Marquee Power requirements
Three tips on how to reduce power costs for your marquee
Temporary power is one of the largest hidden costs when hiring a marquee, especially for events that rely on heating, cooling and lighting. Did you know that most events that use marquees waste around 20–40% of their power budget without realising it? We have teamed up with the temporary event power experts, Flow Power Solutions to uncover how your event can reduce power costs…
Why power is one of the biggest hidden costs when hiring a marquee
When hiring a marquee or planning an outdoor event, its easy to focus on the obvious costs such as the temporary event structure, flooring, lighting, décor, staffing and catering, but one essential element is often underestimated is temporary power.
A marquee begins as an empty shell, with everything that consumes electricity needing to be delivered, installed and powered from the ground up. That’s where the costs can add up. If mains power isn’t available, which is common at greenfield sites such as festivals and agricultural shows, event organisers need to hire generators, distribution boards, cabling, their containment and fuel for marquees. Often this is outsourced to a specialist company, such as Flow Power Solutions.
Power and structure collaboration
When the marquee supplier and the temporary power provider work collaboratively as part of the same team, the entire process becomes far more efficient. Because both understand each other’s requirements. The main benefit of this is that the power plan can be designed around the marquee layout and overall event power requirements from day one.
Flow and Field and Lawn have worked together on many projects to plan power and structure requirements seamlessly. A great example of this collaboration was a long term hire project for a school who required a long-term temporary classroom and teaching space during a refurbishment project. The project was approached together, combining our expertise to provide a reliable and cost effective solution.
This integrated approach reduces overspecification, minimises cabling runs (providing a tidy finish inside and around the marquee) and ensures accurate load calculations. For an event organiser, this means a faster and more co-ordinated build, clearer communication and ultimately, it delivers a more reliable, efficient and cost-effective power solution for your event.
How to reduce your marquee power costs
Reducing power costs for your event is all about making informed decisions early in the planning process. Because a marquee is a temporary venue with no built-in services, every element happening inside the marquee will affect how much power you need. The good news is that with the right approach, you can significantly cut both generator size and fuel consumption without compromising the guest experience.
Three ways to cut your event marquee power costs
Specifying the right marquee for your evenT
Before even thinking about generators or distribution, the marquee itself plays a major role in determining your power consumption. Specifying the right size marquee for your event ensures you don’t end up powering, heating or cooling a space you don’t need. Our expert Project Managers can help you to designing your marquee for maximum efficiency. Specifically to reduce hearting or cooling costs, you can also look at sub divide the marquee, creating zones instead of heating or cooling the entire marquee continuously.
Efficient site planning and marquee layouts
Bars, refrigeration and AV equipment can place a heavy demand on temporary power. By grouping the power demand within tents together, you can reduce the amount of cabling and distribution needed and ultimately design and install a more efficient power generation setup. This approach could also include stepping generators on and off in line with power demands throughout the events live period resulting in reduced fuel burn and lower carbon impact. There may even be options to eliminate or reduce the running of generators by switching in alternative technology when load profiles are smaller overnight or when the marquee is not in public use to reduce marquee power requirements.
Integrating sustainable temporary power into your event marquee
Modern Stage V generators not only reduce harmful emissions (NOx and SOx), they can burn less fuel per hour compared to older technology. When paired with HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) fuel, organisers can cut event carbon emissions by up to 90% without changing any equipment. Battery technology is another big trend and Flow Power Solutions are working with several major festivals and event agencies to increase battery and hybrid power provision for both stage and event structure power.
The appetite for hybrid, solar and battery technology to power events is growing, and fast. The team at Flow are experts in designing and integrating sustainable battery energy storage systems (BESS) based upon real-world experience. Even a modest BESS system that Flow provided over a week saved around 7.26 tonnes of CO₂ or enough energy to power 9 average UK homes for a full year. This can be replicated across larger event footprints at scale.
Next steps…
Choosing the correct size marquee for your event, efficiently zoning the interior, clustering high-load marquees and using energy efficient generators can significantly reduce both power demand and fuel consumption. Most importantly, collaboration between an expert power provider and an experienced marquee hire team means your event marquee can be designed as one, avoiding overspecification, improving reliability and creating a far more efficient, cost-effective installation. At its core, reducing power costs starts with smart marquee design and a team that understands how structure and power work together.
Plan Your Next Marquee Event With an Expert Team
If you’re looking for a marquee that performs better, costs less to run, and comes with a power strategy built in, get in touch with our team today.
We specialise in supplying high quality event marquees and temporary structures to festivals, shows, and corporate events across the UK. Our expert Project Managers will work with you to design, plan, and deliver the right marquees and temporary structures to support your event, making it safe, professional and seamless. Through our long-standing and collaborative relationship with Flow Power Solutions, we can provide a practical, sustainable and reliable solution to help you with your marquee power requirements.
