Exceeding Rated Wattage - Consequences?

[Terrormaster]

Okies, this question is for the more experienced electrical folks out there.

I was wondering what exactly are the consequences of exceeding the rated wattage on lighting equipment. In particular, the 500w lightning effects boxes and a homebrew light dimmer box (dimmer I bought is also 500w).

My yard is setup with around 1000w of lighting (give or take 50 watts). I'm afraid of damaging the FX box by overloading (or at the very least, blowing a fuse on the big night).

But since the dimmer is homebrew it's not fused and I'm not 100% certain what will happen if I plug that many lights into it. And obviously I don't want to cause a fire hazard.

[Doc Doom]

Based on my personal experience, anytime you use too much power you run the risk of two things happening. 1) Letting the magic smoke out of your stuff and they don't work anymore. 2) Setting the non-working stuff and surrounding vicinity on fire.

[Terrormaster]

Here's what I'm punchin in right now:

2 Greens, 2 Yellows, and 2 Reds Par38 100w; 2 Blue Par38 150w; 2 Orange 40w Party Bulbs; all of which are running from one outlet on a dedicated 20a fuse.

When the powered props go out, they'll be on their own 15a fuse.

I wanted to throw all the lights on a dimmer box and fade in the lights (manually) at the start of the show. The dimmer switch I grabbed from Lowes is only rated for 500w though.

[jabberwocky]

Watts and amps are very important.
If you go over the recommended, plan on equipment frying.
I wouldnt take the chance, because it will happen.

[Terrormaster]

For the most part I figured as much - but it's all been theory for me, too afraid of accidentally blowing something up (especially something I've invested time and money in) to test.

[Koumajutsu]

yeah, if you have any more than half of those lights on simultaneously, you're begging for blown fuses/popped breakers/instant smoke machines.

:)


-edit: SINGLE USE smoke machines mind you :D

[Terrormaster]

Really? I've been turning them on every night for about 3-4 hours a night for the last few days. Nothing else is on the breaker with them. The one it's on is 20a. Last I heard 20a breakers can handle 4-6 PC's at a LAN party which typically run 500w each for the PC alone. I'm pretty comfortable with whats on there. It's mainly the Lightning FX and Dimmer I was concerned with.

[Koumajutsu]

Well, that all depends on how much you load the circuit in total.

Watts law is: P(power, measured in Watts)=V(voltage) X I(current, measured in Amps)

so, a 120VRMS AC circuit on a 20A breaker can supply 120 x 20 or 2400W total before popping off.

Yes this is well above the 500W rating of the devices you're using, but what characteristics do those devices exhibit under catastrophic failure?

Most silicon based devices become a short circuit under failure conditions, and though most consumer grade electronics use a fuse for overcurrent protection, they are not always reliable.

Though it is unlikely that your circuit breaker will trip under failure conditions, that also means that 2400W of fire can start before it even thinks there may be a problem :)

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In case that all seems confusing, I'll try to make it simpler. You can run all the lights at the same time with no problem without the dimmer, but if you overload the dimmer and/or the lighting box(es), when it dies, all bets are off.

you're best bet would be to run at most half of your total lights on each of 2, dimmers/boxes(if not split 3 ways). Then you're not pushing anything to it's maximum limit

[monty1269]

What they're saying is..... bring in more extension cords!!! - Plug into different areas, versus all into one outlet... thereby spreading your electrical 'draw' over many circuits on your house.

Now...whether the lighting controler can handle all that is a whole different story...


;) I stayed at a Holiday Inn