watt halogen lights are hotter than all hell when you're running them on a tiny stage in the middle of summer.

Is there possibly an easier way to do what I'm intending here? I'm using the white sheet so that more of the color is observed, but I'd really like to know if there's a way to do this with less wattage. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about, for reference. You'll notice I'm having to use one color on each side. I'd love to have eight total (one of each of the four colors per side) so that I could make the entire back red/etc, but that's not gonna happen because of potentially blowing the stuff.

Thanks!

http://www.starfront.net/images/757/1.jpg

[Rimmer]

500 watts looks like a lot for that sized venue. I would consider replacing the lamps with 300watters. This will give you six lamps that use less than the power of four 500watters.

There are other types of units available that might suit you better. Birdie ground rows are twenty serial (or parallel) wired battons that allow you to gel each lamp individually. The lamps are usually 50watts which makes a 500watt current requirement. Although this uses 500watts, the spread can be good for this sort of thing and they lie on the floor below the backdrop itself.

You could consider some par 56's as they are usually 300watts lamps and do much the same thing as you 500watters.

You could also consider some medium to wide flood lamps for your pars as this will increase the spread on your backdrop..

Rimmer

[Zeromus-X]

I was considering a bunch of colored 100-watt floods to see what'd happen. 500W is indeed a lot, which is what sucks! :)

I'll search for those lights you mentioned. Thanks!

[fenfer air conditioner]

A simple equasion:

ExI=W

E is the voltage, I is the amperage and W is the wattage.

To find the amperage of a system I=W/E
to find the amperage draw of a 500 watt lamp

500W/120V=4.17Amps.

I have no real recomendations for how to light your background. With what you currently have.

To look at new toys:
Altman Stage Lighting (http://www.altmanltg.com/)