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Don Madrid 1500

Hello all

Hoping someone may be able to help me with a pretty simple question.

I want to buy a single channel dimmer that can handle a string of 12 to 15, 100 watt lights.

One I have found is 10 amp/230 volt model. The literature about it doesn't say how many watts it can handle.

From my old physics courses this should be able to handle a maximum of 2300 watts.

Does this model fit my needs?

Thanks much for any help...
 
Hi Don, 15 lamps at 100W each will give you a power consumption of 1500 W, divided by 230V gives you approx 2.5 or so Amps, ( too lazy to ca
culate properly) so you will be OK
 
I rent giant nordic tipis for events. We do the lighting as well. Pretty simple, Par36 cans with color gels. I want to add dimming since clients tastes vary from cozy and intimate to bright as hell. Plus if I add several more cans per tipi and dim them down I get a much better quality light.
 
why not split the circuits over 3 dimmers so if one dimmer fails at least you have lights
 
If individual lights can be switched in and out dimmer will have its work cut out to control changing load.Intelligent control was a great suggestion.
 
A par 36 in this situation is purely resistive. Depends on what your budget is but look up people like Zero 88 (alpha packs), ADJ, etc. If you're doing festy work then consider LED...more expensive to start with but will give you a much lower total cost, and they're smaller to rig off the poles. And you could run 3 or 4 RGB fixtures off a simple controller much more cheaply than buying the cans and a dimmer. Plus, you'll be able to have a cheaper leccy supply on site. Just a thought.
 
Surely if a par 36 is ELV (eg 12v) you'd need a transformer and would therefore be inductive?
Either way I agree LED is the way forward - you don't need dimmer packs which are heavy and expensive, you don't need to mess about with gels, you won't have to worry about changing lamps, you can cut down on wiring, cut down on power consumption, cut down on rigging time, and have greatly improved colour changing capability.
 
Hello Rockingit,

I have considered LED's but I'm not satisfied with the quality of the light I would get and it's difficult to use color gels with them and get something nice. And in general they are not dimmable.
I actually use PAR 30 cans not PAR36 as I said in another post here. Not that much difference but no transformers involved.
 
Have you considered a professional dimmer pack? They're a bit more expensive but they're designed for what you're using them for, and can be controlled remotely more easily.
Remember a par36 will probably run via a transformer so will be an inductive load.

DJ and Stage Lighting Dimmers/ Switching packs - Buy online

I do want to buy pro dimmer packs, it's just that I'm not sure about the specs given.

This is the one I think is appropriate for me: thomann.de/es/thomann_ns_2003_handdimmer_2000w_ohm

Stairville NS 2003 - high-power single dimmer for up to 2000W resistive load.
Output: 10-230V, fuse: F 10A, thomann includes safety socket output plug.
Cable length: 1.5m

This is another, very similar but is inductive: thomann.de/es/stairville_ns_2002_handdimmer_2000w_indu

Stairville NS 2002 highpower-single dimmer for charge up to 2000 W inductive laod (500 W resistive load, because of thomann EMC Directive),
output 10 - 230 V, fuse F 10A, cable 1,5m, output via safety sockets plug.

I think that the first option (the resistive dimmer) correct choice for my needs.

The way my tents work is that we can mount and connect any number of individual tipis. (they're about 8 meters high, 10 meters in diameter and accommodate about 60 people seated each.). So each tent has it's own lighting rig, complete. We build flexibility in for the client by offering a few different color gel filters. (we know what works really well)
and we need to have dimming since some folks want a lot of light whilst others want low intimate light levels. I've been working with a lighting designer and we agree that the best quality light comes from incandescent luminaries that are dimmed down. There is a huge difference between using 12, 100 watt fixtures dimmed down 50% and say 6 of the same fixtures undimmed. Same wattage, completely different atmosphere.

And as I've said in another post, LED's seemed the way to go but after trying them I wasn't happy with the results.


Thanks much for all of the insight and information. Very informative.
 

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