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What type of heating system is in your theater? How many still have boilers/radiators?
In my area some old theaters use WOOD fired boilers, some oil fired, and some natural gas fired.

We used to have a gas fired boiler with radiators that leaked all over the place and no AC. We also had one radiator in the lobby that for some reason was hooked up to the building next door and as a result meant free heat for us. Luckily the theater was renovated in '98 and we now have central gas fired forced air heat and AC. Two units on the roof heat the auditorium and a smaller unit heats the lobby.

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Colin Wiseley
Lyric Theatre
Blacksburg VA
www.thelyric.com

The Colonial lives in Maine and has a huge momma oil boiler. Inset into it is a hot water jacket on separate zones for added hot wa-wa heat in far flung corners like proj. room, lower lobby, front lobby, etc. Then we have an added oil fired hot air system that adds to the one biggest theatre/auditorium because it has a huge uninsulated brick wall and not enough of the steams rads. Steam sucks! Gurgles, hisses, etc. But we've finally got it down and keeping people warm. The ac is a bigger problem. As we've become more popular the 98.6 rads People!) add to the day heat! fans are not enough and it hurts biz. We're now looking at a redo of the whole thing!

We have gas fired steam heat. The boiler was replaced in 1992. The lobbies, rest rooms, back stage and exit halls are heated by radiators. The booth off a steam pipe that just runs along the front wall.The auditorium has two large blowers behind the lower parts of the organ grills that are regulated by independent thermostats. I like the steam heat. I was mighty glad to have had gas this winter, and not oil. Overall heating costs are around $7,000.00 per season for a 560 seat house. However, it was a 1,000 seat house when first opened, and does have a full stage with a five story high fly loft.If we didn't still do stage shows we could cut our heating bill in half by sealing off the stage. How does our heating bill compare with other theatres this size? I would like to know.
Our air conditioning system is water cooled and is on the roof, It has a carrier compressor. Max 50 ton, but we only use 36 ton capacity. It does a great job, but due to having a water tower, it requires draining each fall and refilling in the spring. It usually costs us an extra $500.00 to $1,000.00 per month in electric to run the AC depending on the temperture.

Originally had oil furnace, radiator system and floor vents in auditoriums (huge radiator/fan system in basement). Now have 5 furnaces. One for upstairs and one for each duplexed on lower, lobby area and basement. Radiator system not used since early 80s or so. Old system worked great, just no a/c.