Outside Floods (SONS)

[daver]

Just installed 8 x 70 Watt SONS to someones garden.

He now wants them on a timer, which I have purchased and its rated at 16A, so 3.5kw ample for what is required.

The bulbs have there own ignitors, but is there any additional draw when they fire up, or is there control gear which fires them up.

Read the specs on the lights and all it says is the specs of the bulbs.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[mrloy99]

Just installed 8 x 70 Watt SONS to someones garden.

He now wants them on a timer, which I have purchased and its rated at 16A, so 3.5kw ample for what is required.

The bulbs have there own ignitors, but is there any additional draw when they fire up, or is there control gear which fires them up.

Read the specs on the lights and all it says is the specs of the bulbs.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

I think for discharge lighting of any sort you are normally looking at 1.75
times the lamp rating,which would give you a load of about 1kw.But you might also check again the timeclock-sometimes your stated 16amp load could apply to say a heating load and this is sometimes reduced by up to a third for inductive loads.You might also be able to talk your client into the possibility of including a photocell arrangement whereby the lights wouldn,t come on untill it is dark outside.This could be installed inside your first light and then on to the rest of circuit.Timeclocks bringing the lights on now when it is dark at four o'clock,might be a pain in the --- to constantly have to adjust the on time,as the days get longer,and in summertime it mightn't be getting dark untill 10.30 at night.You would still need your timeclock to switch them off.

 

[daver]

Sorry, I failed to include that. I have installed a photocell, the problem being it shines into the neighbours bedrooms, so I wanted to turn it off at around 10pm.
Think you answered the question though. It does say 1200 Watts for normal lighting, but reduced to something else for inductive loads. Will check figure tomorrow.
Cheers

Dave