How much do you pay for floodlights?

The bulk of yards I have experienced you didn’t pay extra, it was wrapped up in the livery charge. On nice yard I was on had lights on a meter, it was 50p for 30 mins.

Indoor is another matter, not that I ever have that luxury. It is often £5+ an hour for fancy indoor floodlighting
 
We have a timer that lasts about 30mins, but its just tokens that are there all the time. No cost. I don't think i would be happy to pay extra for lights considering most people have to ride in the dark during winter! Just screams money making scam to me.
 
Our yard is a bit behind the times on the electricity bill I think - the arena has a £1 coin (old £1) slot machine. We added one £1 coin when we arrived at the yard over a year ago the first time we used the lights. Nobody has added any £1 since as far as I am aware (mostly us that uses the lights) That £1 is still going! Must remember to fish out all our old £1 coins for future use in subsequent years.
 
rachk89 said:
For use in an arena at a livery yard? Or how much would you expect to pay if you hired an arena?
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We started charging for the arena lights (4 of) when we got sick and tired of having to go out to switch them off after people had gone home!we only had 2 lights back then, so we increased it to 4 and started charging £1 for an hour, it’s now 50mins. We have just replaced all 4 lights at a cost of £500, which didn’t include the fitting of them btw, so with respect, why should people not have to at least pay for the electric to use them? We are only a small DIY yard, we run at a financial loss on the livery side, but we still like to provide as many facilities as possible. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to charge a small amount for the valuable facility if being able to ride in the dark? We are semi remote here, so it’s literally pitch black at this time of year, so we have yard floodlights all over the place. OP, if you’re a YO I would say if you’re wondering whether to charge, do it as you will end up regretting it in the end if you don’t, and if you’re a livery client, please consider the cost to your YO of providing this valuable facility for you. There are always going to be clients who resent having to pay extra for anything, but from experience, most are just grateful for good facilities and are happy to pay for them.
 
I have never paid extra for lights but my livery is priced to include facilities of which floodlights is one of them. So I’d say depends if livery charge is high enough to cover or not. We are considerate liveries & don’t leave lights on longer than needed. I guess some liveries lose out as they ride in the day.
 
Annoyingly I pay at my new yard. Only annoying because I did ask about extra costs such as lights before I moved on! Anyway £1 lasts about 4 hours, I suspect a bit longer. Unfortunately only takes old coins so we've stocked up for the winter and hope it gets changed over soon. I've put in £2 in 2 months so far and use the lights 3/4 times a week.

It does make you remember to turn them off though!
 
Ive been on yards where weve paid and others not. Either is fine but the yard that annoyed me was the one that repeated several times before we moved on, and after we arrived when we asked again, that the lights were free. Then as soon as we actually started working our horses over winter.... Oh there's a charge now. Ok. I think we were the first liveries they had had for years that actually worked their horses and they had been managing the cost of the lights by them never being on. :lol: Then we started using them and they watched their electricity meter tick up. But still, don't say they are free if you can't honour it. This was not a cheap yard either.
 
Damnation said:
About £2 an hour.

Our lights drain the yards electricity, currently looking into cheaper alternatives!
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We just replaced our external floodlights at home for LED ones: no loss of light and you can actually barely notice the meter going round if they're on, as opposed to it galloping round faster than a fairground carousel.
 
Not a YO, I'm a livery. They charge £5 for use of the floodlights which I thought was maybe a bit expensive but I know the costs far outweigh the profit so can understand. Others on the yard aren't happy though. It doesn't really affect me anyway as I can't get the damn horse to go in the arena anyway without being an idiot.
 
Nothing, small yard, I lived there and no one ever forgot to turn them off in those 3 years. They'd be on most evenings for 2/3 hours and if it had worked out not profitable for the £30 a week livery the YO would have changed that I am sure. We did have solar panels on the barn though.

£5 an hour as a livery seems like an awful lot.
 
We have never charged for the outdoor but husband threatened to put a meter up as we kept finding the lights left on. He gets particularity narked when the indoor school lights are left on as they are 500 watts each.
 
equi said:
We have a timer that lasts about 30mins, but its just tokens that are there all the time. No cost.
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^^ this seems like a good happy medium for those who have issues with lights being left on.

I haven't ever been charged for lights other than when hiring a school externally, it's always been factored into the livery so far.
 
we use to have a "light thief".................when we were on a yard with a pay slot, said person would wait until some had popped to the school and put the coin in the meter then would appear, and ride but never the other way around. it got to the point they would wait for them to leave before riding. Now i'm all for sharing etc but it has to work both ways.
 
I've never paid for school lights, it's always be part of the livery package.

I'm usually the last one at the yard and a few times people have left the school lights one, walked back to yard un tacked etc etc and then gone back to turn them off, such a waste for no reason - no idea why they cannot turn the lights off when they are in the school and then walk a few meters across the carpark before the automatic security light kicks in!? We are not in the middle of nowhere so its never so dark you can't navigate your way across a 20m carpark before the security light comes on!
 
We pay £5 per hour which I feel it a bit OTT to be honest. It means we tend to keep our winter schooling sessions to 30 minutes only.
Perfectly happy to pay, but I think £1-£2 is a bit more reasonable.
 
Lol, it was critical for me, ours did need a warm up and if I turned them off I'd always forget to go and clear up (switch was on the yard)
 
hollyandivy123 said:
we use to have a "light thief".................when we were on a yard with a pay slot, said person would wait until some had popped to the school and put the coin in the meter then would appear, and ride but never the other way around. it got to the point they would wait for them to leave before riding. Now i'm all for sharing etc but it has to work both ways.
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We have these on our yard too lol! Always the same 2 people but I’ve cured them now by addressing the issue. It was so blatant I had to!:-/
 
Nothing, because three of the four don't work / need sorted, and because I quite like riding in the dark anyway. Provided I can see the fencing, I'm happy. And fiddling around with lights is tedious.

I have been on yards where they charge a pound for an hour or so of light. I think two of the four or five yards I've been on did that.
 
I've never paid for lights, but at one yard they were on a timer so you had to press a button for half an hour. I understood why as it meant if someone left them on they weren't on for too long, but I did forget a couple of times and get plunged into sudden darkness in the middle of a schooling session.
 
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