How much wattage is acceptable for a Lighting package?

[Steve33825]

When it comes down to buying lighting packages for filmmaking, how much overall wattage is necessary? Oh and by the way, this is for a fluorescent lighting kit, not tungsten, if that makes any difference.

 

[nosys70]

it is a silly question, because it all depends the scenes.
If you plan to shoot in a small kitchen or in a huge warehouse or even a full street , at night or during day, it is all different. And it depends too on how you will distribute light.
you could need only one 4KW projector , or ten 250W small lamp.

fluorescent bulbs goes as far as 100W (equivalent about 400W tungsten).
In some fixtures with softbox you can put as much as 4-5 bulbs.
if you get 4 of them, with the softbox + china ball + some frenels (i doubt there are frenels with fluorescent bulbs), i think you can face most scenario.
frenel is the most expensive, so if you cannot afford it, you could go with PAR bulbs, the same they use in disco lighting. they give also a very focused light for cheap.
If you mix tungsten with fluo, check they work in the same color temperature range or you will get problem.
Fluo is usually on the blue side while tungsten is on the red side. Could be tricky to color balance.

see http://www.konovaphoto.com/ , i got the small softbox with 4 bulbs, it is a very nice lamp, very light and easy.
Kinoflow are a pain to use because they are huge, heavy, require a ballast . softbox with regular bulbs give the same light and are a lot easier
to use.
fluorescent tubes or bulbs are big, so it is difficult to put colored gel on it, that is why most of people still use redhead and equivalent high power lamps.

The great thing with fluos is they drain almost no current (versus tungsten) , so you have almost no risk to blow a fuse.

for the fluorescent frenel, if you are a bit on the DIY side, you can easily build one with a 100W bulb and a big lens.
If you can find an old tritube CRT video projector, they got 3 nice set of lens in a tube, with setting for focusing.
I used the ones of my old sony projector, it is not perfect but it work if you need hard light.