Par 64s - Amps, Lamps And Dimmers

[hursty]

Could anyone tell me how many amps a standard par 64 with 500w lamp would pull?

 

As a side grovel what Par Can & Lamp suppliers do you favour? and could anyone point me in the direction of a good, reasonably priced, 6 channel DMX dimmer that would run from a single phase (Standard 13amp UK) Socket and as an option be rack mountable?

 

 

Many Thanks

[Brian]

Power = Volts x Amps

Volts = Power / Amps

Amps = Power / Volts

 

So, 500 Watts on 230 volts = 500/240 = 2.1 Amps

[peter]

As a side grovel what Par Can & Lamp suppliers do you favour? and could anyone point me in the direction of a good, reasonably priced, 6 channel DMX dimmer that would run from a single phase (Standard 13amp UK) Socket and as an option be rack mountable?

There are quite a few Ex-Hire Zero88 Betapacks kicking around at the moment - try AC Lighting who have a large stock clearance section.

 

You can also be lucky and pick them up on ebay. Might also be worth a look in our Classified forum.

 

 

Peter

[hursty]

Many thanks for your time.

[TomLyall]

just an idea for a dimmer pack... this new one from behringer Dimmer

 

I dont know it this would be good and if anyone has any opinions on this... although I doubt ill find anyone whos bought any yet as they have only just been launched by the looks of it

[James C]

So 4 of those dimmerpacks, coupled with their Eurolight 24ch desk comes to all of £775 ex-VAT!!! Has anyone played with a Eurolight yet? For an occaional touring rig, it's starting to look very tempting...

[Matt]

hmmm... I am surprised none of you have caught up on what he said aswell, a 6channel running from 13a... you could only run 5 500w lights off of it safely with about 2.4a spare, but I think you would find your plug socket and cable getting a bit warm!!!!! 6 lights would take you to 12.8amps which is far too close to 13, and you would have no margin for error!

 

try to get a 32a supply for each pack as this would be much safer, and you wouldnt run the risk of tripping the whole ring main which the sockets are on, and would be a lot easier and safer in the long run. I can tell you I recently had a masty experience with running just 3 lights off a pack running from 13amp, nice burnt hand, and a big black mark on the wall where there used to be a plug and socket (had to pull it out with something - why nto my hand quickest thing I could think of, damn well hurt though)

 

Matt.

[themadhippy]

. you could only run 4 500w lights off of it safely with about 0.6a spare

unless ohms laws gone metric 230 volts at 13A =2990 watts,or 5 and a bit 500w cans,if yer carefull you should be able to squeeze it to 6.

[TomLyall]

could a preheat be used to reduce extra startup draw? if so what would be the best level to set this on?

[olistockman]

Is everyone making the assumption that all 6 channels will be at full power? Surely running all six with two at 'reasonable' levels would be a fairly safe ball game! You then have your margin for error (just don't get carried away!)

Still, it depends on what else is on the ring main

[hursty]

The major problem facing me is that my equipment is used in a lot of venues where I only have access to 13amp UK Sockets

 

I don't want to shell out for two dimmers just yet as im planning a Bar of Six and a dimmer assigned per bar would be fab.

 

The only suggestion I can think of is loading the dimmer across two sockets, but how I do that, I'm not quite sure!

[Ike]

I wouldn't try using more than one socket, I have built a circuit to do this in the past but it requires a fair bit of thought and knowledge in electronics.

[Rob]

hmmm... I am surprised none of you have caught up on what he said aswell, a 6channel running from 13a... you could only run 5 500w lights off of it safely with about 2.4a spare, but I think you would find your plug socket and cable getting a bit warm!!!!! 6 lights would take you to 12.8amps which is far too close to 13, and you would have no margin for error!

 

Eer - You can quite happily draw 3.25Kw out of a 13A socket with no problem. The major thing to watch out for is not pulling too overall much from the ring main supplying the socket.

[gareth]

hmmm... I am surprised none of you have caught up on what he said aswell, a 6channel running from 13a... you could only run 5 500w lights off of it safely with about 2.4a spare, but I think you would find your plug socket and cable getting a bit warm!!!!! 6 lights would take you to 12.8amps which is far too close to 13, and you would have no margin for error!

 

try to get a 32a supply for each pack as this would be much safer, and you wouldnt run the risk of tripping the whole ring main which the sockets are on, and would be a lot easier and safer in the long run. I can tell you I recently had a masty experience with running just 3 lights off a pack running from 13amp, nice burnt hand, and a big black mark on the wall where there used to be a plug and socket (had to pull it out with something - why nto my hand quickest thing I could think of, damn well hurt though)

But Matt, as you'll no doubt discover in due course, you'll come across many situations where you have a total connected load which is greater than the available supply. You just have to exercise a bit of operator diversity.

 

I'm going to be in a situation in a couple of weeks' time where I'm going to have around 48 amps' worth of lights connected to two 13A sockets in a little church in deepest rural Wales. So I plan things carefully such that I never have more than 13A of 'active' load on each socket at any one time. No problem, with a bit of thought and forward planning.

 

This kind of situation can arise on much larger scales, too. For example, say a venue has a temporary supply of 200A three-phase for touring rigs. Sounds a lot, doesn't it? But that that only allows you a total of 144kW at any one time, and it's fairly common to have rigs on larger tours which add up to more than that.

 

In the situation you describe where three lanterns on a dimmer pack caused an electrical problem at the socket ... what kind of lanterns were they? It sounds as though the problem was caused by some kind of electrical fault at the plug/socket end of the chain rather than the presence of too much load. An overload should have taken the plugtop fuse out before the problem escalated to the level you describe - those symptoms sound much more like the results of worn contacts in the socket or some poor contact somewhere due to loose terminals ...

[hursty]

Is the general opinion that I can run a Bar of 6 at 500w at full power?

 

Although a method such as not maxing each light out is not a problem for me the fear of fiddling "Lighting Guy" pushing the levels too high, worries me somewhat.

 

I know you guys are doing a great job with the maths, but surely the dimmer (ie the electronics) would also pull some power of its own, how would this affect things?