Blowing circuits in my apartment?
- Thread starter Mark-P
- Start date
Cool Lights
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Not at all unless you live in an apartment with substandard electrical systems from the turn of the century. A Diva 400 will draw about 2 amps to give you an idea and your normal modern breaker / circuit is 15 amps. The 4 foot 4 bank will be in the range of 1.5 amps. A non-issue and just an example of why fluorescent is considered efficient.
gco
Veteran
The key issue is Watts because they are directly related to how much current you draw in Amps through a particular circuit breaker. The wattage rating should be printed on each tube-- just add them up and take your total power requirement in Watts and divide it by the Voltage of your outlet 120V (note: the actual voltage can be anywhere between about 112 and 125).
Remember the "PIE" rule (not to be confused with "pi"): P=IE or
P(watts) = I(amps) X E (volts).
Conversely, P(watts)/E(volts) = I (amps) which is compared to your breaker rating.
Be aware that you can trip a circuit breaker if drawing an amount of current close to the breaker rating. Switching a fixture on in that situation can cause a momentary spike tripping the breaker. Flos have considerably lower current demands as compared to Tungsten fixtures so you should be fine. Regardless, if the question ever comes up, the above is how to figure it out. If you forget the formula, just google "Ohm's Law" and look for power calculations.
Remember the "PIE" rule (not to be confused with "pi"): P=IE or
P(watts) = I(amps) X E (volts).
Conversely, P(watts)/E(volts) = I (amps) which is compared to your breaker rating.
Be aware that you can trip a circuit breaker if drawing an amount of current close to the breaker rating. Switching a fixture on in that situation can cause a momentary spike tripping the breaker. Flos have considerably lower current demands as compared to Tungsten fixtures so you should be fine. Regardless, if the question ever comes up, the above is how to figure it out. If you forget the formula, just google "Ohm's Law" and look for power calculations.
S
SeanEmer
Guest
to be safe, I assume that all my lights operate at 100v, even though they are all set to work at 120v.
This keeps a safety buffer in place when I'm setting up, and it makes it easier mathwise. Simply put, never put more than 2,000 watts on a single circuit. Check your circuit breaker to see how your room/location is wired.
I like to make a quick reference layout map of the location that shows which outlet is on which circuit. Of course its good to do this before the shoot, but if there's no time I still compile that info as the shoot progresses.
Nothing makes you look more stupid than being in charge of the electrical department and not knowing how the electricity is laid out in your location
An anecdote: We shot in a NYC apartment once with a 1.2k HMI and some Babies and other little lights. We discovered that the circuit system in the apartment was a dabbling of 15A and 20A circuits strewn about in the most random ways. Worse, they were on fuses, not the modern breakers. After we replaced the first blown 15A, we had to pause the production/setup for just under an hour if I remember correctly so we could test every outlet to determine which circuits went where. We started a bit late, but because we made up for it by not having to worry about lights going out in the middle of subsequent setups.
This keeps a safety buffer in place when I'm setting up, and it makes it easier mathwise. Simply put, never put more than 2,000 watts on a single circuit. Check your circuit breaker to see how your room/location is wired.
I like to make a quick reference layout map of the location that shows which outlet is on which circuit. Of course its good to do this before the shoot, but if there's no time I still compile that info as the shoot progresses.
Nothing makes you look more stupid than being in charge of the electrical department and not knowing how the electricity is laid out in your location
An anecdote: We shot in a NYC apartment once with a 1.2k HMI and some Babies and other little lights. We discovered that the circuit system in the apartment was a dabbling of 15A and 20A circuits strewn about in the most random ways. Worse, they were on fuses, not the modern breakers. After we replaced the first blown 15A, we had to pause the production/setup for just under an hour if I remember correctly so we could test every outlet to determine which circuits went where. We started a bit late, but because we made up for it by not having to worry about lights going out in the middle of subsequent setups.
